Tag Archives: MSP

Appointments, News

Node4 Appoints Iain Shearman as Chief Commercial Officer

Node4, cloud-led digital transformation Managed Services Provider (MSP), has today announced the appointment of Iain Shearman as Chief Commercial Officer. He joins Node4 to lead the company’s commercial strategy, delivering a unified go-to-market strategy for the Node4 group.

Iain will also join the Node4 Board, with responsibility for identifying additional routes to market and enhancing the company’s proposition to maximise growth opportunities presented by its acquisition strategy.

Iain brings over 20 years’ experience leading business units, business development and sales initiatives in communications and cloud services organisations both in the UK and international markets. This includes a wealth of experience working with customers in channel, public sector and enterprise markets. Iain has also held senior commercial, product management and operational roles in both PLC and PE-backed businesses.

His recent experience includes working as Managing Director for Nasstar, where he was responsible for its Communication Services business unit, overseeing the integration of all go-to-market activities. Previously, he spent over two decades with KCOM, most recently as Managing Director for Business, where he was the lead on creating a single national B2B business unit and for re-vitalising performance, developing its position in new markets and evolving the market offer.

“Joining Node4 is a great opportunity for me to pursue my longstanding interest in how organisations can apply technology to support their ambition and competitiveness,” explained Shearman. “I have long admired Node4’s approach to delivering market-leading, transformative technology solutions and they were a customer of mine for many years. I am looking forward to working with the team from the other side of the fence.”

“Iain is widely respected across the industry as a technology and business leader, delivering strong results for organisations across the channel, public and private sectors,” commented Paul Bryce, Managing Director at Node4. “We look forward to drawing on his experience to help nurture the business during its next stage of growth and development.”

News

Arrow partners with POPX to automate operations and integrate acquisitions

Arrow Business Communications, one of the UK’s leading independent providers of collaboration, connectivity, cyber security and cloud and infrastructure managed services, has partnered with POPX to implement their fully managed MSP Platform to transform operations, service and business management functions.

For Arrow to continue its growth trajectory and focus on customer experience, a strategic decision was made to invest in the latest service management technology aimed at enhancing both employee and customer experiences. Following an intense period of growth through acquisition, the business imperative pivoted to ensure all operations in the acquired businesses consolidate into a single standard.

The initiative labelled “One Customer Experience. One Platform” will give Arrow the advantageous capability to quickly integrate acquired businesses onto a future-proofed service management solution. After narrowing down the technology choice to ServiceNow, Arrow selected POPX as the ideal option to de-risk their investment with a fully managed service, run by skilled ServiceNow specialists with experience in the managed services sector.

Jason Briscoe, Chief Operating Officer at Arrow said: “Too much work in our industry is delivered by committed people using manual, isolated processes, and aged tooling. All this leads to frustration, ineffective delivery, inflated overheads, greater risk, and an inability to manage cost and quality, all at the expense of customer satisfaction. As we acquire new businesses, and to help realise the maximum value from those investments, we will integrate them onto the very best service management platform available. In this way, we aim to turn the operations of every part of our growing business into scalable value-creation machines.”

The POPX MSP Platform is designed to accelerate and de-risk digital transformation for Smart MSPs by enabling them to onboard ServiceNow faster, with greater transparency on cost, timescales and added value. The MSP Platform allows tech service providers to consolidate applications, integrate internal and supplier systems, and deliver service automation for key processes. The fully managed service from POPX includes all integrations, development and enhancements, upgrades and maintenance, as well as training and the day-to-day support of running a complex technology.

Richard Burke, CEO at Arrow commented: “Service value and customer experience runs through our DNA and that’s why we wanted to enhance our service proposition to truly deliver on our promises today but ensure we have a platform that scales for tomorrow. With POPX, we can integrate previous and future acquisitions onto one system, resulting in efficient operations that deliver an outstanding customer experience.”

Martin Ford, CEO at POPX said: “Arrow has successfully grown at speed over recent years and as a result, they have been on an extensive digital transformation journey. We’re delighted to be part of that team, operating as a long-term partner that will guide and support them through this next phase of growth and beyond.”

Cybersecurity, News

Barracuda strengthens security for MSPs with SentinelOne’s AI-Powered XDR

Alliance enables MSPs to experience autonomous cybersecurity at machine speed

SentinelOne, an autonomous cybersecurity platform company, today announced that Barracuda Networks, Inc., a trusted partner and leading provider of cloud-first security solutions, selected the Singularity XDR platform to help MSPs prevent, detect, and autonomously respond to threats at machine speed with AI-powered XDR.

Barracuda protects more than 200,000 global customers to safeguard their data and employees from threats. Barracuda selected SentinelOne to strengthen its endpoint protection and response portfolio due to SentinelOne’s superior API capabilities, flexible workflow integrations, and platform efficacy. Through the integration, MSPs using SKOUT Managed XDR and SentinelOne will be able to benefit from streamlined analysis, detection, and incident reporting.

“Security teams are challenged with monitoring and protecting every edge of their network, yet are drowning in data and alerts,” said Neal Bradbury, SVP, Barracuda MSP. “There aren’t enough skilled people to operate cybersecurity products at scale. Our alliance with SentinelOne will empower MSPs to stay one step ahead of attackers and address intrusion attempts in real-time.”

Through SentinelOne’s capabilities, organisations experience XDR – more preventative actions, faster response times, and automated workflows across their dynamic, technology-bound perimeter. SentinelOne replaces traditional antivirus (AV), next-generation antivirus (NGAV), endpoint detection and response (EDR), and a variety of point products with the AI-powered Singularity XDR platform.

“Every place where data resides is vulnerable from device to server to the cloud,” said Brandon Andrews, VP Worldwide MSP, SentinelOne. “Combining SentinelOne’s AI-powered XDR and Barracuda’s SKOUT Managed XDR helps MSPs close security gaps and simplify their cybersecurity stack, eliminating the inefficiencies associated with legacy and crowd-powered solutions.”