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January 8, 2020 Q&A

Selling big-company cybersecurity to not-so-big clients

PHOTO | Contributed TBNG’s Michael Grande: Sometimes, latest isn’t always greatest.
By Makayla Silva

Milford-based TBNG Consulting delivers IT solutions to small to mid-sized clients in the finance, medical, education, non-profit and government sectors. Deploying best-of-breed IT solutions from the world's top technology innovators TBNG rolls out reliable, secure, and scalable high-capacity Internet access, data transport and value-added services. New Haven BIZ spoke with TBNG President Michael Grande to talk tech, cybersecurity and what the future holds for managed service providers (MSPs). A West Haven native and Providence College grad, the 39-year-old Grande was formerly a commercial banker with People’s United Bank in Bridgeport.

Tell us the TBNG story. 

TBNG is a professional information technology consulting firm in business for over 15 years with two divisions. We have three offices in Connecticut and Rhode Island and clients throughout the Northeast. Our original division, TBNG Consulting, specializes in managed services, network design and project deployment solutions for organizations looking for the highest quality of IT service providers. Then, in 2018 we formed Vancord, which is focused on cybersecurity services for small and mid-sized organizations. The business has grown substantially over the last 15 years, from the original two partners to now over 40 full-time employees. We are proud of our growth and success, but even more excited about what the future has in store.

What are the benefits of outsourcing IT security to a specialized cybersecurity company like Vancord?

IT Security can present a different set of challenges for an organization — which is actually the reason we formed Vancord, our cybersecurity division. Partnering with an MSP that has an integrated set of security competencies ensures you have access to a team of security experts to address issues from implementation through compliance. And an MSP delivers independent validation of your security posture while working with any IT staff. We integrate security fundamentals into everyday operations and consult with our clients to ensure that their level of security is commensurate with their unique business risks. Plus, working with an MSP frees you to add staff to support your core business mission 

During the last decade, managed service providers have to negotiate profound technological changes.  How has TBNG continued to transition over the last five years? 

The technology services industry has changed considerably over the last decade. Take for example the pieces of infrastructure that we always believed couldn’t be moved to the cloud: phones, network switches, wireless — all now ‘cloud-managed.’ As far as supporting that technology goes, there have been massive changes in the MSP landscape as well. Large investments by private equity firms has seen consolidation of large and mid-sized MSPs increase in recent years, while at the same time we’ve begun to see even large national internet and cable providers getting into the game by advertising managed services and cybersecurity products to their business customers. Fortunately for TBNG, there is no large scale replacement to the local ‘trusted advisor’ relationship, and that is what we forge with all of our clients. It is our duty to provide a non-biased perspective about new technologies, products, vendors and solutions. Utilizing technology to help our client’s attain their business goals is at the core of our mission.

What has driven your company’s growth?

Our growth has been centered on the vision of our founders, Jeffrey Grande and Michael Paone, who believed that hiring and developing the best and brightest engineers and providing our clients with superior customer service would be an essential element to our long-term success. We have built a consistent team focused on continuous learning, with low customer turnover, and are proud to regularly gain new business opportunities from existing client’s referrals. As we continue to grow and evolve, our ability to attract and retain talented and enthusiastic technology professionals will be the key driver to our success.

Nearly one-third of small and mid-sized companies now use an IT managed service provider. How does TBNG stay on the cutting edge of the tech evolution?

The best place to start answering this question is to begin with our internal product selection, testing and roll-out philosophy, identifying primary product competencies and performing some reasonable testing in our environment prior to introducing it to our client. TBNG has been an early-mover adopting Fortinet technologies as part of our MSP’s DNA. We want to provide our clients with secure, stable and scalable Internet access. We work with our clients to help them identify the various types of data and determine solid backup strategies. Our technology philosophy has always centered on ensuring that our clients operate on the most reliable and stable of platforms. Sometimes, latest isn’t always greatest.

What does the MSP of the future look like?

MSPs of the future must not only provide seamless service to match the fluidity and elasticity of the customer’s environment, but also act as a trusted partner with capability to assess and design the proper mechanisms and tools that will enable value to the business through technology, all while maintaining industry-leading security. 

How will TBNG achieve this?  

We strive to assemble world-class teams enabled with cutting-edge tools, data and software. We strive to integrate security offerings into managed service offerings and automate the service desk process to correlate, self-heal and escalate. And we want to be creative! The MSP of the future will be on the cutting edge of not only supporting, but finding ways to automate, enable and secure the evolution of data and mobility.

Where is the company today, revenue-wise?

Over $15 million [in annual sales].

 

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