AfterDark

Partner Background

AfterDark is an Australian based IT managed service provider offering a range of services, with security being one of the most important to its brand promise of “keeping IT going.”

After over a quarter century in business and years of being continuously ISO 27001 certified, AfterDark has built a mature security practice. Services to customers include offering Essential Eight Maturity Assessments, aligned to the Australian Federal Government mandated cybersecurity controls framework for business.

AfterDark deploys the assessment service to identify where customers may have gaps in their Essential Eight cybersecurity controls. Results are analysed to assess the associated risk, and AfterDark then works with its clients on risk mitigation strategies and solutions.

The assessment service, analysis and recommendations provided by AfterDark to its customers provide a foundation for longer-term security engagements that progress overall cybersecurity posture and maturity in their client base.

The Challenge

Balancing demand and growth on two fronts

Increased security threats and regulatory compliance requirements saw demand for the Essential Eight assessment service grow quickly. Outcomes and recommendations stemming from the assessments resulted direct action from customers, with a corresponding increase in security solution implementations for AfterDark.

The business case for expanding capacity to deliver the assessment service was clear. The challenge was how to increase account coverage to meet demand and take on more solution implementations without compromising on AfterDarks’ high service delivery standards.

The Solution

Partnering on a shared value proposition

After considering outsourcing to another MSP or specialised security service provider, AfterDark chose to leverage the expertise of SoftwareOne by utilising its through-partner Essential Eight Maturity Assessment service offering.

“SoftwareOne is a global business and of all the cloud distributors in APAC, it has the largest team of in-house cybersecurity specialists that support their partner service offerings,” said Stephen Gibson, AfterDarks’ founder and Technical Director. “Working with SoftwareOne, we were assured of access to a team of technical experts with the skillsets, knowledge and capacity to run the assessments and deliver quality analysis of the results within our required turnaround times.”

The proposed arrangement would see:

• SoftwareOne engage with the customer on behalf of and with AfterDark to conduct assessments.
• Post-assessment analysis and initial recommendations conducted by SoftwareOne’s team and provided back to AfterDark.
• Both teams debriefing on results; AfterDark providing insight to the unique business requirements for each customer. SoftwareOne using this context to guide recommendations around vendor solutions where appropriate, licensing and considerations for any future technical implementation.

According to Gibson, SoftwareOne demonstrated a clear understanding of where the service partnership should drive value for AfterDark and its customers. “SoftwareOne understood the strategy and the value proposition from the outset. They offered flexible models that ensured AfterDark could accelerate advisory and consultancy engagements with our customers, and do so profitably,” said Gibson.

The Benefits

SoftwareOne’s actions in line with its core promise to partners

With SoftwareOne handling the assessments and project management, the service partnership geared up to cover a higher number of accounts and quicken the pace of analysis, debriefing and development of recommendations.

The combined knowledge of the cybersecurity solutions landscape across both teams brought even more depth to considerations of additional solutions and services that could mitigate identified gaps and advance the Essential Eight maturity objectives for each customer. SoftwareOne’s deep expertise in licensing agreements and structures also added new value into the service mix.

According to Gibson, in more than one instance SoftwareOne identified that customers were overspending on licensing. Applying SoftwareOne’s knowledge enabled AfterDark to show customers ways to reduce licensing costs, without any adverse impact on their security posture.

“SoftwareOne helped us consider options from within their cybersecurity portfolio and beyond to other considerations that could help our customers save money, control costs as well as improve their security posture,” said Gibson.

For AfterDark this meant each recommendation and proposed solution, whether new, replacement, upsell or cross sell was tailored to the operating and budget conditions of the customer.

Gibson likens the service partnership with SoftwareOne to having both the benefits of a GPS that ‘knows which road you need to get to’ and the in-depth area knowledge that gets you there just as fast, ‘without going through tollways.’