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Force Multiplier for Delivery

Increased Account Coverage

Value Focused Outcomes

Partner Background

Partner Background

AfterDark is an Australian based IT managed service provider offering a range of services, with security being one of the most important to its brand promise of “keeping IT going.”

After over a quarter century in business and years of being continuously ISO 27001 certified, AfterDark has built a mature security practice. Services to customers include offering Essential Eight Maturity Assessments, aligned to the Australian Federal Government mandated cybersecurity controls framework for business.

AfterDark deploys the assessment service to identify where customers may have gaps in their Essential Eight cybersecurity controls. Results are analysed to assess the associated risk, and AfterDark then works with its clients on risk mitigation strategies and solutions.

The assessment service, analysis and recommendations provided by AfterDark to its customers provide a foundation for longer-term security engagements that progress overall cybersecurity posture and maturity in their client base.

The Challenge

The Challenge

Balancing demand and growth on two fronts

Increased security threats and regulatory compliance requirements saw demand for the Essential Eight assessment service grow quickly.  Outcomes and recommendations stemming from the assessments resulted direct action from customers, with a corresponding increase in security solution implementations for AfterDark.

The business case for expanding capacity to deliver the assessment service was clear. The challenge was how to increase account coverage to meet demand and take on more solution implementations without compromising on AfterDarks’ high service delivery standards.

The Solution

The Solution

Partnering on a shared value proposition

After considering outsourcing to another MSP or specialised security service provider, AfterDark chose to leverage the expertise of Crayon by utilising its through-partner Essential Eight Maturity Assessment service offering.

“Crayon is a global business and of all the cloud distributors in APAC, it has the largest team of in-house cybersecurity specialists that support their partner service offerings,” said Stephen Gibson, AfterDarks’ founder and Technical Director. “Working with Crayon, we were assured of access to a team of technical experts with the skillsets, knowledge and capacity to run the assessments and deliver quality analysis of the results within our required turnaround times.”

The proposed arrangement would see:

  • Crayon engage with the customer on behalf of and with AfterDark to conduct assessments.
  • Post-assessment analysis and initial recommendations conducted by Crayon’s team and provided back to AfterDark.
  • Both teams debriefing on results; AfterDark providing insight to the unique business requirements for each customer. Crayon using this context to guide recommendations around vendor solutions where appropriate, licensing and considerations for any future technical implementation.

According to Gibson, Crayon demonstrated a clear understanding of where the service partnership should drive value for AfterDark and its customers. “Crayon understood the strategy and the value proposition from the outset. They offered flexible models that ensured AfterDark could accelerate advisory and consultancy engagements with our customers, and do so profitably,” said Gibson.

“Crayon offered flexible models that ensured AfterDark could accelerate advisory and consultancy engagements with our customers.”

Stephen Gibson

Founder and Technical Director, AfterDark

The Benefits

The Benefits

Crayons’ actions in line with its core promise to partners

With Crayon handling the assessments and project management, the service partnership geared up to cover a higher number of accounts and quicken the pace of analysis, debriefing and development of recommendations.

The combined knowledge of the cybersecurity solutions landscape across both teams brought even more depth to considerations of additional solutions and services that could mitigate identified gaps and advance the Essential Eight maturity objectives for each customer. Crayon’s deep expertise in licensing agreements and structures also added new value into the service mix.

According to Gibson, in more than one instance Crayon identified that customers were overspending on licensing. Applying Crayon’s knowledge enabled AfterDark to show customers ways to reduce licensing costs, without any adverse impact on their security posture.

“Crayon helped us consider options from within their cybersecurity portfolio and beyond to other considerations that could help our customers save money, control costs as well as improve their security posture,” said Gibson.

For AfterDark this meant each recommendation and proposed solution, whether new, replacement, upsell or cross sell was tailored to the operating and budget conditions of the customer.

Gibson likens the service partnership with Crayon to having both the benefits of a GPS that ‘knows which road you need to get to’ and the in-depth area knowledge that gets you there just as fast, ‘without going through tollways.’

Crayon truly lived up to the promise of being on the partners’ side, acting in AfterDarks’ best interests to support our consultative approach and add real value.

Stephen Gibson

The Outcome

The Outcome

Three Keys to a Value Driven Partnership

Satisfaction with the speed and quality of the assessments rose, and AfterDark experienced increased numbers of existing customers and net new leads taking up the service offer.

AfterDark was able to achieve its aim of accelerating the rate of advisory and consulting discussions with its customers. With Crayon covering the Essential Eight Maturity Assessment service delivery, the business was also able to drive additional growth through an increased number of solution implementation engagements.

The team at AfterDark attribute this growth and success to three main standouts of working with Crayon that exceeded the usual ‘outsourcing’ type of arrangement:

Communication

Proactive and professional project management that included regular updates were key to keeping both the partner and the customer informed, ensuring a seamless experience.

Collaboration

Time spent to agree on ways of working together resulted in close knit teamwork between AfterDark and Crayon, coordinating as a single unit to align to the needs of the customer.

Education

Access to highly qualified cybersecurity experts and consultants in Crayons’ Technology Advisory Group. Deeply experienced professionals at the table to set the stage for customer conversation, offering insights to support well informed decisions.

“Crayon’s account managers are proactive, and their project management game is strong. Their team always came to the table prepared with relevant information about solutions that fit the customer need and matched our strategy for ongoing engagement within each account,” said Gibson.

“Working with Crayon, we never feel underserviced, and the relationship is never transactional. It’s always strategic, and it’s always focused on value-driven outcomes for our business, and for our customers.’

The Future

The Future

Continued competitive differentiator

The successful engagement between AfterDark and Crayon will continue for the foreseeable future.  The outcomes of the Essential Eight Maturity Assessment service partnership has created a solid foundation for AfterDark to continue growth in its managed security services practice, and this includes guaranteeing an Essential Eight maturity level maintenance (1,2,3), provision of 24/7 SOC service for responding to alerts and expanding into vulnerability assessments, solution mitigations, and penetration testing.

Both parties will continue to refine and iterate on the assessment service in order to hone it and ensure it remains a differentiated offering for AfterDark.

Security Assessments are a Growth Opportunity for Partners

Security Assessments are a Growth Opportunity for Partners

Crayon’s engagement with AfterDark proves that cybersecurity assessments can drive increased customer stickiness and practice growth for partners. If you’re looking to expand your cybersecurity service catalogue, enter into the cybersecurity domain or just need a trusted team to deliver services on your behalf, Crayon is on our partners’ side. Always.

The cybersecurity assessment services we offer are designed to help partners respond to growing business demand for expertise in the security domain.  Crayon backs these services with in-house technical and consulting professionals that add value to your customer engagements. We’ll work closely with you to understand your business objectives and identify an engagement model for cybersecurity services that fits.

Learn more about our cybersecurity assessment services. 

Learn how AfterDark scaled its Essential Eight cybersecurity services by partnering with Crayon.

Learn how AfterDark scaled its Essential Eight cybersecurity services by partnering with Crayon.

Services that unlock growth and new revenue streams. Check out the full partner interview with Stephen Gibson.

Watch the interview

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