Remote cyber-security
The Blue Factor is a factoring company that began when Arjan was running a secondment agency. “There are often opportunities to grow in the market but you lack the liquidity to finance that growth. The Blue Factor offers a solution: factoring. We pay your invoice within one day. We also take over debtor management and you are insured against non-payment.”
Digitalization
The Blue Factor now delivers this ingenious approach to financing for some 200 SMEs with growth ambitions. “Over the past year, we have invested heavily in digitalizing our primary process, the processing, payment and subsequent collection of invoices. That really is great. It’s made the process so much more efficient.”
Dependency
The digitalization of a large part of the work process also made Arjan realize that he is increasingly dependent on his IT systems. “I know quite a bit about it myself but I thought it would be sensible to call in external expertise.” That is how he came to ask Hoek en Blok to conduct an independent IT security test. “Very good… a detailed report. There was nothing very serious but there were a few areas that needed looking at.”
Missed update
For example, the report showed that IT and data security is not something that should be left to an IT supplier. Arjan decided to call in Hoek en Blok’s IT security manager. “For a fixed monthly fee, they conduct continuous checks and suggest improvements. That feels good to me. Especially because the process is continuous. You may have made watertight arrangements but one missed update later and there you are with an enormous leak. With Hoek en Blok’s ‘security as a service’, I don’t have to worry about that any longer.”