Grow your business with better and lean IT risk management

Create an IT security policy in 1 day

• Give your customers and investors assurance
• Develop faster, deploy more
• Don’t lose your business to hackers
• Secure your startup success

You have customers, you are growing and innovating and software is an important part of your business. It is also likely that this software is online and is driving your business revenue.

That means that risks to that online software are a direct risk to your business. I am here to show you how to avoid these risks and get a more successful business in the process.

Why should you worry about IT risk and security if you are involved in running an online software company?

It is a USP

Even though your service is very beneficial to your customers, it also constitutes a risk to them. You are part of their solution, but also part of their problem. They have their own IT risk management to do, and they have just outsourced some of their IT to you. Demonstrating how you mitigate those risks can actually be a strong selling point. Security sells.

Security may be your USP (Unique Selling Proposition). Your customers have to abide by the law as well.  There are a number of ways in which you can demonstrate this. ISO27001 and the Cloud Security Alliance’s STAR certifications are examples, but more light-weight approaches also exist.

Your investors

Your investors have a significant stake in your company. They take calculated risks, and your evolving on-line service is quite enough for their risk appetite. They don’t need more risk. They don’t need the additional risk of you cutting corners on the IT risks on top of that. Are you proactively demonstrating to them how you are in control, or do you want to get grilled at the next board meeting?

Grows your company

Better risk management often goes hand in hand with better quality control. In software development, the right level of quality control is a great boost to productivity, which leads to business growth. Better risk management is like having better brakes on your car, it allows you to drive faster.

The more automation you have in your delivery pipeline (continuous or otherwise), the faster it is, and the better your brakes need to be.

In the end, the biggest risk to any company is that they cannot innovate quickly enough. Facing, taking and handling the right risks is essential to surviving as a company.

The law

You are probably handling and storing data that is regulated, such as personally identifiable information or healthcare data, or financial information. Mishandling these can lead to severe legal consequences for your company and potentially for you personally.

Don’t get ‘pwnd’

You don’t want your systems taken over by hackers (‘pwned’ or ‘owned’ as they call it). The least you will get is a bad reputation, but there are documented cases of companies going out of business as a result of losing control over their core assets.

Get ready

So, how do you get on top of IT risk management without distracting too much from growing your business?

You need an IT security policy, and you need it fast.

I can help you.

Want to know more? Drop me a line, or qualify for a free 30 minute consultation through this link.

Sign up here for a series of brief messages, each of which will help you take a small but significant step. This is free and has no risk; you can always opt-out.

The first message is about a quick-win that is easy to implement, yet important and often overlooked.

One day security policy

We will take one day, on-site or on-line, to create an IT security policy for your business.

Based on the templates that I have, and my experience with small (and large) companies, I can guarantee that at the end of that day this will give you a result that you can work with.

You will be able to show this policy to your prospects and your investors as a “Minimum Viable IT sec policy” to keep them comfortable for a while.

If you do some preparation, this will be like a mini-audit of your company’s IT risk management.

Of course, this is the beginning of your journey, and you cannot expect to be ISO 27001 certified the next day. But you will be able to start with focus and direction on that journey.

Call me

If your startup or scaleup company has a software component that can make-or-break your company, you should talk to me. Schedule a free appointment through this link or send a mail.