|
Triada Networks LLC |
|
|
September 2, 2019 Issue |
||
|
CEOCFO MAGAZINE |
||
|
|
||
|
Triada Networks LLC is a Managed Services Provider focused on Cyber Security and IT Support for Independent Investment Firms and Asset Managers in the Financial Services Sector |
||
|
CTO and Founder
Triada Networks LLC
Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published – September 2, 2019
CEOCFO: Mr. Jamgotchian, what is the focus at Triada Networks, LLC today? Mr. Jamgotchian: Triada Networks is a security first managed services provider, focusing primarily on the independent investment firm in the financial services sector.
CEOCFO: The tagline on your site reads, “Strategy, security, simplicity.” How do those three attributes play out day to day as you provide your services? Mr. Jamgotchian: When we work with our client companies, we start at the strategic layer. We look at what their business reality is which consists of the type of work they do, the type of investments they are in, and the type of risks that they are exposed to. After we gather all the information, we formulate a strategy around that. We do that not only from a security point of view, but also an overall IT technology point of view. Secondly, we look at their security since security plays a large part of what we do whether it’s for an investment firm or not. We know that there are risks are out there and that they are real, so we especially look at the investment firm's security.
All businesses are targeted especially financial service companies according to the many threat intelligences reports that are out there. Therefore, we want to make sure that we have sound security forward. The type of security that is thinking in terms of how we present ourselves and the company out to the market. Then finally, on the simpler side, it is really about that security, when made simple, is security that works. When security becomes too complicated, it tends to have problems such as cracks. But it also becomes difficult to enforce and implement for the customer. At this point it becomes detrimental to their business. It slows them down and the last thing we want to do is make them less productive. We want them to be more productive as we move them forward.
CEOCFO: What do you look at when you are making an assessment about a company that less knowledgeable people do not take into consideration? Mr. Jamgotchian: When we sit down with a customer or a prospect and discuss, we really get into the weeds as to what their business really looks like. We look at who their customers are. We also look at who their suppliers are and who the people are that they connect with in order to do their day to day business. A typical investment firm may have several investment related companies that they are connecting with, whether it is market data firms, prime brokers, software vendors, or even their back-office accounting company.
Not only do we look to just the basics to configure and install what the company needs, but we look at the overall view of their entire ecosystem. We want to see not only where the inefficiencies might be that we can improve, but also where we can identify risks in the overall environment and how we can improve in those areas.
CEOCFO: What might you identify and how would you work to make it better? Mr. Jamgotchian: Common things are basic stuff. It is realizing that an employee’s identity and how they use that identity to connect with various services really tends to be the highest risk and the highest reward. We will typically see, for example, a company’s prime trading partner and the connections that the company might have with them are really all around the identity of the employee that is making that connection.
There are basic things like poor password management or the lack of using multifactor authentication. We can do many things to secure a company’s corporate network, environment, and their existing system. However, if they are connecting out to a trading partner or market data firm that they house all their portfolio systems in, and they are using basic username and passwords that they end up reusing on other websites and other services, that puts the company at risk and that puts their downstream clients at risk. Therefore, because our investment companies have a fiduciary responsibility to their customers we educate them on where the risks are, not only within the office, but also outside of the organization.
CEOCFO: Are there more regulated standards today that a company has to meet, either from the government or perhaps insurance companies? Mr. Jamgotchian: Certainly! When a financial services firm sets up shop, they have a different set of standards that they must adhere to, not only from the regulators, but also from the insurance bodies that insure their businesses. Just like, in our case, there are many IT service providers out there that are running around uninsured. That not only exposes them, but also exposes their customers. That is because if something happens, a customer is breached or there is negligence or there is a mistake made by an employee, that puts the IT company at risk because they do not have the right resources to back themselves up.
It is very important for us to get that kind of insurance as well, so when we work with our customers we say, “look you know you need this insurance”. We talk to them about cybersecurity insurance, but we marry that with a common security framework that, most of the time, provides adequate compliance for the regulators. The problem with compliance is it tends to be that that is the minimum standard or the minimum arc in most cases and sometimes it does not necessarily equate to being secure. Therefore, we look at security first. If you do the right things in terms of security, if you pick the right frameworks to follow where a customer is on the maturation path for security, they will be compliant as a result of that.
CEOCFO: Your site shows, “On demand and personalized customer service.” What does personalized customer service mean for Triada? Mr. Jamgotchian: We do not provide a cookie cutter approach. There might be two companies that look alike on paper, for example two private equity firms, but they still might have very different needs from both the technology and the risk management point of view. Some will have a higher risk tolerance because of the nature of their work and the nature of their partners that they work with. The others might have a lower risk tolerance and may not be able to do certain things because of that. Therefore, each company is different, which is why we always start our engagements with really a conversation with the business owners and understanding what kind of company they are.
CEOCFO: Why do you offer a money back guaranty? Mr. Jamgotchian: We know what we do, and we do it well because we focus on this vertical. It is a tough vertical to work in as it is not for everybody. However, we also know that change is very difficult, and we want to reduce as many of the barriers to entry to have a conversation to talk with us. That is why we have a warranty and stand behind it. If any customer is not happy with the service that we provide, whether it is on an overall basis or per project, no harm no foul; we part ways as friends, and we return their money.
CEOCFO: Are there many companies that specialize in this area? What is the competition? Mr. Jamgotchian: We do have competition, but they are very different from us in many ways. There are other firms that focus on the financial services vertical too. They might focus on a very, very sub niche of it; maybe just hedge funds or maybe some private equity firms or they provide a software centric view of how to do support. Therefore, they will say, “You use our software package or our infrastructure or deployment model and that is what you do,” without any flexibility and to really understand what the company does. That is where we set ourselves apart, between the large firms that focus on that way and the other firms that do not focus on the financial services vertical.
We sit in that sweet spot in the middle, where we are flexible in terms of working with the company the way they want to work, with the systems that they want to work with, with the partners they want to work with, but without delegating to them how they should run their company.
CEOCFO: Do your clients recognize the importance of having quality service or are they often coming looking for a provider change? Mr. Jamgotchian: We have seen companies come to us from a few different angles. They are usually either trying to do things themselves and because of the complexity of this kind of business they find themselves ready for an expert to kind of help them out along the way. It might be easy to set up shop in the beginning, but then when you start having to register with the regulators and have to provide additional documentation and ongoing management, they realize that it is a daunting task to do something internally, especially for a smaller firm.
The other part of it is the companies, as you said, where they are experiencing poor service. Poor service can be coming from two different ways. It can be a company that is doing good service from an IT service perspective, but really does not understand the financial services vertical on their specific need and that sometimes provides some frustration and friction. We see companies, many times, come to us from that experience. We do see others where they are with a firm that happens to do financial services, maybe among other things. They have a number of large clients and they feel that they are being underserviced. We really take a white glove approach to how we work with our customers. We know they do the same thing with their investors. We treat them the same way. We provide a white glove service for them.
CEOCFO: When you are starting with a new client and you are going to change what they are doing now, it can be scary. How do you help allay those fears? Mr. Jamgotchian: Yes, especially when things do not seem to be broken. That is always a tough conversation to have in the beginning. We do our best to alleviate their fears by showing that this is what we have done in other places. We give them some assurances as to what we would do if something does go wrong. Invariably, we are all human and things do go wrong sometimes. Technology does not always behave the way that you expect it to behave.
We put things in place so that we can recover them without having to cause a major disruption to the company and them handling their business. Many times that means we do things after hours. This means we do things in phases and many times that means that we will delay a decision for doing something when it is appropriate. The latter being, “Let us not do a major upgrade at the end of the quarter when reporting has to be done, let us not lock people out of the system or do an overnight change when we know that they are going to be working in the evening because they are trying to get a proposal out.” Therefore, the way to deal with that is really communication.
CEOCFO: You are working in the New York Metropolitan area, Connecticut and New Jersey, where there can be some demanding and people. How do you deal with that really fast pace or is it just normal for Triada Networks? Mr. Jamgotchian: It is definitely normal. Prior to starting Triada Networks in 2008, I worked in the sector in New York City for twelve years. Therefore, I have been in and around working with financial companies in New York since 1995. That is pre-World Wide Web, to put it in perspective, and the pace has always been this way. That is certainly the adrenalin we work with.
CEOCFO: What is ahead for Triada Networks? Mr. Jamgotchian: Triada is doing some interesting things in the financial services security space. Some of it is kind of well known, in the sense that we are really focusing on providing some framework-based services. We started doing that in the last few years. It has really grown as a major part of our work, to the point where we are now expanding that work outside of the Metro New York City area.
We are getting recognized by investment firms that are outside of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Those are investment firms in Washington, Florida and California, that may be working with an IT company already and really want to get someone that understand the financial services business. In those cases, we plug right in. We do not replace their IT company in some cases. We just overlay and we provide the services where there is a gap. That is where we add the most value anyway and that has been an exciting part of our journey, which really was not expected and has just turned the corner in the past eighteen months, I would say.
CEOCFO: There are many companies to choose from in your industry. Why Triada Networks? Mr. Jamgotchian: If you are concerned about the things that are happening out in the world when it comes to cybersecurity and as a small to medium investment company, and I would be surprised if you were not, then it is worth it to have a conversation with us, at least to understand if there are any areas that you have not thought about that might be something you would want to think about.
|
“If you are concerned about the things that are happening out in the world when it comes to cybersecurity and as a small to medium investment company, then it is worth it to have a conversation with us, at least to understand if there are any areas that you have not thought about that might be something you would want to think about.”- Raffi Jamgotchian
Triada Networks LLC
Contact: Raffi Jamgotchian 201-297-7778
|
|
|
disclaimers |
||
|
Cybersecurity Financial Services, Triada Networks LLC, Cybersecurity Asset Management, Raffi Jamgotchian, Triada Networks LLC is a Managed Services Provider focused on Cyber Security and IT Support for Independent Investment Firms and Asset Managers in the Financial Services Sector, CEO Interviews 2019, Business Services Companies, Technology Company, Cybersecurity for Financial Institutions, cybersecurity for financial advisors, cybersecurity for financial services, IT support financial services, IT support for financial services, IT support asset management, prevent cyber attacks, cyber security for asset management firms, IT support for asset management companies, IT security for financial firms, business continuity, disaster recovery, secure file sharing, anti-phishing email security, secure cloud services, Triada Networks LLC Press Releases, News |
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
Raffi
Jamgotchian