Oak Harvest Financial Group has spent more than 15 years helping pre-retirees and retirees plan their futures with full-service retirement planning, portfolio management and tax strategies. From its early days with around 10 employees, the firm has grown to a team of 50 and now manages nearly $1 billion in assets. Passing $100 million in assets under management moved it from regional to federal SEC oversight, raising its compliance obligations.

Oak Harvest Financial Group grew from around 10 employees to a team of 50 and from a regional firm to one managing nearly $1 billion in assets. Once it passed $100 million in assets under management (AUM), oversight shifted from regional to federal SEC supervision, and the firm's IT strategy needed to evolve as quickly as its regulatory exposure.

Chris Ayers, Vice President of Operations, had long served as the firm's unofficial IT lead and was managing growing demands from both regulators and internal stakeholders. The previous managed service provider (MSP) was, in his words, great locally, but it lacked the scale and industry specialization to support where the firm was headed. When the Chief Compliance Officer asked for something, the provider was, as Ayers put it, Googling the answer.

IT had become a reactive, piecemeal effort that sometimes left the team scrambling to meet new compliance demands. Oak Harvest needed a partner with deep financial services experience that could proactively manage compliance, cybersecurity and infrastructure at scale, and that could carry an office Ayers expected to resist change through a major technology transition.

Oak Harvest selected Thrive for its vertical alignment with financial services. From the first conversations, Thrive's team understood what the firm's Chief Compliance Officer was asking for. The engagement covers advisory services, end user support, IT automation, managed infrastructure, Microsoft 365 and security.

What impressed the firm most was follow-through. From initial onboarding to complex implementations, Thrive delivered what it promised, when it promised it. Two Microsoft 365 initiatives stand out. Thrive moved the firm from Dropbox to SharePoint and OneDrive, eliminating $10,000 in annual costs and improving document collaboration. It also led the migration from an aging on-premises Active Directory server to Microsoft Entra, improving security, reliability and remote access.

Ayers had warned Thrive up front that the office would resist change. Thrive guided staff through each step, and he describes the outcome as a wild success. Day-to-day support now runs through Thrive's help desk and portal rather than through Ayers, who no longer has to be the go-to for 50 people.

Moving to a global MSP came with a higher monthly cost than the previous local provider. For Oak Harvest, the return has justified it: cost savings, peace of mind and the ability to scale.

• $10,000 in annual costs eliminated by moving from Dropbox to SharePoint and OneDrive, with better document collaboration
• Aging on-premises Active Directory replaced with Microsoft Entra, improving security, reliability and remote access
• Leadership says the firm is 100 times better prepared for an SEC audit than a year earlier
• IT shifted from a reactive, piecemeal effort to a proactive model run by a financial services specialist
• Help desk and portal now handle support for 50 staff, freeing the VP of Operations from acting as IT lead
• Onboarding and complex implementations delivered as promised and on the committed timelines