Binoy Koonammavu, CEO & Principal Consultant, ValueMentor
Binoy Koonammavu, CEO & Principal Consultant, ValueMentor
7 years ago

How challenging was the security market for ValueMentor in 2017?

In the services industry, specifically within information security, operational focus and efficiency is the key focus of most companies. However, our focus was to ensure customer success and provide the best customer experience as if we are part of their organization. One of the key challenge our customers face today is the availability of resources who can ensure customer success in terms of cyber security. Our customer success strategy focuses on multiple dimensions of our customers business. This includes plans for “Point in Time” Security, Tactical plans and long terms plans for the organization.

What do you think are the potential information security threats that companies might face in the future?

We will see a number of malware utilizing AI for fine tuning the attacks. Insecure IOT devices would help adversaries in launching massive scale attacks. New regulatory requirements around the world would result in an increased need for information security and privacy professionals, organizations would find it difficult to find right resources due to the scarcity of skilled people.

Could you highlight a major success story of ValueMentor in the past?

ValueMentor had worked with a large hotel chain based for their PCI compliance. We formed a multi-faced customer success team that will improve the security of the hotel while ensuring the business process are not affected, but improved.

In 2017, ValueMentor team had helped Oracle finding “Zero-day” vulnerabilities on their Enterprise One platform, exploiting the vulnerability would have resulted in remote code execution on millions on such implementations.

A holding company in the region, used our services to assess the risks associated with its 3rd parties on its environment. Our team had helped in designing the 3rd party risk management program. The holding company had successfully improved the risk posture and reduced the number of risky vendors to less than 5.

Give us 3 reasons why enterprises should choose ValueMentor over other security solutions.

Our primary focus is “Customer Success”. Every engagement we signup would have customer success team working with the customer, understanding the business requirements of the customer. We do not intend to provide just a point in service, but want to ensure that the customer is successful in the business they are in.

Secondly, we focus on speed and agility where it is most critical for our client’s business. This helps our clients achieve competitive advantage against its competitors.

Last but not least, our team of security analysts are recognized for their ability to find “Zero-day” vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities are never published until it is fixed and a solution for all affected customers are publicly available.

What is your roadmap for 2018?

ValueMentor is focused on “Transformation” as the key theme for 2018. By the end of 2018, want to be the “Partner of Choice” for at least 50% of our customers. We are growing, 200% in terms of top line, for the past 3 years. This year, we are aiming for a growth of 300% in terms of top line numbers. In 2018, we will open 2 new Security Intelligence and Operations centres. ValueMentor promotes “woman in cyber security”, we intend to train and recruit a significant number of women in cyber security in the coming years.