Wontok: Cybersecurity through "Secure by Design Approach"

For Paul Murray, COO of Wontok, cybersecurity pertaining to SMBs in Australia was practically broken when he decided to venture into the software security landscape. “The SMB market is typically neglected when it comes to cybersecurity solutions, despite the fact that more than 90 percent of all Australian businesses—by employee size—is small and medium,” says Murray. The products and services designed by vendors from North America and Europe fail to hit the mark as they don’t cater to the requirements of SMBs in Australia where employee strength is typically less than 20. In contrast, the average SMB workforce in the US and Europe is between 100 and 1000. In order to address some of the major challenges of the SMB sector, Murray and his team laid the foundation of Wontok in 2005.

“Our solutions for an SMB are closer to the needs of a consumer than it would be for the IT manager of an enterprise,” states Murray. The company's approach to cybersecurity is in stark contrast to the conventional. By working at the deepest defence layers, Wontok prevents suspicious backdoor cyber activities from reaching their target. The company comes with data security solutions that are easy to deploy and non-intrusive; capable of filling the gaps left by conventional security offerings.

The firm rolls out proven cloud and endpoint security solutions. The solutions can be delivered through platforms that are owned by partners or via the Wontok ONE VAS (Value Added Service), a cloud-based service delivery platform. The solution leverages API capabilities and allows partners to deploy proprietary Wontok—or third party—services, without the need for traditional heavy investment, quickly and cost-effectively. As the COO puts it, “we help our partners grow their revenue without excessive capex.”

Additionally, the Wontok ONE platform also comes with added functionalities for white labeled sales, billing, and product delivery portal solutions. The platform provides maximum flexibility in deploying programs, from fully managed to fully integrated. The modular and flexible IT solutions support a wide variety of deployment scenarios in sectors such as retail, banking, insurance, and healthcare. The firm delivers its excellent data security solutions through value-added distributors, systems integrators, ISPs, MNOs, Telcos, and channel partners.

If deployed quickly and cost effectively in Telco environments, Value-added services (VAS) can contribute to accelerating time to revenue besides generating customer confidence and trust resulting in significant increase in ARPU as well as retention rates. To this end Wontok offers comprehensive integrated security as well as VAS provisioning platforms for Telcos and their users. One such service provider approached Wontok for VAS. The commoditization of core services and increased competition in the sector were the critical challenges the client faced. Margin from core telecommunication services had fallen because of the saturation in the market. Moreover, in the long run, customer oriented VASs can create the purpose of increasing customer loyalty. Wontok came along with a proposal to offer security services for the client's consumers in a 100 per cent white label platform. Wontok implemented the value-added service programs for the telco service provider within a tight time frame thereby giving a one experience and one price point for customers. Not only were they able to increase their customer base, but they also managed to provide security services to their customers and reinforced their brand as a safe telecommunication provider in the country. Additionally, Wontok was able to mitigate customer churns as consumers are much inclined to stay with a service provider if they offer more value-added services.

The success story akin to the Telco service provider stems from the comprehensive and holistic approach they adopt toward cybersecurity. Identity security is the next big challenge Wontok is focusing on lately. To this end, the company plans to launch its first B2C product aimed at protecting the digital assets owned by consumers. The product does more than just device protection, with the firm planning to roll out a holistic and complete suite of services, combined to provide consumers with the best identity security available to Australian consumers today. As Murray puts it, “We base our service on three essential pillars, protection, detection and restoration.”