Support in your migration to the cloud

In our opinion ransomware is the #1 cyber threat to all our clients. We are focused on protecting our clients from these attacks. We follow ransomware news very closely and constantly adjust our standards based on the changing hacking tactics. Our security team’s main objective is ensuring that none of our clients are victims of a successful attack. Here are the steps we take to protect our clients

1. Bullet proof backups

The absolute first thing we do is deploy secure backups. Our backup standard is built on the assumption that the network will be breached, and the attacker will obtain full admin privileges. The backups must be able to withstand this. Our standards have been tested by multiple specialized security firms who were unable to access them.

2. Minimize your exposure

We minimise your exposure by making sure that only services that are absolutely necessary are exposed to the Internet. We will then limit these services exposure by only making them accessible to certain countries. We work with our clients to determine what this list is and will modify it as needs change.

3. Protect the infrastructure with advanced security tools

We deploy a set of advanced security tools that will not only protect you but will also alert our security team if something is not behaving normally.

4. Close the open buffet

Many networks are designed as a fortress or citadel. Once they are breached you can access everything, it’s basically an open buffet. We close this open buffet by segregating systems so that even if an attacker was able to get on a single system it’s very difficult to move to another. The more difficult it is the more chances are the attacker will make a mistake and set off an alarm allowing us time to respond to neutralise the attack.

5. Monitoring and response

We monitor alerts generated by our set of advanced security tools and investigate any abnormality. Our security will respond to any identified threat to neutralize the attack.

6. Train your users

We will train your users to adopt safer computing habits and to report abnormalities to our security team.

7. Adapt

We constantly adapt our approach as the threats and security tools evolve. We will also adapt based on the experiences of our peers. We meet with other companies like ours in different markets across North America to share best practices every quarter.

Our support is built to deliver a modern, fast, and personalized experience for all your users.

Each client is assigned a dedicated team of 5 to 7 technicians who respond directly to users. This means your team interacts with the same people who know your environment well.

Technicians are available Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and over 80% of calls and chats are answered within 2 minutes. Outside those hours, our 24/7 emergency service ensures users can speak to a technician in under 30 minutes.

We provide a dedicated support portal, integrated directly into Microsoft Teams, giving users the ability to:

• Chat instantly with a technician in real time

• Book an appointment at their convenience

• Access practical guides and personalized help resources

Users can also contact us by a customized support email using your domain (e.g., support@yourdomain.ca) or by phone via an extension integrated into your phone system.

We also offer on-site support as needed—either occasionally, regularly (from once a month to a few times a week), or even full-time depending on your evolving needs.

We continuously improve our service through user feedback collected after every support interaction using integrated surveys. A service manager personally follows up with any user who leaves a low rating to address the issue and ensure it doesn’t happen again. In addition, we conduct an annual user survey to measure progress and identify areas for improvement.

Finally, we review support tickets regularly to detect recurring issues and implement long-term solutions to eliminate them.

Our typical client is an SMB based in the Greater Montreal, often with additional offices across Canada or the U.S. Many operate in a hybrid work model, and some are fully remote.

They all have in common that they take cybersecurity and employee productivity very seriously. They want IT to drive their business forward, not hold it back.

Our clients are in different industries:

• 60% are professional services firms
• 40% are in distribution or manufacturing

They all operate within the Microsoft ecosystem, using tools like Microsoft 365, Windows, and Azure. Most have a mix of cloud and on-premise infrastructure, while others are fully cloud-based.

We support two types of clients:

• Businesses without internal IT staff, where we act as their fully managed IT department
• Businesses with internal IT teams, where we work collaboratively with their IT team to extend their capabilities

Clients usually find us when they outgrow their IT provider or their IT team needs help.

22 years! S3 was founded by Marc, Vince, and myself in June 2003 after we all graduated in computer engineering together. Our vision was to become an outsourced IT department for SMBs which is still what we are today. We were, therefore, a Managed Service Provider before the term was used.

We are still the three sole owners of S3 and work hard at it every day.