Executive Business Reviews with Duo Care Help Companies Reach Security Goals
Duo Care sees our relationship with our with customers as true partnerships where we work with organizations to develop an ongoing security strategy. Executive business reviews (EBR) are a key part of that ongoing relationship, in addition to recurring meetings to discuss current projects, top-of-mind questions, or recent events.
You might recognize the term executive business review. You might have heard it called Health Check, Account Review, Quarterly Business Review, Report Card, or something else. Customer Success teams at different SaaS companies have called these meetings any number of things - but what do the meetings actually entail? And are they really worth your team’s time?
In this post, we will break down the WHAT / HOW, the WHO, the WHERE / WHEN, and the WHY of executive business reviews. We discuss how Duo Care approaches these EBR conversations and what we include/prepare, who typically attends an EBR, where/when Duo Care facilitates these meetings, and why we love them so much…plus why you should too!
What is an executive business review?
Each Customer Success Manager (CSM) and Customer Solutions Engineer (CSE) puts their own special twist on the EBR meetings, and the content is customized to the specifics of the individual organization. But the goal is always the same: To help organizations review the work they’ve done to date, analyze their data, and examine the Duo feature set available to them in order to make more informed security decisions.
If you ask any CSM or CSE team member what they really want to get out of an executive business review, the answer is a really great and productive conversation. We prepare some slides with the analyzed data, best practices or recommendations, and the product roadmap. But we always start the meetings off by saying that we don’t want it to just be a presentation, we want it to be a back-and-forth conversation.
Duo Care loves carving out this specific time to have a strategic planning session together - combining each organization's internal security priorities with the Duo feature set in order to make any adjustments and outline future plans and projects together.
Why does Duo Care enable EBRs?
The Customer Success Managers and Customer Solutions Engineers who make up the dedicated Duo Care teams are here to help organizations maximize their investment in Duo.
The Duo Care Premium Support Program was created because we really do care – about your Duo rollout, about your end-users’ experience, and about your continued satisfaction with Duo.
Duo Care works with many organizations who are just getting started with Duo - we are happy to help make an initial Duo multi-factor authentication (MFA) deployment smooth for both admins and end users - but what we really love about our jobs is getting to develop long term partnerships with our customers. EBRs are a large part of that.
Who will attend the executive business review?
Each EBR is different - especially since the make-up of organizations and their security priorities can be so different - but below are the most common attendees during these meetings.
Duo and Cisco Participants
Some organizations work with Duo individually while others work with both Duo and Cisco. The Duo Care team will always attend and lead the executive business review conversations. But depending on the customer’s contract structure and product usage, other members from Cisco may join as well.
Customer Success Manager
CSMs are trusted advisors in areas like admin training, user enrollment plans, product updates, project requests and assist with strategic future planning.
The CSM & CSE will jointly lead the EBR after having analyzed the customer’s data and Duo set-up to provide an overview, health check, as well as any security posture recommendations. The CSM will also walk through a review of any previously outlined project goals or conduct an application inventory.
Customer Solutions Engineer
CSEs are technical experts on the Duo product who offer consulting on architectural strategies, security policy development, and best practices.
The CSE & CSM will jointly lead the EBR conversation after having analyzed the customer’s data and Duo set-up to provide an overview and any security posture recommendations. The CSE will also provide a preview of the product roadmap.
Account Executive (AE)
AEs are the sales contacts who help organizations choose Duo - as well as help true-up any license expansion or trial any features as part of an edition upgrade.
The AE joins the EBR conversation in case there are questions about features that are part of an edition upgrade or any questions about the contract/licenses.
Optional: Account Manager (AM)
AMs are the main point of contact for all Cisco products and services - advising what might best fit a customer’s needs and assisting with overall strategy.
The AM joins the executive business review conversation to provide any insight on how Duo fits into the larger Cisco world or discuss additional security strategy and suggestions.
Optional: Cybersecurity Sales Specialist (CSS)
CSS are technical experts on all Cisco products - coordinating any necessary troubleshooting or advising on the best way to configure in environments.
The CSS joins the EBR conversation in case there are any technical questions on how various Cisco products work together in a customer environment.
Optional: Customer Success Executive
Optional: Product Manager
Customer Participants
Every organization manages Duo a bit differently - especially depending on the size of the organization - so the makeup of attendees at each executive business review varies. Typically, it is a combination of whoever manages Duo most directly, whoever sets the security strategy, and executive leaders.
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
Director of Information Security
IT Administrator
Security Analyst
Help Desk / User Support Specialist
Endpoint Administrator
Network Administrator
IT Operations Manager
Systems Architect
Security Analyst
When and where will the executive business review happen?
In years past, Duo Care teams used to travel on-site to visit our partner customers in their offices and cities to deepen the relationship and have these EBR meetings in-person. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Duo Care has been able to shift to having these strategic conversations virtually - thanks in no small part to our colleagues over at Webex.
Typically, these meetings will be scheduled for one hour. Duo Care knows that everyone has busy work schedules - especially in the world of security - so we want to make the most of everyone’s time and keep these meetings concise while still having impactful conversation.
If a customer is new to Duo, an EBR will likely happen a few months after the initial MFA deployment and will include a retrospective review of the initial phase of the project.
For customers who have worked with Duo for a while, these EBRs typically happen quarterly or twice a year, depending on how often the teams prefer to connect on these topics.
Why is an executive business review important?
As with everything - especially your security set-up - it is important to continually review and re-evaluate. The EBR meetings allow you that opportunity to do that with trusted advisors in the room to help you think through your environment and current protections, share best practices and lessons learned from other peer organizations, plus discuss what Duo features and policies might match your internal security priorities. While a Duo Care EBR is not a third-party audit or PEN testing evaluation, it is still a review of your Duo usage and security planning conversation.
Additionally, the EBR is a great way for Duo Care customers to learn about what the Duo product team is working on, get early access to features in active development or private beta programs, and generally plan for the future. While there are a number of ways to learn about recent releases (Duo Community Release Notes) or upcoming features (like all the posts here on the Duo Blog) you will get to see the product roadmap in its entirety during these meetings.
Lastly, while “alignment” can often be used as a corporate buzzword, it is actually an important value for the Duo Care team. We want to make sure that we clearly understand the security priorities of our customers so that we can work together towards those shared goals.
Schedule your EBR today!
So, there you have it … the WHAT / HOW, the WHO, the WHERE / WHEN, and the WHY of executive business reviews. We hope you leave reading this article understanding a bit more about why Duo Care loves these conversations.
If you have any questions, you can reach out to your Customer Success Manager by email to schedule your next EBR or reach out to your Account Executive if you are not currently partnering with a dedicated Duo Care team and want to learn more.
If you are brand new to Duo, please contact us to start the conversation!