Stepping Forward Technology’s journey from IT provider to trusted partner
Overview
At Stepping Forward Technology, exceptional client service begins with an empowered team. By fostering a culture of collaboration and equipping employees with the right solutions and support, they’ve become an MSP for which going above and beyond is second nature.
When their client, Advantage Manufacturing, needed CMMC certification, the requirements were still evolving, and the process was unclear. Stepping Forward used Kaseya solutions to assist Advantage Manufacturing in meeting audit requirements, strengthening their security and driving growth.
Find out how Stepping Forward Technology delivers service that truly makes a difference to customers by putting the team first and supporting them with the right solutions.
About
Stepping Forward Technology is a managed service provider (MSP) offering full-service IT and cybersecurity support. The company firmly believes that great service follows when you empower your team and focus on doing things the right way. With strong values like trust, humility, honesty, grit and excellence guiding every decision, they strive to help businesses run smarter, safer and with more confidence.
Team-focused, client-driven
At the heart of Stepping Forward Technology is a simple mantra — when you take care of your team, they take great care of your clients. “I’m incredibly committed to my team. They, in turn, really focus on taking care of our clients,” said CEO Matthew Harvey.
This team-first approach has created a culture of trust, ownership and pride in meaningful work. This mindset helps Stepping Forward support clients across industries, handling not just daily IT needs but also complex challenges that include regulatory compliance, like CMMC and other security certifications.
By investing in their team and continuously improving how they work, Stepping Forward has built a service experience that’s consistent, proactive and reliable — just what clients like Advantage Manufacturing look for.
A partner through uncertainty
Advantage Manufacturing, a precision sheet metal and machine shop based in Colorado, serves clients in the aerospace and defense industries. To continue doing so, they needed to meet the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) requirement — a framework designed to ensure contractors properly protect sensitive defense information requirements. At the time, the path forward was anything but clear.
“We needed somebody willing to work with us on something that really wasn’t defined yet,” said Advantage Manufacturing CFO Laddie Blaskowski. “Even the government had not put out the final requirements or guidelines for what this was going to be.”
Stepping Forward stepped in not just as a service provider but as a true advisor. While CMMC was new to them as well, they took full ownership, learning quickly, adapting as needed and guiding Advantage Manufacturing through every step to ensure they were audit-ready.
“They had to configure a whole policy suite that covers their entire business from business risk and security practices,” explained Stepping Forward cybersecurity engineer Matthew McCanne. “Our tools [Kaseya solutions] were just able to help them prove that compliance is happening through their policies.”
Now, Advantage Manufacturing is just weeks away from its CMMC audit.
“If we had not worked with Stepping Forward, we would not be in this position right now,” Blaskowski noted. For Advantage Manufacturing, that means continuing to serve key aerospace and defense clients — business that would otherwise be out of reach without CMMC compliance.
While Kaseya’s Compliance Manager was the core solution supporting the audit preparation, Stepping Forward’s role extended far beyond compliance. They managed Advantage Manufacturing’s entire IT environment using a full suite of Kaseya solutions.
“For Advantage Manufacturing, we provide the entire suite of services, security solutions, backups, compliance, service desk…. pretty much everything that you could want from an MSP, we deliver to Advantage Manufacturing,” said Patrick Lavin, project engineer at Stepping Forward.
Without an internal IT team, Advantage Manufacturing relies entirely on Stepping Forward to keep their systems running. Over the years, the relationship has grown into a true partnership. The MSP plays a hands-on role in the company’s growth by recommending technology solutions, improving efficiency and helping them plan for the future.
“If we had not worked with Stepping Forward over the last four years, our business would not be where it’s at,” Blaskowski mentioned. “Stepping Forward has helped us position our company to grow. I don’t believe that most people receive this kind of value from their service providers,” he added.
Tools that help the team lead
With a well-integrated Kaseya stack behind the scenes, Stepping Forward can focus on clients rather than vendors or disconnected tools. Their stack features Kaseya 365 Endpoint and its core components — Datto RMM, Autotask, Datto AV and EDR, Datto Backup, RocketCyber — along with Compliance Manager and IT Glue.
“Kaseya 365 is very integral to what we provide for our clients,” shared McCanne. “It brings everything into one license for us. So, it relieves the pain point of having to deal with different types of licenses at once, which means fewer headaches when we’re delivering services.”
Freed from the noise of managing multiple systems, Stepping Forward’s technicians spend less time clicking between tools, stay ahead of issues and move quickly when it counts.
That responsiveness has a real impact. When a client was hit with a business email compromise, the MSP caught and resolved it early. In another case, they helped a client secure a key contract by pulling together a supplier performance risk system (SPRS) score in just two weeks.
While the IT stack from Kaseya supports the work, it’s Stepping Forward’s people who lead, solve problems and build trust. That focus has paid off.
“When we moved to the Kaseya tool stack, in the first year we saved $52,700,” shared Harvey. “But the better part of that was that the stack was providing more value and more services than we were providing before. It created opportunities for us to increase revenue in addition to saving costs,” he added.
Growing smarter with the right support
But it isn’t just about the tools. Stepping Forward also joined Kaseya’s MSP peer program, TruPeer, where they gained access to mentorship, peer insights and a trusted space to think strategically about the business.
“We’ve avoided so many problems that normally we would’ve stumbled into,” Harvey said. “I needed some accountability, and I needed a way to be challenged and get new ideas.”
That combination of strong leadership, a unified platform and support from the peer program has led to real results. Today, Stepping Forward operates at up to 35% profit margins, offers above-average raises to the team and has nearly tripled in size since 2022 — all while continuing to deliver personal, high-quality service to clients who know they’re in good hands.
“We’ve been driving profits as high as 35% and no lower than 25% for the last four years since we’ve implemented some of [Kaseya’s] new tools and processes. It’s been transformative.” Matthew HarveyStepping Forward Technology, CEO and owner
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