7 Can’t Miss PCI Projects that Drive Profits

As IT organizations prepare for another round of updates to the PCI DSS requirements while still struggling to just get their arms around the existing mandates , channel partners have an opportunity to not only profit from potential PCI compliance projects, but also help their customers save buckets of cash in the process. This win-win opportunity stems from the fact that most retail organizations that have floundered through compliance initiatives with little expertise or help–or are still stuck in analysis paralysis–end up spending more than savvy organizations that prioritize high-impact compliance projects and take care to cut back on redundancies in process and technology through scope reduction.

In fact, a recent study by Aberdeen Group showed that even though best-in-class and laggard organizations generally took the same amount of time to chase PCI objectives, the best-in-class generally spent half as much money doing so.

This presents trusted partners with a compelling opening to make the PCI pitch to customers mindful of both the auditors and the bottom line. By injecting insight and experience into the PCI compliance process, VARs, SIs and consultants can all help customers streamline and prioritize their compliance and security projects.

Within the same Aberdeen study, analyst Derek Brink examined a number of PCI-related technology implementation projects and compared their uptake within best-in-class organizations and laggards. Channel Insider takes a look at the seven with the largest delta between the two types of organizations.  These are the projects that the cream-of-the-crop have tapped as important for both compliance and security initiatives, but which have generally failed to capture the hearts and minds of less mature organizations.

Channel partners who focus on these programs have the opportunity to amp up customer results and build their businesses in the process.