Gold Partner Grows Their Business with WatchGuard’s Portfolio of Unified Security Solutions
Challenge
Medhurst is an established and well-respected IT company based in Frodsham, Cheshire, that has provided strategic IT solutions and outsourced support to local and nationwide businesses since 2005. Medhurst originally established a partnership with WatchGuard Technologies over 15 years ago to address the need for secure site-to-site VPN connections for one of their clients.
As Alistair Evans, director of Medhurst (North West) says: “We had a particular customer looking for site-to-site VPNs and at the time the technology simply wasn’t there. In fact, it was a challenge to maintain VPNs between sites at that point, but WatchGuard was able to offer a solution. We therefore started working with WatchGuard connecting sites for a single customer, and our relationship has evolved from there.”
At that time, Medhurst was a new company, and, as Evans puts it: “We were a young business, evolving what we were doing. As the years have gone by, and we have grown, and our customer base has expanded, we've incorporated more and more of the WatchGuard portfolio into our offering.”
Solution
Today, Medhurst is a Gold Partner, having held this certification for the last seven years. Through their investment, commitment, and willingness to always put the customer first, they continue to deliver service excellence to their customers. Evans referenced that Medhurst and its clients developed a great deal of trust in WatchGuard’s firewalls in the early days of the long-lasting relationship and he feels it was a natural progression for Medhurst to then take on the full portfolio of WatchGuard’s security solutions.
From Medhurst’s perspective, having one vendor for security products is important. He stressed that Medhurst’s success is down to supplying the right products to customers at the right time. The company does not seek to sell products that they can make the most profit from; nor does it sell a product simply based on availability or convenience.
“We sell solutions that our customers need because we want to develop those long-term relationships with businesses and that's where WatchGuard really backs up what we're doing because their products are aimed directly at the market that we are serving, and with the kudos WatchGuard has, it's an easy product to sell as one suite,” said Evans.
Results
Today, for maximum peace of mind and cost efficiency, Medhurst only provides WatchGuard’s security solutions to its growing customer base.
“WatchGuard's advanced security solutions have helped Medhurst address the growing need for robust security measures, especially in sectors like law and manufacturing,” said Evans.
Medhurst’s long relationship with WatchGuard also gives the company the confidence to introduce new WatchGuard solutions to its customer base, confident in the knowledge the solutions will live up to, or exceed, client expectations.
“We are always excited about new WatchGuard products coming out because we know that they're likely to fit with what we're trying to do. And when new products come out, we know that they're the right fit for our clients,” said the director.
He also described WatchGuard Cloud as being akin to a security centre; a place where the Medhurst team can not only “view anything that we need, and do anything that we need to do, from just managing licence renewals and administrative tasks, to being able to view a client’s security status with regards to their firewalls and their endpoint protection, and manage their Wi-Fi access points.”
Evans added “WatchGuard's Unified Security Platform simplifies the administration of security products, enhancing efficiency.”
The Medhurst director is 100% confident that thanks to WatchGuard, his business has grown. He expects his business to continue to grow as WatchGuard expands its own product portfolio in response to changing market needs. For instance, with the rising need for cybersecurity and insurance, growing interest in the UK Government’s cyber essentials scheme, and the growing number of ransomware attacks on UK business, Evans says the WatchGuard suite allows Medhurst to satisfy the requirements laid out in the Cyber Essentials recommendations.
“WatchGuard is the only vendor that we work with that provides us with such a high level of support. They make us feel important. Their support is second to none. Ultimately, WatchGuard helps us keep our support desks as quiet as possible, and our clients are very happy with the product suite because it doesn't cause them any issues.”
The partnership also offers flexible payment terms, including MSSP Points for Medhurst and traditional term contracts for clients, helping them choose between OpEx and CapEx models.
“Our clients have told us they like and trust WatchGuard products – and that’s all that matters to us. The fact that their products are so dependable, so liked by our customers, and well regarded by the engineers, it’s just a lovely, happy marriage,” concludes Evans.
Today, Medhurst manages over 1,500 WatchGuard EPDR users, 1,300 AuthPoint multi-factor authentication users, more than 250 wireless access points, and dozens of Firebox appliances, across a growing number of customers. As both Medhurst and WatchGuard continue to innovate, the partnership remains strong and mutually beneficial. WatchGuard's commitment to developing new products aligns with Medhurst's focus on enhancing security and providing solutions to their clients.