How the right IT managed security services provider can help you optimize and grow

IT managed security services are vital in helping financial institutions oversee IT operations and compliance — but the right provider can take that role further.

IT managed services that brings increased capability and industry specialization can go from managing your IT infrastructure to modernizing it, acting as a strategic partner in identifying the solutions you need to optimize workflows and enhance the customer experience. And it can help you understand the latest updates to the cyberthreat landscape and regulatory priorities so your operations stay secure and compliant.

When you’re working with the right provider, you’re not just getting support for your servers — you’re getting support for your business.

Here are four ways IT managed security services can help you hand off operational tasks and grow your institution:

1. Modernizing your IT infrastructure

To implement the latest solutions, increase productivity and better reach customers, you need the right infrastructure. IT services can be a valuable source of insights into how your organization can create a modern workplace environment.

The right provider can help you update your IT infrastructure by switching out legacy systems and implementing cloud infrastructure — including helping you address the resulting security concerns.

Software as a service (SaaS) platforms come with built-in security features, but they often leave you responsible for establishing things like permissions and access control. Your provider can help you build security strategies for cloud services and integrate new solutions with your core banking system.

2. Meeting customer needs

Customers expect services to be faster and more accessible across industries. If your financial institution wants to stay competitive, it needs to evolve the customer experience.

Managed services can help by taking on a more strategic role, providing guidance on an IT road map that supports technologies to help you:

• Use dashboards to track key customer metrics.
• Create a better omnichannel experience.
• Use customer data to effectively cross-sell and increase wallet share.

Partnering with an effective provider can help you better strategize on how your institution can improve workflows and productivity so that you can deliver the experience your customers expect.

3. Enhancing your cybersecurity

Cyberattacks continue to increase in frequency and severity. Your IT managed security services should be helping your institution keep pace with support for:

• Being proactive: In addition to addressing server performance issues, your provider should be proactively looking for indicators of compromise. They should employ 24/7 monitoring that can quickly identify and research any anomalies so that potential compromises can be solved before they escalate.
• Staying updated: As AI continues to increase the frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks, your provider should not only be helping your institution enhance data protection but also adapting its own capabilities. An effective provider has the tools, infrastructure and threat detection in place to help them identify indicators of compromise faster, such as advanced endpoint detection and response and AI-powered threat correlation.
• Meeting regulatory expectations: managed IT support with industry specialization can help ensure your institution meets key regulatory priorities in areas including ransomware, operational resilience and incident response. For example, it’s crucial that financial institutions use a provider that can retain security event logs if an incident does occur.

4. Providing crucial talent

For most institutions, establishing 24/7 security operations in-house is neither cost-effective nor viable.

Employing enough staff to provide that level of support requires substantial resources. And attracting and retaining staff can be equally challenging, given the current labor shortages and the relative lack of complexity and challenge financial institutions provide for these roles.

Outsourcing these positions with managed services provides you with the necessary staff and infrastructure without the cost of hiring. They can also help guide your institution’s data security at the executive level with fractional or virtual CISO services.

How Wipfli can help

Wipfli’s managed services go beyond IT operations and compliance to help your financial institution evolve. With industry specialization and deep cybersecurity capability, we can provide your institution with the solutions and strategy it needs to optimize operations and further its growth. We can also work alongside your current provider to augment your existing support.

Contact us today to learn more about how our managed services can transform your institution.