iOCO wins Growth Partner of the Year Award at WithSecure SPHERE event

Johannesburg, 20 Jun 2022

WithSecure’s™ Sphere22 cyber security event took place on 1 and 2 June 2022 in Helsinki, Finland, where numerous cyber security experts from around the world had gathered to participate in the first-ever co-security SPHERE ‘unconference’.

Great speeches and inspiring points of view were presented about cyber security collaboration, with South Africa’s iOCO being among the many experts to have shared valuable insights on the future of co-security worldwide in its valuable presentation.

Successful, mutually beneficial partnerships are at the core of the WithSecure™ brand and partnerships with the company’s 10 largest resellers have lasted for an average of 17 years. Hundreds of the organisation’s valued partners gathered in Helsinki earlier this month to participate in the inaugural SPHERE event.

There were three awards provided to partners at the Sphere 22 event. “No one person or thing can solve every cyber security problem alone. This is a lesson we’ve learned over the last three decades by working with the best partners in the world,” said Juha Kivikoski, Executive Vice-President of Business Security at WithSecure™. “We’re thrilled to honor these nominees who typify the excellence that’s possible when we live up to the promise of good partnership.”

iOCO(South Africa) won the Growth Partner of the Year award. The Growth Partner award is for partners that performed exceptionally well in growing new sales or managed service sales. Other nominees included Valtti (Finland) and LisenseIT (Benelux).

Paul Spagnoletti, Business Unit Executive: Cloud & Security South Africa, made the following statement at the event: “iOCO has seen phenomenal growth offering WithSecure’s™ portfolio to customers across all major industries throughout South Africa. A big part of our success can be attributed to the partnership WithSecure’s™ technical and professional services team that provides unmatched levels of partnership management and support to our own sales and technical professionals. The relationship between WithSecure™ and iOCO is even more critical during a time when cyber security has become one of the biggest issues businesses face today. This partnership is a non-negotiable for us.”

WithSecure’s™ distributor in Africa, CyberVision, also attended the Sphere22 event and was very grateful to both WithSecure™ and iOCO for achieving the award.

The other two awards at the event were given to Atea (Finland) for Best Performance and Metsys (France) for MSP Partner of the Year. The Best Performance award is for partners that have a long-term relationship with WithSecure™ performing in all areas: sales, growth and commitment.

Other nominees for this award were Sky (Japan) and OCI Group (France). The MSP Partner award recognises partners that thrive by offering managed services through a flexible, subscription-based model that delivers high-value services with success proven by sales, growth and creative deployments. Other nominees for this award were Upheads (Norway) and IT-Onnet (Germany).

iOCO

iOCO is the technology software solutions company and ICT component within the EOH Group and offers a single point of contact for business across the ICT stack. We combine ease of engagement with a technology-agnostic approach to solution design. iOCO sets the standard in best practice in ICT through a rigorous governance framework, mitigating risk for our clients and embracing a new way of doing business with a strategic technology partner. iOCO serves clients across three lines of businesses: Digital, Services, and Technology:

iOCO Digital is where we digitally transform businesses, through bespoke application development, data, analytics, and automation solutions supported by our turnkey hybrid-cloud and security capabilities.
iOCO Services is the home to technology services and solutions based on human-centred design, largely driven by our network managed solutions and infrastructure manage and operate capabilities.
iOCO Technology is where iOCO delivers robust technology foundations through compute infrastructure, OEM application solutions and partnerships that represent the global technology landscape, supported by local delivery expertise.

Learn more at: ioco.tech

CyberVision

CyberVision Pty Ltd is a With Secure distribution company in Africa that conducts IT security value-added business throughout Africa through a variety of resellers of various sizes and differing specialisations. The key personnel at CyberVision have been working with F-Secure (WithSecure’s™ previous name) for 28 years with experience in data and network security and have supplied services to many types of organisations in Africa, ranging from SMEs to large banks, retailers, manufacturers, insurers and government departments. Working with leading organisations in industry has resulted in an extensive understanding of security, allowing for a competitive advantage when it comes to ensuring that the right solutions are in place to adequately secure the networks of organisations of all sizes and types. The WithSecure™ Elements Vulnerability Management, Endpoint Detection and Response and Rapid Detection Service (RDS) are relied upon for much of CyberVision’s security expertise in mitigating risks and helping organisations manage complex security challenges with a business-focused man-and-machine combined approach. These solutions are also easy for organisations to manage in-house with a flexible usage-based SaaS option that makes it very affordable to put to the test and implement when needed.

WithSecure

WithSecure™, formerly F-Secure Business, is cyber security’s reliable partner. IT service providers, MSSPs and businesses – along with the largest financial institutions, manufacturers, and thousands of the world’s most advanced communications and technology providers – trust WithSecure™ for outcome-based cyber security that protects and enables their operations. WithSecure’s™ AI-driven protection secures endpoints and cloud collaboration, and their intelligent detection and response is powered by experts who identify business risks by proactively hunting for threats and confronting live attacks. The organisation’s consultants partner with enterprises and tech challengers to build resilience through evidence-based security advice. With more than 30 years of experience in building technology that meets business objectives, the organisation has built their portfolio to grow with their partners through flexible commercial models. WithSecure™ Corporation was founded in 1988, and is listed on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd.

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