Early on in the life cycle of Trustwave Holdings Inc., Chairman and CEO Robert McCullen identified that compliance to various security standards, including HIPAA and SOX, would be a significant challenge for businesses. He wanted to fill the need for compliance with a cloud-based, technology-driven solution, with a user interface that is easy to use. He wanted to develop partnerships with client businesses that would create significant cross-selling opportunities.
McCullen and his staff faced a number of challenges in executing on their business strategy. Given limited capital — much of which was provided by McCullen himself — management needed to decide which compliance standard to target first. McCullen recognized that payment card brands, and the banks servicing the merchants that accept payment cards, may quickly begin to impose deadlines and fines on the customers that did not meet industry standards. In turn, that would require merchants to invest in compliance monitoring and security solutions, creating a significant near-term market opportunity.
The key to the strategy was to invest in fostering relationships with leading payment card brands, such as American Express, Visa, MasterCard and Discover, as well as the leading banks that service the merchants that accept the cards.
To develop the relationships, McCullen and his management team worked to ensure their products were truly differentiated from the offerings of other companies in the space, and that Trustwave would be recognized as a key leader throughout its industry.
They accomplished it, in part, by establishing the industry-recognized SpiderLabs group, which provides compliance monitoring services and forensic activities at a number of large organizations, which has helped to give Trustwave tremendous credibility.
Today, the company’s representatives speak at more than 35 global data security and compliance events annually, and McCullen has been cited in major newspapers and interviewed on national television as an expert on the latest data security and compliance issues.
How to reach: Trustwave Holdings Inc., (312) 873-7500 or www.trustwave.com
