Video: Tego Marketing VP Talks Navigating Evolving CMMC Compliance

hey Channel insiders welcome back for episode two of Channel Insider partner POV your source for untapped opportunities and unfiltered opinions in the it Channel all to help you make Better Business decisions I'm your host Katie boso and I am so thrilled with all the support and feedback we got on episode 1 and I cannot wait to share more with you in episode 2 I had the pleasure of speaking with Jennifer vosberg vice president of marketing at Teo and fun fact in Latin Teo means to cover or protect which will tell you everything you need to know about this company welcome Jennifer hi Katie thank you so much for having me it's a pleasure to be here today it's a pleasure to have you and thank you so much for coming on I'm excited to get into it because you folks cover so much at Teo so why don't I first start letting you by letting you give me a whole rundown of what is Teo a little bit about what you do and who do you serve who primarily are your customers great so Teo is an IT services consulting company what really makes us unique is that we are able to offer a multitude of solutions we have a hybrid solution approach so what that means is we can um provide and support hybrid public or private private Cloud Solutions including our own we have a security audit and compliance team that provides guidance and Consulting and services around cyber security internal audit and any compliance regulations we also have um the ability to support professional IT services projects and some of those projects include engineering residencies where we can augment Staffing with our own engineering team so we really do take a hybrid approach to supporting in our clients because we're able to offer them a multitude of solutions so I know that Teo is a registered practitioner organization can you break down what exactly it means to be an RPO and how is that something that sets you apart from not only your competitors but should also really shine as a benefit for your customers absolutely so too is considered an RPO registered practition organization which means that we have the ability to support clients or organizations in the dib space who need cmmc preassessments we can do things like scoping controlled unclassified information in their environment assessing their controls against any of the cmmc or nist 800 171 domains and objectives we identify security gaps we prioritize those gaps in the order that they should be corrected and develop plans of actions and Milestones or what they call poams um and what that does is as the RPO we can come in and do the pre-assessment to help them re-evaluate their supplier performance risk system score sprs I know that's a lot of acronyms but essentially what we do is we help organizations who are in the dib space get compliant with the cmmc regul regulation um we've been working on this for about 2 years The Dodd finally published the rule making at the end of last year so now it's getting a lot more attention because organizations are realizing they need to have this compliance they need to be compliant with it they need to you know reach out to an organization who can help them with that and there are fewer rpos than when we first started this process 2 years ago so that really does give us a competitive Advantage because one we're an RPO we can offer that service and two in addition to the compliance and security aspect that we're offering here we have access to our own engineers and to our own experts on the it side who can help mitigate and correct some of those gaps that we're going to find when we're conducting those pre-assessments so I'm just going to build on a little bit about what you were saying about cmmc compliance because like you said there was a lot of acronyms in there and that's our entire industry we've just broken it down into letters so I want to go over a little bit more for our audience what exactly the cmmc compliance is as you said cyber security maturity model certification it's a framework that was developed by the Department of Defense the US Department of Defense to enhance the cyber security posture of Defense contractors um so it started primarily in 2020 but it's been designed to ensure that contractors handling sensitive information meet specific cyber security standards and it's phased implementation of what they call cmmc 2.0 like you said began in May 2023 and it's expected to be fully implemented by October 2025 so it's a lot going on uh and in general what you can expect is now some of the dod contractors are requiring their subcontractors to meet this compliance as well so this is a lot more you know I say red tape but it's important and it should stand out to customers as there's a lot more barbed wire being wrapped around your data to make sure that it stays safe one thing I also want to touch on that you said Jennifer there's fewer rpos out there now that we're here is there a reason for that is the pandemic something to blame for that or is it just many organizations couldn't keep up with the compliance um I would say that it's mostly because the dod kind of kept kicking the deadline down the road and so organizations that were rpos realized like hey this is not going to pan out for us we're going to abandon this and you know go to something else whereas too has remained committed to being an RPO for the last Almost 3 years now so um organizations have known for a while the rules and that it's been coming for 2 years and it's important to note that a lot of other agencies are going to look at what the dod is doing and are likely going to try to replicate that process for their own security in compliance requirements and again um what makes too unique about that is that we have privacy Engineers on our team which gives us a competitive Advantage you know everybody has some type of security offering or security solution but we're able to offer privacy and security which are two very different things and so when it comes to being an RPO that's you know we have an advantage because there are not as many as when we first started this process and two because we can support the privacy and security requirements that are going to come along with this regulation so you say when you started the process what has too gone through to make sure that they're showing that they're meeting this compliance that's a great question so to be an RPO um obviously there's a cost associated with that there is a lot of certification and training and upkeep to those certifications and trainings our team attends um what they call monthly Town Hall meetings where the cyber AB which is the organization that has you know issued cmmc and is responsible for making sure organizations are living up to the expectations has rpos c3pos and all of the other cmmc uh ecosystem organizations making sure that those you know organizations are up to par with what they have been issuing so there's a lot of dedication and education and commitment to making sure that we are fully invested and fully informed about any of the changes that are going on and because of that we're able to keep up with the changes appropriately we communicate them to our clients if you go out to our website there's probably like 10 blogs alone on cmmc updates and you can almost kind of follow the linear changes on the the page about that but it's it's not an easy task and it's defitely a commitment August of 2021 we started this and we're still remained committed to it today that is so much to consider I didn't realize how ongoing the process is too that you're constantly in new meetings and constantly uh learning new things about this to making sure that you're meeting that certification I should ask this has got to be something that's really you mentioned the blogs which is great but I'm sure that your customers often struggle with okay what is the latest thing this week that I need to worry about that the dod is making sure that I meet being in marketing how do you approach your customers to be able to kind of package this all in a way that they can understand and digest and decide what's going to be best for them moving forward with too to make new decisions about their own technology and data how do you approach them about that so I would say the the easiest way or the most digestible way that we help approach customers with this if you go out to our website tood dat.com forward / cmmc there's a really powerful graphic on that page called The cmmc Journey and it illustrates how much time an organization would need to commit to various phases of the certification or compliance process because it definitely takes time it can take up to a year sometimes a little longer and we want organizations to be mindful of that that this is not something that you can come in and do last minute especially when you know now that the rule making has been published the demand is going to be higher and so we have to make sure that we have the ability to support all of the projects that are going to come in as a result of this but we also want to set expectations very clearly with our clients like this is not a you know onetime thing that you can get done in like a month or two the journey is quite long and so that's probably the best way that we illustrate to clients hey this is what you need to be thinking about in addition you know we try to keep them updated with like monthly email blasts or um social media posts campaigns that are centered around cmmc that are designed to educate and inform them about the changes that are coming and why this is so important absolutely and you mentioned you're anticipating an influx in demand for services such as what Teo offer services and solutions how does that impact the way that you're going to do business when it comes to selecting customers and and agreeing to go into deals with customers is that something that impacts that at all yeah obviously we want to support as many clients as possible and we're taking on projects you know as they come in um one of the great things about the cmmc ecosystem in general is that you become friendly with other organizations that do similar things in the cmmc ecosystem like licensed professional trainers lpt or C3 paos um which is a different certification or a different part of the cmmc process that you know too doesn't do so what we can do is reach out to um some of the colleagues that we have become professionally friendly with to help with some of those projects when a client gets to that point in their stage so we did the preassessment and then after that they go on to a different part of the ecosystem to finish finish out their compliance Journey we have people that we can recommend to them we are constantly working on um we serve on panels with them Greg Manson who is our VP of too advisory Services here he's he's always on some type of panel at an organizational trade show with some of these other um cmmc ecosystem partners and they've developed really strong relationships to be able to support clients so that if there's something we can't do we can refer them and vice versa and you speak about those relationships that you have with other members of the industry um I'd love to hear you speak a little bit about your strategically aligned vendor Partnerships are there any right now whether it be Solutions the vendors themselves is anyone standing out at the moment who is really helping whether it be concerned with the cmmc compliance or just really providing great partnership or technology is there anybody that you would like to highlight right now yeah in terms of Channel Partners I would say pretty much most of the security vendors are well aware of the cmmc security and compliance requirements so they've built that into their Solutions you know Partners like big ID or veronis Huntress is a good example you know pretty much every security vendor knows cmmc is a big deal and they they need to be able to offer some type of solution or service to support that um whether it's data classification um you know categorizing your data making sure that your data is protected and backed up like rubric one of our our great Partners does that when it comes to controlled unclassified information which we call cui you can't protect that data if you don't know where it is and so it's very important to work with security Channel Partners who understand how to find the data how to protect it how to back it up how to classify it and that's probably the biggest Focus we have when it comes to cmmc with some of those Channel Partners in 2023 there was a lot of discussion about do I go to Cloud do I stay on Prem do I have a hybrid of both there's just so much more to be expected this year in 2024 how are you staying ahead of customer demands and Trends to be able to anticipate their needs before they become something that is just showing up on the doorstep and you have to figure out how do we handle this right now that's a great question so I would say what makes Teo very good at what we do or what we call the TGO approach is that we are very good at proving our value we don't look at relationships with our clients as transactional we look at them as long-term business Partnerships and so once we get in the door and we do a project and we make them look good it's a lot easier to build that trust and they start to look to us as an extension of their team or as a trusted partner and so they know that if they have a question about cloud or if they're looking to do some type of project that you know they might not have considered in the past too can absolutely provide that Consulting expertise that they need um with too as an extension of their team we're able to provide that continuity uh we get to know their environment we get to know their team we're able to keep things flowing and you know we just are able to continuously recommend what is best to keep their environment secure productive reliable and help them achieve successful business business objectives so I want to build on that to see if I can uh put a name and a face so to speak to some of those uh examples that you were saying about working with customers do you have any particular customer success stories that you would like to highlight right now maybe one that was done recently or within the last year um that you can say this is something we were able to do to really showcase Teo being that trusted advisor and trusted uh technology partner to those clients yes I would say that we have several success stories but I think it was 2022 was where we closed one of our biggest Professional Services projects where we were supporting a national Entertainment Company um with over 40 sites that was a very tedious long-term project that required pretty much cooperation and collaboration from every Department within Teo and um this was our first time time in front of that client we were able to present to them a backup solution and help them improve their environment and it was very successful we've also worked with a global Enterprise Cloud software company for several years uh this company experienced a lot of turnover in it but with Teo we were able to just again provide that continuity we got to know their team we got to know their environment they had worked with us for years so nobody felt like there was an interruption or A disruption in it because they had too to keep things moving forward um there are a ton of success stories but I mean the premise of the success is always the same thing like they look to us for help with a project or expertise we come in we make them look good to their boss we complete the project successfully and then we've you know won that credibility and we're able to maximize and capitalize on that moving forward to continue to build that trust and build that relationship oh I'm constantly looking for people to tell my boss I look great so maybe you can yeah definitely give me a call after this well so important to do so important to do well that's fantastic and so incredible that you were able to close that deal with such a large National company um so I I also want to know when it comes to nurturing those relationships continuing down the line are there any methodologies whether that be software or best practices that you do to be able to say like Hey we're still here for these clients you may never see us because everything's going right how do you still show them like we're here and still doing our job to the best of our abilities for you that's very very important so the clients don't always hear from us when it's there's some new technology or new solution part of the reason why we're great at what we do is because we're very focused on the strategy of each of our clients it's very important that we understand what the client's needs and their strategy are for their business and how we can support that so we might get called in for one particular project but we work with that client to build out a road map not just for the current year but for future years like if you're going to do this project today how is that going to impact your environment next year or what are some of the other things that you are focused on to improve reliability security productivity collaboration and how can we help with that so again it's not a transactional relationship it's more of how can we support that client's strategy how can we partner with them and how can we support them so that they're able to focus on more of the day-to-day projects while we're working on some of the long-term projects so moving into to this year we're still right at the start of it in the very first month but are there any strategies Trends or initiatives that Tego is trying to implement or stay ahead of anything that you're trying to focus on in 2024 that you can share yeah I would say Obviously security and compliance are a big thing because that's never going to go away I mean we all know cyber attacks are getting more sophisticated breach numbers are going up like anything we can do to help clients with cyber security improving or hardening their environment is a priority for us when it comes to Cloud um a lot of organizations have a hybrid Cloud strategy we're definitely able to support that whether it's you know moving things on Prem to the cloud uh implementing backup and cyber resiliency Solutions making sure that they're testing those backups because if you're not testing your backups you don't know if it's going to help you when you become the victim of a Cyber attack or a breach um so just continuing to focus on cloud in general I think is a big deal for us you know we we can support public cloud like AWS we have our own hybrid Cloud solution we can do Cloud migrations Cloud assessments like cloud is just such a buzzword for us and it often leads to other projects as well absolutely and I know that you're vendor agnostic when it comes to the cloud but Teo has its own cloud offering can you tell us a little bit about that sure so um We call we call our Cloud the cloud which is Teo hybrid Enterprise Cloud um and essentially our cloud is built on some of the best in the business such as net app VMware it's designed for Disaster Recovery as a service and infrastructure as a service models um what that does is we're able to help offload a client's physical infrastructure stack we can help them execute Solutions based on inoperability um we're able to support their Cloud projects from start to finish and we architect the solution to work with whichever Cloud our customers prefer um so we've had experts we've had the expertise for years and we keep up with the changing Trends and the technology to be able to support clients with whatever their Cloud needs require Jennifer you mentioned VMware in that answer and I'm curious to know as we know by now VMware has been acquired by broadcom and there is a lot of merger and acquisition activity going on in the channel right now how does that activity as well as the Fallout from it all Impact you and your customers and your relationship with each other yeah we were just talking about that yesterday um you one of the biggest challenges is that there's constant consolidation within it there's always changes happening in the channel and our customers expect us to know more about that than they do and sometimes that's the problem because we don't always know what's going on we read that headline the same time you do we had no idea that this was happening and now we kind of have to adjust and you know evaluate is there a different solution we need to consider or how is this change or acquisition going to impact too how is it going to impact our clients what can we do um and it can be frustrating when we hear about it the same time that our clients do because we're kind of just caught you know we didn't we don't always know what's happening and so we kind of have to just adjust to do that so um it seems like consolidation in it is always going to be there it's always going to happen um what we do is we just try to get educated on what's Happening how it's going to impact us us from a partner perspective how it's going to impact us from a client perspective and adjust our expectations accordingly so that we can support our clients absolutely and I appreciate you being transparent saying like hey there's things that when we see the headlines so does everybody else because that's been the name of the game especially going into from the last quarter into the first quarter of this year for sure well as we wrap up here Jennifer I'd love to know what are some of your big bets or predictions going into the rest of this year even if it has nothing to do with too as far as the technology that you specialize in whether it be AI iot uh anything going forward where are you most interested to kind of tap into and really focus on what's going to happen with this technology this year yeah I would say AI is probably a big Focus for 2024 it's not something that too delves into um much right now but I can definitely see that becoming a priority for us over the next couple of years since organizations are investing in and utilizing AI um I would say security and compliance and Cloud are probably the three biggest things that we would see trends for this year because again those things are never going away they're constantly changing every organization has some type of Need for those things and we just remain committed to making sure that we're educated in all of those solutions that we're aware of the changes in technology and how those changes would impact our clients and then making sure that we are remaining the experts that our clients you know rely on to recommend the best Solutions or services to help them with their business goals speaking of AI I didn't think to ask is that is that something that you see um or has been impacting some of the security parameters for your customers or have they been asking more questions or any concern there as far as some of what it's shown it's capable of doing it's definitely popped up a lot more in conversations with our clients whether it's if we're recommending a solution AI is often involved in you know helping to categorize or identify data um using AI for data Trends making sure that uh environments are well protected from AI simulated attack so it's only going to get more sophisticated and as such we'll have to remain focused on ensuring that we are doing everything we can to understand how to support that how to protect a client's environment and how to make sure that you know their data and their environment is secure very well well said Jennifer I really appreciate your time today and I hope you come back in the future thank you so much I had such a great time talking to you Katie and if you want to learn more about too and its portfolio of services head on over to teod dat.com thanks again to my guest Jennifer for joining me today and thank you for watching or listening if you want more episodes of Channel Insider partner POV WE Post new video and podcast content every week and you can check those out on Channel insider.com we've got a ton of great articles and written content on there as well if you've got a question or you'd like to be on the show you can email us at partner poov Channel insider.com once again I'm your host Katie boso and I'll see you next time

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