About the Professional Services category
What belongs in this category
The Professional Services category covers security products and services built for firms that sell expertise and hold their clients' confidential information: law firms, accountants, consulting firms, architects, engineers and similar firms. Typical entries protect client files and communications, help firms meet the security terms their clients write into contracts, or provide a full security service for a firm with no security staff of its own.
Professional services here means the customers: the firms being protected. A security services firm that wants its own services recognized has its own award, Cybersecurity Service Provider of the Year. It can enter here as well when the nomination is about a service built for professional firms.
Related categories to enter
Each category is judged separately, so you can enter a solution in every category that fits, with a separate nomination for each. Write each nomination for its category: on these pages, show what the solution does for organizations in the sector. The same product or service can also be entered in the product category that matches what it does. Entering several related categories gives the solution more than one chance to be recognized.
How entries are judged
An independent jury of security practitioners, analysts and CISOs scores each nomination on leadership, innovation and impact. Each nomination competes in its category against entries from vendors of similar size and region, so a mid-sized vendor is not ranked against a global enterprise. Your entry package, any sponsorship and public votes do not affect the jury's scores.
Strong entries in this category show:
- Leadership — the firms that rely on the solution: number and kinds of firms served, client security requirements met, professional bodies or insurers that recognize it.
- Innovation — what was built for professional firms, such as security that needs no in-house specialist, protection organized by client and case, or controls that satisfy client audits.
- Impact — results for firms: client security reviews and audits passed, incidents contained, billable time not lost to incidents, new client work won because security requirements were met. Give figures from firms in the sector.
The jury awards Gold, Silver or Bronze, or a Finalist badge, and results are published on this site and announced to the 600,000+ member Cybersecurity Insiders community. Every approved nomination also enters the separate Community Choice award, decided by public votes.
How to enter
A vendor or service provider can enter its own solution, or someone else can enter it, for example a PR or marketing agency acting for a client. The nomination form has a confidential field for detail that is shared with the judges and not published, such as customer names, numbers of sites, users or devices protected, or contract details. Deadlines, pricing and entry steps are on the How it Works page.