No matter how many skilled people we have internally in our own security environment, it is always useful to bring in an independent third party

Børge Filseth is the CIO at Orkla Food Ingredients, the leading supplier of bakery and ice cream ingredients in the Nordics and Europe. As part of a large corporation with more than 21,000 employees and a turnover of 50 billion NOK, Filseth has many internal IT resources to draw on.

– But no matter how many skilled people we have internally in our own security environment, it is always useful to bring in an independent third party like Sicra. That's why we invited them in as a discussion partner, says Filseth.

An increasingly demanding threat landscape means that Orkla, like many other companies, must think more holistically about IT security, and security must permeate everything the company does.

– Sicra has solid experience and can help us make the right assessments. As an IT manager, I want to have multiple viewpoints to make the best decisions.

Lack of security expertise

Filseth explains that many questions often arise when building a solution based on zero trust, especially when working in a company with clients distributed across Europe. How much of the IT solutions and infrastructure should be standardized and centralized, and how do you build a platform that is secure enough?

– Then it is useful to have an extra discussion partner. It can be challenging to go to large consulting companies where a bigger machinery is often set in motion even for small things. With Sicra, you go directly to competent professionals. We have used them as a sparring partner in important strategic discussions on the architecture side, says Filseth.

Senior expertise as a service

The significant lack of IT security expertise makes it challenging to build environments that cover all different aspects of IT security.

– It is complex, and there are many products and solutions with various security packages and services around. You need to know a bit about licensing, a bit about products, a bit about security, and a bit about architecture. Therefore, I sometimes need external advisors who can come in and share their insights.

Filseth finds it useful to be able to buy senior expertise as a service.

– It has worked very well with Sicra. They are easy to deal with, without unnecessary bureaucracy. It is a great advantage that you go directly to the professionals, which you often do not do when you go to a larger consulting company.