Skip to content
Tiatra, LLCTiatra, LLC
Tiatra, LLC
Information Technology Solutions for Washington, DC Government Agencies
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Services
    • IT Engineering and Support
    • Software Development
    • Information Assurance and Testing
    • Project and Program Management
  • Clients & Partners
  • Careers
  • News
  • Contact
 
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Services
    • IT Engineering and Support
    • Software Development
    • Information Assurance and Testing
    • Project and Program Management
  • Clients & Partners
  • Careers
  • News
  • Contact

Equipping BPOs is a heavy lift for enterprise IT and security teams. We need a radical change in approach

Nowadays, most any business function — customer contact centers, data analysis, software development, finance, payroll, and more — can be outsourced. Cost-cutting remains a major driver, but companies also like the potential to build more resilient and agile organizations. There are plenty of benefits, ranging from the ability to tap specialized talent, to minimizing fixed expenses, to responding more quickly to shifts in the market.

But this increasing reliance on outsourcing has serious implications for CIOs and their IT and security teams who have to navigate a plethora of thorny tradeoffs in their efforts to make these remote contractors productive. And do so while protecting sensitive or confidential enterprise data from being leaked, stolen, or otherwise compromised.

Negotiations, tradeoffs and sacrifices

Business Process Outsourcing, or BPO, is a huge and growing trend. A recent report by Grand View Research found that the global BPO market reached a value of $261.9 billion in 2022, and projects it doubling to $525.2 billion by 2030.

The overriding objective for most CIOs when onboarding a BPO is to make those workers as productive as possible so the company can realize the intended ROI of the partnership as quickly as possible.

But cyber security, privacy, and data protection risks are inherent in these kinds of relationships. BPOs are attractive targets for cyber criminals, who see the opportunity to steal a motherlode of valuable information by targeting a single BPO and pivoting to breach its many customers. What’s more, the BPO’s computers and mobile devices are typically not managed by the organization, so it is impossible to ensure the integrity of every endpoint and guarantee the BPO’s overall security posture is up to snuff.

These risks spawn a series of questions, conversations, and negotiations about how to set things up for success.

Are we going to procure and ship them devices? Who’s going to pay? Configure and manage? (Buying and servicing devices for a 5,000-worker contact center adds up quickly!) Should they use their own devices? If so, should we install our VPN client? Or implement virtual desktop infrastructure?

There was a time when the legacy solutions to these challenges were the best choice to deliver a flexible workspace and enforce security for BPOs. But with the powerful alternatives available today, every traditional path now forces unpalatable tradeoffs in either worker productivity or security.

VPNs? They slow down internet connections and are complex to set up and manage. That can lead to configuration errors, lost productivity, and security vulnerabilities.

Endpoint agents? Not easy to deploy to every device. And they come with their own management overhead, compatibility issues, privacy concerns, etc.

And then there’s virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions. VDI is effective at reducing some of the risk, but might be one of the most cumbersome technologies in the modern enterprise stack, for both the end-user and IT administrators. Setting aside the extremely high cost of VDI, latency alone can be a merciless productivity killer. Picture a contact center worker drumming their fingers as they wait for seconds or longer to access a virtual desktop running in the cloud halfway across the world. Throw in some video or VoIP, and the session quickly becomes intolerable for the contact center worker and the customer they are trying to help.

Without that added latency, how much more quickly could the support rep resolve an issue? How many more support calls might that rep make or field if they had a fast and safe work environment? And how much more satisfied might the customers be on the other end of those calls?

VDI may be the most glaring example of a “least bad” solution the enterprise has been forced to accept as it strives to balance productivity and security. In the interest of stronger data controls, we accept suboptimal productivity and an atrocious user experience.

Changing how we solve problems

When it comes to equipping BPOs — or any third-party contractors — with the tech to do their jobs, friction and tradeoffs have been the norm. Clearly, something has to change. BPOs are on the rise and cyber criminals are not going to relent. Enterprises have a lot to lose.

These are problems that many in the industry feel destined to fight forever. To contemplate an “Infinity War” — one without a real-life Tony Stark to save the day — can at times feel dispiriting.

Enterprises genuinely need breakthrough thinking that can end the tradeoffs. Island’s Enterprise Browser is that breakthrough.

Bob Schuetter — a well-regarded CISO who’s been recognized as a top 25 Global CISO by Gartner and a top 100 CISO by Cyber Defense Magazine — talked about this in a podcast.

“It’s very difficult to defend your cloud by pushing out agents or controls on all the devices reaching into your cloud,” said Schuetter. “But it’s easy to push out a web browser. And once your enterprise browser is on their device, then and only then can they reach your cloud. You can basically contain the data in the browser. This can solve a lot of problems we’ve been trying to solve forever, in very unique ways.”

Schuetter elaborated that enterprise browsers combine the endpoint and the network in a single spot, delivering pervasive visibility and controls in the last mile. “It’s the final piece of the secure edge vision.”

Where and how enterprise employees and contractors work have changed forever. As Schuetter underscored, we need entirely new ways — like enterprise browsers — to solve the new problems that arose from this shift. “VDI can get really disrupted,” he noted.

In an era of pervasive BPO and remote work, we need to fundamentally change how we approach these problems. Island’s Enterprise Browser represents that change, providing a gateway into corporate applications, but fully governed, fully controlled and with a natural experience for workers. The Enterprise Browser brings the era of security versus productivity tradeoffs to an end. To learn more about the Island Enterprise Browser and how it can keep contractors productive while keeping your data secure, please visit https://www.island.io/solutions/3rd-party-contractors

Browser Security, IT Operations
Read More from This Article: Equipping BPOs is a heavy lift for enterprise IT and security teams. We need a radical change in approach
Source: News

Category: NewsMarch 1, 2024
Tags: art

Post navigation

PreviousPrevious post:Is your print environment secure? Here’s why it should be your 2024 priorityNextNext post:3 data security disciplines to drive AI innovation

Related posts

Barb Wixom and MIT CISR on managing data like a product
May 30, 2025
Avery Dennison takes culture-first approach to AI transformation
May 30, 2025
The agentic AI assist Stanford University cancer care staff needed
May 30, 2025
Los desafíos de la era de la ‘IA en todas partes’, a fondo en Data & AI Summit 2025
May 30, 2025
“AI 비서가 팀 단위로 지원하는 효과”···퍼플렉시티, AI 프로젝트 10분 완성 도구 ‘랩스’ 출시
May 30, 2025
“ROI는 어디에?” AI 도입을 재고하게 만드는 실패 사례
May 30, 2025
Recent Posts
  • Barb Wixom and MIT CISR on managing data like a product
  • Avery Dennison takes culture-first approach to AI transformation
  • The agentic AI assist Stanford University cancer care staff needed
  • Los desafíos de la era de la ‘IA en todas partes’, a fondo en Data & AI Summit 2025
  • “AI 비서가 팀 단위로 지원하는 효과”···퍼플렉시티, AI 프로젝트 10분 완성 도구 ‘랩스’ 출시
Recent Comments
    Archives
    • May 2025
    • April 2025
    • March 2025
    • February 2025
    • January 2025
    • December 2024
    • November 2024
    • October 2024
    • September 2024
    • August 2024
    • July 2024
    • June 2024
    • May 2024
    • April 2024
    • March 2024
    • February 2024
    • January 2024
    • December 2023
    • November 2023
    • October 2023
    • September 2023
    • August 2023
    • July 2023
    • June 2023
    • May 2023
    • April 2023
    • March 2023
    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    Categories
    • News
    Meta
    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.org
    Tiatra LLC.

    Tiatra, LLC, based in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, proudly serves federal government agencies, organizations that work with the government and other commercial businesses and organizations. Tiatra specializes in a broad range of information technology (IT) development and management services incorporating solid engineering, attention to client needs, and meeting or exceeding any security parameters required. Our small yet innovative company is structured with a full complement of the necessary technical experts, working with hands-on management, to provide a high level of service and competitive pricing for your systems and engineering requirements.

    Find us on:

    FacebookTwitterLinkedin

    Submitclear

    Tiatra, LLC
    Copyright 2016. All rights reserved.