Impact Group | IT Consulting, IT Support and Managed IT Services

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner and CEO of Quinonia Financial Services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Impact Group?

We needed help revamping our office’s technology processes and procedures. We also needed help with our technology needs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Impact Group has stepped in as our CIO. They’ve helped us with managed IT services and cybersecurity. We’ve had an introductory call and an interview process. We’ve let them know what we need and the problems we’re having. They’ve come up with a proposal. Once we’ve pulled the trigger and said go, we’ve gone through a series of orientation calls.

We’ve broken the project into 3–4 different stages, and we’ve tackled one stage at a time. There’s a team of individuals, and each team member has a different stage of the project. There’s a group call with the entire team, and as each team member’s responsibility comes on, they take over the lead and take us through what we need to do. This includes changing our email provider, adopting a new cybersecurity policy, and creating a new network for our office.

They offer both remote and on-site services. For our needs, they have only been remote for the time being. If we need them on-site, we can call them out, but they can do most of what they need remotely.

What is the team composition?

We work with three individuals plus the company owner. Ryan has helped us navigate through the whole process. Joe has also helped us along as we’ve been onboarded. Cory has done a lot of hands-on work to help us get our machines and computers up and running.

How did you come to work with Impact Group?

I found them through a referral. I looked everywhere for a company that could bolt onto our company and serve us in the way we needed. Since we’re a small business, we either had IT providers that were one-man shops and couldn’t perform as we needed them to, or the IT services were too big for what we needed.

Impact Group was able to come on, and they had a good support team. They were able to right-size their offering to what we needed and grow with us as we grew, which was a big appealing factor for why we chose them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $11,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2024, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Impact Group has helped us save money because they have the solutions we need. We would have spent closer to $18,000 over the same time frame if we hadn’t adopted them, so we’ve saved $7,000. Their work has exceeded my expectations.

How did Impact Group perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication has been very clear. They tell us what they’re going to do, and they do it. They’re on standby whenever we need them. Any slowdown in the process is our fault for not responding on time. Whenever we’re ready to move, they’re ready and waiting. They deliver the work on time.

They have ticket management, but we haven’t had any tickets to manage because they’ve done such a good job. 

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

I’d like to give a shout-out to Ryan. He’s really helped us out with navigating through the whole process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We don’t have many issues that need resolving because Impact Group has done such a good job setting everything up to begin with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve talked about knowing who to call for what reason. Getting a better picture of the team structure would be an opportunity for improvement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t drag your feet. If you need an IT group to grow with you, they’re the best solution I’ve found by far. I’ve been through three different IT groups that said they would do something, and they turned out to be more smoke and mirrors than actual help.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief information security officer at a commercial printing and mailing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Impact Group?

We needed a risk assessment to fulfill one of our requirements.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

As part of the assessment, they reviewed our policies and procedures. Part of the process is online with a basic questionnaire. Then, they checked our physical security. Finally, they gave us a report with a single score of how we stand in terms of security compared to other companies. They also gave us an action plan on areas that may need attention based on the scoring. We’ve done two risk assessments since then.  

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people from their team, including a salesperson, a facilitator, and a network technician.

How did you come to work with Impact Group?

We asked around and looked online. We wanted a local company that we could have face-to-face contact with. They gave us a proposal that worked for a company of our size.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $10,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our first assessment spanned July 2019–August 2019. We started another in April 2020 and wrapped up in July 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Their action plan is very well designed and checks a lot of boxes for risk assessment. It’s very useful when auditors ask how we’re addressing risks.

How did Impact Group perform from a project management standpoint?

They use technologies that allow them to be efficient. Their project management portal has come a long way since the last time we used it. I was very impressed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very easy to work with. They’re professional, easy-going, and knowledgeable about IT. The whole team understood our needs and didn’t try to sell us a product we didn’t need.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be more aggressive in selling some of their other services. They might have other solutions that we might be interested but they haven’t brought them up. It could be a benefit to their organization.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be honest about where you are in the process. Be comfortable with an automated portal process. It makes it a lot easier for everyone.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

IT consulting firm specializing in data center facilities, data center strategy, data center migrations, operations, cost management, and disaster recovery planning

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Impact Group?

We don't have a full-time IT resource to support our O365/Azure environment

What were your goals for this project?

Implement two-factor authentication to meet many of our state contract requirements

SOLUTION

How did you select Impact Group?

They already provide Tier I desktop support to our team

Describe the project in detail.

Already explained

What was the team composition?

This was a turn-key project. The goal was defined for Impact, and they executed it with little involvement from Excipio's team

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Uh, it works!?

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very seamless. It took onlu a couple of meetings to define and refine the scope.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Again, this was already an existing service provider. Price point was excellent.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None