Security Criteria Awareness

Abstract

Dell is a large American company with roots dating back to 1984. In 2015, Dell embarked on a project to acquire EMC Corporation, which was completed in one of the largest acquisitions in the IT industry and re-sulted in Dell Technologies. Because of its broad product and service portfolio, Dell Technologies is involved in the infrastructure of almost every Enterprise-level company and, to a significant extent, smaller compa-nies. The idea for the work came from my empirical findings when working with client companies. Dell Technolo-gies ’service portfolio is constantly expanding, but leveraging it more efficiently requires an understanding of customer companies’ internal processes and needs. The purpose of the dissertation is to get an idea of Dell Technologies' customer companies’ knowledge of security criteria’s, as well as the possible need for external assistance in the Finnish customer field, so that Dell Technologies can better target its services to the right needs in a right way. Theme interview was chosen as the research method as it allows gathering large amounts of data from a relatively small sample. Theme interview is qualitative research method and results from the interviews were analysed by using narrative analysis and pointing out the answers to the questions. Other relevant and possibly useful data was also analysed and the data from which the conclusions were drawn can be found from the document. The most significant consideration was how large the difference in knowledge and application of the crite-ria was between public and private sector actors. Due to the small sample size, this should be treated with caution and the companies' industry can also have a significant impact on the results. Conclusions were drawn from a seemingly small sample, but the data collected helped to a significant ex-tent to understand the needs of customer companies and how to target services to them. Possible further research around the topic could improve Dell Technologies' competitiveness in Finland's relatively small market area where service provision plays a significant role.