A New Zealand professional services business specialising in liability, personal, life, and health insurance was facing increasing challenges with its IT environment as the organisation grew. Their business model is built around high‑touch, wrap‑around care for clients, yet their existing IT provider was not delivering the same standard of care in return. The business needed a partner capable of providing a secure, modern, and proactive technology platform that aligned with their service culture and reduced the operational risk created by legacy systems and poor oversight.
Despite operating with a large corporate MSP, the business received very little engagement, strategy, or support. Their IT posture was extremely poor, with an audit showing alignment to only two out of eighteen essential security controls within a recognised global framework, leaving major gaps in protection, policies, and processes. The MSP’s approach was reactive and outdated, offering minimal visibility and almost no forward planning. For a business whose success relies on trust, confidentiality, and client wellbeing, the absence of strong security processes and structured care created a risk profile that leadership considered unacceptable. They needed a partner who would not only stabilise and improve their technology environment, but also provide real relationship‑driven support that mirrored how they serve their own clients.
OneHQ approached the organisation proactively after recognising that the business would benefit from a modernised, high‑touch IT model. This began with a comprehensive assessment aligned to a formal security framework, providing leadership with a clear and honest view of their current posture. The audit identified significant gaps across security controls, tooling, documentation, and governance. OneHQ then met with key stakeholders to present the findings, facilitate discussion, and understand the organisation’s desired future state. This established a clear mandate to develop a purpose‑built uplift plan centred around both security and operational efficiency.
The assessment examined the business’s infrastructure, devices, identity configurations, cloud services, backup posture, and general security health. It revealed missing policies, insufficient protections, inconsistent standards across devices, and multiple areas where legacy practices were creating unnecessary exposure. The structured framework‑based approach enabled OneHQ to define the gap between current state and the security baseline the organisation needed to operate safely and confidently.
OneHQ then presented the findings to leadership in a clear and actionable way, outlining both the risks and the business impacts. This ensured that decision‑makers understood exactly where the vulnerabilities were and what would be required to elevate the organisation to a safe and sustainable level. Through this process, leadership clarified the standards they wanted to adopt moving forward, providing OneHQ with the direction needed to prepare a full remediation and support plan.
The proposed solution focused on full alignment with CIS Level 1 controls and introduced a modern, wrap‑around support model designed to provide the high‑touch care the organisation was lacking. This included dedicated account management, structured governance, proactive reporting, technology business reviews, and defined SLAs to guarantee responsiveness. The technical uplift involved implementing modern security tooling, improving access controls, hardening systems, developing missing policies, creating roadmaps, and raising overall technology maturity. The solution was accepted, and a roadmap was established to implement the uplift in manageable phases.
The rollout was designed to minimise disruption to the business and maintain the continuity expected in a professional services environment. Implementation was completed in a staged approach that allowed for careful testing, improved communication, and consistent progress without interrupting client‑facing operations. The organisation benefited from uplifted security protections, standardised devices, modern identity frameworks, improved documentation, and ongoing proactive oversight from OneHQ’s team.
The application has been a critical success, improving quoting efficiency, reducing risk, and enabling future enhancements. Additional features and integrations are actively being discussed for future development.
By partnering with OneHQ, the company significantly improved its IT maturity, security posture, and operational resilience. Aligning with a globally recognised framework increased confidence across leadership, reduced organisational risk, and positioned the business for sustainable growth. Staff experienced improved performance and efficiency, supported by faster support, better governance, and a partner who understood the importance of wrap‑around care and high‑touch engagement. Technology became a facilitator of service delivery rather than a barrier, supporting the organisation’s ability to provide exceptional service to their own clients.
OneHQ’s tailored solution and commitment to proactive, relationship‑driven support transformed the business’s IT environment from reactive and vulnerable to structured, secure, and aligned with industry best practice. By adopting CIS Level 1 and implementing a modern, high‑touch support model, the organisation can now operate with confidence, knowing that their IT accountability is fully carried by a partner who matches their own standard of care, professionalism, and client focus.
