The Company

Since 1995, The Guru has been serving the IT and security needs of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) throughout Southern California. Owner and Founder Richard Papasian brings over two decades of software, hardware, security, and networking experience to The Guru and is the passionate force behind the business.

“IT is a challenging sector, but I love what I do. My background gives me the expertise and insights to troubleshoot situations, resolve issues, educate clients, and provide strong IT environments that ensure business continuity,” says Richard. “This is especially critical today. The cybersecurity landscape is introducing new risks and I’m continually educating clients about threats and social engineering techniques designed to outsmart users. This helps mitigate human error on the customer’s side and also helps me build trusted relationships.”

The Challenge  

Richard’s focus on delivering proactive services has not only helped his clients run better businesses, but has also driven steady growth for The Guru. “Our goal is heading off issues before they become bigger problems that could impact our client’s operations. This becomes much more complex when you’re dealing with small business budgets. To deliver value and drive growth, I need one good product that keeps all client sites secure, uplevels our service, and makes my job easier.”

The Solution

Richard has used CloudCare since 2006 and continues to track its product evolution. “Avast Business CloudCare has become our all-in-one-security solution,” he explains. “It provides us maximum visibility and management capabilities. We can remotely manage and deliver security services very efficiently. It extends the power of our team.”

Through the solution’s cloud-based administration console, Richard can manage all customer sites and networks from a single, central platform. “I don’t know of any other vendor with a better administration portal. I can log in and manage my AV, content filtering, and all other security services for clients through one pane of glass. I don’t have to touch a system physically to do anything. The interface works really well and everything is managed from the console. It’s phenomenal.”

The Results

Service efficiencies gained from using CloudCare have saved Richard enough time to pursue accounts with larger clients. “CloudCare has helped me simplify my solution set, and that saves me time dealing with multiple solutions that are not always easy to manage. I’m able to streamline my service delivery, improve efficiency, and enhance client management. This allows more time to focus on building my business.”

Richard credits CloudCare with providing his team the following benefits:

• 15-20 hours a week saved using the CloudCare central management capabilities
• Efficiency improved by 50%-75% using the CloudCare remote support and integrated security services
• Extra time to pursue new business thanks to efficiencies using CloudCare to perform system upgrades  

In addition to the above, Richard is also reaping unexpected boons from CloudCare’s real-time alerts. “I had recently upgraded a client’s antivirus,” he tells us. “A few days later, I received a CloudCare alert indicating CloudCare had been uninstalled for this client. I thought it was odd that the client would uninstall his own software, so I immediately called and he explained that a technician from Microsoft had phoned him, requesting access to his system for malware cleanup, quoting him a service charge. The caller fooled my customer enough to allow remote access into his system.”

“I was still on the phone with my client when a van pulled up to his door to collect the service charge. I was able to intervene using CloudCare’s remote access to run scans and reinstall applications. These types of scams can be an easy way to catch busy or unaware users off guard. Fortunately, using CloudCare, we can see any change in system status and behavior before it can cause damage. This is one more way CloudCare provides a full-service security solution for my client base.”

To give your own business easy and reliable full-service security, download a free trial of CloudCare today and experience the efficiencies it provides.