Lumen IT and Proofpoint Partner to Provide People-Centric Security and Drive Client Business Outcomes
Business Environment
- Rapidly changing threat landscape drives demand for innovative cybersecurity solutions
- Cybersecurity competency has become a key factor for clients selecting a solution provider
- Clients are tired of suppliers who simply “drop and run” products with minimal follow through; they want a true security partner
Partnership Criteria
- Comprehensive security partner to protect customers’ people, data and brand
- Lumen IT integrates best-in-class products to build clients’ IT defensive security posture
- People-centric focus is a key factor in Lumen IT’s choice of preferred vendor partners
The Results
- Cybersecurity preparedness has become a cornerstone of overall corporate risk management
- Lumen IT identified Proofpoint as the technology leader in email security, in addition to a range of related security controls
- Customer focus and people-centric approach created a cultural fit
Lumen IT focuses on meeting the strategic and technical requirements of its clients by partnering with top-tier vendors and suppliers. Working together with these vendor partners, the company provides innovative, dependable solutions for all kinds of needs. Solutions include cybersecurity, cloud, storage and servers, converged and hyper-converged infrastructures, disaster recovery, and more.
To deliver these solutions, the company has assembled a team of talented professionals with deep subject matter expertise. Lumen IT strives to act with personal and organisational integrity to serve the best needs of its clients and employees.
The Challenge
Partnering with customers for better business outcomes
Lumen IT understands that competition is fierce in the technology arena. Simply selling advanced technology is not enough. Its clients need a trusted partner who can not only deliver the products they need, but provide them with guidance on how to best align it to their specific business requirements.
“Two-way communication is absolutely vital to what we do,” explains Craig Tamlin, general manager at Lumen IT. “Our clients are looking for integrators who have deep skills in the products we offer, so they get nearly the same experience from us as they would from working with the original solution vendor. We aim to turn around quotes, product and pricing information fast, and add value through being intimately involved with implementation and execution of our client projects. By offering managed services such as Proofpoint Security Awareness Training, we work as a cohesive team with our vendors to roll out programs more deeply, and ensure quality outcomes for our clients.”
The key to Lumen IT’s strategy is building on its partnerships with best-of-breed vendors. This is an important differentiator as customers increasingly focus on cybersecurity.
“Cybersecurity has just gotten so hot that the solutions of old aren’t really able to keep up,” says Tamlin. “Our customers are constantly re-evaluating their solutions. And they often increase their investments to mitigate against the threats and the attacks that we see so prevalent in today’s market. We’ve partnered with five top vendors in the cybersecurity space that complement one another nicely — including Proofpoint.”
Craig Tamlin, general manager, Lumen IT
The Solution
Staying ahead of a changing threat landscape with Proofpoint
The cybersecurity threat landscape has evolved fast in recent years, and has elevated clients’ focus on keeping their organisations safe from malicious threats. Proofpoint provides not only the solution portfolio, but the business strategy Lumen IT requires to keep pace.
“Beginning in 2017 and early 2018, it was almost as though a switch was flipped. Every few weeks a client would tell us a story about how they had been hoodwinked by a phishing email or supply chain scam,” says Tamlin. “Clearly Proofpoint is the market leader when it comes to email security, and we deploy Proofpoint when we hear about such breaches. And over time their portfolio has dramatically expanded to cover areas like DMARC solutions, security awareness training, and supply chain fraud. Their solutions are absolute market standouts.”
The Results
Succeeding with a people-centric approach
One of the strongest synergies between Lumen IT and Proofpoint is their shared focus on serving clients through a people-centric approach to security. This is very different from an infrastructure-centric approach.
“When meeting with new clients and prospects to understand their cybersecurity posture, we ask them if they consider security an IT problem, or everyone’s problem,” says Tamlin. “We believe that every employee who uses IT systems needs to be cyber aware, and together with Proofpoint, we focus on the user experience to ensure everyone is protected. By training them, we make them a part of the solution. Proofpoint Security Awareness Training provides automation that enables power users to identify problems and get a bad email out everyone’s inbox. I don’t know that there’s any other solution that comes close to that.”
Two leaders augment one another
Together, Lumen IT and Proofpoint offer a rich combination of strengths in both cybersecurity technology as well as training and professional services. This allows them to deliver unique value to clients.
“We’ve built an in-house capability to act on behalf of the client in deploying Proofpoint Security Awareness Training,” says Tamlin. “While the platform is very polished and very easy to use, sometimes customers need customised training and teachable moments. And we can actually go in and run the program for the client. Not every client needs that, but we have learned that users’ security awareness is absolutely vital.”
Unlike many of its competitors, Lumen IT looks beyond its individual engagements. It helps its clients plan effectively over the long term, through best practices and a strategic approach to cybersecurity.
“We advise our customers through the lens of the NIST-based security framework, providing 108 areas where clients will gain value and insight into the types of policies, controls and other considerations that they should address within a fully formed cybersecurity program,” says Tamlin. “Sometimes these are not programs that can be quickly deployed, so we help our clients develop a road-map that might span one to three years, depending on the scale of the organisation. And they can implement, adjust or enhance a control over time. For many of our clients, these NIST assessments are almost like professional development, providing a good approach to educate them and inform them.”
As Lumen IT and Proofpoint look ahead to meeting tomorrow’s security challenges, the two partners are confident in their ability to help customers build more risk-aware organisations and achieve their most vital business outcomes.