The temptation to skip the assessment
When you know your security is weak, spending 2-3 weeks and €2,500 on an assessment before spending €28,000 on implementation can feel like paying twice. The instinct is to just start fixing things. We understand this — and we'd agree with it, if implementation were straightforward.
It rarely is. The reason companies end up with incomplete or misprioritized security programs isn't lack of effort. It's that they start implementing the things they can see, while missing the gaps they can't. The most significant vulnerabilities in a 50-100 person SaaS company are almost never where you think they are — they're in the processes that nobody owns, the SaaS tools that IT doesn't know about, and the offboarding steps that have never been documented.
What the assessment actually reveals
The Veratlas Security Assessment isn't a form you fill in. It's a structured review across six domains: identity and access management, endpoint security, backup and disaster recovery, logging and monitoring, offboarding processes, and policies and documentation.
In every assessment we've conducted, companies that believed they had "most things covered" have discovered at least one significant gap they hadn't identified — often in offboarding, logging, or backup integrity. The assessment turns a vague sense of "we need to improve security" into a specific, prioritized list of what to fix and in what order. That list becomes the Sprint scope. Without it, the Sprint scope is guesswork dressed as a plan.
What the assessment covers: Identity and access management · Endpoint security · Backup and disaster recovery · Logging and monitoring · Offboarding processes · Policies and documentation
The case for skipping it
There are situations where you can move directly to the Sprint. If you've had a recent external security audit that you trust, if you've previously worked with a security team and have documented findings, or if you're in an emergency situation — a deal closing in 30 days that requires proof of controls — we can scope the Sprint against a known baseline.
In those cases, book a call and we'll be honest about what's possible. The key question is whether you have reliable, recent, documented information about your current security posture. If the answer is yes, you may not need the assessment. If the answer is "we think we're mostly okay," that's not a baseline — that's confidence without evidence, and it's where rushed Sprint projects fail.
Why the €2,500 almost always pays for itself
The assessment fee is credited toward the Sprint. So the effective cost of knowing exactly what needs to be done, before committing €28,000 to a fixed-scope project, is zero if you proceed. The only scenario where you "pay twice" is if you do the assessment and then decide not to run the Sprint — which happens, but it's the exception, not the rule.
More importantly: the assessment prevents a common failure mode — implementing the wrong things. We've seen companies spend months hardening systems that weren't actually their highest risk, while leaving critical gaps untouched. The assessment ensures the Sprint addresses what matters, in the order that matters. That's not just more efficient — it's the difference between a security program that passes an audit and one that doesn't.
How it changes the Sprint
A Sprint that starts from a complete assessment is faster, cleaner, and more confidently scoped. The implementation team knows exactly what they're walking into. There are no surprises that require scope changes mid-project. The evidence pack produced at the end is built from a documented baseline, which matters when presenting it to an auditor or a procurement team.
An assessment-first approach also means the roadmap we hand you at the end of the Sprint is grounded in your actual risk profile — not a generic template applied to a company your size. Auditors can tell the difference. So can security-conscious enterprise buyers.
The bottom line
Do the assessment first. It's credited toward the Sprint, it takes 2-3 weeks, and it produces a roadmap that makes every subsequent decision cleaner and faster. If you're in a situation where time genuinely doesn't allow it, we'll tell you — but that's the exception, not the rule. In our experience, the companies that want to skip the assessment are often the ones who need it most, because the confidence that's driving the decision to skip it isn't grounded in data.