How VISO Achieved 50% Risk Assessment Time Reduction and 54% Revenue Growth

Background

VISO Cyber Security is a cybersecurity service provider catering to SMEs. They specialize in comprehensive and hands-on vCISO services. They also work with their clients on one-off cybersecurity risk assessments, incident response, and project work like ISO 27001 certification. With a team of 15 cybersecurity experts, VISO enhances IT teams’ ability to safeguard their systems and resources. They also help build their rapport and professional reputation among stakeholders and leadership.

The Challenge

Before using Cynomi, VISO were forced to conduct their risk assessment processes in a manual manner. The team used a self-developed questionnaire to evaluate their clients’ risk status and compliance posture. But the questions lacked depth and the entire process was missing a systematic approach. To analyze the answers, the team used spreadsheets and a risk management tool, which was time-consuming and inefficient.

“We may have had to ask 5 to 10 questions to get to an answer for a simple issue, because it was a non-structured interview.”

– Stephen Parsons, CEO, VISO Cyber Security

The Solution

VISO chose Cynomi as the solution for streamlining and standardizing their cybersecurity assessment process. They use Cynomi’s built-in questionnaires to support and accelerate the interview process with their clients. VISO takes pride in hiring knowledgeable employees that have industry experience paired with an academic background. With Cynomi’s questionnaires, VISO’s employees are able to leverage their expertise more quickly. Instead of having to come up with questions themselves, they use Cynomi’s questions and can then intelligently drill into the answers.

After a quick onboarding process, VISO was able to immediately access Cynomi, which they found easy to use. The rapid onboarding process also enabled them to quickly evaluate their value for money when using the platform. They could quickly gauge Cynomi’s ability to improve their services and processes and the ROI, without having to make a huge resource investment.

“We were able to test Cynomi, make sure we were happy with it, and understand what it was going to give us. That gave us a lot of comfort. Cynomi gave us everything we needed to make the decision easier.”

– Stephen Parsons, CEO, VISO Cyber Security

The fact that Cynomi is delivered as a SaaS platform and provides an easy to understand user interface also enabled VISO to start small and scale their efforts as needed.

The Impact

VISO uses Cynomi’s platform with every new customer. By using Cynomi, VISO’s management was able to benefit from:

Revenue Growth:

VISO enjoyed 54% annual revenue growth. Cynomi contributed to these efforts by saving employees’ time, ensuring consistent high-quality deliverables, and supporting VISO’s ability to scale per clients’ demand without increasing costs.

50% Reduction in Risk Assessment Time:

Cynomi allows VISO’s knowledgeable employees to leverage their skills and expertise more quickly and efficiently. By providing them with standardized questionnaires, the employees reduce the time spent on the initial questioning process and focus their time on conducting meaningful interviews. Thanks to Cynomi, the time it takes to deliver a cyber assessment was reduced by 50%.

“Cynomi has given us speed, efficiency and quality. It has reduced the time we have to spend on our client at the start.”

– Stephen Parsons, CEO, VISO Cyber Security

80% Reduction of New Employee Onboarding Time:

Cynomi significantly reduced the time it takes VISO to onboard new employees. Now, the process takes only one month, which is approximately a fifth of the time it took before. Before Cynomi, new employees would have to participate in a number of assessments to understand how to conduct the interviews and which questions to ask. With Cynomi, the assessment process is already laid out and structured. After participating in only one assessment, new employees can already conduct them autonomously.

“When we started, it was four or five months before I’d have somebody doing an assessment on their own. Now it’s down to one month.”

– Stephen Parsons, CEO, VISO Cyber Security

Enhanced Credibility and Service Quality:

Cynomi was also able to help VISO implement structure and standardization into the risk assessment process. With the same process being used for every client, VISO can better brand itself as a reputable service provider that provides high-quality services.

“We have the same process in place for every client. There’s an intangible saving there that I can’t put into my ROI, but it is a saving nonetheless. And it makes us look good.”

– Stephen Parsons, CEO, VISO Cyber Security

Scalability:

With Cynomi, VISO can also scale more quickly. Employees who are onboarded faster contribute to VISO’s revenue quicker. Coupled with a structured and automated process and better service quality, VISO can quickly add new clients per demand.

In addition, Cynomi makes the selling process more efficient and allows demonstrating the results, which empowers VISO to bring in new clients to support scalability goals.

“Cynomi allows us to take on more and grow at scale.”

– Stephen Parsons, CEO, VISO Cyber Security

VISO has incorporated Cynomi in their growth plans. By leveraging Cynomi’s adoption of new standards and capabilities, VISO plans to use Cynomi as a means to achieve its future goals.