Those working across the security ecosystem know only too well the pressure they are under to keep customers on board against a backdrop of supplier consolidation.
Frequently cited statistics – suggesting that the average customer uses more than 30 products – have prompted many organisations to explore strategies for reducing the associated management complexity, placing supplier relationships under increasing scrutiny.
Given that context, the results of a user survey by The Hoffman Agency, which investigated the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) cyber attacks on buying patterns, might not come as a total surprise to the channel.
Insights from the research included the revelation that users would be prepared to change suppliers to get the right level of protection.
A positive finding from the survey of users across the UK, US, France and Germany was that around 67% of customers planned to increase their security investments in the next year.
The priorities for that spending are around AI, security operations and identity access management. The areas most likely to see a drop in budget, meanwhile, are network, endpoint and security analytics.
There were clear signs that supplier selection is also under consideration, with 62% of users looking either for a fresh provider or to switch their current security partner.
The market remains buoyant for all types of cyber security solutions and services
Florie Lhuillier, The Hoffman Agency
“Like many, the cyber security industry has had to adapt to AI adoption and advancements, geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty over the past year. Naturally, this has implications for how organisations address their cyber security investments – but surprisingly, not how we thought it might. The market remains buoyant for all types of cyber security solutions and services,” said Florie Lhuillier, head of cyber security and senior vice-president at The Hoffman Agency.
The research also lifted the lid on the buying process. It found that customers are making purchasing decisions quickly, with a deal taking seven months on average from identification to vendor selection. Most customers are also reaching out to suppliers before they get to the shortlisting stage to get a sense of what’s on offer.
Customers are relying on a number of sources to influence their buying choice. These include talking to peers, tracking industry analysts, picking up information at events and consulting the specialist media.
“The usual process of awareness, longlisting, shortlisting and decision being streamlined to make a decision quickly, getting messages out – and fast – has never been more important for marketing teams. However, as we’ve seen from the research, there is no marketing ‘silver bullet’,” said Lhuillier.
“From opinion articles and podcasts to industry analyst reports, buyers are influenced by everything. Cyber security marketers should therefore design an integrated marketing strategy that uses a mix of different channels and content types to reach their target audiences – especially as LLMs [large language models] become more important and pull in information from all different sources,” she added.
Speaking to MicroScope recently, Charlotte Pickering, EMEA channel director at Zero Networks, said there was pressure to stand out in a security market that contains at least 3,500 vendors.
As well as customers looking at their suppliers, she added, the same is happening at a reseller level as they seek to rationalise their relationships.
