Manufacturing
Advisor for Cybersecurity, Architecture & IT Procurement
Primary Area
Enterprise Architecture
Service Area
Advisory
Products Used
Cross-Platform
Roles Impacted
CEO
Impact Highlight
Technology advisory to the CEO
Opportunity
A mid-size industrial manufacturer recognized that its rapid expansion exposed gaps in cybersecurity posture, solution architecture alignment, and IT procurement rigor — an opportunity to strengthen resilience before an avoidable incident or cost overrun forced the issue. Internal teams requested additional reasoning in specialized expertise in contract risk language, comparative pricing analytics, and emerging security benchmarks, and leadership wanted an independent advisor to validate decisions without internal bias.
Pain Points:
Fragmented cybersecurity controls.
Architecture drift: overlapping endpoint, and cloud security tools leading to blind spots and waste.
Limited internal bandwidth to evaluate fast-moving regulatory and industry technology frameworks.
Concern that internal reporting softened risk language before reaching executives, limiting informed action.
Solution
Our principal engaged as an external, trusted advisory layer—"Advancing Visions, Realizing Requirements"—to give leadership unfiltered risk clarity while building a decision framework that tied security, architecture, and spend back to business outcomes.
People | Process | Technology:
Advisory Depth: Created comparative pricing & risk scorecards; modeled 5-year TCO scenarios including hidden subscription uplifts and incident cost avoidance.
Governance: Consulted on quarterly architecture & threat landscape reviews using scenario stress tests tied to operational downtime thresholds.
Impact
The manufacturer now procures technology against quantified risk, validated architecture patterns, and negotiated protections that align with uptime, data integrity, and regulatory exposure thresholds.
Results:
Lower 5-year TCO across top strategic software and security contracts through clause renegotiation and license right-sizing.
Procurement cycle time for complex tech categories cut after checklist-driven gating and pre-approved clause libraries.
Board risk reporting now enabling prioritized capital allocation in the annual plan.