Interviews

Security Awareness is the Road to Take

CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Mr. Vinod Nair, VP of Global Sales, General Manager for Softline India
1. As a frontline cybersecurity player, how has your company been leveraging this uptick in demand?

We’ve seen a surge of requests from customers regarding cybersecurity and cyber resilience. While this is inarguably good for business, we’re more concerned with allaying fears and concerns, helping customers to identify threats and vulnerabilities, and ensuring that they have the right solutions in place. Beyond this, we continue to raise awareness in what is sadly an often overlooked area by publishing customer success stories which demonstrate how certain companies in certain industries approach this critically important aspect of their digital presence.

2. Choosing the correct solution from a crowd of solutions is like searching for a needle in a haystack. So, what sort of product differentiation do you bring to the table?
We specialise in researching our customers’ business, processes, and workflow, as well as the digital infrastructure they have in place prior to embarking on any project. During this stage, we ensure that we’re collecting all the information we need to identify their strengths and weaknesses before we move onto examining the different options that are available to them, how they can be customised to serve their business, and how it can be adapted and scaled as they grow.
3. What key cybersecurity mega trends do you foresee in the security market?
There are multiple kinds of cyber-attacks nowadays. Companies and their users are targets of attacks where PHISHING stands out, which is a method to deceive and make the user share passwords, credit card numbers, access codes and other confidential information by becoming pass through a person, company or trusted service through a website, email message, SMS or telephone call, the MALWARE that corresponds to the use and sending of malicious software or “disguised code” in the form of a link, document, photos, multimedia or texts to encourage the user to execute it, managing to install itself on the systems and thus later violate its security to extract confidential and valuable information for the organization or simply to cause its systems to malfunction. There is also CRYPTO-HACKING, a term assigned to the malicious use of the devices of certain users (pc, smartphones, tablets, laptops), without the user’s proper consent or knowledge. These are all the most frequent forms of cyber-attacks reported today.

There are different ways to violate a company, many times it is through people and not through the computer systems themselves. We have seen how platforms as common as the phone’s instant messaging can be a window to hack into a company’s system. That is why it is essential that companies have the right cybersecurity solutions that validate multiple access factors to protect their systems, but they must also inform and train their employees so that they are aware of the importance of preventing these attacks. Employees should always report to the IT or risk management teams any suspicious movement or cyber-activity like receiving a message asking them for money or information, or an email with a suspicious link with promotions or gifts.

4. How is your channel strategy aligning with the current market trends?
The current online instability reinforces the need for businesses to invest in maintaining and strengthening the cyber resilience of their digital systems. Indeed, the risk to organisations’ digital infrastructures should never be overlooked, regardless of the scale or nature of their operations. At Softline, we are committed to providing our customers with the best-in-class cybersecurity solutions from multiple security vendors around the world. We offer a multiple variety of cybersecurity solutions from different vendors. Every solution must be the right one for each customer. But we go further than simply selling the solutions to the customer. We work closely with each of our clients to understand their issues, their worries and needs; and also to protect their business’ data, infrastructure, and people. Once we have understood exactly what their needs are, we offer the best security solution for them. We also help them to integrate the solution into their existing internal systems, and 24/7 support in managing these solutions so that they can be sure they’re protected from any threats.
5. How do you upskill your partner ecosystem to provide a more ebullient security service?
As mentioned in the previous question, we offer a multiple variety of cybersecurity solutions from different vendors. Every solution must be the right one for each customer. But we go further than simply selling the solutions to the customer. We work closely with each of our clients to understand their issues, their worries and needs; and also to protect their business’ data, infrastructure, and people. Once we have understood exactly what their needs are, we offer the best security solution for them. We also help them to integrate the solution into their existing internal systems, and 24/7 support in managing these solutions so that they can be sure they’re protected from any threats.

6. When it comes to selling a product, customer experience weighs over the rest. So, what sort of pre-sales and post-sales services do you offer?
Our pre-sales services usually take the form of consultancy with customers to examine the ins and outs of their business, discuss their goals, and review the options available to them. During this stage, we do everything from conducting system health evaluations to developing road maps and implementation plans.

With post-sales services, we offer a full range of training and onboarding solutions to ensure that teams are aware of how to get the most out of the software and hardware we provide. We also provide managed services in the realms of cloud-based digital infrastructure and cybersecurity – especially important for companies who are scaling fast and need support to make sure they can do this without compromising their operwtional efficacy or security.

7. Are you planning any major investment towards channel expansion or in terms of expanding your headcount in India?
We are always looking for potential opportunities for investment and growth.
We have recently made an incestment in the market acquiring Value Points System. Thanks to the acquisition of Value Point Systems, Softline will now be able to complement its portfolio of cloud and cybersecurity solutions, as well as its IT management services workforce. We are bringing in a company with over 30 years’ experience in the market, and a value set that is accretive for our customers besides helping us reinforce our local footprint in India
We will also grow our headcount by incorporating Value Point Systems’ 1,200 excellent people to our Softline team.
8. What would be your growth outlook for the current year?
We look beyond this year’s growth. We invest in India for India, and our goal is to make our subsidiary in India a $1billion business in the next few years thanks to the rapid organic growth and to the success of companies like Value Point Systems.

Leave a Response