Cybersecurity Services for SHI International

SHI has stayed private since 1989 while most of its peer group either listed or took private equity money. That is a strategic choice with consequences in both directions. No quarterly earnings call shapes the roadmap, and no sponsor is counting the months to an exit. Growth has to be funded out of the business, which tends to favour capability that pays for itself quickly over capability that takes three years to reach break-even.

A security services practice is firmly in the second category. Certified consultants, a staffed SOC and a compliance team are all cost long before they are margin, and they have to be carried across the seven countries SHI operates in rather than just the domestic base. Meanwhile roughly 6,600 people are supporting a customer base spread from Toronto to Singapore, which is a ratio that only works because the model is procurement-led rather than delivery-led.

CWS lets SHI answer a security requirement without changing that ratio. We supply the consultants, the analysts and the assessors on a per-engagement basis, under SHI's brand, so the fixed cost never lands on SHI's balance sheet. Corova handles scoping and quoting so an opportunity that arrives through the procurement relationship can be priced as a services engagement in days.