BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH

Transcription

1 2014

2 Contents Letter of Congratulations... 3 Background and Company Performance... 4 Industry Challenges... 4 Quality of Customer Service and Customer Impact of Digiware... 5 Conclusion... 8 Significance of Customer Service Leadership... 9 Understanding Customer Service Leadership... 9 Key Benchmarking Criteria The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards Research Methodology Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices About Frost & Sullivan Copyright... Error! Bookmark not defined.

3 Letter of Congratulations We are proud to present you with this year s award for best practices in Customer Service Leadership in the managed security services industry. Frost & Sullivan has a global team of analysts and consultants continuously researching a wide range of markets across multiple sectors and geographies. As part of this ongoing research, we identify companies that maintain consistently high standards for customer service quality, allowing them to form deep relationships with their customers. This research involves extensive primary and secondary research across the entire value chain of specific products. Against the backdrop of this research, we are pleased to recognize Digiware as the Customer Service Leadership Leader in the Andean managed security services market. To achieve excellence in Customer Service Leadership is never an easy task, but it is one made even more difficult due to today s competitive intensity, customer volatility, and economic uncertainty not to mention the difficulty of innovating in an environment of escalating challenges to intellectual property. Within this context, your receipt of this award signifies an even greater accomplishment. Moreover, we recognize that your receipt of this award is the result of many individuals (employees, customers, and investors) making daily choices to believe in the organization and contribute in a meaningful way to its future. We believe that such an achievement should be acknowledged and celebrated. We hope you use this award as a platform for strengthening your brand, building awareness among new and existing customers, and inspiring your team to even greater levels of performance. Once again, we congratulate you on your achievements and wish you great success in the future. We are here to support you on any future endeavors. Sincerely yours, David Frigstad Chairman Frost & Sullivan

4 Background and Company Performance Industry Challenges As commerce and productivity continue to virtualize and become more reliant on Internet connectivity, the creativity and maliciousness of cybercriminals continue to evolve. Despite the highly visible security breaches that routinely appear in the media, companies still neglect security vulnerabilities. It is usually when companies find themselves the victim of an attack that they realize the true cost of their negligence and end up paying more than if they had invested in better security. Like preventive maintenance, you either pay now or pay later. Such negligence can cost Internet-based businesses a significant amount in economic damages, either from theft of intellectual property, downtime (lost sales opportunity), or liability for losing private customer data in the form of banking information. Frost & Sullivan trend analysis confirms that prevalent threats specific to the greater Latin American region are from botnets, which are computers that are either hijacked or purpose-built to be manipulated collectively and remotely for complex coordinated cyberattacks, such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) and phishing. DDoS attacks can disable company networks or websites that have a direct impact on revenue by disrupting both sales opportunity and employee productivity. It is also important to note that DDoS attacks may be used to mask more nefarious attacks, such as advanced persistent threats (APT) like cyber espionage and theft of corporate data. Phishing causes revenue loss through beleaguered productivity and theft of sensitive corporate data or intellectual property. While Chile is the most mature country with regards to recognizing the advantages of managed security services (MSS), companies in the Andean region may need more convincing. Significant challenges that negatively impact this industry are: Awareness: While cyber-attacks are increasingly visible, too many companies view investing in network security as an amenity instead of necessity. The actual time and revenue lost due to outages are not clearly defined; therefore, security threats do not receive the attention they deserve. Reactive security: Lots of market players in this space only react to incidents as they happen and only read network logs. To stand out, players need to proactively research emerging threats and trends to protect their customers in the first place. False alarms: Security services often do not take the time to study their customers; therefore, they have no baseline to know when a threat is legitimate. These response teams then treat even the slightest of variances as threats, which can drain company resources and erode customer confidence.

5 Companies are increasingly aware of the value of MSS, but this cannot happen quickly enough. Companies that are aware of growing network security threats recognize the advantage of investing in MSS; however, investing in an in house security team is costly and finding qualified security experts is difficult. This is why outsourcing network security to a qualified and competent company is important for businesses so they can focus on what generates revenue for the company. Participants in this marketspace need to become more proactive to optimize the value security services bring to customers if they wish to distinguish themselves in a saturated market. Quality of Customer Service and Customer Impact of Digiware Digiware is a MSS provider for the Andean region of Latin America. By researching and implementing industry best practices that are leading to success in the global market, the company is building competitive advantages that elevate it from a leader in the Andean region into a serious global player in the security industry. What sets Digiware apart from its competitors is its amplified attention to detail and dedication to understand the strengths, character, and vulnerabilities of its customers to implement a security service that allows businesses to focus on their net worth instead of their networks. Performance Value: The Complete Managed Solution Before an effective security plan can be implemented, the security team must first understand what it is they are protecting. Players in the MSS industry are primarily concerned with patching vulnerabilities as they happen, after the economic damage has already been done. This is setting the customer up for failure, and then using it as an excuse to validate the necessity of adequate security. This is unacceptable to Digiware. Constructing a solid baseline for the behavioral patterns of the customer and then patching not only existing vulnerabilities, but also implementing safeguards that protect against emerging threats before they surface is the only way to provide a superior quality service to the customer. Digiware establishes a good baseline of organizational behavior patterns on the network to minimize false alarms and bring greater reliability and credibility to legitimate threats. The crying wolf effect of hypersensitive or blind security plans creates a burden on the security team and a sense of distrust to the customer who is then unable to distinguish legitimate from false threats. This severely devalues the security solution and causes further economic waste. Digiware s thorough, two-month learning process sets it above these service providers. For every two steps that technology pioneers take forward, cyber criminals push the industry a step back. The research team at Digiware keeps pace with emerging security threats and network vulnerabilities by analyzing threats that happen around the world before they become a problem locally. The research team at Digiware sets honeynets a network of decoy computers with reduced security parameters to lure potential hackers

6 into a controlled network for monitoring behavior and capabilities of potential threats. The company implements security best practices by collaborating with organizations computer emergency and computer security incident response teams. If a properly managed security service were a powerful weapon against cyber criminals, Digiware is the tip of the spear. Customer Purchase & Ownership Experience Digiware sets itself apart from other market participants by educating potential customers on the return on investment (ROI) that they will receive by outsourcing security to a MSS provider. By drafting a business impact analysis report, the company is then able to show customers exactly how much an attack could cost the business. C-level executives of a company do not need to be cybersecurity experts to realize that revenue lost from an outage of their ecommerce website will negatively impact them. Following the pay now or pay later motto, the ROI for outsourcing network security to industry experts, such as Digiware, is significant. Whether protecting customers sensitive corporate data or insuring high uptime service level agreements for Internet-based businesses and telecommunications providers, Digiware empowers customers to earn the highest possible ROI for their digital services by letting them focus on what earns revenue instead of what threatens it. To retain its valued customers, Digiware focuses on understanding its customers. Each customer has its own security team from Digiware that understands the applications, services, and architecture specific to their network. The business development department at Digiware builds schemes tailored to the customer. Outsourcing network security to Digiware is a significant added value to businesses that rely heavily on their network. Customer Service Excellence There are two mechanisms in place at Digiware to receive customer feedback and further enhance its value and competitive advantage in the market: user portal and quality control director. The user portal is the primary means for Digiware to engage with customers to receive feedback. Quality control directors from Digiware conduct interviews with customers as many as three times annually to ensure that the customer is both happy and adequately protected. On top of these mechanisms, the company petitions critique from third-party investigators to get a 360-degree view that shows network engineer qualification, market position against other market players, and other aspects that directly translate to added value for the customer. Brand Equity Where Digiware really shines is its thorough process for establishing a good baseline of network behavior. Providing tailored security plans, dedicated teams, and behavior baseline establishment are fundamental advantages that Digiware proudly uses to distinguish itself from other market players. Being able to show customers the ROI for

7 MSS then delivering in such a manner that is high in integrity and efficiency is a demonstration of exemplifying industry best practices on par with internationally recognized players, positioning Digiware to surpass regional competitors and directly challenge global leaders. When asked which three words would best describe Digiware, CEO John Galindo proudly defined them as, proactive, conventional, and security supplier. The company s proactive research team is a hallmark for security services keeping pace with emerging threats. Though innovative in regards of business practices, Digiware employs the best conventional security measures that are used by industry leaders. With regards to being a security supplier, Digiware does not only promote another way for MSS, it is paving the way. Strategy Effectiveness & Execution The key to market competitiveness is to understand customer needs, identify industry challenges, and then create strategies to address them. Representatives from Digiware routinely attend cyber security conferences to stay relevant, seek guidance from US government agencies, and host advisory boards with customers to receive critical feedback. The gathered information is then compiled and illustrated on a roadmap, which the company then uses to navigate forward. A result of such strategy development is how Digiware is looking into implementing identity as a service (IDaaS) into its security portfolio. This will provide a higher level of user authentication that is less burdensome to customers and security teams. When combining conventional authentication methods such as user passwords and out of band codes, IDaaS adds a third authentication factor that enables organizations to use identity governance administration the ability to authenticate, provision, monitor, and manage user identities as they access the network. Executive Team Alignment When Frost & Sullivan analysts asked CEO John Galindo how to he aligns the Digiware team with the company mission, he emphasized how important it is to train team members instead of simply impose the company vision upon them. By establishing clear and easy to define metrics and goals, the company can then implement performance driven incentives to reward compliance. Mr. Galindo recognizes how critical it is to empower his team with clear objectives that are easy to measure and how to motivate them to move the company toward success. The winning management style further supports Frost & Sullivan s assessment that Digiware is a MSS provider that is demonstrating industry best practices and what it takes to be a market leader in the Andean region.

8 Conclusion There is a clear difference between calling oneself a managed security services provider and truly acting as one. With Digiware s innovation and dedication to network security, companies are able to focus their efforts on their businesses, without worry to the reliability of their computer network. To the businesses that remain skeptical about the necessity of a managed security service, Digiware requests they ask themselves not whether they can afford investing in security, but whether they can afford not to. With its strong overall performance, Digiware has earned Frost & Sullivan s 2014 Customer Service Leadership award.

9 Significance of Customer Service Leadership Ultimately, growth in any organization depends upon customers purchasing from your company, and then making the decision to return time and again. The service experience is therefore a critical component of a company s efforts to retain customers over the long term. Through successful retention, companies enhance their brand, increase demand for their products, and differentiate themselves from the competition. This concept is explored further below. Understanding Customer Service Leadership Customer Service Leadership is defined and measured by two macro-level categories: quality of customer service and customer impact. These two sides work together to make customers feel valued, and confident in their products quality and long shelf life. This dual satisfaction translates into repeat purchases and a high lifetime customer value.

10 Key Benchmarking Criteria For the Customer Service Leadership Award, we evaluated two key factors Quality of Customer Service and Customer Impact according to the criteria identified below. Quality of Customer Service Criterion 1: Empowerment Criterion 2: Leverage of Customer Feedback Criterion 3: Speed/Timeliness Criterion 4: Frictionless Interaction Criterion 5: Technological Investment Customer Impact Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience Criterion 5: Brand Equity The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards Research Methodology Frost & Sullivan s 360-degree research methodology represents the analytical rigor of our research process. It offers a 360-degree-view of industry challenges, trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies. Too often, companies make important growth decisions based on a narrow understanding of their environment, leading to errors of both omission and commission. Successful growth strategies are founded on a thorough understanding of market, technical, economic, financial, customer, best practices, and demographic analyses. The integration of these research disciplines into the 360-degree research methodology provides an evaluation platform for benchmarking industry players and for identifying those performing at bestin-class 360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN THE CHAOS levels.

11 Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices Our awards team follows a 10-step process (illustrated below) to evaluate award candidates and assess their fit with our best practice criteria. The reputation and integrity of our awards process are based on close adherence to this process. STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT 1 Monitor, target, and screen Identify award recipient candidates from around the globe Conduct in-depth industry research Identify emerging sectors Scan multiple geographies Pipeline of candidates who potentially meet all bestpractice criteria 2 Perform 360-degree research Perform comprehensive, 360-degree research on all candidates in the pipeline Interview thought leaders and industry practitioners Assess candidates fit with best-practice criteria Rank all candidates Matrix positioning all candidates performance relative to one another 3 Invite thought leadership in best practices Perform in-depth examination of all candidates Confirm best-practice criteria Examine eligibility of all candidates Identify any information gaps Detailed profiles of all ranked candidates 4 Initiate research director review Conduct an unbiased evaluation of all candidate profiles Brainstorm ranking options Invite multiple perspectives on candidates performance Update candidate profiles Final prioritization of all eligible candidates and companion best-practice positioning paper 5 Assemble panel of industry experts Present findings to an expert panel of industry thought leaders Share findings Strengthen cases for candidate eligibility Prioritize candidates Refined list of prioritized award candidates 6 Conduct global industry review Build consensus on award candidates eligibility Hold global team meeting to review all candidates Pressure-test fit with criteria Confirm inclusion of all eligible candidates Final list of eligible award candidates, representing success stories worldwide 7 Perform quality check Develop official award consideration materials Perform final performance benchmarking activities Write nominations Perform quality review High-quality, accurate, and creative presentation of nominees successes 8 Reconnect with panel of industry experts Finalize the selection of the best-practice award recipient Review analysis with panel Build consensus Select winner Decision on which company performs best against all best-practice criteria 9 Communicate recognition Inform award recipient of award recognition Present award to the CEO Inspire the organization for continued success Celebrate the recipient s performance Announcement of award and plan for how recipient can use the award to enhance the brand 10 Take strategic action Share award news with stakeholders and customers Coordinate media outreach Design a marketing plan Assess award s role in future strategic planning Widespread awareness of recipient s award status among investors, media personnel, and employees

12 About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages almost 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from 31 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit