As the April 2016 deadline for NERC CIP V5 compliance approaches, I hear “we’re too far down the road to get a product,” or “we can’t afford a product now, we’ll look later.” At the same time I also hear “there’s no doubt that to repeat and sustain our NERC CIP compliance program, we’ll need an automation product.” My response is that you can’t afford to not have a product to help with your NERC CIP program – and you need it now.
You don’t need a complicated ROI calculator to figure out that if you’re saving 50% of multiple resources, you’ll save at least $100,000 a year. That means, depending on your company size, the average return on investment is within the first year of deploying a product.
I’ve also heard companies trying to do this in-house by hiring their own developers. Assuming the average salary for that position, this approach is more costly after the first year. More importantly, what happens if you lose the developer? Who is going to maintain the software?
Some companies are looking to wait to bring in a product after the initial program is created. Why wait? That’s not necessary if the product has the capability to import existing asset data, templates and workflows. It’s a straight-forward process to get the product inserted into the project and get things under control and automated.
Give us a call and let us help.
Leo J. Cole
President, WizNucleus
