IT managed services firm Thrive Tuesday acquired Howard Tech Advisors, an Elkridge-based IT managed services firm serving Baltimore, Annapolis and Columbia.
MSP Acquisition: Thrive Buys Managed Services Provider Howard Tech AdvisorsThrive has acquired Howard Tech Advisors, a managed IT services provider (MSP) that supports customers across the Baltimore, Annapolis, and Columbia, Maryland area.
Thrive Acquires Howard Tech Advisors Thrive Acquires Howard Tech AdvisorsThis transaction marks the company’s tenth acquisition since 2016
Thrive Acquires Howard Tech AdvisorsThis transaction marks the company’s tenth acquisition since 2016
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – March 9, 2021 – Thrive, a premier provider of NextGen Managed Services, has acquired Howard Tech Advisors, a leading IT Managed Services firm serving the Baltimore, Annapolis, and Columbia, Maryland area. Continuing to scale its presence in the Mid-Atlantic region, this transaction enables Thrive to extend its NextGen technology platform, including ServiceNow, automation and AI solutions, to a new and loyal customer base.
Howard Tech Advisors, headquartered in Elkridge, Maryland, provides technology managed services to help businesses grow in the Baltimore area. With more than 10 years of industry experience, Howard Tech Advisors utilizes its talented, engaged and dedicated employees with high caliber technical and customer service expertise to deliver strong ROI results for its valued clients.
“We’re very excited to broaden Thrive’s footprint in the Maryland and Mid-Atlantic region by acquiring the highly reputable Howard Tech Advisors,” said Rob Stephenson, CEO at Thrive. “Howard Tech aligns perfectly with our growth strategy as we continue to help optimize our clients’ business application performance with Thrive’s NextGen Platform of Cloud, Security, Networking and Business Continuity services, powered by the automation and self-service capabilities of ServiceNow.”
“From the beginning, Howard Tech has been committed to building community and delivering world-class customer service,” said Ananta Hejeebu, Partner at Howard Tech Advisors. “We’re excited to join the Thrive family and leverage its NextGen solutions to better serve our clients and create growth opportunities for our team members.”
With the completion of this transaction, Howard Tech Advisors will mark Thrive’s tenth acquisition since 2016. In addition to Howard Tech, the company acquired the Apex IT Group in December 2020 and EaseTech in 2019, marking its third transaction in the Mid-Atlantic region under Jason Shirdon, EVP & General Manager, which now serves more than 300 customers with nearly 1oo employees.
For more information about Thrive, click here.
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About Thrive
Thrive is a leading provider of NextGen managed services designed to drive business outcomes through application enablement and optimization. The company’s Thrive5 Methodology utilizes a unique combination of its Application Performance Platform and strategic services to ensure each business application takes advantage of technology that enables peak performance, scale, and the highest level of security. For more information, visit thrivenextgen.com
Thrive: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram
MEDIA CONTACT:
Stephanie Farrell
Director of Corporate Marketing
617-952-0289 | sfarrell@thrivenextgen.com
About Howard Tech Advisors
Since 2009, Howard Tech has been a leading provider of IT managed services to business and non-profit organizations in Maryland. The company’s mission of building community has fueled its growth and enabled it to become a market leader in security, disaster recovery and technical services. For more information, visit howardtechadvisors.com.
Howard Tech: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook
Social Engineering Attacks and BankingA little over a year ago, I spoke at a banking conference. At that time, one of the most concerning areas for the banks and their customers was Business Email Compromise. Banks had started to come up with “kits” for clients that got compromised to help them recover more quickly. Since then, things have only gotten worse.
According to a Mimecast report, 85% of organizations think the volume of web email spoofing is going to remain the same or increase. In 2019, the FBI estimated $1.7 billion was lost due to business email compromise.
There are some obvious things you should be doing.
- Enable Multi-Factor Authentication
- Make sure the Bank (or any website for that matter) is encrypted
- Don’t share your password with anyone
- Log off after you have used the website
But in business, you have to be aware of so much more. You finance department is on LinkedIn. Everyone knows who they are. They are constantly getting emails trying to get them to click things. Only 1 in 5 companies train their employees on how to spot malicious emails. If someone gets into their email, the first thing they are going to do is download everything. Then, they are going to see if there are any vendors that will be sending you money soon. If so, they will email them with a new routing number. What they do is not overly complicated, but $1.7 billion in losses indicates that this low-tech attack is very effective.
- Always train your employees. And don’t just do it once. Constantly have them do short trainings.
- Ask your vendors and your finance department to call, not email, for confirmation on any routing number changes
- If your email has been compromised, email your vendors. Warn them that you have been compromised and that they might try to use a fake domain to change routing numbers.
We only touched upon email in this blog, but there are other areas, SMS, Voice, etc. that can be utilized. Be wary any time money is involved and always follow up with another means of communication.
To learn more about how our team can build customized solutions for your organization, CONTACT US TODAY!
Center of Excellence Digital Transformation Toggle Magazine – Catholic Memorial SchoolEnsuring Education Opportunities During a Pandemic
Thrive’s VP of Channel Sales Recognized as 2021 CRN® Channel ChiefCRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, has named Erik Young, Vice President of Channel Sales at Thrive, to its 2021 list of Channel Chiefs. The prestigious CRN® Channel Chiefs list, released annually, recognizes leading IT channel vendor executives who continually demonstrate outstanding leadership, influence, innovation, and growth.
Young is responsible for the success of Thrive’s Partner Program from on-boarding, client engagement, and management of the channel partner sales team and support team. Erik joined the Thrive team four years ago and has been the driving force behind the company’s channel growth.
“We simplified the process for our partners to find, identify and qualify an opportunity, said Young. “This process allows partners to capitalize on one of the fastest growing areas within their customer base. Our focus is to understand a client’s current IT infrastructure, build a technology roadmap, and support the client.”
Young, who also worked for Access Northeast, Xand and TierPoint, helps deliver Thrive’s services via a single pane of glass with ServiceNow. Young says it’s allowing clients the ability to see more into their architecture than ever before. Bringing Security, Cloud Hosting, Disaster Recovery, Backup, and End-User Support to a central orchestrator is a true benefit for any sized client.
“CRN’s 2021 Channel Chiefs list includes the industry’s biggest channel evangelists, a group of individuals who work tirelessly on behalf of their partners and drive growth through the development of strong partner programs and innovative business strategies that help bring business-critical solutions to market,” said Blaine Raddon, CEO of The Channel Company. “The Channel Company is proud to recognize these channel influencers and looks forward to following their continued success.”
CRN’s 2021 Channel Chiefs list is featured in the February 2021 issue of CRN® Magazine and online at www.CRN.com/ChannelChiefs.