How to Cut Costs But Not Corners With Secure Remote Access

Enterprise budgets are under rising pressure, particularly in the manufacturing sector. From tariffs and supply chain disruptions to volatile global markets, most cost drivers are outside your control. 

But while you can’t control the price of raw materials or the ripple effects of geopolitical unrest, what you can control are the solutions that help your teams protect and access your critical OT systems. 

Secure remote access (SRA) is one of those tools – and it turns out, it’s pulling more weight than most people think. More than just a security safeguard, SRA has quietly become a powerful cost-saving tool. 

According to a recent study from Takepoint Research and Cyolo, 50% of manufacturing practitioners say SRA has helped their businesses save money – and not just a little. From travel costs to quicker onboarding, the savings add up fast. 

Beyond direct cost reductions, 58% report increased productivity, and 67% say third-party collaboration has improved, enabling even more value. 

Even more striking? Fewer than 7% are fully satisfied with their current SRA tools – suggesting there’s massive untapped potential to deliver even greater ROI. 

Let's examine how modern SRA platforms like Cyolo PRO (Privileged Remote Operations) are helping manufacturers not just stay secure but also cut costs, boost performance, and gain a competitive advantage. 

Down With Downtime: Fewer Flights, Faster Fixes 

For many organizations in manufacturing and other industrial sectors, remote connectivity became a viable option only in the last several years. Before that, there were just two options if a problem arose when no on-site technician was available:  

1. Wait to see what happens  

2. Fly someone out 

Either way, it cost them. Not just in travel expenses but also in time, productivity, and potential downtime. 

And every manufacturer knows: downtime is expensive. Really expensive. The longer a machine or production line is offline, the more it costs.  

Remote access allows engineers, OEMs, and other specialists to diagnose and solve problems without ever setting foot on site.  

Think of SRA like a fire escape for your ops team. When something breaks, they can be in, diagnosing, and resolving the problem in minutes – not hours or days.  

That level of responsiveness protects both your uptime and your margins, saving flight fares, accommodation costs, and lost hours stuck offline or in transit. 

No surprise then that 43% of manufacturers say reducing downtime through remote troubleshooting was among their main reasons for adopting SRA.  

When every minute of downtime chips away at productivity (and thus revenue), SRA becomes more than a convenience – it makes troubleshooting faster and operations cheaper. 

Efficiency That Adds Up 

Of course, speed isn’t only an asset when things go wrong. It’s also essential to keep things going right, allowing your teams to get more done, more consistently. 

Legacy SRA tools like VPNs are known to cause delays and dissatisfaction. Teams waste time navigating access issues, juggling credentials, or waiting for agonizingly slow connections to load.  

In the meantime, employees are frustrated. Valuable hours are lost. And money is pouring down the drain. 

Thanks to its unique decentralized architecture, Cyolo PRO removes the friction and allows users to connect directly to the resources they need – fast, securely, and without the fuss.  

This results in: 

• Shorter support queues 

• Quicker troubleshooting 

• Fewer access-related delays 

• Greater day-to-day productivity 

Multiply that across all of your sites and all of users, and you’re not just saving minutes – you’re saving money. 

Getting More ROI From Third-Party Vendors 

Third-party vendors are essential in today’s industrial environments – but they’re typically not cheap. So naturally, you want to get the most out of them.  

A slow, complicated access solution will only waste your vendors' time (and your budget).  

And if that solution doesn’t even include the right controls to properly secure third-party access (as many legacy SRA tools don’t), you’re not just risking your systems – you’re paying extra for the privilege. 

But a well-designed SRA solution that prioritizes secure, efficient access for third-party vendors and other privileged users? That gives you visibility and control over exactly what’s happening inside your OT network for the full duration of each connection. 

Beyond providing better security and better value, an SRA solution with strong third-party access control also allows you to: 

• Eliminate duplicate work 

• Reduce unnecessary site visits 

• Ensure every vendor hour is spent wisely, dealing with the issues that matter most 

As one global food manufacturer shared of their experience with Cyolo:

That’s streamlined operations, cost-saving, and relationship-building all in a single application. 

SRA: A Talent Magnet for Remote Workers 

Manufacturing and other industrial sectors face a well-documented skills gap. And it’s even more difficult to fill open roles if everyone is required to be on-site, all the time. 

Younger talent expects hybrid or remote flexibility, even in operational tech. 

Hiring the next generation of plant employees and security specialists? You’d better have a flexible access setup.

With the right SRA approach, you can: 

• Support hybrid and remote roles without compromising either security or safety 

• Tap into a wider talent pool than just hard-to-fill, on-site-only roles 

• Attract (and keep) top-tier employees

Removing barriers to flexibility isn’t just an HR perk. It’s a financial one – reducing recruitment costs, speeding up onboarding, and building a future-ready workforce.  

Smart Access, Smarter Spending 

Until very recently, secure remote access was treated like insurance: necessary, but not exactly value-driving. 

But today, 50% of manufacturers are already saving money with SRA – even though most aren’t satisfied with their current tools. 

Imagine the dramatic gains you could achieve with an infrastructure-agnostic, easy-to-use remote access solution. 

As one global manufacturer and Cyolo customer put it, “The transition costs were more than covered in the first year”.  

And in a world where industrial organizations are already facing significant cost pressures, the opportunity to save money is more important than ever.  

Let Cyolo PRO help you: 

• Eliminate costly travel expenses 

• Minimize downtime 

• Boost day-to-day productivity 

• Maximize third-party value 

• Attract and retain top-tier talent 

That’s not just cost-saving. That’s competitive advantage. 

 To learn more about the business value of adopting SRA, download the complete research report, Can Cybersecurity Drive Growth: The Strategic Role of Secure Remote Access in Manufacturing.