Business North October 2021

Inspiring through technology Network Service Providers (NSP) helps customers drive results by aligning innovative technology to business objectives to achieve outcomes in the shortest amount of time. The company's approach is di erent to other technology providers, says managing director Brent Larsen. "We exist to inspire kiwi organisations to reimagine what's possible by driving results and success through focused action, astute investment and disciplined execution. We come from a business- irst approach," he explains. "We identify their goals and objectives and then work out how technology might help them achieve that. It's about building and implementing technological solutions based on business outcomes to give a true return on investment." A good example is NSP's work with B:HIVE at Smales Farm in Auckland, a business o ering lexible, dedicated o ice space, dedicated desks and short-term leasing options. Brent says technology plays a crucial role in the B:HIVE, which provides a premium environment to empower and grow smart New Zealand businesses. Involved from the initial concept, NSP took care to understand what B:HIVE wanted to achieve then designed and architected an infrastructure to enable that vision. Now NSP delivers managed services to ensure networks remain secure and conducts regular workshops to help the B:Hive reach its goals faster. "When the desired business goals and outcomes are clearly de ined, we can provide solutions that meet the need," he says. Part of its service to B:HIVE involves cybersecurity – something that is at the forefront of the minds of many business owners at present after the recent attacks on New Zealand systems. Sensitive IP, inancial and customer data is at greater risk than ever. NSP's CyberHawk system helps businesses detect threats and remediate them faster to mitigate the impact on the organisation. "An unplanned outage or malicious data loss can impact revenue, productivity and cause irreversible damage to an organisation's reputation. We ind the weak points in systems with our deep exploit service. We conduct a thorough analysis of the client's systems, launch simulated attacks to see how their system responds and provide a detailed report. We then design a solution," explains Brent. He also points out that while a business may not be a direct target it may be a gateway to compromise one of its business partners. Brent advises that a simple step to combat this is to use strong passphrases rather than simple passwords. Proudly New Zealand owned and in operation since 2002, NSP delivers IT solutions at a ordable prices to aspirational businesses from its home base in Auckland. Flexibility, agility, capability and expertise have been crucial factors. NSP solutions include cloud services, data recovery, security, managed services and network performance. "While we're experts in IT, it's not about IT itself rather what it enables," stresses Brent. "Whether that's global expansion, better communication, a more agile workforce – whatever the goal, IT plays a key role in helping businesses get there. Our objective is to ignite and empower our customers to succeed. That's why we take a business- irst approach - one that combines strategic insight with technical expertise to make a real di erence. We believe that's what makes us a true partner as opposed to just being a provider."