About MSP Easy Tools Office 365 Security
"Success is not built on success. It's built on failure. It's built on frustration. Sometimes it’s built on catastrophe." - Sumner Redstone
Why we do what we do
It is said that Necessity is the Mother of all invention, and so it turned out for us.
MSP Easy Tools was borne out of a need we had when we ran our IT support business (MSP) to tackle a serious, growing problem that threatened our business reputation and survival.
The Tools and systems for Microsoft 365 security we implemented enabled us to increase clients and profits considerably, whilst simultaneously allowing us to reduce our staffing overheads.
It wasn’t until we joined an MSP Mastermind group, where we were all discussing how to grow our businesses, that we realised our Tools were in demand by the other MSP members.
Of course, they had the same M365 security concerns, staffing problems, helpdesk issues, etc. and were desperate to be rid of these issues.
Therefore, we set about developing the Office 365 Security Tools for other MSPs to use.
We enjoyed working with other MSPs so much, that we decided to sell our MSP in January 2021, after 25 years in business. Our full-time passion is helping other MSPs achieve an easier, less stressed, more profitable life doing the things they want to do.
MSP Easy Tools was created by an MSP for provide network security for an MSP.
Where it all started
After moving 150 clients, running SBS 2008/2011 servers, to Office 365 and becoming Microsoft Gold Partners, then our problems really started.
Microsoft dropped the bombshell that they weren’t going to release SBS 2014. We’d all got to move to this new thing called Office 365. I jumped in feet first and, over a two year period, we migrated 150 clients from on-prem servers to Office 365, turning the servers off as we went along.
When I was changing two to three servers a month, I didn’t know what monthly recurring revenue was; it simply didn’t compute. However, once I’d moved virtually all my clients to the Cloud, then I understood what it was because I’d got none! I’d pretty much killed my IT company.
The other big issue that I was struggling with was that my 1st line support staff just couldn’t fix the problems in Office 365 with security. Our MSP had a target of fixing 90% of all support calls in less than 15 minutes, but 1st line were passing so many jobs up to 3rd line this wasn’t happening. Instead, it was really annoying both clients and the 3rd line engineers too as they just couldn’t get on with their own jobs.
I had to do something about it. Fortunately, Glenn joined our MSP and got straight to work becoming the guru for everything relating to Microsoft 365 security. After a series of discussions between Glenn, Jean and Andrew, Glenn started to build a series of in-house tools to remedy the problems. At the same time, we kept coming up with security problems with Office 365, as clients kept inadvertently giving away their usernames and passwords to cybercriminals. We tried training, but it still kept happening.
Human beings have emotions and cybercriminals exploit this fact via social engineering. We tried everything in the Microsoft Partner Portal to stop this from happening, but to no avail. Then Glenn came up with an idea to build our own monitoring system and that’s when it all started to go the right way.
Glenn carried on to develop a fantastic, simple MSP Security Tool that enabled 1st line engineers, with next to no Office 365/Office 365 malware protection experience, to rapidly fix problems at the click of a button. This not only pleased the 3rd line engineers, but also customers who were wowed by the speed with which their problems were resolved. No more waiting around, calling back later or jobs getting missed. It also pleased me, as the MD, because jobs were being fixed in a few minutes instead of hours, meaning 3rd line engineers could be set the more profitable jobs that they enjoyed. As the vast majority of our helpdesk jobs were covered under our unlimited remote support plan, it made real sense for them to be dealt with as quickly as possible and by the least expensive engineers. Wins all round.
The other issue it fixed was that I could sell a bolt-on Office 365 security and compliance dashboard to my clients, protecting them against cybercriminals in their Office 365 platform. I got into the habit of saying to customers, ‘when you are taking on a new employee factor in protecting your livelihood. You have compulsory costs you have to pay to the government, etc in terms of pensions, National Insurance and you just accept this, but you need to allocate a small amount to actually safeguarding your business. Any single one of your staff could destroy without you even knowing.’ When I armed this with the right lunch meeting and a Security Disclaimer form, I achieved a 95% sign-up rate for not just MSP Easy Tools (it wasn’t called this at the time) but all my MSP network security services.
We also started to win new clients, who were using Office 365, because we could demonstrate fundamental weaknesses within their systems using our MSP network security Tools. Once I showed them the Security and Login Tracker Reports for Office 365, it demonstrated just how powerful, knowledge and vulnerable their systems were without it. Obviously, the 24/7/365 monitoring became a no-brainer.
Fast forward to the Mastermind group and we realised that we needed to make this a full-time job, helping other MSPs with the same problems that we had, by utilising the Office 365 security and compliance dashboard and other tools. It became our passion. So, we created a brand new business called MSP Easy Tools and totally separated it from our MSP, which was sold in January 2021 for the right price.
Today...
MSP Easy Tools is proud to still have the same passionate team at the helm and we believe this is what gives it the right drive, culture and motivation.
The directors are all family: Glenn Evans – Creative Director – the wizard that developed the Tools; Andrew Eardley – Sales Director - spent 25 years running an MSP; Jean Eardley – Marketing Director – worked 20 years running an MSP with Andrew; Dana Evans – European Director – working quietly in the background with our European customers. And just to be clear, Andrew and Jean are husband and wife, Glenn and Dana are too and Glenn is Jean’s youngest brother. A real family business run by experts in Office 365 malware protection. Obviously, we now have other developers and staff working alongside us on our Microsoft Office 365 security tools, but we instil them all with the same driving spirit.
MSP Easy Tools now supports hundreds of MSPs across the world and the one thing we know is that all MSPs have the same problems.
