Mumbai: The year 2017 can be critical for manage security service providers (MSSP) in India, thanks to the growing incidents of high profile cyber attacks on strategic establishments and individuals over the past few years.
MSSPs are already playing a critical role in designing the entire security architecture of an organization. However, the growing incidents of cyber crime compelled the government of India to review its current cyber security mechanism, which is now reportedly mulling to review its existing IT Act to strengthen the current cyber security infrastructure in the country. This means that more MSSPs are needed to build a robust network of cyber security experts. [Read the full story here]
At the same time, with private companies also showing a preference to work with specialized security service providers to ensure higher level of security, MSSPs can look at greater opportunity to grow their business.
Security is a huge opportunity for MSSPs. According to MarketsandMarkets research, managed services market will reach worth USD 242.45 billion by 2021. Considering the promising business prospects, many system integrators having domain knowledge are entering into this highly specialized space. However, there are array of challenges which are creating hindrances in the growth of MSSPs.
MSSPs often stuck due to issues such as scalability, automation, internal processes and professional expertise. Automation is another critical to maintain an acceptable profit margin, especially for MSSPs that cater to the small and medium-sized business (SMB) market. MSSP often struggle with constant margin and pricing pressure.
As the security technologies are constantly improving and becoming economical, customers expect MSSPs to maintain a competitive menu of services and offer additional security features without a significant price increase each time that the service contract comes up for renewal. Therefore, MSSPs are forced to reduce costs in order to maintain service profitability. A strong sales presence is also critical for revenue generation, and finding qualified sales professionals is another challenge for MSSPs to deal with.
While MSSPs need to deal with several technical and marking challenges, small and simple tricks can give them a lot of ease in business. MSSPs can explore the option of project manager model o streamline implementations and processes.
Managed services are typically not a lifetime commitment, and customers may eventually move away from one’s services in favor of less expensive providers. Hence, it is very important to create a niche in the market to enjoy long term customer loyalty. Since, security is ever changing business domain, it is important for MSSPs to upgrade their knowledge and sharper skills to remain aware about the new updates in the industry.