For most organizations, the path from a first conversation to a presented budgetary proposal runs a few weeks rather than a few months. It varies with the size and complexity of the environment, and the pace is set less by meetings than by how quickly we can get access to look at things. Here is what happens in that time, step by step, and how much of it needs the CEO or CFO.
Why the answer is a range
A cybersecurity strategy worth acting on has to start from what is actually running in your business. An environment with more systems, more locations and more people holding critical knowledge simply has more to examine. That examination is discovery, and it is the step where the calendar moves most.
What does not change is the order. Nothing is presented before we understand the business, and nothing technical starts before both sides have agreed to continue.
The six steps, and where the time goes
1. Executive Leadership Conversation
Thirty minutes on TEAMS with Steve Orander, Troy Holwerda and Brian Beck, alongside your CEO or CFO. We listen to how you see your technology, what is working, what worries you and where the business is going. We ask questions and give an initial read. Nobody presents anything. It is also a culture check in both directions.
2. Mutual NDA
If both sides want to continue, we sign a mutual non disclosure agreement before anyone looks at anything. Discovery means looking at your actual environment, and that is your information. The agreement protects both sides, and it comes before any technical work.
3. Discovery
We examine your environment as it actually is: systems, configuration, backups, security controls, monitoring, and the places where knowledge sits with one person. It is deliberately evidence based, because documentation and reality are usually two different things, and the gap between them is where risk lives. This is where most of the elapsed time goes, and how soon it can start depends on how quickly access is arranged.
4. Internal roundtable
Troy's team works through the discovery data together, focused on two questions: what is working well, and where is there exposure. This step happens before you see anything, so what reaches you has been argued about internally first.
5. Client roundtable
Brian brings the findings into a presentation and we walk your team through all of it on TEAMS. Every data point is included, the parts that reflect well on your current setup as much as the gaps. At the end we ask whether you would like a budgetary proposal.
6. The budgetary proposal
If you asked for one, we present it in a final TEAMS meeting and you decide.
How much of the CEO's or CFO's time it takes
Leadership time sits in the TEAMS meetings: the first thirty minute conversation, the client roundtable and, if you ask for one, the proposal meeting. Between those meetings the work is mostly ours. What we need from your side during discovery is access, and the sooner it is arranged the sooner the findings are ready.
That is deliberate. A CEO or CFO should not have to sit through technical briefings to get a clear picture of where the business stands. The roundtable is where the picture is put in front of you, in plain business language.
You can stop after any step
Every step can be the last one, and you keep what you learned either way. There is no point in the process where an obligation appears. If you do not want a budgetary proposal at the end of the client roundtable, the process ends there and you keep the findings.
Where to go from here
The full process is described on our approach. What discovery looks at on the security side is covered under cybersecurity consulting, and if AI is also on the leadership agenda, see AI strategy and governance. For shorter answers to the questions owners ask most, start with the executive questions.
Published October 16, 2026 by Proxurve Solutions.