The company
Garry Thompson, CEO of Computech Software, has worked with every type of business imaginable, enabling companies across the globe to manage and optimize all aspects of running their operations.
Founding UK-based Computech Software nearly 30 years ago and leading the vision behind the product line, Garry’s customizable enterprise resource planning (ERP) software—BusinessMan ERP—provides an end-to-end business management system to automate and streamline sales processes, warehouse management, inventory control, human resources, financials, auditing, and more.
With his strong background in computer software, IT, and networking, Garry has purposefully built Computech Software’s open-source ERP platform from the ground-up for customization for any business—and this is his competitive edge.
He explains, “We enable companies, no matter their business or product focus, to easily customize our software to meet their business management needs without requiring multiple tools, a lot of time, or high costs.”
Computech Software’s customer base reflects the usability, reach, and popularity of its ERP software. For example, Garry and his team serve clients that range from a Chicago-based business that builds sets for Starbucks ad campaigns and an Alaskan manufacturer of aircraft engines to a leading UK peer-to-peer lending firm, a Canadian cleaning contracting business, and more.
Computech Software has also gained recognition from Buckingham Palace for its accomplished role in international business and exporting, recently earning a Queen’s Award.
The challenge
Last year, Computech Software experienced a ransomware attack, driving Garry to re-evaluate his security measures.
Computech Software was able to recover without any damage or downtime, and the company’s data was not affected. Garry also didn’t have to pay any ransom.
“It was quite a surprise and an incredible inconvenience,” says Garry. “It happened late in the evening while I was offsite hosting a local awards event. I was actually on stage presenting awards. My team contacted me saying file names were suddenly changing. We immediately powered down and unplugged our systems.”
“Fortunately, we continually back up all of our data to the cloud, so we were able to restore everything,” he says. While Garry had advanced antivirus and firewalls in place, he needed to ensure he was protected with better visibility across his network to avoid future surprises.
“You never think something like this will happen to your business, but the threats are getting more sophisticated,” Garry adds. “Few business owners have the time to evaluate security products and spend money if they don’t have to, but in today’s work environment, you must ensure you are adequately covered to protect your operations.”
The solution
The next step for Garry was evaluating cybersecurity threat monitoring solutions that could provide him a continual view of the activity happening across his network. With his technology experience and years in ERP software development, you can imagine the critical focus that Garry applies to evaluating vendor products—and this was exactly the case when he began his search.
After investigating a few solutions, he soon became frustrated with the inability to find an advanced product for small business budgets. That changed after he was introduced to Field Effect, a global provider of advanced threat monitoring, detection, and response products and services, and its London, UK team. After talking with the company’s cyber experts and seeing a demo, he purchased Field Effect MDR.
“You can say I take everything with a ‘pinch of salt,’ and I don’t believe everything I’m told. Before I invest in new technology, I need proof the product or solution is absolutely stellar,” says Garry. “When I saw a demo of Field Effect MDR, I knew I had found everything I needed in one solution. It was really a no-brainer to deploy and purchase it.”
For Garry, Field Effect MDR’s advantages are its intelligent design, comprehensive network monitoring coverage, and smart reporting capabilities. Its price also set it apart from the rest.
“Field Effect MDR covers virtually everything,” he adds. “I like the fact there aren’t multiple tools you have to buy. It’s easy to deploy and manage and provides very proactive reporting.”
According to Garry, Field Effect MDR’s alerts and reporting elevate it far beyond competitive offerings. “Field Effect MDR not only tells you when it has detected something, but it also shows the degree of the threat and classifies it in terms of priority, along with specific actions to take to eliminate the threat or put the proper protection in place to reduce the risk.”
“It tells you in a much more granular way what needs attention right away. This is a level of attention and detail that you wouldn’t expect from a product priced for small business.”
Using high-resolution monitoring sensors and proprietary technologies and methodologies, including sophisticated analytics and predictive modelling, Field Effect MDR provides monitoring coverage across a company’s entire IT infrastructure—networks, endpoints, and cloud services—with analysis accessible from one platform. This provides a consolidated view of monitoring results across every aspect of an IT environment.
Field Effect MDR also delivers analyst-verified threat data as simple, prioritized, actionable reporting that helps businesses understand their threats as Actions, Recommendations, and Observations (AROs). This proprietary approach identifies the threat alerts that matter with the context to resolve them—eliminating a volume of benign alerts to investigate, event logs to sort through, or the need to use multiple tools to gather threat data across your systems and network.
“Field Effect MDR provides the information I need to react,” Garry adds. “I receive regular reports with useful details about what is specifically going on in my network and what needs attention.”
For Garry, Field Effect MDR’s ability to flag potential vulnerabilities such as outdated software is also critical. “I simply don’t have the time and resources to check every workstation and software application to ensure it’s patched and up to date. Field Effect MDR automatically checks and flags when certain software is out of date or requires patching. This is invaluable.”
The results
After using Field Effect MDR for just four months, Garry continues to experience benefits and says Computech Software’s security posture has already improved 100%.
Through Field Effect MDR’s comprehensive network monitoring and AROs, he estimates his level of threat detection has also significantly improved. At the same time, he and his team are working more efficiently in terms of understanding and responding to security alerts and potential issues.
“Field Effect MDR provides everything you need for protection against malware and viruses across all data points,” he adds. “It’s very sophisticated, yet designed to be very manageable for a small business. Field Effect MDR not only keeps us well ahead of cyber threats, it provides the reporting and guidance to prioritize and respond to any issues before they become serious risks.”
Field Effect MDR’s automated, managed monitoring, detection, and response platform has made Garry’s days much easier. “I have much better control over my network and we have a greater level of confidence than ever before.”
“We also don’t need an internal team to look over it each day. If we have a question or need support, the Field Effect analysts are right there. Field Effect MDR is also priced well, giving us a realistic way to improve security.”
