The importance of the vision when choosing a cybersecurity solution

Secure emailing, texting, file sharing & storage is not always a given. In fact, it has become almost a day job for companies to keep up with and fend off the rapidly changing cybersecurity threat. Companies need to focus on achieving their business goals, establishing priorities and setting the company up for success on the one hand, and be flexible enough to respond quickly to threats on the other hand. This can be overwhelming.

That's why many companies choose a cybersecurity partner. But what should you look for when selecting the right partner? Our advice is to look not only at quality and cost, but also at the mission and long-term vision of a potential cybersecurity partner. Why? You'll read about it in this article!

The importance of a shared long-term vision with your cybersecurity solution vendor

By now, most companies are well aware of the need for cybersecurity and, of course, as an IT manager, you are constantly planning and implementing technology that protects your organization from cyber threats and is scalable. Choosing the right cybersecurity solution provider can have an impact on your goals. Here it is important to look not only at quality and costs, but also at the mission and long-term vision of the cybersecurity partner in question. After all, this must be in line with your own long-term vision. It is necessary to see if the cybersecurity vendor has the ambition and resources to support your goal. 

An example of a long-term vision might be: "An ongoing and mature cybersecurity strategy that continuously reduces cyber risk exposure and continuously adapts to the growth of our business." This objective has implications for the cybersecurity solution that is then needed to achieve the objective. Namely: a mature strategy, a tool that continuously fends off risks / attacks and a solution that can grow with your own growth ambitions. The latter is very important, because it's a shame if you buy a cybersecurity solution that only lasts a year.

We often see that when cybersecurity is not the core business of the company, there are too few resources (and ambition!) to build and especially maintain a comprehensive cybersecurity solution.

For example: a large company develops a secure email solution as one more product offer under their service umbrella. However, the company's core business is completely separate from cybersecurity. This means that at some point they may stop further developing their product, or fail to comply with new developments and/or legislation because they have other priorities from their mission.

The right cybersecurity partner will, of course, ensure that its solution is continuously evolving and growing with your company.

The power of collaboration

When choosing a partner in cybersecurity, it is important to initially work through the long-term vision with that partner. When the wishes and needs match with the mission and vision of a partner, they can support you optimally for a longer period of time.

However, it doesn't stop there. Great things happen when you can work together with that vendor, aligning with your cybersecurity solution to further develop the product, for example, that helps you meet your business goals. 

For example, at Smartlockr we go that one step further. We regularly organize customer meetings under the name 'Insider Club'. Together with our customers, we brainstorm (while enjoying a snack and a drink, of course) about the future of cybersecurity and our cybersecurity solutions. We do this to make our solutions even more compatible with the wishes and needs of our clients. We develop a roadmap for the future together with our customers, and this has two major advantages:

• The long-term visions are always aligned,
• We ensure in this way that the product is really useful and remains so.

When you outsource cybersecurity, you naturally want to be taken care of. And that is exactly what we do. 

And finally, Smartlockr's platform is intelligent. Through technologies such as Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, our cybersecurity solution is constantly evolving. We like to anticipate current and future changes so that our customers remain protected against data breaches in the future. Also, our solution always complies with the latest laws and regulations.

Download our whitepaper here and learn what else you can expect from a partnership with Smartlockr.