Partner spotlight: Platform 24

Meet Rick Williams, Director, from Platform 24, a longstanding partner with ConnectWise. Platform 24 has been providing IT services to small to medium-sized businesses across Australia for more than 10 years. Read on to learn more about how they grew their cybersecurity practice and stayed ahead of the curve with ConnectWise.

About your company

Tell us about your company.

Platform 24 helps companies manage cyber security and compliance. We do this using state of the art tools and systems to ensure we are actively hunting for threats—because if your business is not doing this you already have a problem. Our clients have benefited from this approach with zero notifiable breaches. Our proof is the monthly reporting we offer managed clients, showing exactly how many and what type of malicious attempts have been made on their network. Our target market is business owners who are wearing too many hats and want to sleep sound at night knowing their IT is managed 24/7. 

What’s a big win that you’re proud of?

About 18 months ago we lost a very big client. Their rationale was they were growing fast, had outgrown us, and needed to work with a bigger managed service provider (MSP). Even though this was disappointing, we managed the offboarding extremely professionally and left on very good terms. As I left the final handover meeting the CFO said, “Thanks for all your efforts and good luck.”

I replied with a straight face, “Thanks, but don’t worry, we will have this contract back within a year.” It was at eight months we got the call to come and rescue the business as they were unable to pay over 5,000 staff members because their payroll was broken and IT could not fix it. We assisted and got them up and running the same day. Within a week, we had a new contract to take over support again.   

What’s next for you and your business?

Exciting things are on the horizon! We’re on track to achieving the ISO 27001 certification by Q2 next year. We’re also looking to get certified for ISO 27002 so we can start consulting further in the MSP space.

About the industry

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the industry?

Recruitment is a hot topic given the current global economic circumstances. Like most employers, we are also having challenges with this. Our response is pushing further down the automation path but also incentivizing our existing team to show we value them. Moving everyone to a four-day work week has been a very effective part of achieving this.

Is there one piece of advice you’d like to share with other IT solution providers? 

We used to think that it’s better to spread the love to vendors, where we use one or two key tools from each vendor. We researched the best of breed and added them to our stack over time. Clearly, we were not the only ones looking at the best, because over time, ConnectWise has acquired most of these tools. This has led to better integration and consolidation with one vendor and increased levels of engagement from both parties in the partnership. So, my advice is to use the best tools available as they will save you time and money in the long term. 

Being a ConnectWise partner

Why did you choose ConnectWise?

We started off with ConnectWise PSA™ (formerly Manage) and ConnectWise Automate because we tried cheaper options in the market and none of them worked how we needed them to. We always knew ConnectWise was one of the best and took the plunge to invest in our success. After many years of partnership and increasingly having ConnectWise buy the best-in-class components we were already using, it became very clear that we shared the same mindset and philosophy, which has led to much greater engagement from our side as we realized we had a shared vision.

What impact has ConnectWise had on your business?

We feel part of a bigger team, where excellent resources like documentation, marketing materials, training, and dedicated support team are made available. This allows us to consistently punch above our weight and tap into specific technical expertise for our clients, allowing them to further benefit from this wealth of knowledge. A great example of this is how we use Perch (now ConnectWise SIEM) and ConnectWise Incident Response Service on a very high compliance client, who requires 24/7 critical cyber response. We help them ensure that they are ISO compliant with high security and no technical outages. 

What is the biggest benefit of your partnership with ConnectWise?

The comprehensive suite of tools and seamless integration have made our lives easier. There is always a subject matter expert to assist with integration at every turn. Having access to these experts who can directly engage with clients has greatly improved our sales process and gives great confidence to clients that we can cover all eventualities.

What’s something you want people to know about ConnectWise?

The team here in Australia has made a huge impact to our business. Being able to tap into local expert resources has made a huge difference and being a partner means that the team helps us be the best we can.

Any product features that were a game changer for you or your team?

There are so many, but the biggest draw for me has always been the constant improvement, new integrations, and the vision of the company—ConnectWise constantly embraces change to excel in this space.

And now for some fun!

Tell us a fun fact about you or your company.

We once set up the Wi-Fi on Richard Branson’s yacht while it was being refitted in Sydney.

What’s a country or state you’d like to visit?

Not many left but India and Nepal are high on the list now.

What is one of your bucket list items?

I have been very fortunate to have visited over 70 countries around the world. Travel is a passion, but there are not many places left to tick off. I would like to live long enough to see us solve the climate crisis so my kids and future grandkids can be proud of what we all achieved as a community.