Background
J Street Group, LLC is a full-service event planning firm based in Washington, DC. They also provide event consultation, and regularly work with high-profile leaders in government and the private sector. High-profile clients have included world leaders and global organizations. The small team is constantly on the go. They needed security solutions that provide protection to client and company data and facilitate remote collaboration
The Challenge
When J Street Group first reached out to Nortec, they were looking for Office 365 licensing and essential desktop support to address everyday IT challenges that would pop up. The email platform they were using at the time could not keep up with the company’s growth and they wanted someone they could contact for technical support and to answer questions.
In addition, each person on the J Street Group team was receiving 75 to 100 phishing attempts or spam messages per day. They lacked email protection and didn’t know how to get in front of the issue. Not only was this distracting to deal with daily, but more importantly, J Street Group needed to be able to ensure the security of their client’s data. With high-profile clientele that includes national and global leaders, they knew they would continue to be targeted.
The Solution
Nortec’s first step was to set up J Street Group with Office 365. This not only gave J Street Group the email platform they wanted, but also provided an easy way for the team to access Microsoft applications across multiple devices from anywhere, thanks to the power of the cloud. Nortec took care of licensing and offered J Street Group managed desktop and portal services.
This provided the IT support J Street Group needed. Now, when anyone on the team wondered why computers were running slowly or had a tech concern, Nortec was a phone call away.
Through in-person strategic business review meetings, J Street Group quickly understood the need for enhanced data protection and security for their business. To see what other risks needed to be addressed, Nortec conducted a security assessment.
Based on this evaluation, Nortec added Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection to scan emails and detect phishing attempts. Additionally, a firewall was installed to identify and block malicious incoming emails. This drastically reduced the number of spam and phishing attempts that reached their network and ensured the confidentiality of company and client information.
The Benefit
One of the biggest benefits for J Street Group is that they can now focus on their business. The volume of spam messages decreased, creating cleaner inboxes that allow J Street Group to focus on their clients and stay on top of important messages. Office 365 gives them greater flexibility to work on documents on multiple devices in and out of the office.
Reduced Risks: Implementing a new email provider has given J Street Group a platform that can scale with its growing business. The threat posed by phishing attempts and spam messages has been mitigated while the firewall has added an extra layer of security to business operations.
Productivity: Before, J Street Group spent an extraordinary amount of time fielding spam messages and troubleshooting slow computers on their own, taking time away from planning events and meeting with clients. With Nortec as their managed services provider, J Street Group has been able to spend more time working with their clients and much less time grappling with their technology.
Collaboration: As an event management company, J Street Group’s operations often happen to be on the go. With Nortec’s recommendation to use cloud-based Office 365, the team has an easier time collaborating on projects and sharing information that keeps operations running smooth at their rapid pace of business.
Peace of Mind: On the occasion that issues arise, J Street Group knows they have a local managed IT services provider they can rely on. “They’re our IT department,” says Debra Schiff, CEO and founder of J Street Group. “We reach out to them and they are almost always able to solve the problem within the hour, if not immediately. We absolutely love working with them.”
