Marcus Thrift Email & Phone Number

Charleston County, South Carolina, United States

Understanding the company's product is only part of the road to success. Understanding the competition, their technology, their sales strategies and targets, and - most importantly - the customer and their perceptions of the market are areas that my team and I focus on.I manage a small team of experienced industry SME's, while also acting as an analyst. Our team's goal - to shift the role of Competitive Intelligence from that of a cosmetologist (putting lipstick on a pig) to that of the geneticist where we jointly build a better product, strategy. We influence the product & corporate mindset to align with the customer's current and future needs in cybersecurity.

Charleston, South Carolina Area

My goal is four fold:Put my employer where they are strong and the competitor is weak todayLeverage this understanding to help sales develop counter-strategies for major competitorsAdvise my employer where they will be weak and the competitor strong tomorrowNever accept that enough information is enough.If competitive differentiation is not PLAN'ed - it is simply a lucky accident that will not be sustained., or at least that is the goal that I work towards.Focusing on the Endpoint Configuration & Security, Email Security, EDR, and overall Microsoft 365 strategy, my role has included:• Conduct, present, and maintain market analysis and technical research of over 20 email, ATP, endpoint management/security solutions to guide strategic and tactical decisions across sales, product management, engineering, and executive leadership teams.• Deliver tactical/technical collateral and support in multiple enterprise security competitive sales engagements influencing approximately $5M in product revenue.• Led and participated in five major organizational strategic initiatives to drive long-term market sustainability.• Executed research and proposed mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for product management and executive leadership.• Partnered with multiple separate security engineering and product teams to deliver secret shopper exercises and UX/UI wireframe proposals.• Gather intelligence from industry events, staff and customer interviews, analyst briefings, product advisory boards, and customer interlocks.• Deployed, integrate, and manage multiple competitive security solutions on sensitive hybrid infrastructure.

Charleston, South Carolina Area

Provide SME-level support to Inside & Field Sales team for Endpoint Management, Service Management, Mobility, and Data Loss Prevention opportunities.Act as a 'Trusted Advisor' in deep-dive discussions with Reps, Partners, & Customers to determine unique needs and construct proactive solutions to meet those needs.Identify and advise Product Management/Marketing on new areas of innovation or unrealized potential within the portfolioActing as part of a team, review and develop current training and certification requirements for Sales force and Partner community.

Charleston, South Carolina Area

• Remote Support of complex, multi-suite Endpoint Management implementations for large enterprise/corporate customers.• Assist customers through pro-active performance tuning of Endpoint Management implementations.• Augmentation of customer IT groups to assist in matching rising business needs to Endpoint Management functionality and assistance in implementation.• Provision of architectural design advice for corporate customers for implementation/upgrade activities.• Provision of ‘needs specific’ product training to end-use administrators in the full range of Endpoint Management products.• Management of customer expectations and overall satisfaction.• Provide remote product specialist function for the Business Critical Services – Americas group in relation to Altiris Recovery Solution matters.

Various

• Planning, design, implementation and remediation of all products of the Altiris Total Management Suite into enterprises ranging from 1,000 to 30,000 nodes.• Extensive experience in implementation of Altiris products while remaining sensitive to the requirements of SoX and HIPAA regulatory limitations and requirements.• Design and implementation of operating system upgrades and migrations at enterprise level.• Implementation of automated Patch Management strategies for desktops and servers at enterprise level.• Implementation and customization of Altiris Helpdesk to facilitate SLA management under business hour calculation and incorporating ITIL best practice methodology.• Design and implementation of web facing Altiris solution for non networked nodes utilizing SSL security certification.

Charleston, South Carolina Area

• Day-to-day management of 8 IT Professionals involved in Desktop Support and Helpdesk operations for the County of Charleston, South Carolina. Client base approx. 1700 PC’s and Laptops.• Development, initiation, and supervision of County-wide PC and Laptop refresh project. Project Phase II of 500 units, incorporated within this refresh stage was the initial rollout of the Windows XP Professional operating system as the new County standard. • Testing and approval of equipment and software prior to acceptance into the County network.• Administration and development of Remote support software to facilitate improved response times to existing reports and inclusion into work process to better enable proactive maintenance tasks.

Charleston, South Carolina Area

• Day-to-day management of 12 IT Professionals involved in Desktop Support and Helpdesk operations for the County of Charleston, South Carolina. Client base approx. 1700 PC’s and Laptops.• Development, initiation, and supervision of County-wide PC and Laptop refresh project. Project Phase I of 450 units deployed within 31 days, within agreed time span with minimal impact to customer base. • Testing and approval of equipment prior to acceptance into the County network.• Planning and testing of current applications compatibility with future standard operating system.

Wollongong, Australia

Assessment of current workload and assignment of technical resources to priority issues. Remote technical support for systems and communication issues.