Cyberattacks have been increasing for several years now and resulting data breaches cost businesses an average of $4.35 million in 2022, according to an IBM report. Given the financial and reputational consequences of cyberattacks, corporate boardrooms are putting pressure on Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) to identify and mitigate cyber/IT risk. Yet, despite the new emphasis on risk management, business leaders still don’t have a firm grasp on how cyber risk can impact different business initiatives—or that it could be used as a strategic asset and core business differentiator.
V2 client RiskOptics develops solutions to help companies better understand the state of their governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) programs. By using their platform, a company can instantly see where any GRC initiative stands, how to improve its risk posture, and meet compliance requirements to keep businesses moving forward.
Read on to learn more about RiskOptics’ communications objectives, strategies, and partnership with V2 through the eyes of its VP of Product Strategy and Evangelism, Meghan Maneval.
For those unfamiliar, can you tell us what RiskOptics does?
We develop software in the governance, risk, and compliance space, empowering organizations to unify, simplify, and automate GRC initiatives. CISOs and InfoSec teams rely on RiskOptics to free them of time-intensive processes and transform GRC from a burdensome expense to a strategic advantage. RiskOptics’ customers can see and communicate the impact of risk on their business to key stakeholders and mitigate expensive data breaches, system failures, and lost opportunities across their own and third-party data while adhering to compliance requirements.
What is RiskOptics’ communications goal?
A big part of our business strategy—and therefore marketing and communications strategy—the past year centered around rebranding our company’s image and launching the next generation of our product: ROAR.
Our flagship product, ZenGRC, was tightly associated with compliance. We knew we needed to differentiate ourselves in the market and associate our brand with the concept of risk. We also knew we needed a strong communications partner to help us increase awareness of our new image and product.
Our communications objective with V2 was to reposition RiskOptics as a hot, innovative tech company that’s helping organizations of any size reimagine their cyber risk strategies. Our goals in reaching this objective were to:
- Educate the market on the importance of proactive risk assessment and management
- Turn IT risk management into a core business differentiator
- Obtain third-party validation regarding RiskOptics’ approach and value
- Forge meaningful relationships with reporters
A big part of our communications program was the rebrand from Reciprocity to RiskOptics. How did V2 support the brand during that?
The earned media coverage and awards that V2 secured for us were crucial to meeting our communications objective of getting our new image out there. These opportunities—including coverage in Forbes, a profile in SC Magazine, a feature in Help Net Security, and more—elevated our clout and image.
Why was it valuable to have V2 at RSA?
Prior to RSA, we released an industry survey report designed to reveal the inefficiencies in how companies were currently managing risk and show a lack of understanding of risk across different levels of the business. This report drove media meetings for us at RSA and impactful coverage in IT Brew, Security Magazine, and Continuity Central. V2 secured 5 media and analyst briefings for us onsite at RSA, so it was incredibly helpful to have V2 with us at the event to prep and make us feel confident going into these meetings, and manage the follow-up. V2’s media and analyst support for us at RSA opened doors for us I didn’t even know existed.