Check Point Gold
Cygnia Technologies has gained Gold Partner status after posting excellent growth in sales in 2012 with Check Point, the worldwide leader in securing the Internet.
Jon Busfield, Managing Director, said “2012 was a great year with our overall sales growing 56%, and a good proportion of that came from our Check Point business. Working closely with Check Point, through their PureAdvantage partner programme, has shown our customers that in providing their new blade architecture, they can really improve their security and in the process save money through vendor consolidation. We are very confident that 2013 will prove to be even better now that we have Gold Status.”
The VAR’s focus on Check Point’s new blade technologies has paid dividends for the IT Security specialist. Sales such as the first DDOS Protector appliances to be sold in the UK has helped to provide new revenue streams.
Terry Greer-King, UK managing director for Check Point commented “Cygnia Technologies has worked extremely hard to strengthen its relationship with Check Point and to deepen its knowledge of our solutions. The company has clearly demonstrated its close alignment with Check Point in terms of understanding and communicating our strategy to its customers, and so is fully deserving of Gold partner status.”
Cygnia has added to its sales resource in 2013, but still has immediate plans to further increase sales and technical headcount working from its Midlands Office. 25th March 2013
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Picture: Left to Right Jon Busfield, Managing Director, Cygnia – Paul Samuel, Financial & Commercial Director, Cygnia – Stewart Main, Check Point Account Manager |
Check Point Update Seminar
With Check Point’s development roadmap continuing at pace March saw Cygnia and Check Point provide an update to its customers. The half day seminar covered, Mobile Security, BYOD, Anti Bot Net Technology and Check Point’s roadmap. Positive customer feedback was high with the delegates saying they appreciated the update. 15th March 2013
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| The London Check Point Seminar |
F1 Fun
On the 7th February, Kaspersky Lab turned the Cygnia Offices in to a Formula 1 extravaganza. To celebrate the launch of their new End Point Security Solution covering Anti Virus, Hard Drive Encryption and USB security, Kaspersky brought their F1 Ferrari Simulator for the Cygnia team to test their skill around the Silverstone circuit. Richard Onions from the sales team produced the quickest lap (1.26) and is currently in negotiation with a number of F1 teams for a drive next season… 11th Feb 2013
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| The Winning Lap |
Funding Raised For Community Football Project
Cygnia’s MD Jon Busfield (2nd From Right) also has his hands full being Chairman of Eccleshall Eagles Juniors, the club have just received a grant of £448,967 from the Football Foundation for new pitches and a clubhouse. Other funding sources have taken the total to over £700,000 + VAT . Jon commented “The new facilities will benefit the community and will provide much needed excellent football facilities for at least 200 junior footballers between the ages of 6 & 18.” Work has already started on the 17 acre development and is expected to be completed in time for the 2014/15 season. 12th Jan 2013
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A Fantastic End to 2012
Despite challenging economic conditions Cygnia grew its turnover by 56% and profit by 120% in 2012. Jon Busfield Cygnia’s MD commented;“Despite the testing economic conditions Cygnia’s committed team have grown the business 56% in 2012. This success is due to excellent technical support and consultancy services seeing a retention rate of 99.2% on existing customer, coupled with good commercial advice from our sales team our client base has benefited from the right solutions at competitive prices" .
Cygnia’s vendor business has also seen some big growth in 2012 with Check Point product business growing by 211%. Jon went on to comment; “Cygnia’s drive forward in 2013 is to continue to look after our customer base, promote our strengths to new customers and continue to grow the business. We are currently looking to add extra head count to both sales and technical teams in 2013”. 11th Jan 2013
First Check Point Partner in Europe to Deploy their DDoS Solution
Cygnia are the first Check Point Solution Provider in the UK to have implemented the new DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) Appliance to a Staffordshire County Council. Check Points solution will protect Staffordshire County Councils website(s) from being struck by denial of service attacks which are on the rise. 15th Nov 2012
Continued Growth for Cygnia
Cygnia achieved a 39% increase in sales for the 12 months to 31December 2011 consolidating on the growth in the first half. Paul Samuel, Finance Director, attributes the growth to a combination of good service, customer support , competitive pricing and hard work. The first quarter of 2012 sees a continuation of the trend with an average year on year increase in sales of 58%.
Cygnia has also increased its headcount with the appointment of Richard Onions, Maria DaSilva and Wendy Timmins joining the sales team. Mandy Priestman will be ensuring the swift and accurate processing of customer purchase orders and invoices as she joins the accounts team. June 26th 2012
Tackling Cyber Crime Seminars
With high profile Cyber Attacks making major headlines in 2011 Cygnia decided to help UK organisations protect themselves by hosting a series of seminars on the subject of “Tackling Cyber Crime”. The event was introduced by Ken Munro an industry expert who has appeared on the BBC and frequently talks about the challenges facing organisations by cyber criminals.
Vendor presentations on relevant technology products included – IPS solutions and Advanced Evasion Techniques from Stonesoft , protection against APTs and zero day malware from FireEye,LogRhythm showed its Next Generation SIEM solution and Advanced Intelligence Engine and finally Varonis, enabling management of unstructured data on the network. June 6th 2012
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New Offices for 2012
Cygnia Technologies have moved head office for 2012. With the company staying local to the previous office, Jon Busfield, Cygnia’s Managing Director commented “The new offices are with in a completely refurbished complex and offer us 4 times more space than our previous building, providing us with the room we need to fulfil our growth plans over the coming years”. The office move comes off the back of a number of key appointments during 2011 culminating in a successful year for Cygnia which saw the company grow by 30% and make a profit despite the difficult trading conditions. January 3rd 2012..
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Check Point Seminar Road Show
During November and December Cygnia partnered with one of their key Vendors, Check Point, to deliver two seminars in London and Birmingham. The seminars which were well attended brought customers up to speed with Check Point’s latest developments, including the new range of appliances, the Anti Bot Net Blade to thwart against APT’s, the Data Leakage Prevention Blade , Intrusion Prevention Blade and the End Point solutions including Global Office. The seminars were well attended by a number of blue chip organisations from the public, private and 3rd sectors. December 16th 2011
Cygnia Wins Staffordshire County Councils Firewall Contract
Staffordshire County Council has chosen Cygnia as their firewall support partner for a further 3 years. The contract covers the County Council’s gateway, South Staffordshire District Council, Staffordshire Moorlands Council, Lichfield District Council and Staffordshire Connects. The authority went through a detailed tender process before re-awarding Cygnia another 3 year term. October 12th 2011
Cygnia's Growth Increases
Cygnia achieved a 24% increase in sales for the half year to June 2011 compared with the same period in 2010. Paul Samuel, Financial Director of Cygnia attributes the growth to the investment in quality staff the in the latter half of 2010 and begining of 2011. “We’ve continued to reinvest in the business during the last 12 months by recruiting proven security sales people, their experience and expertise are proving to pay off by helping our customers choose the best solutions to fit their needs, inevitably this means that customers are choosing to spend more of their budget with us rather than using multiple suppliers”. July 15th 2011
Cygnia's Growing its Portfolio
Cygnia continues to broaden its products portfolio, looking for cutting edge solutions that address issues that are not being covered by other vendors. Notably with an increase in hacking over the last 12 months Cygnia see the threat from Advanced Evasion Techniques as a key area to address for any organisation with sensitive information on the network, StoneSoft are seen as pioneering this area and Cygnia has taken on their IPS solution to tackle the issue. Other notable vendor additions include:
Check Point’s, Data Leakage Prevention solution
Drivelock’s endpoint multi-level protection which includes Hard Drive Encryption, Application Control, USB Encryption and Management and now Anti Virus
Outpost 24 network Vulnerability Assessments, providing a scanning service to check predefined IP addresses this is especially relevant for those organisations having to comply with legislation such as PCI DSS.June 9th 2011
Check Point Experience
Jon Busfield MD and Rob Evers Head of Technical Services attended the ‘Check Point Experience’ in Barcelona in April. They joined Check Point security and technical experts to discover the “best security strategies to reduce risk and strengthen compliance while safely enabling the technologies that align to users and business needs”. Rob Evers commented “Check Point have significantly increased their product portfolio and capability as a multi solution vendor over the last 18 months, their offerings mean that customers can choose more security from one vendor improving the interoperability, reporting and monitoring of the solutions and having the benefit of lowering the overall cost of customers security estates”. May 10th 2011
Tweet, Tweet, Hollie's Taking Cygnia Digital
Hollie Matthews joins Cygnia from NSi where she was a Digital Marketing Specialist for five years, she has experience using digital marketing tools such as Twitter, Word Press and Linked In. Hollie will be keeping our clients informed of new developments in IT Security as well as new services available from Cygnia. Keep an eye out for Hollies blog which will be available through the Cygnia Website soon. February 21st 2011
Cygnia Awarded Kaspersky Partner Project of the Year
Kaspersky and Wick Hill have awarded their Partner Project of the Year Award to Cygnia Technologies. The project was run at a large charity based in London and included IT security solutions and professional services. Cygnia has provided many other well-known charities with advice and support and at the end of last year was a sponsor of the Charities Consortium IT Directors Group Annual Conference. February 15th 2011
Cygnia makes 4 key business development appointments for 2011
Cygnia’s business development team has been significantly enhanced for 2011 with 4 Key appointments to the Company. Matthew Locker has joined from Security Partnerships and has 10+ years working in the IT security sector.
Carol Coulson arrives from Advent IM who specialise in AI security and risk management. Formerly at Netstore, Carol spent 10+ years promoting IT security solutions. Two further additions are Mark Chesterman and Claire Gilks, who also have over 10+ years in IT Security and have previously worked for Netstore and NetConnect.
Jon Busfield, Cygnia's Managing Director, commented “After growing 12% in 2010 we are looking to take the business further forward in 2011. Although the outlook for trading conditions remains uncertain I am confident that the new appointments will be able to significantly drive us forward. They all have a lot of experience and excel in understanding the customers requirements, providing first rate advice and finding the correct licencing and cost savings that are helping our customers' not only remain secure, but also competitive in this tough economic climate”. January 12th 2011
A stronger technical position during 2011
During the last 12 months Cygnia has significantly strengthened the technical team with the appointment of Rob Evers as Technical Services Manager to oversee the Managed Services, Consulting and Helpdesk Teams. Rob who joined from Fujitsu, has 25 years of experience in the IT industry including 4 years in Network Architecture with Fujitsu and 15 years working within IT security solution providers like Netstore.
The other key addition to the technical team is Adrian Aston who came to Cygnia from 2e2 and has 10 years experience in the IT security arena. Adrian has already received numerous positive comments from customers regarding his work ethic and technical ability. January 6th 2011
Cygnia enjoys growth in a tough economic climate
Despite the difficult trading environment over the last 12 months, Cygnia Technologies enjoyed 12% revenue growth in 2010. Jon Busfield, Cygnia’s Managing Director, commented “This was achieved through Cygnia’s excellent technical and service offerings and our ability to provide cost savings to customers through good advice and smart licensing that set us apart from our peers”. Cygnia are looking to build on their growth for 2011 making some key business development appointments. January 4th 2011