Brisbane based consulting firm whose legacy is well known in the food and beverage sector needed some well-known strategy to align their business and IT. With inbound Covid-19 into Queensland Australia, it was a good time to shake up and focus on the inside, not just the outside.
Overview
Challenge
With little initial guidance from their previous IT company who had been their to keep the ‘IT light on’, ITSO needed a more in-depth look into their IT systems and processes
“At the beginning I was asked if I knew what ransomware was, and if I had a post breach strategy. Obviously not because being IT illiterate, that’s something that just completely phased me. Then I was asked if we had confidential company data protected by multi-factor authentication, again How would I know?”
During the initial IT strategy session completed onsite at ITSO HQ in Brisbane, we asked Mike and his team if he know about what happened after a disaster, and what something that could be done to prevent it was, that is what we had back.
We asked one step further if he had a plan for his IT and how the business could not be held back by its IT and be more dynamic.
“I was asked if we had thought of about creating a tech stack that allowed us to be cloud-based and serverless, again, I really had no idea”
Solution
Tech Engine Australia realised early on that ITSO is a company that wants to set the pace, not just keep up with it. They didn’t just want a quick fix to a long term plan, they also wanted to train their staff to be up-to-date and current in their knowledge and skills, so they could anticipate what their customers would want. The vCIO service was started to be able to give high level IT and IT security advice to SMBs owners/managers/founders that require the guidance to move their business forward.
“I had the greatest degree of confidence in the IT services team at Tech Engine Australia, both in terms of quality of delivery and their ability to deploy their strategy for us. Getting us ready for the future”
Fortunately, ITSO had Microsoft 365 so SharePoint and Onedrive could easily be harnessed with no downtime. There were few calls on the existing telephone system due to its unusability which would make moving to a new platform straightforward.
To get ITSO started, the Tech Engine Australia services team began by carefully picking approved projects derived from the strategy session meetings. The projects were chosen to minimise disruption to the business were completed first such as Endpoint Detection Response and Application Whitelisting. These are some of the fundamental building blocks for Australia’s Cyber Security Centre’s standard for Essential 8
Results
Following the consecutive monthly meet-ups by one of our consultants to the ITSO office, they are heading towards their Essentials 8 standard. This allows them to show to their customers they are working to a cyber security practice standard that is Government recognised, giving their clients greater peace of mind.
Take away materials from the initial sessions included the 40-page booklet that is available following the initial IT strategy meeting gave the ITSO team insight as to the origin of the Cyber Security changes recommended after the first meeting. In addition, was a tailored document showing areas of improvement and suggested changes. One of these suggestions was to implement a CRM system that allows a business to track all customer communications in one portal (as well as many other benefits).
The result for ITSO was great from the initially free consultancy time offered to them. This lead to a mutually beneficial relationship enabling both parties to succeed in their quest to be a successful business.
