TECH TRENDS and effort as well as optimise their business processes . Add to this , the fact that COVID-19 has accelerated the need for companies to enhance and expand online offerings and pivot quickly , and it ’ s no surprise that businesses are more than ever leaning on the specialisms offered by others as they look to scale .
The challenges with third parties
Many businesses will depend on just one company to provide the platform that underpins their entire service . While companies won ’ t want to be over-reliant on a single supplier , there are potential risks of inconsistencies and performance issues that come with juggling multiple third parties . However , with this comes the concern that even a brief period of downtime could have a significant commercial impact and cause long-term reputational damage . If the supplier or the relationship fails altogether , the consequences could be catastrophic .
This is where the risk is highest for a scaleup , with the endgame being to minimise the
downside risk of dependency on third party suppliers as the business continues to grow . Once the business has scaled to a certain level , it will be in a stronger position to mitigate risk by effectively deploying across alternate suppliers .
The third party security challenge
According to Researchgate , the global market for outsourced services exceeded US $ 92 billion in 2019 and is set to continue to grow . As businesses continue to rely on third parties to support their growth journeys , the issues of data security and ownership have become more important .
The Ponemon Institute recently surveyed more than 1,000 CISOs and other security and risk professionals across the US and UK to understand the challenges that companies face in protecting sensitive and confidential information shared with third party suppliers and partners . The findings revealed that 59 % of companies had experienced a data breach caused by a vulnerability in one of their vendors or third parties .
A potential investor looking at a FGT business will want to know who the outside suppliers are and how much they are relied on . With cyberattacks on the rise , any investor will want to know how much sensitive information is provided to a third party , and how integrated they are within the business as it scales . No investor wants to be holding the baby in terms www . intelligentcxo . com
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