Don't Leave Your SMB Customers Unprotected

By The Business Solutions Network

Last week I wrote an article urging VARs to provide their SMB retailers with technologies that allow those retailers to act like the big chains. I still stand by that recommendation, but now realize that such an idea doesn’t have to be limited to SMB retailers. Coincidentally, Business Solutions Editor Jay McCall just interviewed Jensen Information Technologies for an upcoming issue of the magazine. In the article, the MSP’s director of sales shares how they provide SMB customers in manufacturing and professional services an enterprise experience.

McCall explains that many SMBs operate lean when it comes to hiring IT resources, yet these companies have many of the same business needs and challenges as their enterprise counterparts, including a strong dependency on IT solutions and services that enable unified communications and collaboration, mobility, and analytics. He also points out that the SMB market has become a ripe target for cybercriminals.

The 2015 Symantec Internet Security Threat Report sums up the reason: “SMBs may find themselves the targets of malicious attacks by virtue of the relationships they have with other organizations. For example, a company may be subjected to an attack because it is a supplier to a larger organization, and attackers may seek to take advantage of this relationship in forming the social engineering behind subsequent attacks on the main target, using the SMB as a springboard for these later attacks. SMBs are perceived to be softer targets, as they are less likely to have the same levels of security as larger organizations, which have larger budgets applied to their security countermeasures.”

If you aren’t yet protecting your SMB customers from the various cyber-threats out there, you’re leaving your customers in a bad position and missing an opportunity for business. Check out our recent product comparison of endpoint security solutions to find the right one to protect your customers. Plus, these solutions can be offered as a service, for a nice addition to your recurring revenue. In addition, keep an eye out for the June issue of BSM, for the Jensen article “Give SMB Customers An Enterprise Experience.” Included in the article is a lot of great information from an MSP who’s most likely facing the same challenges as you.