Founding CEOs and CTOs setting up laptops and managing cloud accounts? We see it all the time even in well-funded new startups … because there’s no one else around to do it! Start-ups with serious growth plans need specialized help to establish scalable IT and security early, with modern solutions that stay within their modest budgets while serving them well as they grow. This is KalioTek’s focus. Read about a few of our recent clients below.
A well-funded biotech startup turned to KalioTek to set up IT for a new office and create a scalable foundation for growth, enabling the founders to focus on launching and growing their business.
The company’s founders, senior biotech scientists and an experienced venture capitalist, were able to offload the details of setting up IT and security for their new business with the confidence that it would be handled professionally. Their early employees had positive onboarding experiences and were quickly productive. The company’s IT processes are enabling smooth and steady growth. To the founders’ relief, they’ve avoided the chaos often present in the startup stage and they trust that their valuable IP is secure.
When a new biotech startup is ready to graduate from an incubator and launch their business, their IT needs are often modest and, well, a bit disorganized. This well-funded antibody-based therapy startup, with an initial staff of four, was starting from scratch. Led by an experienced company builder, they wanted to skip the dysfunctional stage and build a scalable foundation for rapid growth from the beginning, while sticking to a reasonable budget. This seasoned entrepreneur was referred to us by their trusted financial services partner, whose clients we had often helped.
Their IT and security needs were similar to many modern life science companies with aggressive growth plans: a scalable network, support of lab computers, new-hire onboarding and offboarding processes, IT asset management, high-quality 24×7 IT support and confidence that their IP is being kept secure. They needed expert support for both PC and Mac users, and a variety of cloud applications such as Zoom and Offce365. They wanted the skillsets of a full IT department that could grow with them, without the cost.
The company has quickly grown to 20 people and is hiring aggressively. The new office was set up with the infrastructure to house quite a few more. A company IT portal allows users to trigger the new-hire onboarding (or offboarding) process, request computer upgrades or access to new applications. The system collects all the needed information and routes the request for any required management approvals, speeding and simplifying the process.
Management meets with KalioTek’s IT Director consultant regularly to review results and discuss security and operations recommendations. The infrastructure is monitored 24×7 and security tools are in place to protect operations and IP. The company is stable and ready to scale smoothly.
The hard parts – FDA and Medicare approvals, market acceptance – are done for an exciting new medical device company with a large available market. Now all that’s left is to grow the company by expanding manufacturing and distribution. Based on past experience, the management team trusted KalioTek to support them in this journey.
Having worked with the KalioTek team in several previous companies, the VP of Operations had peace of mind that he could count on a stable and secure IT environment as a foundation to scale the company without distractions.
A well-funded medical device company, bringing breakthrough results to a large therapeutic market, was ready to grow. It’s device is already approved by the FDA and has a Medicare reimbursement code. All the hard hurdles have been cleared. Having proved their value with their first generation device, they were ready to rollout their next generation technology and greatly expand the product’s distribution. They are led by a management team experienced in scaling medical device companies. KalioTek had established trust with this team in the past by managing IT and security with previous companies.
A key IT requirement for this team was a mix of on-site and remote support for their varied user base. As an in-house device manufacturer, they needed support for the on-site manufacturing line and lab computers in addition to far-flung remote employees. Support for Solidworks was required for engineering designs.
Onboarding and offboarding processes needed to be established to support smooth growth. Since the company uses many cloud applications, detailed entitlements and approvals were built into these processes.
KalioTek tailored a mix of services to meet these needs in a flexible model that will evolve as the company changes.
The company’s IT portal let’s authorized users make complex requests easily without the typical tail of follow-up questions. Requests such as new-hires, terminations, app account changes, and new distribution groups collect all the information in a single form upfront so they can be completed quickly and efficiently. The company’s IT is stable and secure. They readying their next generation product and getting ready to grow aggressively.
This well-funded medical test equipment company needed to grow quickly to capture share in a nascent market. There was no time to grow an IT team and effective processes organically. A management team member had worked with KalioTek before in similar circumstances and reached out for help.
The company is able to hire rapidly without the fear that their new employees will be frustrated and lose productivity from poor IT. They now have confidence that their IP and operations are secure.
An innovative medical test equipment startup has a first-mover advantage in a new, rapidly growing market. With funding from major venture capitalists and relationships with world class universities, they need to grow rapidly to capitalize on the opportunity, doubling in size within the year. KalioTek had worked with one of their executives in a previous engagement. They concluded to move their IT support from a large international managed services provider to a regional provider with more focused and intimate support.
The first priority was to setup and move to a new office for their growing team and operations. The company had an even mix of PC and Mac users and had learned that many IT providers can’t support both. A solid onboarding process was also needed to onboard new hires efficiently.
The company also uses an ever-growing suite of cloud apps – dozens so far, some company-wide and some department-specific. This presented a complex IT management challenge. Assigning the appropriate access and permissions to each employee, removing them when terminated, and fielding a steady stream of app-related requests required detailed approval and deployment processes.
KalioTek implemented a “Single Sign-On” solution, Okta, to help streamline the process. Templates were also built into the company IT portal so that details such as machine requirements and application permissions are specified and approved up front rather than spawning a long tail of follow-up messages.
Security of IP and operations were also key concerns. They had previously experienced a “security event”. Leading solutions for endpoint protection and security awareness training/monitoring were implemented. A robust multi-platform device management solution was deployed to keep all the dispersed assets and users secure. We verify that encryption is enabled on all machines and multi-factor authentication is enforced. The security dashboard is reviewed routinely with management and any items of concern are addressed.
Moving a fully formed biopharma company from one to coast to another is no small feat, like changing a jet’s engines while in flight. Learn how this 50-person startup found their ideal IT and security partner, got their complex infrastructure set up, and started onboarding new employees in record time.
The company was able to quickly establish support in their new west-coast office for their robust IT and security environment, without having to refit it to the preferred technology stack of an IT provider. They met their aggressive timeline and their established processes to support smooth growth. We meet monthly to update the strategic IT/Security roadmap and analyze results.
A promising biopharma company with products in clinical trials decided to move from the east coast to join the vibrant biotech community in the SF Bay Area. Their timeline for moving into an attractive 34K-foot furnished facility was aggressive. An employee of a former KalioTek client recommended they bring us in to assist with their aggressive timeline for the IT transition and provide ongoing support. For a 50-person company, they had a good start at building a robust IT and security infrastructure. They required a new partner with strong expertise in a range of enterprise IT solutions to support them in the new environment. Requirements included supporting a cloud development team, an extensive lab environment, and building a strong onboarding process to facilitate their hiring plans. They also needed to be HIPAA compliant.
The management team talked with several IT service providers and noted that most wanted the company to conform to the vendor’s preferred IT solution stack, starting with a time-consuming and expensive project. This approach simplifies life for the IT provider but limits the client’s choices, presenting a cultural problem for a tech-savvy team with strong solution preferences. Some providers supported only Microsoft technology, while the company had a 50/50 mix of Mac and PC users and a strong preference for Google solutions over Microsoft’s 365 suite. They use a large number of cloud-based
KalioTek’s flexible best-of-breed approach was a much better fit, allowing the client to select the applications and technologies they felt would best fit their users and culture. We worked together in a consultative relationship rather than pushing certain products. KalioTek’s staff is capable of supporting different technology products for each required solution.
The company is now settled into their beautiful new headquarters, hiring confidently and operating efficiently.
