The Company
Kenneth Vona and Son Construction builds custom homes in the Greater Boston area. In business since 1989, the company has 22 employees and is based in Natick, Mass. Denise Calcagno is the office manager for Kenneth Vona and Son and has been with the organization for more than 20 years.
The Challenge
In the fall of 2023, a Kenneth Vona and Son employee clicked on a link in a malicious email and launched a virus. The virus didn’t penetrate the company’s network, but it did infect the employee’s laptop. Calcagno had to take the machine offline, scrub it of all data and applications, and reload all apps to get the laptop into service again. The incident demonstrated the vulnerability of devices within the organization.
There were other issues, as well. Calcagno had come out of retirement to work with Kenneth Vona after his company made some changes in 2022 and brought more employees and business into the company. She found herself having to manage licenses and application updates for McAfee antivirus, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace for a growing number of employees. At that time, the company had a separate Microsoft 365 license for each of its devices, which numbered more than 20.
The Solution
Calcagno sought a security provider that could protect the company’s devices and email without charging for extraneous services.
“We didn’t need an IT company we would have to pay a lot to have on standby,” she says. “We needed managed security, managed Microsoft 365 and secure email. We needed that on a daily basis. We didn’t need to pay extra in case the printer went down at some point.”
Kenneth Vona and Sons signed on with Managed Security, Managed Microsoft 365 and security awareness training from Rightworks.
“It was the most cost-effective option,” Calcagno says.
Why Rightworks?
Calcagno was familiar with Rightworks, having adopted cloud hosting for a small business of her own in late 2021. She’d hit several roadblocks with her previous QuickBooks® hosting provider, so she made the switch to Rightworks.
The Impact
Kenneth Vona and Sons hasn’t had a security incident since moving to Rightworks’ security services. But perhaps more importantly for Calcagno, she no longer has to worry about managing licenses and updates for critical applications. As the company continues to grow, she can rely on Rightworks to take care of security as well as license and update management.
“It’s a relief that I know the updates are being done,” Calcagno says. “I don’t have to worry about somebody not updating McAfee. Rightworks can see what’s going on, and it’s not on me. Before, I had to deal with Google Workspace and Microsoft. Rightworks has taken that off my plate.” She added that Rightworks has consolidated the company’s Microsoft 365 licenses.
Of course, there is peace of mind in knowing that the devices Kenneth Vona and Son use are secure. And with security awareness training from Rightworks, Calcagno is confident that an employee won’t click on a malicious link again. In fact, Calcagno is so comfortable with Rightworks that she’s thinking she might be able to step away from work again.
“I want to head back toward retirement,” she says.