Considering switching to a new brand protection platform, but concerned about everything from the migration process to the potential risks involved? Here is what you need to keep in mind to successfully change vendors and select a brand protection solution that is the right fit for your business.

What are the biggest concerns when it comes to changing brand protection vendors?

While organizations may recognize that a different brand protection vendor is a better fit for their needs, there are a number of concerns that can make businesses reluctant to take the leap and actually switch over. 

1. Overhead is a major concern for businesses of all sizes, as they fear that changing vendors will be expensive, in terms of manpower, resources, and finances. 
2. The potential complexity of the process itself - which involves updating and integrating databases - is also a source of concern.
3. The fact that there is no API integration between vendors further complicates matters. Since businesses have to essentially start from scratch with a new brand protection platform, the idea that significant set-up time will be needed makes this daunting. 
4. That’s not to mention that many brand protection platforms leverage machine learning technology -- which is dependent on long-term deployment and real-world experience garnered over time -- to better understand a business’ unique risk factors. That means that theoretically, changing vendors can result in losing much of the progress made in their original brand protection strategy. 
5. There is also the very human fear of the unknown. Businesses may be wary of an unfamiliar brand protection vendor, as they are unsure of the quality of the new solution or whether the new vendor is trustworthy and competent. Worries about whether their new brand protection platform will take more time, or be as effective as their previous solution, are also commonplace. 
6. The interaction between the brand and the vendor is a major concern as well. Many businesses are unsure if their new vendor will provide responsive and consistent customer service, with speedy follow-ups to client queries, and if the vendor understands the business’ specific needs and risk factors. 

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The migration process: is it really that complicated?

Unfortunately, many businesses tend to overlook the big picture when it comes to brand protection. Much of the time, these organizations are focused on one pain point, to the point of experiencing tunnel vision. This zoomed-in perspective sadly means that they may end up missing out on their brand’s other online weak spots. Too narrow an outlook on online brand protection poses a huge risk to businesses, because by overlooking these smaller pain points, they make themselves even more vulnerable to potential attack opportunities. 

It is also critical to remember that the people involved in the migration process are not the decision makers -- in most cases, it is the users themselves. However, it is important to note that much of the migration process depends on the size of the company. Larger enterprises will have more people at the table during migration, and therefore there will be more opinions, stakeholders, and moving parts.

The actual process of migration is fairly simple and straight-forward. Once a business has made the decision as to which brand protection vendor they trust, the transition to a new brand protection platform does not need to be excessively drawn-out. With BrandShield for example, within 24 hours, the new platform can be up and running.

Choosing a new brand protection vendor

There are a number of crucial factors that businesses must consider when choosing a new vendor for protecting their brand online.

Internal workload

Each business has its own unique resources and manpower hours at its disposal. An organization must consider how much effort it is willing to have its internal teams put in during the migration process, and should weigh if some (or all) of the transition is supported by the new vendor.

What’s covered by the solution

A brand protection platform must offer businesses all of the following services, in order to properly protect against the dizzying array of online threats currently facing brands. Organizations must be sure that the brand protection vendor can provide them with:

• Website content monitoring
• Domain name monitoring
• Social media coverage
• Gray market coverage
• Unauthorized sales coverage
• Counterfeiting protection

The solutions’ internal practices

Once a brand protection vendor has detected a potential issue, an organization must know how that vendor manages the threat, and what methods they use to mitigate it. 

For example, when it comes to unauthorized listings purporting to sell a brand’s products, how will the solution conduct the marketplace takedown process?

The same goes for the actual team that will be handling your business. Is the vendor’s enforcement team made up of legal experts, with real-world experience in online brand protection? Or will the people entrusted with safeguarding your brand’s reputation be account managers who are putting in the minimum level of effort?

Switching brand protection vendors: What you need to know

If you are unhappy with your current brand protection vendor and are considering making a change, you need to be sure that your new vendor has everything covered. You need seamless, easy migration that’s supported by the vendor, alongside an experienced team that you can rely on. 

With BrandShield, the migration process takes just one business day. We provide your company with a holistic, big-picture overview of the threats facing your brand in online marketplaces, and our solution includes all of the points covered above. From website content monitoring to counterfeiting protection and more, our brand protection platform offers you more than advanced technology - we also provide expertise you can trust. 

We have a very precise onboarding process, such that within a single day we can already initiate the first scan. The results are almost immediate, which allows us to begin the detection and takedown instantly. There is no loss of functionality as our robust platform is equipped with automatic detection tools as well as elaborate analysis features, that help detect scam clusters from the outset. It also includes a complete case management and reports sections, which  enables our customers not only to see everything at a glance, but to be able to download reports and data anytime, anywhere.

Our seasoned enforcement team is composed of IP and legal experts, so you can be confident that market takedowns are handled swiftly and effectively. To learn more about how BrandShield’s platform can help protect your business: