In the fast-paced world of managed services, staying ahead of cyber threats is more than a value-add—it’s a necessity. For Chris Manning, founder of Sentinel Tech Solutions, understanding this simple truth became the catalyst for exponential business growth. His secret? Expanding cybersecurity services to protect not just the business network, but the homes and personal devices of his clients’ employees. In a world where remote and hybrid work is the norm, this shift turned out to be a game changer.
From Reactive to Proactive
Chris started Sentinel Tech Solutions like many other MSPs—with a small team, a handful of local business clients, and a focus on basic IT support and network monitoring. In the early days, most of his work involved troubleshooting hardware, managing software updates, and providing helpdesk support.
That changed the day one of his client’s employees fell for a phishing email while working from home. The employee, using a personal device to access work documents via a cloud drive, clicked a malicious link posing as a delivery notification. The result? A ransomware infection that locked down not only the employee’s personal laptop, but also spread into the company’s shared files through synced storage.
Although Chris was able to mitigate the damage, the incident was a wake-up call.
“I realized then that the perimeter had changed,” Chris explains. “It’s not just the office anymore. Employees are working from kitchen tables, coffee shops, and vacation homes. And they’re doing it on networks and devices that aren’t secure. That’s a huge vulnerability.”
Securing the New Digital Perimeter
Rather than just react, Chris saw an opportunity to innovate. He expanded his services to cover what he began calling the “extended work perimeter”—any location or device an employee might use to access company data. This new model included:
• Phishing Awareness Training at Home: Employees and their families were enrolled in engaging, scenario-based training programs to recognize phishing scams, whether they came via work email or a personal inbox.
• Home Network Security Audits: Sentinel Tech provided simple but powerful home network assessments, helping employees lock down routers, segment networks, and enable secure VPNs.
• Endpoint Protection for Personal Devices: Clients were given the option to extend endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools to employees’ personal devices with strict privacy controls in place.
• 24/7 Threat Monitoring: Instead of limiting monitoring to the office, Sentinel offered around-the-clock threat detection that could identify anomalies no matter where an employee was working from.
The value proposition was clear: protect the people, not just the perimeter.
Building Trust, Growing Business
It wasn’t long before word spread. One of Sentinel Tech’s mid-size law firm clients saw phishing click-through rates drop by over 90% within six months of implementing the home-security initiative. The managing partner called it “the most effective security upgrade we’ve had in years.”
More importantly, the proactive approach built trust. Clients appreciated that Chris and his team weren’t just keeping their servers online—they were genuinely protecting their people, even beyond work hours. That trust translated into referrals, renewals, and upsells.
Within a year, Sentinel Tech doubled its monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and brought on several new clients, including a regional healthcare provider that specifically cited the home-security support as a deciding factor in choosing Sentinel over a competitor.
The Competitive Advantage
Many MSPs are still stuck in the traditional model: office firewalls, managed antivirus, and once-a-year training. Chris believes this is a mistake.
“The biggest risk to any business today isn’t some hacker breaking into your firewall,” he says. “It’s someone clicking a bad link while checking email on their phone during breakfast. If you’re not protecting them there, you’re not really protecting the business.”
By extending cybersecurity beyond the office, Sentinel Tech not only reduced security incidents—it made itself indispensable. Clients no longer saw managed services as a commodity. They saw it as an essential partner in the safety and success of their business.
Lessons for Other MSPs
Chris’s story offers a few key takeaways for MSPs looking to stand out and grow:
- Shift Your Mindset: Security is no longer about protecting networks—it’s about protecting people. Meet them where they are.
- Offer Real-World Training: Make phishing simulations and security awareness training part of your core package—and extend it to employees’ homes.
- Secure the Home Office: Even basic guidance on router configuration and device security can go a long way. Bundle these services as part of your cybersecurity offering.
- Communicate the Value: Frame these services not as extras, but as essential risk mitigation. When clients understand the stakes, they’ll see the value.
- Build for Long-Term Trust: By protecting employees personally, you build a relationship that goes beyond the transaction. That’s what leads to referrals and retention.
Looking Ahead
Today, Sentinel Tech Solutions is poised for even greater growth. Chris is exploring partnerships with cybersecurity vendors to bundle more robust home-protection tools, and he’s building a knowledge base for other MSPs who want to adopt a similar strategy.
“The future of work is hybrid. That’s not going away,” Chris says. “The MSPs who adapt now—who protect users wherever they are—are the ones who will thrive.”
In a world where threats are just one click away, protecting the employee at home isn’t just good security—it’s good business.
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📜 DISCLAIMER
This article is a work of fiction created for illustrative and educational purposes. Any resemblance to actual persons, businesses, or events is purely coincidental. The scenarios described are designed to reflect real-world cybersecurity challenges and demonstrate the potential value of extended protection solutions like Uncompromized™.
