How Entech created and productized a new managed Microsoft 365 offering with inforcer 

Entech is a US-based IT service provider specializing in building IT services and solutions that drive real business value and change. 

entech

 

The challenge

Before inforcer, Entech was doing a lot of manual security hardening projects. These were time consuming to deliver at scale as they had limited visibility into policy and setting configurations across multiple tenants. They had to manually log in and out of multiple Microsoft portals to check configuration or make changes. It was also difficult to monitor and limit configuration drift. 

They needed a tool that would enable them to secure their customers’ Microsoft 365 environment more efficiently and at scale, allowing them to roll out a manged Microsoft security offering that would eliminate these one-off, hard to sell tenant hardening projects and better suit the MSP recurring revenue model. 

The solution

inforcer allowed Entech to manage all their customers’ Microsoft 365 environments from a single pane of glass. They could easily create their golden baseline to establish a consistent standard for security and align all their customers to it. They are now able to monitor and rectify configuration drift far more easily. 

Microsoft makes frequent changes to policies and settings, which was something Entech struggled to keep up with manually before inforcer. Now they feel confident that they can quickly make any necessary adjustments without logging into multiple portals or tenants. This has positively impacted the efficiency of their overall operations and ensures that their customers remain protected even when changes to the Microsoft environment occur. 

They use inforcer Assessments to close gaps in their security posture and harden their tenants proactively. They then use the brandable, customer-facing reports to demonstrate value to their customers and aid the sales cycle. They can now use reports to justify security upgrades, often by showing a client's policy gaps after an incident, turning reactive issues into proactive sales opportunities. 

“When we're doing a routine health assessment, I'll notice gaps. It's a perfect opportunity to talk to the Partner Success Manager and move forward with hardening the environment. The fact that we have this tool now just makes it so much easier. Before this would be a project to spin up a hardened 365 environment. At this point now, it's a couple clicks of a button.”

Nick Keene, Cybersecurity Analyst, Entech

The results

Entech has created a managed Microsoft 365 offering for their customers, enabled by inforcer. It includes tenant hardening, policy management, and ongoing optimizations of the wider Microsoft 365 environment. They are focused on selling the outcomes they can provide with inforcer, rather than the tool itself. For instance, they emphasize that they can now reduce the risk of downtime due to security incidents, the risk of data leakage, and the risk of employees not being productive due to not having the right support.  

They no longer need to sell one-off tenant hardening projects when things change, avoiding unnecessary upsell or resale conversations with customers that they weren’t budgeting or planning for. Instead, they can just add additional services into their managed offering, continuing to build value for their customers. The managed service model is also more predictable, and Entech can build budgets and projections around it that provide value to their internal stakeholders.  

“It's one thing to sell a tool. It's another thing to be able to report on the effectiveness of it and really provide value to our customer. At the end of the day, a lot of MSPs are selling tools. They're not selling outcomes. The outcome that we're selling for our customers is reducing their risk, whether it's a risk of downtime due to security incidents, risk of data leakage, risk of their employees not being productive because they don't have the right support.” 

Stephen Tracy, VP of Technology, Entech

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