The Company

Since 1994, Bridgeport, West Virginia-based Citynet has provided a full range of telecommunications and IT managed services to business and residential customers. Through the strategic vision of CEO Jim Martin, the company now owns a 500-mile broadband fiber optic network that runs throughout North Central West Virginia. This gives Citynet the ability to bring affordable, accessible high-speed communications services to rural communities in West Virginia.

Tyler Crawford, who joined the company five years ago as Director of Sales, explains Citynet’s unique competitive advantage in its market. “We are the company that transformed Bridgeport and Snowshoe Mountain into ‘gigabit cities’ by powering these communities with broadband, highspeed Internet service reaching speeds of 1 gigabit,” he says. “It’s great to be able to take something big and bring it to smaller communities, but we also have a reputation for dedicated service and for creating solution packages that meet our customers’ telecommunications, IT, or security needs.”

The Challenge

With a growing client base and offices in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, Tyler says staying ahead of security threats is the biggest challenge for the Citynet team.

“Ensuring the security of our customers’ data and operations is both our biggest priority and our biggest challenge,” he says. “The threat landscape is changing every day and continuously delivering new surprises. Staying ahead of these threats requires proactive services that keep our business and home networks secure, as well as user training to help companies develop cybersecurity best practices. Since time is always in short supply, technology that automates our work and improves security is a must.”

The Solution

Citynet has been using Avast Business CloudCare since 2016 to deliver security services such as Antivirus Pro Plus, Content Filtering, and Cloud Backup services, as well as its Remote IT Control tool.

“We started with AVG, and we continue to realize advantages from the combined AVG and Avast technologies in terms of stronger antivirus and cybersecurity protection. The Avast Business solutions represent the majority of the security services we provide today,” explains Tyler. “CloudCare and its integrated Antivirus Pro Plus are our first line of defense. This provides a great security layer to help businesses protect their users and devices, and gives us the tools to automate service delivery, set up alerts, monitor networks, and keep customers safe.”

Sales Engineer Larry Lambert agrees and says they have replaced Trend Micro antivirus with the Avast Business Antivirus Pro Plus in several client sites this year. “I like our access to the threat information and the data that can be generated about the PCs we monitor. Working from a central portal also gives us the tools to automate our work, deploy services, and onboard customers easily. We don’t have to go back into users’ PCs and reapply things. It’s a real time saver,” Larry shares.

Adds Tyler, “I like to compare the Avast Business Antivirus Pro Plus to our high-speed fiber. It’s easy to install, it works for every type of business, and you spend less time fixing issues.”

The Results

According to Tyler, CloudCare’s usability has contributed to sales, internal efficiency, and service delivery. He also credits CloudCare for driving monthly recurring revenue and estimates that in the past six months, his team has increased sales of cloud-based security services by at least 20%. “When you’re serving a lot of clients, it’s about ease of delivery and highquality services,” he says. “Because CloudCare services are very user friendly and easy to sell, we’re able to do monthly contracts, continually add services, and quickly adjust for customer needs throughout the year. All of this helps us elevate our level of service and improve our bottom line.”