Author Archives: Megan Carnes

Empowering a National Mission

The Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT) serves as the national voice for more than 11,000 occupational therapists across Canada. Though their team is relatively small with 35 staff members, CAOT has a big mission: to support and advance the practice of occupational therapy nationwide. Headquartered in Ottawa with team members distributed from coast to coast, CAOT is representative of a growing number of associations facing the need for digital transformation in a hybrid and increasingly remote world.

For years, CAOT relied on a traditional hosted server infrastructure to support its operations, but with the pandemic accelerating remote work and new technologies offering more cost-effective and flexible alternatives, the organization decided it was time to evolve. That’s when they turned to their trusted managed service provider (MSP), Thrive, for guidance and support in making a major change: a full migration to SharePoint and Microsoft’s cloud environment.

Building a Roadmap to the Cloud 

“We actually built our IT roadmap internally,” explained Randy St. Louis, Senior Manager of Membership, Business Development & Information Technology at CAOT. “We knew we wanted to move to the cloud to support our transition to a fully remote office and reduce reliance on VPN access and physical infrastructure.” The team recognized that maintaining a hosted server was no longer cost-effective—especially when they were already paying for Microsoft 365 licenses that came with ample storage and collaboration tools.

Once CAOT had outlined its priorities, they engaged their MSP to help bring the vision to life. Thrive didn’t just execute—they enhanced the plan with expert insight, project coordination, and dedicated technical resources. “We went to them and said, here’s what we want to do. And they helped us figure out the ‘how,’ including the budget and timeline,” St. Louis shared.

Seamless SharePoint Migration: “It Couldn’t Have Gone Any Better” 

The SharePoint migration marked a major shift in how CAOT’s staff accessed and collaborated on documents. Gone were the days of VPN frustrations and slow access to shared drives. In their place were cloud-based file sharing, integrated workflows, and simplified, real-time collaboration.

“The process couldn’t have gone any better from a project management perspective,” Randy noted. “We had a dedicated project team that was extremely responsive. If one engineer didn’t have an answer, they could pull in another expert immediately. That kind of bench strength is something we wouldn’t have had with a smaller, local provider.”

Support didn’t end when the migration was complete. Months later, CAOT still relies on key contacts from the Thrive team. “I reached out to them just last week with a SharePoint question, and they got back to me with a solution within half an hour. That kind of access is invaluable.”

Training, Adoption, and Cultural Change

Migrating technology is one thing—getting people to use it effectively is another. Recognizing that the new environment would be a major shift for staff, CAOT prioritized user training. “People were used to saving files on a drive and attaching them to emails. Now everything’s in the cloud, autosaving, and easily shared, it’s a big adjustment.”

To support adoption, Thrive provided a trainer who delivered several training sessions to CAOT’s staff. This hands-on approach helped ease the learning curve and equipped staff to make the most of the tools available. As CAOT continues to move forward with its roadmap, training remains a top priority.

Tangible Impact: Reduced Costs and Fewer Tickets

Moving to SharePoint has already delivered measurable benefits. Beyond eliminating the $8-9,000 CAD annual server maintenance costs, the organization has seen a noticeable reduction in support tickets.

“After the migration, we saw a significant drop in tickets. Some of that is the luck of the draw, but overall, I’d say we’ve cut down on tickets by over 50%. And that number is only going to improve once we complete our Active Directory migration.”

From a financial perspective, the organization expects the SharePoint migration to pay for itself within two years. A similar return on investment is anticipated for the Active Directory project currently underway. “We’re spending more upfront, but over three years, our total IT costs will actually be lower than if we’d kept our old setup.” Thrive’s flexibility in spreading the project cost over monthly payments helps to make these modernization projects a reality for CAOT.

Choosing Service Over Shortcuts

As part of its due diligence, CAOT explored options with other local MSPs—both when their previous contract expired and again after committing to the SharePoint migration. To make sure they are effectively using their budget, they review suppliers at each contract renewal. While some alternatives offered slightly lower costs, they couldn’t match Thrive’s depth of resources or structured support model.

“The deciding factor wasn’t price. It was the project experience. The SharePoint migration went so smoothly, and we had such strong support throughout, that it made the decision to stick with Thrive easy.”

That level of service, according to CAOT, is worth the trade-off of not always having a familiar voice on the other end of the support line. “Yes, you sometimes get someone new when you call. But we’ve never had an issue getting the help we need,” said St. Louis.

Final Word

When asked why CAOT renewed their partnership with Thrive, the answer was simple: “It came down to the project experience. We were on the fence, but the support we received, especially from the project team, made it clear that sticking with them was the right call.”

As a national organization supporting thousands of professionals, CAOT understands the value of collaboration, care, and commitment. With a strategic IT partner by their side, they’re well-positioned to keep delivering on that mission, securely and efficiently, in the cloud.

“Ultimately, it comes down to access to resources. Having that dedicated bench strength, having someone I can call when I’m stuck—it’s made all the difference.” – Randy St. Louis, Senior Manager of Membership, Business Development & Information Technology, CAOT

About Thrive

Thrive delivers global technology outsourcing for cybersecurity, Cloud, networking, and other complex IT requirements. Thrive’s NextGen platform enables customers to increase business efficiencies through standardization, scalability, and automation, delivering oversized technology returns on investment (ROI). They accomplish this with advisory services, vCISO, vCIO, consulting, project implementation, solution architects, and a best-in-class subscription-based technology platform. Thrive delivers exceptional high-touch service through its POD approach of subject matter experts and global 24x7x365 SOC, NOC, and centralized services teams. Learn more at www.thrivenextgen.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

Welcome back to another installment of our “Thrive Spotlight” blog series. 

Our featured employee is Matthew Palmer. As a Senior Account Manager, Matthew manages some of the largest and most complex New York-based Financial Services clients at Thrive. You could think of Matt as a quarterback – leading internal Thrive teams by example and navigating the intricacies of account management. 

While he lives in northern New Jersey, and works remotely most of the time, Matt can be found in the office once a week with the Manhattan team. Outside of work, he is an avid runner, running every day to prepare him for several half marathons and the marathon he’s completed. Regular hikes with his dog are a little slower paced! A connoisseur of wine and bourbon, Matt has visited the Kentucky bourbon trail and Napa several times. One trip to Napa included a proposal – she said yes!  Spending time with his wife and two beautiful daughters is the highlight of every day. 

Hi Matt!  Can you tell us about your background and how you came to Thrive?  

I worked in hardware sales (printers, scanners, consumables, etc.) for six years prior to coming to Thrive. I wanted to break into an industry that relied less on hardware (at this time it was barely post-COVID, so the supply chain was a mess!) and had a bright future. When I started, it was eye opening, to say the least, and it took me a while to truly understand what our customers need and how to support them. However, I had great mentors along the way, and I was able to use the myriad of resources we have at Thrive to make sure I had the knowledge I needed to succeed. I am happy to now be one of those resources and help others. 

Where did you go to school or get training?  

I am a Rutgers University graduate; I received my bachelor’s degree in 2012 and my MBA in 2017. Other than that, it’s been learning on the job and retaining as much information as possible along the way. 

What do you most enjoy about working for Thrive?  

There are two specific characteristics about Thrive that I love. For one, we sell basically everything in the IT space, and this makes it much easier for us to be the one provider for a company. Great customer relationships built on trust essentially eliminate the need for them to shop around for other services because they know they can rely on Thrive. Because of the variety of products and services we offer, we have a lot of people with a lot of knowledge, all coming from different backgrounds. The second thing I love about Thrive is the people. It sounds crazy because you’d think everyone could say this about  the company they work for, but Thrive’s employees really care, especially the people at the top. I’ve pulled  executive level employees into meetings for so many different reasons because we all share the common goal of wanting to make our customers happy and support their businesses. One thing I say to every new employee that I work with is, “balance is key to our job.” Finding a way to make our customers love us and be an advocate for us, while at the same time introducing new solutions that can help them achieve their goals can be very difficult to do. Again, it starts with trust and communication. 

Are there any recent exciting projects at Thrive you can tell us about?  

 Any time we have a new solution, it’s exciting for the Account Management team. It’s sort of the grown-up version of getting a new toy to play with. You need to learn about it and understand it and then get the confidence to go out and talk about it. What we do is all about confidence – in ourselves, our team, our mission, and our level of service. Thrive is always adding new solutions that are the right fit for us and our customers. 

Are you interested in learning more about Thrive? Click here! 

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for the latest news, and continue checking our blog for more in our “Thrive Employee Spotlight” series. Until next time… 

Just over a year ago, Change Healthcare was the target of the largest medical data breach in U.S. history. The cyberattack impacted over 190 million people in the U.S. and halted the healthcare technology company’s systems, causing months of outages.

The managed services market is off to a powerful start in 2025, with merger and acquisition (M&A) activity surging past $1 billion in disclosed deals during the first quarter (Q1) alone.

But the real story goes deeper than the numbers. According to the Drake Star Q1 2025 MSP Market Update, artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer just a tool – it’s changing how managed service providers (MSPs) operate at every level, from support tickets to strategy.

This article explores how automation and smart tech are changing the MSP industry, and why investors are backing providers that can scale quickly, deliver more value, and stay ahead of client needs.

For MSPs that are looking to make the wise move of going deeper on cybersecurity services, expanding to become an MSSP is one notable option that many are considering right now.

But to be a “true” MSSP requires a major investment that not all MSPs are going to be positioned to make, according to Bill McLaughlin, CEO of Foxborough, Mass.-based service provider Thrive. The company operates multiple Security Operations Center (SOC) locations worldwide, allowing it to provide 24×7 managed security services to customers.

In 2025, many customers “want somebody who’s got expertise in being able to provide security around their enterprise, have the ability to manage it with a SOC 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” McLaughlin said.

Cyberattacks continue to rise, impacting businesses across industries and of all sizes. The severity of cyberattacks is only growing too – in fact, the number of businesses that have experienced a data breach of more than $1M has increased significantly year-over-year, rising from 27% to 36%. Along with costly business disruption, cyberattacks can also result in the loss of consumer trust. According to Statista Research, 56% of consumers said they are not likely at all to trust a company that had experienced a breach with their personal data involved. Organizations must improve their cyber resilience – not just for the sake of business operations, but to maintain customer confidence.  

Welcome back to another installment of our “Thrive Spotlight” blog series. 

Our featured employee is Zach Des Marais, Director, Corporate Finance & Development.  Throughout Zach’s 7 years at Thrive, his role has greatly transformed.  Currently, his team is responsible for overseeing all of Thrive’s strategic finance/M&A activity.  They are directly involved with all aspects of acquisitions including sourcing, valuation, and managing diligence.  Zach has been involved in 20 out of 23 acquisitions, which has been very exciting for him.   

Zach lives in Foxborough, MA and works out of our Foxborough office.  Outside of deciding which acquisition will come next, Zach likes to go golfing, skiing, and spending time on the water with his wife, their new son Jackson, and dog, Archie.  Zach is also a big Boston sports fan.  

Hi Zach!  Can you tell us about your background and how you came to Thrive?  

I was working in Private Equity consulting and wanted to move into corporate development with a growing company.  I had initially interviewed with Thrive when they were in their old Norwood office, but they were in the middle of an acquisition at the time, so I didn’t end up joining until a few months later.  I stayed in touch with Rob Stephenson and Jay Adams, and when the time was right, I came back and interviewed and ended up joining Thrive that day.  

Where did you go to school or get training?  

I attended Bentley University in Waltham, MA and studied Economics-Finance and Quantitative Perspectives (applied math).  

What do you most enjoy about working for Thrive?  

The people!  Whenever we are talking to a potential acquisition, the first thing I bring up is our amazing team and culture.  I am very fortunate that I get to work with an awesome group of people that are dedicated to growing Thrive into the best MSP in the world!  

Are there any recent exciting projects at Thrive you can tell us about?  

Last year, we closed on our first acquisition in the Carolinas, The Longleaf Network, based out of Greensboro, NC.  We had been talking with their team for a while, so it was great to finally get it over the finish line.  It was also our second shortest diligence process ever, going from signed LOI to close in just 34 days. 

Are you interested in learning more about Thrive? Click here! 

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for the latest news, and continue checking our blog for more in our “Thrive Employee Spotlight” series. Until next time… 

Thrive today announced its new Compliance Center. The Compliance Center provides mid-market businesses and public sector organizations with valuable content that aligns with industry-specific needs and international regulations.

The list represents the 50 fastest-growing private companies in Massachusetts  

Boston, MA, May 22, 2025 – Thrive, a global technology outsourcing provider for cybersecurity, Cloud, and traditional managed service provider (MSP) services, announced today that it was ranked #10 in the Boston Business Journal’s 2025 Fast 50. This marks the fifth consecutive year Thrive has been named as one of the fastest-growing private companies in Massachusetts, and the second year in a row it has placed in the top 10. 

Thrive works with leading organizations to ensure their digital transformations are secure, cost-effective, and future-ready. By offering a variety of services and solutions that address today’s most critical cybersecurity and technology gaps, Thrive gives businesses customized services to meet their unique business needs and allows them to focus on what they do best. This approach has led to continued growth for Thrive. The company has completed 17 acquisitions in the last 5 years and now employs over 1,450 people across the U.S., UK, Canada, and APAC regions.  

“By offering world-class service coupled with NextGen solutions to solve some of the most prominent challenges organizations are facing, Thrive has found a winning formula that has allowed us to continue to grow, expand our national and international footprint, innovate, and hire the best talent,” said Bill McLaughlin, Thrive’s CEO. “Thrive’s remarkable growth is the direct result of the hard work of our employees in the Boston region and beyond. This team has propelled us to reach new heights – and we’re not done yet.” 

The BBJ Fast 50 ranks companies based on revenue growth from 2021 to 2024, recognizing businesses that have demonstrated strong leadership, innovation, and resilience in a dynamic economic landscape. The final list was revealed at an awards ceremony on May 13, celebrating the companies helping to drive Boston’s economic momentum. 

To learn more, visit Thrive’s website. If you’re interested in working for Thrive’s award-winning team, visit Thrive’s careers page.  

About Thrive

Thrive delivers global technology outsourcing for cybersecurity, Cloud, networking, and other complex IT requirements. Thrive’s NextGen platform enables customers to increase business efficiencies through standardization, scalability, and automation, delivering oversized technology returns on investment (ROI). They accomplish this with advisory services, vCISO, vCIO, consulting, project implementation, solution architects, and a best-in-class subscription-based technology platform. Thrive delivers exceptional high-touch service through its POD approach of subject matter experts and global 24x7x365 SOC, NOC, and centralized services teams. Learn more at www.thrivenextgen.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

Contacts

Hannah Johnston

thrive@v2comms.com

Thrive Enables Organizations to Protect Data, Enhance Security, and Meet Regulatory Standards  

Boston, MA, May 20, 2025 – Thrive, a global technology outsourcing provider for cybersecurity, Cloud, and IT managed services, today announced its new Compliance Center. The Compliance Center provides mid-market businesses and public sector organizations with valuable content that aligns with industry-specific needs and international regulations, delivering comprehensive support for diverse industries. 

As technology continues to advance, global regulatory expansion continues to advance protections around personal data from cyberattacks or other misuse. With new and evolving standards appearing on the international stage, such as DORA, the EU AI Act, and data privacy laws that differ region to region, maintaining compliance and seamless operations is becoming increasingly complex. With streamlined, compliance-friendly processes and technology in place, mid-market businesses and public sector organizations can focus on growth and innovation. Thrive’s tailored, scalable solutions align with industry-specific needs and international regulations. 

“Whether it’s industry-specific or government-enforced, organizations are facing stricter and ever-changing regulations to ensure they are protecting their users’ data,” said Bill McLaughlin, CEO of Thrive. “Thrive empowers mid-market organizations across the globe to meet regulatory requirements, improve operations, and achieve business goals. By leveraging robust guidelines, best practices, and automation, Thrive optimizes security and mitigates potential fines.” 

Thrive currently supports organizations across various industries – including financial services, healthcare, and government operations– that want to maintain compliance in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Thrive services can effectively help modernize IT infrastructure, managing risk in data protection, business continuity planning, strategic consulting, vCISO services, and secure Cloud operations.  

The Compliance Center builds on Thrive’s teams of subject matter experts, including supporting organizations with DORA regulations, CMMC, CJIS, and more. Thrive experts are also trained to address specific regulatory requirements and policy areas, including HIPAA and SEC. For more information on our newest service, Cyber Essentials (CE) and Cyber Essentials Plus (CE+) consulting, auditing, and certification, see here. To learn more about these offerings, visit Thrive’s website here. 

About Thrive

Thrive delivers global technology outsourcing for cybersecurity, Cloud, networking, and other complex IT requirements. Thrive’s NextGen platform enables customers to increase business efficiencies through standardization, scalability, and automation, delivering oversized technology returns on investment (ROI). They accomplish this with advisory services, vCISO, vCIO, consulting, project implementation, solution architects, and a best-in-class subscription-based technology platform. Thrive delivers exceptional high-touch service through its POD approach of subject matter experts and global 24x7x365 SOC, NOC, and centralized services teams. Learn more at www.thrivenextgen.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

Contacts

Hannah Johnston

thrive@v2comms.com