The partner
As Founder and CTO of WW Works, Wade Weppler started his IT and managed services company in 1990, with a focus on responding to the needs of small businesses. An early adopter of the managed services model, WW Works has continued to stay ahead of trends in the IT and cybersecurity sector and deliver high-quality service.
Many of Wade’s customers have been with WW Works from the early days—a testament to his proactive, straightforward approach.
“Our biggest differentiator is we don’t overwhelm our customers with technical speak,” explains Wade. “We are also very honest and our commitment to helping businesses improve their IT operations really shows. All of this makes us very easy to work with and builds trust among our customer base.”
Based in Burlington, Ontario, the company serves small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) in Toronto, Hamilton, Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga, and the Niagara Region.
WW Works also brings a deep understanding of multiple vertical markets, including legal, engineering, accounting and other professional services, long-term care and retirement, and manufacturing.
The challenge
As Wade’s client base grew and new cyber threats emerged, his challenge was maintaining a high level of service while finding smart ways to scale and realize his profit margins.
While antivirus and endpoint detection and response (EDR) products were already in his tool stack, he wasn’t satisfied with their protection capabilities or the resources required from his team to manage them.
Wade explains, “Antivirus may find threats on servers. Intrusion detection protection (IDP) may find issues on firewalls. But we didn’t have one complete solution to monitor and detect threats across all aspects of our clients’ environments.”
Adds Wade, “Our goal was finding a security service built for small businesses and not just a bunch of additional products to manage.”
Another obstacle was finding this in a security vendor market that didn’t cater to SMBs—one that was crowded with managed detection and response (MDR) and EDR solutions priced beyond what his customers could afford.
Adding more frustration, the EDR solution he was using had failed for one of his customers, resulting in a ransomware incident—a first in WW Works’ history.
“We’re a small team and don’t have the time to train, deploy, and manage multiple security solutions. We needed an end-to-end service that could give us visibility across client sites and stay ahead of new threats—without the expense and complexity of enterprise or point solutions.”
“We were looking for an experienced security partner that could provide a one-shop solution for small business,” he says.
The solution
When a customer called and invited Wade to a presentation by TELUS for a product called Field Effect MDR, his search took a positive turn. Wade was impressed and adds, “I assumed Field Effect MDR would be priced for enterprises as TELUS typically targets mid-market customers, but that was not the case.”
Wade immediately contacted the solution provider, Field Effect—a global cybersecurity company specializing in MDR for SMBs—and became a Field Effect channel partner.
“Prior to meeting the Field Effect team, we did not know of any vendor that was solving for SMB security challenges with this type of approach or solution,” he says. “In fact, Field Effect MDR was the first holistic solution we found that was designed for small businesses.”
Wade adds, “I ended up selling Field Effect MDR directly to the client that had invited me to the TELUS presentation.”
From one platform, Field Effect MDR monitors and detects cyber threats and vulnerabilities across a company’s entire IT environment—endpoints, networks, cloud services, and remote workers. Equally innovative, Field Effect MDR aggregates the threat data collected into customized reports called Actions, Recommendations, and Observations (AROs).
This proprietary approach to threat alerting and reporting generates immediate, relevant information with clear remediation instructions.
“The AROs approach is unique. Other monitoring solutions will aggregate the event logs and provide the information, but nothing is distilled for us, requiring more time to evaluate the data and determine the best course of action,” he says. “In contrast, Field Effect MDR and its AROs provide the details we need to respond to issues, secure our clients’ sites, and continue to improve security postures.”
“This is a huge benefit because we know this is all getting filtered down to digestible data with priorities identified. For example, out of 2,000,000 security events, we may receive two critical AROs.”
For Wade, Field Effect MDR and its AROs provide a powerful metric to justify improvements to security, sell additional services, and build trusted client relationships.
“We can show the suspicious activity happening on the applications that are really critical to our clients—their SharePoint folders, email, and other important files. They can see details like a specific email address with 1,500 unauthorized access attempts in the last 24 hours. This is really an eye opener for them.”
“Some customers may not want the hassle of using new services, like two-factor authentication for their applications and devices, but when they see our ARO reports, they change their minds.”
Another advantage for Wade is Field Effect MDR’s monthly recurring billing and its integration with his ConnectWise billing solution. “When we discussed our MSP business model with Field Effect, the team was willing to adopt this type of pricing model, aligning perfectly with our business.
The results
Wade’s partnership with the Field Effect team has enabled him to elevate WW Works’ security reputation with clients, further differentiating his business.
“One of the biggest advantages of Field Effect’s partner program is we are now seen by our clients as cybersecurity experts,” says Wade. “This has changed their perception of us in terms of the counsel and protection we can provide. It also enables us to achieve high satisfaction levels, improve retention, and add significant value to our services portfolio.”
He continues, “While we aren’t security experts, we absolutely know that cybersecurity is a critical issue for SMBs and we can now provide a managed security solution that protects our clients’ businesses and helps them sleep at night.”
Based on the outcomes Wade has already experienced from the partner program and deploying Field Effect MDR, he plans to standardize on Field Effect MDR for WW Works’ entire customer base. “The Field Effect model works really well for our business,” he shares. “The company is continually improving Field Effect MDR, staying well ahead of new attack techniques. This brings new functionality and features, without additional cost to us.”
“I can strengthen my security toolset without needing to discuss price increases with clients.”
“Field Effect and Field Effect MDR are our secret weapons. I don’t think any other vendor is taking this approach and providing this type of innovation for SMBs,” he says. “When you consider the security experience of the Field Effect team, the support, the technology, and the additional benefits of the partner program, it’s really a win-win.”
