The Challenge This medical device manufacturer is small, but far-flung. More than a third of its employees are clinical specialists who work entirely remotely, traveling across the US and Europe to support and train doctors who use the company’s products. Since these employees are spread across multiple time zones, they need reliable 24-hour access to the corporate network to check…

The Challenge Over the past couple of years, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been examining broker-dealer and investment advisor cybersecurity risks and preparedness. In 2016, they advanced their efforts to include testing and assessment of firms’ implementation of cybersecurity procedures and controls as well as evaluating firms’ policies and procedures designed to ensure the capacity, integrity, resiliency,…

The Challenge It’s not enough to protect sensitive client information. You also need to prove that you’ve taken reasonable care to protect it using cybersecurity practices that conform to industry standards. At one law firm serving clients in the highly regulated defense and health care industries, those goals were difficult enough on a small IT budget. Implementing cybersecurity simple enough…

The Challenge A non-profit that helps low-income communities finance and build schools needed a lot of IT support. Its aging computer network suffered from slow response times, unreliable performance, and widespread virus outbreaks due to inadequate cybersecurity. However, with just one technician to support headquarters in San Francisco, and branches in Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, DC, the organization…

The Challenge This environmental nonprofit helps the U.S. National Park Service operate many national parks. Its 14 locations around the San Francisco Bay Area include internationally renowned landmarks like Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. The organization relies on its computer network to manage programs and payroll, communicate with employees and volunteers, and serve the public across 80,000 acres of…

The Challenge A local financial planning & investment advisory firm was increasingly concerned about the risks and inconveniences of maintaining decades of confidential client financial data onsite. Although the firm performed regular offsite backups, downloading that data back to new hardware after a fire, earthquake, or other disaster would be both slow and risky. Its unreliable remote access solution also…

The Challenge Every investment firm needs to protect its clients’ sensitive financial data. When your clients are household names and multi-millionaires, you have to go several steps farther. Because this San Francisco firm handles every aspect of its clients’ financial lives, from investments to employee management, it’s committed to absolute discretion. It won’t even reveal who its clients are. To…

The Challenge This San Francisco Bay Area investment management firm has always chosen to outsource its IT support in order to focus on its mission of providing clients with personal service. However, its previous IT support provider was no longer delivering the same level of service. Instead of the same engineer who had been working with the firm for years,…

The Challenge This fast-growing company is headquartered in San Francisco, with regional offices as well as a small group of entirely remote employees. Its expansion plans required updating its IT infrastructure. Its Microsoft Windows workgroup model lacked central user authentication and management as well as security tools. The firm also relied heavily on ad hoc implementations of cloud services for…

The Challenge This local research & consulting firm helps San Francisco Bay Area nonprofits, government agencies, and philanthropic organizations plan programs and allocate resources more effectively. As it expanded from San Francisco to Davis, San Diego, and Los Angeles, it struggled to make IT applications function uniformly across all four locations — in particular, the complex data analysis application at…

The Challenge This supportive housing nonprofit works to end homelessness in the Bay Area by providing support services, employment training, and quality affordable housing at 14 buildings it owns throughout San Francisco. Persistent connectivity problems with its legacy client-server version of Microsoft Exchange meant staff members’ email periodically stopped working, even internally. Employees also struggled to access shared calendars, making…

The Challenge Only half the firm’s employees work at headquarters. The rest are spread across 12 branch offices in six other states. Regardless of location, employees need reliable access to back-office systems and customer files — something that was lacking.  The firm also struggled with an IT support team that responded to trouble tickets, but never addressed the root causes.…