Supporting Executives & Enabling Communications at Forcepoint— a Multi-billion Dollar Software Company

Forcepoint is an international company that develops cybersecurity software and data protection systems—and they called on Rich Messinger in a moment of crisis we all remember well. It was March of 2020, and the world was waking up to the reality that Covid-19 would change the way we lived and worked, at least for the foreseeable future. Transitioning to a Distributed Workforce Leaders at Forcepoint put out the call for an IT consultant with “executive presence”— someone who could work closely with the CEO and other C-suite executives on two fronts: 1) Forcepoint’s executives wanted an IT specialist they could rely on. That person needed proven problem-solving skills, a strong sense of urgency, emotional intelligence, connecting communication, and the self-confidence required to work side-by-side with top execs. 2) Forcepoint needed a skilled professional to support their ZoomGov platform for the entire global organization, enabling seamless and flawless meetings and webinar communications for key departments around the world. Considering the urgency and sensitivity of the tasks at hand, Forcepoint couldn’t rely on just any rank-and-file IT consultant. They needed someone with the focus, optimism, and drive to solve difficult problems, along with the leadership and follow through to leverage and hold vendors accountable in a respectful fashion.

Interviewers even complimented Matthew on how good he looked and sounded from his home studio.

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Impressed by the white-glove service Rich provided, Matthew offered Rich two premium-quality cigars from his personal humidor. Touched by this show of gratitude, Rich still keeps the cigars tucked away in an air-tight container in his desk—a reminder of the trust he gained from an appreciative CEO. “Rich was really great. A great addition to our team—good person, too.” — Matthew Moynahan CEO, Forcepoint Setting up the Global Marketing Team for Successful Webcasts When Rich began working at Forcepoint, he found more than 35 incident tickets in his queue—incidents that he assisted the team to resolve. Rich would end up working his way through all of them within a couple of weeks, but one of those projects needed immediate attention. The Global Marketing department had a plan to conduct new product launches with their customers and prospects via Zoom Webinars, but before they could conduct those Webinars, they had specific requirements and a vision they needed to meet. In simple terms, each regional Marketing team needed to share a unique regional Webinar account (i.e., AMERWebCast, UKWebCast, EUWebCast), and each team member needed to have delegate scheduling access to their regional Webinar account. That would allow each team member to schedule and host Webinars with their customers, prospects, and leads without using their individual Forcepoint Zoom account. Rich contacted Zoom to collaborate and get their thoughts on the best solution based upon the requirements and vision. Rich then approached Forcepoint’s internal IT department to collaborate and build a solution, but his colleagues in IT were skeptical and believed it would take at least 2-3 weeks to pull it off. This all happened on Thursday, and the Marketing department needed a solution by the following Tuesday.?

Refusing to Take “No” for an Answer That’s when Rich took matters into his own hands, contacting tech support at Zoom and working tirelessly throughout the weekend. His work ethic, combined with a firm stance that vendors should support their enterprise clients, helped him find a solution that worked in record time. The result? Thanks to Rich’s hard work, Forcepoint had an elated Global Marketing team, capable of meeting their goals and driving revenue by sharing valuable content.

Becoming the Management’s Go-to Consultant—a Tech Swiss Army Knife Eventually, word got around that Rich was the guy to know in the IT department—the one who solved complex problems that others were reluctant to move forward. From Vice Presidents to the executive assistants who supported them, Rich gained a reputation as a fearless and innovative problem solver who would stop at nothing to get results. In fact, that’s exactly what he did in the following examples. Pulling off a Flawless Web Meeting for over 2,200 Attendees: The Senior VP of Communications & Public Relations reached out to Rich for a mission-critical Zoom meeting. He needed a Zoom Webinar Subject Matter Expert who was flexible and trustworthy to ensure that meetings with the entire company and fellow executives went off without a hitch.

He contacted Rich, whom he trusted with not only with the task at hand but with sensitive information. Rich ensured a perfect meeting with no technical glitches. Significantly Improving the Outlook Client Experience for Executive Assistants: For many months, Executive Assistants at Forcepoint were struggling with Outlook client issues. Things got worse when they started working remotely from home due to COVID. Executive Assistants provide fast results, with excellence, to executives. However, when technology breaks or lags, this experience can severely impact them and the execs they serve, preventing them from attending important meetings, generating revenue, and marketing and launching products. Based upon Rich’s years of supporting the Microsoft stack, the Executive Assistants trusted him to resolve these issues. Rich employed his listening, empathy, resourcefulness, determination, agile traction/progress, and collaboration skills, partnering with Microsoft and other Forcepoint IT colleagues to get to the root cause. The goal? To once and for all significantly improve the Executive’s Outlook performance issues and make technology easy to use.

Getting Security Cameras to Work in the Cyber Experience Center: Forcepoint’s Cyber Experience Center (CEC) provides an immersive, multimedia experience. Similar to something you might see at a theme park, the CEC is designed to educate clients about cyber security. This unique, immersive customer experience and selling tool is a valuable asset, so the Facilities Manager was rightly concerned that one of the onsite security cameras didn’t work properly.?

Technical Solutions for Challenging Times Human beings cannot make a difference if they lack resourcefulness, and the best companies forge ahead in the face of great obstacles. Whether it’s a global pandemic, a natural disaster, terrorism, or economic hardship, businesses large and small rely on creative problem-solving to survive—and ultimately to thrive. Rich’s work at Forcepoint helped the company’s leadership continue to communicate without missing a beat. His work as the company’s Subject Matter Expert on their ZoomGov platform and other communications technology-empowered executives to not only collaborate internally but to contribute to the larger, global conversation surrounding cyber security in a complex world.