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Contractor Bids for a Lucrative RFP But Must Prove Security Compliance or Pay for an Expensive Report

True Story: we recently worked with a commercial contractor who was given a choice to pay $100,000 for a security report required for the bid or figure out a smarter way to solve the compliance conundrum without the hefty price tag. He succeeded in finding a better (and much less expensive) option. Here’s what he did.

Pay to Play

Contractors who bid RFPs for big financial institutions like credit unions, credit cards, and investment firms know the challenges of proving compliance with security regulations.

Our commercial contractor client was bidding on work for a big-name financial organization. He knew that security compliance would be required to win the bid.

He was asked to submit a credited report from an accredited SOC 2 firm, a report with a $100,000 price tag. Additionally, this price did not include the hardware, security plan, or services for monitoring and maintaining security compliance; it was only for the report.

This contractor felt stuck between a rock and a hard place: pay for the report or lose the bid opportunity until we found a better way.

Enter Blue Fox Group. We recommended moving his entire operation to Azure Cloud. Here’s why: Microsoft built its compliance solution directly into the Azure Cloud service. Azure has a portfolio of more than 90 compliance offerings, such as certifications for standards like:

  • HIPAA
  • FedRAMP
  • ISO/IEC 27018

Most of these are built with the specific needs of heavily regulated industries, like finance, in mind.

In addition to setting up and maintaining the Azure platform for this contractor, Blue Fox Group would also provide IT services to meet the complete security needs of the organization, including:

  • Change Management Software (detection of changes on the network)
  • Device Management and End User Security – Advanced Antivirus with AI
  • Identity Management with Multifactor Authentication
  • Web App, Email, Network Security
  • Document Risk Analysis with Quarterly Business Reviews
  • Measurement and alignment of the environment with best-practice standards

When the financial institution reviewing the RFPs requested the anticipated compliance reports, Blue Fox Group generated the necessary reports, demonstrating comprehensive SOC compliance without the wait or additional fees.

Standing Out in a Sea of Bids

This contractor also stood out from competitors with a pitch that went like this:

Azure Represents a Better Bang for The Buck

Microsoft Azure as a compliance platform offers a more cost-effective solution than commercial alternatives. Additional Azure benefits include:

  1. Keeping pace within the United States and international regulations:
    “What’s important to us is being current with all the regulations. We’re most concerned with SEC regulations, but we see growth in international regulations. The organization, streamlined access, and automation of Azure have had the most positive impact for us.”
  2. More secure financial data:
    “Our biggest challenge is ensuring that financial data is secure and not compromised. This sounds simple, but we are constantly responding to new threats. Azure secures our network and manages identity and administration. Azure’s unified security management keeps everything secret, protecting proprietary information. We are also able to do financial reporting on time and accurately.”
  3. Offering security and a comprehensive solution:
    “The main benefit is security and having a robust and broad solution from a single vendor. We are confident that Microsoft will be our platform for the foreseeable future.”
  4. Reducing the risk of financial penalties:
    “Azure for compliance is phenomenal in reducing our risk exposure. This has been great because we worry less about not following policies and regulations. In addition, it has helped us develop best practices, avoiding financial losses or penalties.”

The regulatory framework affecting businesses continues to grow in complexity with no signs of slowing. Partner with an IT expert that seeks to build processes and standards to improve your use of IT as it aligns with that framework.

The regulatory framework affecting businesses continues to grow in complexity with no signs of slowing. So partnering with an IT expert that seeks to build process and standards to improve your use of IT, might be right for you.

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