Interesting discussion. It seems we all understand this matter in slightly different ways.
So, I personally don’t see the conflict between Total and embedded solutions as great as the discussants above seem to. I’ve imagined embedded solutions consisting of exactly the same components as Total. Total or an embedded solution is then just how all of that is brought to the customer, i.e., how the whole package is put together - at least that’s how I’ve understood it.
And furthermore, I still understand that F-Secure acquires those individual components from the market according to which solution is best for each need, and then builds the overall solution around them.
Additionally, I want to note that, at least concerning Total, there has been significant development. Firstly, the VPN, which received a lot of criticism, was updated earlier this year. I, for one, noticed a clear difference in speed compared to before. And I don’t get any significant difference between VPN on/off in my tests. Similarly, the password service has clearly improved - although I haven’t done any extensive comparison, it has clearly improved compared to before. So, the products genuinely seem to be developing faster than before.
And then, in Total, there are also these scam protection and personal data protection features, whose importance, in my understanding, is constantly growing. At least we find the scam protection genuinely good in our household.
It is quite understandable that problems arise in these adaptations:
- Customers’ information systems bring their own challenges, which are impossible to foresee.
- The customer’s sales organization must be able to sell the complete solution to their customers (i.e., consumers), and this itself can pose challenges in creating the right incentives.
- There are certainly parties within the customers’ organizations who actively work against adaptation. Customers are quite large organizations, and my understanding is that the risk of conflicts of interest is very high in such cases.
Finally, it must be said that one would admittedly wish for slightly different news for a change, and confidence in the company is somewhat shaken. But on the other hand, there are quite significant changes underway, and I, for one, still believe that the challenges will be overcome.