What We’ve Been Building Behind the Scenes
5-Min Read | September 30, 2026||
You know how sometimes things sneak up on you? Well, while I was aware of and involved in all the work we are doing at CTaccess to grow and serve better, it wasn’t until I stepped back that I realized how many new things are happening!
It feels good to see progress. We are doing great things that impact our customers by reducing risk and adding capacity. We are deepening our expertise in emerging areas of technology, and we are growing our team’s depth and ability to serve.
Here is a quick look at what’s happening at CTaccess and how it relates to serving you!
- Enhancing Strategic Technology Planning and Visibility.
We invested in a new software platform that will help us track our customers’ adherence to best practices. This helps our Security and Alignment Engineers (SAE) and Strategic Technology Advisors (STA) create a very clear roadmap for each customer’s technology and gives us a more effective framework for discussing strategic planning with you. You will likely see this new tool as we discuss technology in future meetings! - Expanding Our Strategic Technology Advisory Team.
Our Strategic Technology Advisor work had been led by Gabe Scheid for a couple of years now, helping clients develop technology roadmaps, strengthen cybersecurity, and make sound technology decisions. Our customer base and demand for these services have continued to grow, so we recently welcomed Aaron Nicholson to the team. The need for mapping out complex technical replacement schedules, cloud modernization projects, helping guide AI strategy, and bringing new clients whose technology has been neglected up to date is part of the STA’s responsibility, and having more depth on the team will allow us to serve better. Aaron will work closely with Gabe over the next few months, and we are excited to see him grow and contribute to the team! Please give him a warm welcome when you see or hear from him. - Strengthening Our Cybersecurity Services.
We recently decided to standardize on an outstanding protection platform we have used over the last couple of years, but only for some customers. We conducted an extensive Cyber Stack Review and concluded that Huntress best serves our customers. It gives us a single cyber dashboard for our clients and protects them with managed EDR, SIEM, and an outstanding team in their 24×7 Security Operations Center.In a world where threats are accelerating exponentially, regularly evaluating and upgrading your protection is key. We have already seen Huntress help stop active security incidents, including an attempted VPN-based intrusion. The incident reinforced the value of layered security, combining MFA, endpoint protection, and 24×7 detection and response. Huntress is a core component of the CTaccess standard security stack. - Growing Our Business Process Automation Practice.
You may already know that in addition to our outsourced IT managed services practice, CTaccess does software-based automation solutions. We have been doing this for over 25 years, but recently we have grown this practice in a few ways. We are doing more conversion work from older document and records management systems like OnBase and IMS21. We are good at this work, and it is growing our Laserfiche practice. In addition, we have developed deeper expertise in SharePoint and Power Automate, so we now have the capacity to automate SharePoint filing and metadata and create workflows on the Microsoft platform. Finally, we have been doing some cool stuff with embedded AI. It lets us do complex things quickly and with a high degree of accuracy. We are excited about the growth we are seeing in BPA! - Adding a New Business Technology Partner.
Mike Ritt has been our only dedicated person in sales for years, with me (Scott) helping with sales in a very mixed capacity. We have decided to add another team member. We are looking for someone with a strong network, who takes a consultative approach to helping people, and who is both business- and tech-savvy. If you have someone in mind, send us a note! - Helping Organizations Modernize Legacy Information Systems.
This item is always on our plate, but in 2026, it seems there’s more to do than ever. It is a proven fact that unsupported operating systems and platforms on your network create major security holes. We have seen it up front and personal, which increases our diligence at planning upgrades. The main system initiative we are working toward is replacing all Windows Server 2016 systems, and certainly anything older, as Microsoft support for these platforms is coming to an end. We are also continuing to eliminate VPNs that do not have multifactor authentication (MFA). VPNs continue to be a major target for cybercriminals, making MFA one of the most important protections against unauthorized access. - Expanding Our Reach.
Technology is always changing, and we have all experienced the cloud shift. Some companies are now hybrid, with cloud services and servers as well as some local ones still in the mix. Many companies are emerging with fully cloud-hosted, all-SaaS (Software as a Service) environments. As we work with more fully cloud-hosted customers, we are recognizing that limiting our customer base to only local customers is a boundary we should break. We have created new service packages and processes that deliver the same great service, with new features like Depot Services and Remote Deployment that let us manage equipment locally and deploy anywhere. We have serviced remote clients for a long time, but we are refining how we do that to create a better experience for customers across the Midwest and potentially the whole US!
We are here to serve, and that will remain our focus and aligns with our purpose, “Improving lives through technology”. All these changes and adjustments are aimed at serving our growing customer base even better! Please feel free to shoot a comment or question over to scotth@ctaccess.com. We grow mostly through referrals, so if you know someone who might need a progressive, security-forward, people-focused IT company, please let us know! We appreciate your partnership!
Scott Hirschfeld is the President of CTaccess, a Brookfield IT support company that has been helping businesses stop focusing on IT and getting back to doing business since 1990. Under his leadership CTaccess provides the business minded approach of larger IT companies with the personalized touch of the smaller ones. Connect with Scott on LinkedIn.