Fully accredited in 6 months: How Family Services Australia transformed their security position at speed with Managed Security as a Service
Family Services Australia is a not-for-profit organisation that provides a wide range of community services to Australians across NSW and QLD, including children and youth services, employment services, disability services, and domestic violence support services.
Operating for over 30 years, Family Services Australia has experienced significant growth over the last six years. This growth saw them bring in their first internal IT Manager, Joe Vidakovic, who was tasked with strategically and continuously improving the organisation’s IT.
12 months ago, they were awarded an employment services contract from WorkForce Australia, which saw them more than double their size and employee base. But the contract agreement included requirements for Family Services Australia to adhere to strict security regulations, in which they would need to:
- Adhere to Essentials Eight
- Gain a ‘right fit for risk’ accreditation
- Gain an ISO 27001 certification
To meet these requirements, Family Services needed to review and upgrade many of its security measures. “There were about 800 controls we had to look at,” said Joe. “They allowed us six months to get compliant. ” The stakes were high – If they couldn’t meet the requirements, they would lose the multimillion-dollar contract.
Specialist support to move at speed
Since 2020, Virtual IT Group (VITG) has been supporting Family Services Australia, providing IT support and a service desk for their staff. In need of cyber security expertise, Joe turned to VITG to help them meet these new contractual security requirements.
“They were able to help us with the drop of a hat. They realised the urgency and the effect of not getting it done and were able to bring on extra resources to help us out,” said Joe.
VITG is one of Australia’s premier MSPs and a leader in cyber security expertise. They stepped in to implement a Managed IT Support offering, Managed Security as a Service (MSaaS), which includes identity protection, endpoint security, data security, vulnerability management and more. MSaaS would enable Family Services to go above and beyond the security elements required to meet their contract obligations. These services aligned Family Services Australia to the Australian Government’s Essential 8 cyber security guidelines.
Despite the sensitivity of some of the work Family Services provided, their cyber security position wasn’t strong. Old accounts were still open, and there were limited access restrictions for staff. “Until we implemented an actual security as a service, there was a lot of risk. It was really good to see where we could plug those holes and it’s worked out really well.”
“Without VITG’s help, we wouldn’t have done it. There was no way, shape, or form that we would’ve been able to get to a passing point.” – Joe Vidakovic, IT Manager
Fully compliant and ready for anything
Not only were VITG able to help Family Services Australia meet the requirements of their new contract, but the resulting security improvements also had widespread, unforeseen benefits:
- In six months, VITG helped Family Services gain accreditation by bringing them up to scratch on approximately 580 of the security controls.
- Family Services has been able to decommission its server reducing its infrastructure cost and maintenance requirements.
- Family Services has improved the connection between their 30+ sites and streamlined service delivery by solidifying their Wi-Fi.
- Joe’s independent work on consolidating IT and continuously improving the Family Services IT platforms has been made easier and more beneficial, layered with improved security.
- The highly secure environment of the entire organisation enables staff to better serve and protect the privacy of their clients.
Opening up a future of continuous improvement
The benefits of implementing MSaaS will continue to grow. It’s allowed Family Services to securely navigate and diversify how they deliver services to their clients, strengthening their position as a provider and opening up future service possibilities. And they say that they owe it to VITG’s incredible service and capabilities.
“They are reactive and proactive at the same time. They take a proactive approach to IT, but if things change, they’ve been very reactive and able to pivot very quickly for us,” said Joe. He continues to communicate regularly with VITG to ensure that all the processes and procedures are still in place and discuss recommendations to discuss how their IT support can be improved.
“It’s been a really solid 12 months of managed IT support for our team and managed cyber security services with VITG. It’s been instrumental in helping us in our continuous improvement.” – Joe Vidakovic
For more information on how VITG can help your business, click here.
