Enhancing Clients’ Email Security and Experience with Vade for M365
403Tech
About 403Tech
Founded in 2012, 403Tech is an award-winning managed service provider (MSP) headquartered in Calgary. A born-in-the-cloud MSP, the company provides full-service managed IT for clients across Canada, with a focus on the professional services, oil and gas, construction, and automotive industries.
Background
In 2012, Scott Gallupe founded 403Tech with aspirations of creating a successful managed service business. A seasoned IT professional, Scott brought experience working for large IT consulting firms, the federal government, and oil & gas companies. Demand for quality IT support quickly grew—as did the scope of his work. “At first, we wanted to provide value to any company that needed IT support. Over time, we focused on specific verticals to better serve our clients.”
Fast-forward more than a decade later, 403Tech has become a leading full-service MSP. Employing 13 full-time employees, the company has been named a Top 50 MSP in Canada by Techno Planet for three consecutive years.
At first, we wanted to provide value to any company that needed IT support. Over time, we focused on specific verticals to better serve our clients.
THE CHALLENGE
Keenly attune to clients’ needs, 403Tech recognized a problem. Email threats were targeting customers with greater frequency. “Every year the threats were steadily increasing to the point where we needed a solution,” said Scott Gallupe, President at 403Tech.
Consistent with their operational approach, 403Tech wasted no time in implementing a solution. The company procured and rolled out a popular email security product. Unfortunately, that didn’t resolve client complaints or Scott and his team’s concerns. “There were a lot of flaws with the product, which made us want to look for alternatives.”
Chief among those flaws was a significant number of false positives. Clients routinely expressed concerns about missing important emails from customers or vendors. “Our clients received a daily quarantine report. But based on the timing of it, they may not know if an email was quarantined until 23 hours later,” Scott said. “We also didn’t want them to be burdened by going into a report and releasing an email that they might think is legitimate but isn’t. They were the ones having to decipher and make the decision.”
That’s when 403Tech began searching for an alternative. The MSP’s purchasing criteria focused on a solution that didn’t rely on quarantining or an MX record change—the latter a time-consuming and disruptive process, according to Scott. Multi-tenancy was also a must-have. “If the solution or dashboard isn’t multi-tenant, that’s a deal breaker for us. Without it, it makes our lives that much more difficult.”
During the search, 403Tech focused on API-based solutions and encountered a familiar name—Vade. Three years before, the MSP had considered the solution but decided it wasn’t right for them at the time. Now, Scott and his team were ready to reconsider it.
WHY 403 TECH CHOSE VADE
- Advanced AI-powered threat detection and response
- Cross-tenant incident response
- No quarantine or delay
- No MX record change
- Threat reporting
- Partner-first approach
THE SOLUTION
403Tech ended up choosing Vade for M365 for email security. “We really liked the product and wanted to commit to it,” said Scott. “The best way to commit is to use it yourselves. That way, we know how it works and we can easily troubleshoot a problem when we’re helping clients.”
It took 403Tech five minutes to deploy the solution and the benefits of the switch were immediate. “We really liked that Vade has a built-in AI engine that knows if a message is legitimate in real-time. There’s no quarantine or delay,” said Scott.
After testing it internally, Scott and his team were convinced and ready to roll out Vade for M365 to clients. “We focused on educating them on why we were making the change to Vade,” said Scott. Vade for M365’s reporting capabilities helped in this regard. “There was some pretty cool reporting that we can send to our clients to show them all the threats that are being blocked behind the scenes.”
Vade for M365 is a collaborative email security solution for Microsoft 365. Powered by AI, enhanced by people, and made for MSPs, it features a collaborative AI engine that continuously learns from an alliance of more than 1.4 billion protected mailboxes, millions of daily user reports, and a team of cybersecurity analysts.
We really liked that Vade has a built-in AI engine that knows if a message is legitimate in real-time. There’s no quarantine or delay.
Vade for M365 provides integrated, low-touch features in a single platform that is scalable and easy to use and manage, including:
- Cross-tenant triage and remediation: Triage and remediate active threats and user-reported emails across all client tenants from a single pane of glass.
- Auto-Remediation: Continually scans mailboxes for new email threats and automatically removes them from user inboxes.
- Threat Intel & Investigation: Triage and remediate user-reported emails, deconstruct files, and inject live email logs into any SIEM/SOAR/XDR.
- Native Splunk Integration: Export Vade for M365 email logs to Splunk without writing a single line of code.
RESULTS
Since adopting Vade for M365, 403Tech has consistently received positive reviews from clients about their email security. “We’ve gotten some really solid feedback about Vade for M365 to the point where our clients aren’t worried about quarantining. They know that emails are landing in their inbox—and with a very high success rate—that they’re legitimate. They’re not getting false positives and having to message us. We’re getting a lot less tickets, and as a result, it’s a win-win for both of us,” said Scott.
Client satisfaction is a key reason 403Tech has made Vade for M365 a part of its standard offering to new clients. For existing customers, Scott and his team are busy migrating them from the legacy email security solution. They’re also convincing some of their longest-tenured customers—those still relying on Microsoft’s native email security—to make the transition.
“We’re showing them real-world examples of how Vade has helped other customers,” said Scott. “We tell them, ‘This is the new normal. The default protection from Microsoft is not enough. You know you need this.’”
403Tech is also reassessing its security awareness training. While the company relies on a different vendor today, the MSP is considering switching to Vade Threat Coach™—Vade’s automated phishing awareness training. In addition to other benefits, the move would help consolidate solutions and partners.
Despite the demands of the present, Scott and his team are also focused on the future. Among the MSP’s long-list of priorities is growing its partnership with Vade. “We like to work with our vendors closely, so the relationship is about more than just paying a monthly invoice and getting a product. We’re passionate not only about the product, but how Vade can help us grow as an MSP.”
403Tech is striving for more than modest growth in the years ahead. “Our plans are ambitious. We want to maintain 20% year-over-year growth,” said Scott. “That means doubling in size in the next five years.”
For Scott and his team, that goal—what may appear to outsiders as a bold target—is a very realistic and expected aim.
We’ve gotten some really solid feedback about Vade for M365 to the point where our clients aren’t worried about quarantining. They know that emails are landing in their inbox—and with a very high success rate—that they’re legitimate. We’re getting a lot less tickets, and as a result, it’s a win-win for both of us.
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