Picture this: You’ve invested in managed security services to keep your business technology up-to-date and protected from various cyber threats and vulnerabilities. It’s been three years of paying a monthly expense for this service. Previously, you had issues with cyber-attacks, breaches in your network, hacking, and various technical incompetencies. But now, after three years, there’s barely been a blip. It can be so tempting to question your investment and wonder, “what am I really paying for if I haven’t had any issues,” but the reality is, you likely haven’t had any cyber issues because of the measures you’ve taken to control your cybersecurity.
So, what are you to do? How are you to truly understand and calculate your return on investment (ROI) for paid cybersecurity services when stakeholders start poking around the expense budget and asking questions? While it’s not a straightforward calculation or a perfect argument due to the infinite variables in play that impact your network security status, there are a few simple ways to equate the value of your investment to justify the costs.
Here’s how to understand your cybersecurity ROI and our top 3 reasons to keep your tech budget stable.
Understanding Cybersecurity ROI
In almost every other part of a business, you can tie back results in the form of hard numbers and percentages to calculate the ROI of that particular department, product, service, or effort. When it comes to calculating the hard numbers and facts that point to how cybersecurity contributes to the overall revenue and health of the business, the lines get blurred a little bit. This is because there are so many variables at play.
Going back to the earlier example, if you have been paying for cybersecurity services for three years and haven’t had any issues, is that because you have the coverage in place and it’s working, or is it because there haven’t been any legitimate attacks or threats to come into your network in that time? The hard truth is, there are really too many fluctuations in the landscape of technology to really know why something did or didn’t happen. Because of this, coming up with a hard number calculation is nearly impossible.
So how do you justify your expenses? One way to look at this is by viewing cybersecurity as an internal insurance policy to protect the ROI of other parts of your business – the areas you actually can attribute to income calculations.
For example, if you sell online products and your site is compromised, what sort of revenue are you missing out on if you have to have downtime to repair the issue? Or say you’re in fund development, what sort of repercussions would your fundraising goals experience if there was a security breach of your accounting system? While both of these examples may seem a bit extreme, they are not out of the realm of possibilities. The goal then for the cybersecurity service provider is to deploy the appropriate protections, actions, automation, and security measures to prevent these things from happening in the first place. Thus, significantly minimizing the risks of losing out on projected ROI from all other areas of the company. The question then should be less about what ROI does my cybersecurity investment bring in and more about what ROI in your business does your cybersecurity protect? And if you chose not to have a skilled and experienced service provider in place, would the risk and potential loss be worth it?
The best way to truly feel confident in your risk assessment and tolerance is to truly understand your business and its goals. Ultimately, cybersecurity should be an unwavering, accepted, and necessary expense like payroll systems or business insurance because it is the foundation for all other areas of the business to thrive on so that the ROI each department, product, service, or effort is responsible for bringing in is possible.
Understanding the quality of the service you are paying for and the skill set and experience the provider has will also help you navigate the appropriate costs for such services.
Top 3 Reasons to Keep Your Tech Budget Stable
1. An Up-Tick in Attacks:
In recent years, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of cyber threats and attacks has increased immensely. This is due in part to the waves of people shifting from in-office to remote work as well as hackers and scammers taking advantage of the global vulnerability the illness posed. Not to mention the growing tech and software coming into the market at lightning speed with various vulnerabilities yet to be tested.
Now is not the time to trim your cybersecurity budget. However, if you are piecing together cybersecurity with different contractors, subscriptions, or service providers, there’s an opportunity to save some money by streamlining your investment through one tech security firm such as Ontech Systems, Inc. Our team will happily talk you through our services, what to expect, and how the budget works so you have the most comprehensive but affordable service for cybersecurity.
2. One Focused Partner Will Actually Save You Money
Speaking of piecing together your cybersecurity, this is often something many small businesses do and it can be a hindrance to business growth over time. Small businesses get caught in the ease and cycle of paying for multiple services to different vendors at different rates to cover the basics for cybersecurity. In some cases, many small businesses end up with a “do-it-yourself” set up which has many additional drawbacks. Regardless, if you were to look at the cost of various subscription services and software to cover cybersecurity in this way, you may find that the cost is exponentially higher than working with just one service provider such as Ontech Systems, Inc.
It’s very similar to the cable TV and streaming industries. Over the last 10-15 years, there has been a big push for consumers to shift from cable TV to streaming services. Early on, the savings were obvious but as the trend has taken off and more and more streaming companies are launching and monopolizing in-demand content, the average household ends up diversifying their content service providers so much that their monthly expenses for all of the streaming services far exceeds what cable used to be. This can often happen in business as well when it comes to things like services and subscriptions for IT and cybersecurity.
Dialing it in and working with a singular, skilled, and experienced service provider such as Ontech Systems, Inc. can ultimately save you money and improve your tech performance and cybersecurity. Talk with us today to learn more.
3. An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure
Benjamin Franklin coined this phrase back in 1736 yet it still holds true today. Preventing something from happening in the first place is far easier and less expensive than repairing the damage after it has already happened.
When you know and understand the importance cybersecurity plays for your business, you are aware of the things that need to be in place to make sure it is stable and secure. Not everything is guaranteed 100% secure no matter what measures you take, especially in the ever-changing landscape of technology. Even so, having a managed cybersecurity service in place ahead of time will make any repairs quicker, smoother, and less expensive.
Working with your stakeholders and team to truly understand the ins and out of your business and the goals you are setting forth can really help you prioritize the right business services and tools. This will help you drive the biggest growth possible in your bottom line while spending wisely on things that are necessary and important.
Ready to Invest in Managed Security Services?
Ontech Systems, Inc. is here to help make your business IT needs simple, secure, and straight to the point. As an outsourced IT solutions provider of over 15 years, we work with businesses of all sizes to take the complexities of IT and cybersecurity off your plate and provide simple yet powerful information and solutions for you and your team to adopt for more secure business practices. We invest heavily in our people and skill sets, so you receive the very best. Our product is our people. And we are ready to help you get your cybersecurity under control.
