Alacrinet
One-Stop Security Shop for Enterprises

“It all began in 1999 when IBM announced that it would be expanding the sale of enterprise software solutions through channel partners," begins Brian Bouchard, president and CEO of Alacrinet, reminiscing about the events that marked the foundation of Alacrinet. As a former technology consultant at IBM, Bouchard along with his then-colleagues took on this opportunity and decided to start Alacrinet as their own entrepreneurial venture to address this growing demand. The company was founded with a focus to work as an IBM channel partner to sell enterprise services to all kinds of businesses at a mid-tier price point. After the establishment of the company in 2002, Alacrinet gained tremendous experience along its journey dealing with a multitude of IT challenges across application, portal, social, mobile, and cloud development. However, owing to the fast pace of IT proliferation in the last decade, Bouchard and his team came around to realize that their customers’ needs and pain points have also evolved significantly overtime. “It wasn’t until 2010, that we noticed that cloud migration and cybersecurity have become the top-most agenda of the CIOs all over the nation,” cites Bouchard.

Even in 2018, with increasing costs, added compliance requirements, alongside the potential threats to a business in the event of a security breach, the current IT landscape exhibits tremendous traction for keylogging and analyzing solutions like security information and event management (SIEM) and endpoint management and security. With this development, a large portion of organizations today, are progressing to more complete security strategies that include cloud access security brokers, network access control, and incident response planning. Bouchard explains, “It was a natural progression for us to expand our skills and solutions to include cybersecurity and serve our clients better.” As cybersecurity transitioned from a strategic advantage to a mainstream necessity for organizations, Alacrinet stepped in to find the right solution from leading providers in the industry and implement them for its clients. The Alacrinet team continuously strives to develop and acquire new skills to empower their clients with the best solutions.

"Inspired by meaningful work that makes a difference, we assemble great technology to build compelling business solutions"

Elaborating this core essence of Alacrinet’s business principle, Bouchard states, “inspired by meaningful work that makes a difference, we assemble great technology to build compelling business solutions.” Having witnessed firsthand, the rapid growth of the IT industry over the years, Bouchard’s experience as a former consultant at IBM and then as an entrepreneur has been instrumental for his company’s strong establishment in the American IT landscape. Over the past 16 years, Alacrinet has experienced accelerated growth and has been recognized as one of the fastest growing company by Inc. Magazine and San Diego Business Journal. Alacrinet has also been named among the Top 25 IBM Solution Providers for 2018 in CIO Applications magazine’s October feature.

Today, Alacrinet provides a myriad of security solutions for its clients including SIEM, endpoint management, endpoint security, web fraud detection, data security, application security, and cloud access security brokers. The company also specializes in incident response platforms, vulnerability scanning, identity access management and single sign-on, network firewall, mobile device management, network access control, and network infrastructure. Bouchard explains, “We evaluate the leading solutions in a range of different security categories by listening to top analysts like Gartner, IDC, and Forrester, as well as the clients who have used the products. We present this to our clients in a way that makes it easier for them to see the benefits of each and make the right decision.” Alacrinet showcases top-notch solutions for each category and helps their clients understand the benefits and potential drawbacks of each one. For instance, the company sent out a team of professionals to Israel to get trained in IBM Trusteer—a leading web fraud protection solution for the financial industry so that the Alacrinet team is better equipped to handle the implementation in its customers’ environments.

Unparalleled Customer-Centricity

According to Bouchard, Alacrinet follows a unique system of client engagement defined by—inform, educate, and select. Apart from informing the clients about the different available options for their requirements, the company educates its clients about each category and evaluates the best among them by demonstrating different strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities involved with them.

Alacrinet refrains from the ways of other consultant organizations whose primary focus is to expedite the process by recommending specific solutions for the clients and expecting them to move forward with the suggestion. On the other hand, Alacrinet believes in establishing trust and relationship with the customers to understand what they're looking for and give the best options as they go. With excellent customer service being their forte, Alacrinet strives to stay engaged with the clients throughout the entire process of implementing new solutions and also post-implementation. Alacrinet’s team has tremendous experience with complex projects and brings that knowledge to the table with each and every client engagement.

Recently, Alacrinet had the opportunity to engage with a global mobility solutions provider and help them implement a new IT security strategy. By forming a robust partnership with IBM and its MSSP partner, VirtualArmour, Alacrinet successfully addressed all the specific security gaps in the client's environment. "We evaluated a few MSSPs and opted to work with VirtualArmour as their level of expertise and customer service, combined with competitive pricing, constituted the best value for our customer," adds Bouchard. VirtualArmour offers 24x7x365 monitoring, alerting, and management that is important for Alacrinet's clients after adopting new solutions.

Stories of Success

As a record of Alacrinet's dexterity in maintaining client relationship, Marykay Michaels, Director of Enterprise Services, cites an example of a client, a large transportation company that was working with Alacrinet for several years on portals for transportation drivers and a custom application. The client requested Alacrinet for a new internal application that would allow their employees to rate their experiences. The client organization deemed it critical to value their employee satisfaction and the retention of good employees. After profound discussion, Alacrinet recommended new technology solutions for the client and built the custom application that met their needs. Marykay says, “Since we were able to build this strong relationship with them, we were first on their contact list after they experienced an attempted security breach that highlighted the need for the implementation of a robust security system as well.”

In a similar successful case study, Nicholas Gonzalez, a senior client executive at Alacrinet shares the story of a global mobility solution provider who was uncertain of their current security posture and needed an expert opinion to upgrade it, owing to growing customer demand for increased security on their mobility network. By bringing together different solutions from multiple vendors, Alacrinet provided them with a bundled solution that included cloud-based SIEM, a sophisticated endpoint management system, and managed security services. "With a stronger security posture, our client was able to meet the specific requirements of their end-users and continued to grow their business to new heights," adds Gonzales.

As Alacrinet crosses its 16-year mark, the company over the years has undergone several disruptions both on the technology as well as business fronts. "Looking forward, we have designed a strong roadmap for the company and envisioned our growth in three specific areas: team expansion, strategic partnerships, and solution provider partnerships." Alacrinet has plans of expanding its team for greater coverage across the U.S. so that its clients can have local contacts who will be quick to respond and help them. The company will also be forming strong strategic partnerships to ensure reliable service for its clients.

Currently, Alacrinet is signing new partnership agreements to meet its customer requirements and joining hands with innovative solution providers to bring the best options for its clients in each category. Moving ahead with the motto ‘Passionate about technology, dedicated to people’ Alacrinet invests substantially in better meeting the demands of its clients while simultaneously strengthening the bond between them, their team members, and industry leaders. “As a golfer, I often use sports analogies in business. I encourage my team to approach their work as a caddy. And just how a caddy knows the course and weather, our job is to know the cybersecurity landscape and what solutions are best for our clients’ environment. When they’re ready to tee up the shot, our clients know the terrain, the wind, and which club to use,” concludes Bouchard.