On Air with Pinnacle

Scott Jenkins, representing Keelpoint, a prominent wealth management firm in Huntsville, Alabama, expressed his gratitude and appreciation for the exceptional support and services provided by Pinnacle Business Systems. With over $2.8 billion in assets under management, Keelpoint relies on Pinnacle to manage various critical aspects of their technology infrastructure, including SOC (Security Operations Center), ITAS (Information Technology Advisory Services), compute, data center, Microsoft Office 365, and Azure.Jenkins acknowledged the ongoing partnership with Pinnacle, highlighting their collaborative efforts in rolling out next-generation firewalls across all Keelpoint offices. This endeavor represents a significant step towards enhancing security and safeguarding Keelpoint's sensitive information, ensuring a robust defense against evolving cyber threats.While extending gratitude to his team members—Ben Brandy, James Terry, and Elgin—for their dedication and efforts, Jenkins also expressed his well wishes for Pinnacle's continued success in the year ahead. This recognition underscores the trust and confidence that Keelpoint has in Pinnacle's expertise and ability to deliver top-notch technology solutions.The success of Keelpoint's technology infrastructure can be attributed, in large part, to Pinnacle's comprehensive range of services and their commitment to understanding their customers' specific business needs. By providing managed services across multiple domains, Pinnacle ensures that Keelpoint's technology remains secure, reliable, and aligned with industry best practices. The partnership between Keelpoint and Pinnacle exemplifies the strength of a collaborative approach, wherein Pinnacle's technical expertise and dedication seamlessly integrate with Keelpoint's operational requirements, fostering a long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationship.As Keelpoint and Pinnacle move forward together, their shared commitment to excellence, security, and innovation will continue to drive the success of Keelpoint's technology infrastructure. Pinnacle's unwavering support and proactive approach will undoubtedly empower Keelpoint to navigate the ever-evolving technological landscape and deliver exceptional wealth management services to their valued clients.

Britney Bohas, the Director of Alliance at Axio, addressed the sales team with an informative and engaging discussion about the Axio 360 product and its capabilities. Her insights and guidance shed light on the importance of tailoring pitches and demos to address the specific pain points and roles of potential customers. With a focus on effective communication and understanding, Axio empowers sales teams to drive success by offering a unique perspective on cybersecurity concerns and expressing them in financial terms.Bohas emphasized the significance of considering the audience when delivering an elevator pitch. By understanding the role and responsibilities of the person they are engaging with, sales professionals can adapt their pitch to suit the individual's needs. For security leaders, the Axio 360 SaaS solution offers a dynamic, living-breathing assessment that moves beyond traditional point-in-time, excel-based spreadsheets. By leveraging a standardized framework within the platform, security leaders can gain a comprehensive view of their program's historical progression, current status, and future aspirations over the next eighteen to thirty-six months. Additionally, Axio 360 helps identify gaps and strengths in the program, enabling the creation of unique cyber event scenarios backed by defensible financials. This capability not only validates controls or project spends but also facilitates buy-in from executive colleagues and provides comprehensive reporting for meetings with top-level decision-makers.When engaging with CFOs or executives with less technical comprehension, the pitch focuses on using Axio 360 as a tool to facilitate open communication about cybersecurity concerns in financial terms. The platform allows for tracking improvements made by the security team over time and precise budgeting. Particularly for executives and board members concerned about the potential impact of ransomware events, Axio 360 can express the risk in tangible financial terms and propose tools or projects that deliver the most effective risk reduction. The platform also extends its assessment to insurance investments, ensuring that coverage aligns with the organization's risk profile across various policies.Bohas highlighted the importance of addressing the pain points of the audience in every pitch or demo, emphasizing that a one-size-fits-all approach is not suitable. Each sales professional is encouraged to develop their own pitch style, and Axio is committed to supporting them by providing sales training and enablement resources on their online training portal. This initiative aims to equip the sales team with the tools and knowledge necessary to engage in meaningful conversations and optimize their sales strategies.

Pedro Serrano, the Chief Information Officer at Grand River Dam Authority, highlighted his experience with Pinnacle Business Systems and shed light on three crucial reasons why he chose the company for their technology solutions. Pinnacle's unwavering commitment to understanding and catering to their customers' unique environments, along with their dedication to providing valuable guidance, sets them apart as a trusted partner in the industry.First and foremost, Serrano emphasized that Pinnacle genuinely cares about his environment, which translates into a heightened sense of security. Unlike other technology solution providers who may prioritize sales over understanding their clients' specific needs, Pinnacle takes the time to assess and comprehend the intricacies of their customers' businesses. By doing so, they can recommend products and services that seamlessly integrate into the existing environment, ensuring a harmonious and efficient operation. This level of care not only instills confidence but also creates a solid foundation for a lasting partnership.Moreover, Pinnacle's dedication to prioritizing their customers' best interests truly sets them apart. Serrano expressed gratitude for their ability to identify alternative solutions when a particular product does not align with his requirements. Instead of pushing an ill-fitting product for the sake of a sale, Pinnacle's team offers valuable insights and proposes better-suited alternatives. This consultative approach showcases their commitment to delivering genuine value to their clients, surpassing mere transactional interactions and fostering long-term relationships built on trust.Pinnacle's remarkable ability to combine expertise, market research, and customer-centricity enables them to stay ahead of the curve and provide flexible choices to their customers. As Serrano shared, Pinnacle's team constantly researches market trends, ensuring they remain at the forefront of technological advancements. By staying ahead of the pack, they can continue to offer tailored solutions that address today's business challenges. This proactive approach positions Pinnacle as a reliable technology partner capable of guiding organizations through the rapidly evolving landscape of information technology.

Pinnacle Business Systems' commitment to understanding the specific needs and challenges faced by organizations sets them apart as a trusted partner. Their expertise in providing tailored solutions, while remaining conscious of budgetary constraints, enables non-profits to fulfill their missions effectively. Pinnacle's emphasis on building strong relationships further reinforces their position as a reliable and dedicated technology solution provider. As organizations continue their important work, Pinnacle stands ready to support them with innovative solutions and exceptional service.

Arctic Wolf's purpose-built platform sets them apart, offering a comprehensive solution that leverages existing technology investments without being tied to any specific vendor. With a vendor-agnostic approach, Arctic Wolf's platform integrates seamlessly with various tools, ensuring optimal functionality and flexibility.At the heart of Arctic Wolf's services is their commitment to 24/7 support, tailored to meet the unique needs of businesses in real-time. Whether it's detecting threats, managing vulnerabilities with their managed risk service, overseeing cloud security, or providing comprehensive security awareness training for end-users, Arctic Wolf has the expertise and resources to support organizations at every step.Partnering with Pinnacle Business Systems, Arctic Wolf strengthens their reach and capabilities, delivering robust security operations solutions to businesses across various industries. Together, they offer a powerful combination of expertise, cutting-edge technology, and dedicated support to enhance organizations' security posture and protect against evolving cyber threats.

Immerse yourself in the excitement of the golf tournament, where Pinnacle showcases their vibrant culture, dedication to customer satisfaction, and the power of strong partnerships. Join Pinnacle Business Systems as they demonstrate their unwavering commitment to their team, partners, and customers in their quest to create a secure and thriving business environment.

Join Pinnacle Business Systems as they embark on a visit to their partner, Arctic Wolf. The Pinnacle team and Arctic Wolf representatives come together for a fun-filled day, starting with an entertaining round of putt-putt golf. The adventure continues as they attend a thrilling Minnesota Twins game, enjoying America's favorite pastime together.

Cybercrime is accelerating, with over 500,000 incidents reported last year. It costs businesses money, time and their reputation.However, organizations can act proactively to reduce their risk and stay on top of trends. Sharing some insights on the state of cybersecurity, Rob Greggs, Senior Systems Engineer at Arctic Wolf, joined On Air host Brandy Semore.“This stuff is real. It’s not just a cyber risk; it’s a business risk, and the statistics bear that out,” Greggs said.With the attack surface broadening as networks become more sophisticated and more devices connect to it, such as IoT elements. Greggs described the three most concerning risks right now: advance persistent threat (APT), malware and ransomware.“APT is a group of treat actors that go after an organization to establish a place to carry out threats, moving laterally through the network. The mean time to discover such an attack is 206 days,” Greggs shared.Via an APT or other means, threat actors can introduce malware, which typically gets inadvertently downloaded by a user. Ransomware is malware to the next level and involves seizing and encrypting data and holding it for ransom.“The common thread of these is human as an entry point,” Greggs explained.To secure a company and its data, it needs many tools to prevent and detect. “The problem is not the tools; they are there. It’s the people needed to watch those tools. Bad things are happening, and no one’s watching,” Greggs noted.To attain this visibility, organizations should take a cooperative approach between IT and application engineers. End-user awareness is also key, but Greggs cautioned that, “You want to educate them, not train them. Make sure they understand the risk and what they should and shouldn’t do.”

Virtualization is a hot topic in IT and, when achieved, can help organizations find new agility, flexibility and scalability for their IT infrastructure, lessen the burden on IT professionals, and generate cost savings.On this episode of On Air with Pinnacle, Brandy Semore, Chief Architect, Partners, Red Hat and Jim Garrett Senior Director, Professional Services Engagement, Pinnacle Business Systems talked listeners through the ins and outs of this trending term.“When I think of virtualization, first of all, the thing that I think about is that it’s really just a buzzword at this point,” Garrett said. “The simple explanation is that you have a virtual version of something that’s generally used for some type of execution.”For example, digitally separating a physical hard drive into two “virtual” hard drives is an example of virtualization.There are five key concepts in virtualization, Garrett said:Operating System VirtualizationServer VirtualizationApplication VirtualizationNetwork VirtualizationStorage VirtualizationA lot of virtualization, today, is done via software. That’s a huge differentiator from the early days of connectivity.Red Hat offers open-source virtualization, meaning it isn’t tied to proprietary licenses. Red Hat’s kernel-based virtual machines, or KVM, leverage open source virtualization technology that turns Linux into a hypervisor.“This is a really important point to understand,” Garrett said. “[If you’ve got Linux], you’ve got KVM. You don’t need to buy any additional software. … You can deploy and run virtual machines by the dozens simply because you’ve chosen Linux as your operating system.”

The business world relies on data; there's no escaping it, and there shouldn't be a desire to. Sophisticated data analysis is making business more efficient across the board. On this episode of the MarketScale Industrial IoT Podcast, Lane Leach, Senior Systems Engineer for Pinnacle Business Systems, sat down with host Sean Heath and they discussed the complex challenge of backing up a company’s critical systems. The most reliable way to recover from a catastrophic data corruption event is to restore the necessary systems from their backups. As Leach points out, for many companies, those backups simply were not created, whether through oversight or lack of priority. “It doesn’t take more than a few minutes of having that be unavailable to be a quick reminder of how important it really is," he said. The stark impact of not having a comprehensive backup plan is clearly reinforced during a crisis, according to Leach. “It could cripple your business to the point where you may have to go out of business,” he said. Leach explained that not all dangers are unforeseen. He described a situation occurring in California to illustrate the need to prepare for expected issues, as well. “Because of fires, you have the major electrical utility provider making a proactive decision, in their case, to have power outages. Well, imagine your business being in one of those impacted and affected counties and not having power for several days,” he said. “Where is your data? Is that something your business can withstand?” The majority of businesses focus on the wrong side of the data backup equation, offered Leach. “If we approach high availability and business continuity from a perspective of the data, and not the equipment, let’s start there,” he suggested. “The place to start is: what can I live without?”

There are times in a company's life where it could use a hand from a third-party expert. Whether it’s a complex new system that your company is implementing or a complex problem that you need help seeing the solution for, IT consulting companies exist to ease the burden. But what if you’re a small company, have a small budget, and don’t really know where to start? Our guest today explained that companies have a misconception that bringing in an IT consulting partner is a luxury for larger, more complex companies. She argues that that's not the case. Host Shelby Skrhak sat down with Brandy Semore, director of professional services for Pinnacle Business Solutions, who shared four solid reasons to partner with an IT consultant. Unbiased and focused attention, specialization, money savings, and taking on the burden of risk are the top reasons customers seek to partner with IT consultants like Pinnacle Business Solutions, Semore said. “Offering specialization, I feel, is one of the most impactful benefits of being a VAR, or value-added reseller,” she said. “That way you don’t have to spend the time and money researching these solutions or getting trained because we absorb that burden.” On the podcast, Semore broke down the importance of all four reasons, gave examples of potential cost savings, explained what she means by taking on the burden of risk for a company, and shared how an unbiased third party can help find solutions to IT headaches.

Few industries change as rapidly as the tech industry. With ever-evolving telecommunications and tech innovations pushing change, tech companies must be prepped to turn on a dime and meet the demands of their customers wanting the stay on the leading edge. So how does an IT company brand itself to be relevant now, and well into the future where the tech landscape may look different? We answer this question today talking with Amber Lawhun, VP of Marketing & Partner Programs for Pinnacle Business Systems. When Pinnacle began 30 years ago, it was an IBM-only solution for companies. But at the time, this is what businesses needed. Over the course of three decades and the rapid evolution of tech, businesses have grown new demands. Now, clients come to Pinnacle looking for a full-scale solution to their IT needs: Security, speed, and a comprehensive solution centered around their business outcomes. Pinnacle has stayed relevant by listening to its customers' needs and catering its services to meet those new demands. As Pinnacle rounded its 30 year anniversary, it needed a facelift to reflect the new services it provided, and a tag line that highlighted their core principle and the key to their evergreen success--“Attention you deserve.” This tag line embodies the company’s main feature--a keen ear for listening to its client's needs. Over the years, Pinnacle has remained agile to the needs of its customer base and has put proven solutions in front of them based on their needs. Amber attributes the key to their success to their ability to listen, as well as staying authentic and true to its client base. “Customers are looking for trust,” she said, and prefer “substance over flash.” As a successful, long-standing IT company, Amber’s advice to other IT companies navigating a rapidly changing marketplace is simply this: “Bring value and listen to the customer’s needs.”

Cloud computing is changing the way that people are looking at their own business needs and how they can scale their businesses, making them more efficient and more profitable. But what are the demands and challenges that come along with this cloud computing climate, and how can we address those changing demands, especially in terms of data management? Pinnacle Business Systems Solutions Architect Matt Powers sees the market from a data management perspective, as well as how the cloud has opened up a new world of possibilities for business solutions. This includes lowering capital and operational costs, reducing hardware refreshes, and, possibly most importantly, peace of mind for upper-level managers and IT consultants alike, especially in terms of backing up data. “Backups and backup and recovery is critical to their business but kind of an afterthought as they’re solving the production, trying to figure out how to get a higher return on their investment and backup is not usually the forefront of that,” Powers said. “Cloud is an easy way to evolve the strategies that they’ve had for years, backup tape, or disk to disk, to an easier approach.” Powers also discusses how to walk each client through identifying their needs. After all, some clients do not even realize the vast possibilities that are open to them, how to scale their business up or down, and how to leverage existing infrastructure to make the transition to the cloud nothing but smooth sailing.

Ever since the dawn of High Speed Internet, becoming technologically literate has become easier than ever. Need to learn a new skill? Head to YouTube, forum pages, etc. But for a later generation of business owners who either grew up without modern technology or haven’t learned how to engage with it on a major level, explaining to them the benefits of how emerging technology could improve their business can be a real challenge. This "IT language barrier," according to Chad Mantooth from Pinnacle Business Systems, is one of the most difficult challenges that members of the IT field have to deal with when talking to clients. Today, Chad, along with his protégé Scott Courtney, came on the podcast to discuss his mentorship, the IT language barrier, the dichotomy between “needs versus costs”, and what’s on the horizon for IT. “I want to show the customer that what I am doing is customer centric. I’m trying to meet the customer’s specific needs and business goals," Mantooth said.