All events recounted in this narrative are accurate and current, unfolding within our modern era. For confidentiality, names have been altered to shield the identities of those involved.
Allow me to share a story…
In a time not long ago, an esteemed and time-honored financial advisory firm, “J.E. Smith Advisors,” embarked on a journey to enhance its IT services, embracing the prevailing industry shift towards the cloud. The firm’s existing managed service provider transitioned its corporate services to the renowned cloud services company, “Nano Fluff.” While J.E. Smith Advisors had scaled back its market involvement in recent years, it retained control over some assets. It maintained connections with former clients and regulatory bodies like the SEC.
This tale began when an employee of J.E. Smith Advisors encountered a challenge – the inability to access Nano Fluff’s email services to respond to tax-related emails. Seeking resolution, an executive from the firm reached out to a former IT contact with historical “global admin” access to the J.E. Smith environment within Nano Fluff’s services. Yet, attempts to log in or reset the password proved futile.
Our narrative unfurls further, now in June of 2023, when the technical support department at Nano Fluff received communication from what was once a Silver Partner. The issue is the inability to access or reset the password for an account with the jesmith.com domain. Over the subsequent two months, a series of support tickets were generated. However, initial support responses cited limited access and offered no substantial aid. Tickets were prematurely marked as resolved while failing to provide any actual support. Despite repeated pleas for escalation, Nano Fluff’s first-level support remained unresponsive and uncooperative. Employees of J.E. Smith Advisors endured prolonged waits on hold, contacting Nano Fluff’s support hotline. Remarkably, the longest hold time recorded was three hours and twelve minutes – a delay that ended only when the on-hold music ceased after two hours.
In July 2023, the worst fears materialized – unauthorized access to the domain and the deliberate obstruction of known password reset methods. The accounts remained active, and unauthorized attempts to transfer significant sums of money by prior bank communications were detected. This marked an apparent security breach. J.E. Smith Advisors made two unsuccessful attempts to reach out to Nano Fluff’s Information Security Desk through their portal, receiving no response.
Further investigations unveiled a disturbing trend: fraudulent activity persisted, aided by Nano Fluff’s inaction. The email archive revealed a string of compromising incidents. To this day, this documented fraudulence continues, enabled by Nano Fluff’s silence. Left with no recourse, J.E. Smith Advisors resorted to notifying federal authorities and escalating the matter to Nano Fluff’s legal team, hoping for a response.
Looking back at the past two decades of the online services and infrastructure market highlights an intriguing pattern. Amid the presence of multi-billion-dollar industry giants, numerous smaller players endure. These smaller entities offering SaaS and Infrastructure services thrive and often outshine their larger counterparts, sometimes at a higher cost to customers. The underlying reason is straightforward: the quality of service. We’re all familiar with the scenario – a new service gains popularity only to experience a decline in quality over time. Take weather forecasting as an example. In IT, professionals know that providers may cut costs on infrastructure and support, leading to simplified algorithms. The essence of competition lies in the timely, effective, and often personalized support these smaller companies deliver.
The moral of this tale is to be cautious of high-priced, numbing advertisements and indoctrination campaigns orchestrated by companies like Nano Fluff. It’s the responsibility to ensure business continuity, reliability, and compliance that should guide your choice of service provider. Regrettably, Nano Fluff, like its predecessors, has fallen into the trap of neglecting its customers and their success. They’ve overlooked a fundamental principle of successful business – starting with “why.”