In our last blog, we discussed the factors that drive midsized businesses to engage an MSP. We saw how managing some of the most business-critical functions requires vast resources and makes it hard for businesses to focus extensively on their core business processes and operations. Take security, for instance. It now costs an average large enterprise $16.7 million annually to maintain the security software and the people who run it.
Outsourcing such operations help businesses stay competitive and achieve tangible benefits without breaking the bank. Today, we discuss Compliance and how it holds the potential to be a solid revenue-generating channel for MSPs.
Compliance is Everywhere
Compliance has become an ingrained part of day-to-day business operations. As the role of governmental regulatory bodies keeps increasing in businesses of all sizes and in all sectors, failure to comply with regulations can land you in both legal and financial hot water.
Although following the mandatory regulatory compliance is imperative for businesses across all verticals, some need more monitoring than others. Consider these for example;
Finance
Financial institutions run a higher risk of cyber attacks compared to any other industry and their requirements are arguably more complex than most. Which brings us to acts like Dodd-Frank in the US, consisting of 225 new rules spanning 11 agencies, with the goal of eliminating a number of risks across the American financial system. Millions and sometimes billions of dollars in fines are handed out every year by the CFPB. The risk of non-compliance is severe for financial firms.
According to Accenture’s 2017 Compliance Risk Study, which surveyed 150 compliance officers at banks, capital markets and insurers around the world, respondents plan to up their investment in compliance management by 89% over the next two years.
Retail
The retail sector has been hit by some of the worst data breaches in history. Attribute these to the personally identifiable information that rests with them. This information could be some critical financial information, Social security information and other data that can be used for financial gain. Moreover, the situation with respect to credit card fraud is only getting worse. In spite of introducing Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), the regulatory standard aimed at preventing costly data breaches, more than 80% of the retailers are still not compliant with PCI.
Healthcare
According to Brookings Institution, 23% of all breaches in the U.S. are against healthcare organizations. In fact, just four months ago, around 1.4 million patient records were breached in UnityPoint Health phishing attack. This is the second breach for the health system this year, and the biggest health data breach of 2018 in the U.S.
To give you a sense of criticality associated with these breaches, one breach alone resulted in healthcare provider Anthem having records on 78.8 million patients compromised.
Among other things, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) aims at protecting the health and information of the patients, but many healthcare organizations don’t care about HIPAA nearly as much as they should.
Time to Up the Ante
Almost all the industries are held to certain regulatory standards for the data and information they store and handle. But, keeping up with regulatory compliance has proven to be a challenge for many businesses, more so for the smaller ones.
There are many reasons why MSPs should add compliance management to their portfolios. According to Kaseya Annual MSP Pricing Benchmark Survey, only 11% of MMEs outsource compliance management to an MSP. This presents a massive market for MSPs to tap into.
Need another reason? Here’s one: In the MME Benchmark survey, 32% of CIOs and IT Directors said compliance is their top priority. As a smart MSP, it’s up to you to seize this opportunity to create a new recurring revenue stream and build a long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationship.
We also asked the MSPs about the compliance requirements or regulations that impact them or the customers they serve the most, and the answers reveal it to be HIPAA and PCI in the US and GDPR in Europe.
This is Why Kaseya is Expanding Their Portfolio
Earlier this year, Kaseya acquired Rapidfire Tools and MSPs see a huge upside to the marriage and the integration of RapidFire tools into the Kaseya IT Complete suite.
RapidFire has a set of three solutions. Network Detective handles security and IT assessments, as well as compliance audits, and is used by more than 6,000 MSPs, while Cyber Hawk does continuous threat detection with alerting. Finally, there is Audit Guru, a tool tailor-made for GDPR and other compliance regulations.
Moreover, as a result of ongoing development between Kaseya and RapidFire Tools, Kaseya has also launched Kaseya Compliance Manager (KCM), that allows MSPs and internal IT organizations to monitor and manage compliance for regulations and requirements, including GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI.
If you aren’t keeping up with regulatory compliance, you are opening up you and your customers to painful and expensive legal actions if data is ever stolen, leaked or lost.
Want to know more about the latest midmarket stats, trends, concerns, and motivators? Download the eBook here.
