About Us
Sagiss has been providing calm, confident, and credible managed security services, IT services, and cloud services to North Texas businesses since 1997. We believe in dispelling the notion that the latest transformative technologies should only be accessible to larger organizations.
Making the right technologies readily available and affordable to small businesses like yours positions you to do what you do best: Drive change and push the business world forward.
The Sagiss Way
Our core values are not just a bunch of corporate buzzwords thrown together to fill space in shareholder presentations. We take great pride in our values and we see them as the blueprint guiding everything we do.
We also believe in making our values publicly available so others can hold us to the same standards we expect of ourselves.
Here are what we consider the four pillars of our success, and yours, too.
Serving our clients and acting in their best interests.
We make it a rule to always ask questions but never assume. That means we understand your needs, and you always know what to expect from us. Then, we follow through and take ownership of the result. And we never sell our clients something they don’t need.
Dedication to processes and their continuous development.
Our detailed processes are based on expertise and firsthand experience. Following them means we can better plan, prioritize, and focus on fixing your problem rather than putting a bandage on it. But we’re also insistent on improving, so we never hesitate to look for a “better mouse trap.”
Bringing our A-game all day, every day—then going home.
We believe in working hard but also in the fact that our team, just like our clients, need a life outside of the office. We’re professional, respectful of time — both yours and ours — and big on collaboration, sharing ideas freely and concisely. And we do our best to keep things fun. Make it a rule to always ask questions but never assume. That means we understand your needs, and you always know what to expect from us. Then, we follow through and take ownership of the result. And we never sell our clients something they don’t need.
Providing an environment of personal and professional growth.
At Sagiss, we are the sum of our collective parts. We know that when we help, guide, gently correct, challenge, and accept mistakes in each other and ourselves, we create, empower, improve and celebrate our shared and individual successes — and those of our clients.
History: 30+ Years of Technology Expertise and Solutions
Many MSPs actually started as support teams from the days when print, voice and telco were the primary (indeed, the only) technology to be widely found in most businesses. As tech advanced to servers and desktops, networking and connectivity, the internet and cybersecurity, these were forced to make a pivot — learn a few new skills and rebrand, lest they go the way of the dinosaurs.
Not so with Sagiss. We’ve been providing outsourced IT administrative services since Day 1. That day was in 1992, when Sagiss founders Karl Springer and Jim Lancaster met at a software users’ group meeting. Jim joins Karl at Dallas CPA firm Middleton, Burns & Davis, PC (“MBD”) as the network administrator and an accounting software consultant. In less than two years, the pair were blazing new trails, with Karl guiding the firm in using technology to become a completely paperless office, practically unheard of in 1994.
Over the next five years, MBD’s networking arm hires its first new employee and starts supporting external clients. It soon became an early and respected player in Outsourced Network Administration, what today has become commonly known as managed service providers (MSPs). Seeing the growing demand, MBD separates the technology arm into its own entity, MBD Network Services, LLC, in 1999.
By 2003, the firm was not only completely paperless, but it included full remote access capabilities — showcasing the cutting-edge networking technology skill for which the fast-growing firm became known.
These events set the foundation for what, in 2004, became Sagiss, LLC.
Since becoming Sagiss, the leadership and technology teams have continued to adapt to changes within the managed services space to show clients how technology can become more than a necessity, but one of their company’s greatest assets.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Technology and cybersecurity have only become hotter topics in the last few years, and we expect that trend to continue. That’s why we’re always preparing for the challenges ahead, so we can make the next 25 years even better. Not just for the Sagiss team, but also for those who see us as their trusted technology partners.
Our Management Team
Karl is a Texas native, having spent his formative years in Fort Worth and Richardson. Following high school, Karl pursued his higher education at Texas A&M, where he earned a BBS focused in finance. Following graduation, Karl joined a highly successful accounting practice, Middleton, Burns & Davis, PC (MBD). Karl and his team spent the ensuing years providing industry-leading accounting service and financial leadership.
Not long after joining MBD, it became clear that to properly service the long and growing list of clients, the firm would need to build new efficiencies into its old processes. Soon the firm had its own internal information network, making operations more efficient, better organized, and ultimately more profitable. After witnessing such gains in efficiency and productivity, clients began to contract with the firm to install similar information networks in their own home offices.
Within a few years, MBD became one of the very first in the country to offer “outsourced network administration” services, now known as “managed services.” When that happened, Sagiss was born.
It’s more than 25 years later and Karl remains heavily involved with the daily operations at Sagiss, providing leadership and strategic direction for the company. At the industry level, Karl has been an active thought leader and advocate, serving on various boards and audit committees. He is a current Advisory Board Member of the MSPAlliance, the world’s largest industry association (and certification body) for cloud computing and managed service professionals.
Outside of Sagiss, Karl is an avid golfer and has been actively involved in his local community for years coaching women's softball.
Born and raised in Dallas-Fort Worth, Travis started working on the Sagiss service desk in 2016 and became a partner in 2019. In addition to overseeing the daily operations at Sagiss, he regularly speaks at industry conferences and serves on the MSP Alliance Leadership Council.
Travis holds the (ISC)² CISSP certification and a BS in finance from the University of Texas at Dallas.
In his free time, he enjoys golf and cold beer, usually at the same time.
Jim graduated from Louisiana State University in 1983 with a BS in Accounting and moved to Dallas to take a job with Arthur Young & Co (now Ernst & Young). As luck would have it, he entered the workforce at almost exactly the same time as the IBM PC. Recognizing the PC’s potential, Jim gained expertise in a variety of new small business software programs, using them to help increase the productivity of the other accountants.
After a seven-year stint as the Controller for the Dallas Cowboys where he implemented their first computer-based accounting system and built their first network, Jim left the team to join Karl Springer at Middleton, Burns & Davis, PC to manage their information technology and start a consulting practice.
Third-Party Certifications and Affiliations
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Cyber Verify™
The Cyber VerifyTM is based on the Unified Certification Standard (UCS) for Cloud and Managed Service Providers developed by the MSPAlliance.
We're proud of this certification because:
— It's the only certification specifically designed for managed service and managed
security service providers.
— It shows we've been examined by an independent third party.
— It must be renewed on an annual basis.
Read More: Why You Need an MSP That Is Cyber Verified -
AICPA SOC 2
The SOC 2 framework was designed as a voluntary compliance standard by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) to ensure organizations are managing their customer data securely. The SOC 2 report is a compliance report, not a certification, that requires a third-party, independent audit of a company’s practices and standards.
The SOC 2 is often the primary document security departments rely upon to assess a vendor’s security risk. The report plays an important role in oversight, vendor management programs, internal corporate governance, risk management processes, and regulatory oversight. Sagiss’ continuous compliance with SOC 2 shows we hold ourselves accountable to the standards and will do what it takes to meet them. -
MSP 501
Not to toot our own horn, but we think when you put your trust in our expertise, you should know
that it is well-placed. While we choose to focus on small businesses in North Texas, our inclusion on the Channel Futures MSP 501 list places us among the best-managed technology support providers in the world. -
Microsoft Solutions Partner
This certification recognizes our mastery of Microsoft products and cutting-edge business technologies including Azure cloud services, Office 365, and Microsoft Windows. Our partnership with Microsoft is just one of the ways we make the latest transformative technologies available to companies of all sizes, including yours.
Partnerships
We perform extensive due diligence before partnering with vendors. We’re proud to do business with the service providers below.
SentinelOne's Singularity Platform instantly defends against cyberattacks— performing at a faster speed, greater scale, and higher accuracy than possible from any single human or even a crowd.
Fortinet empowers its customers with intelligent, seamless protection across the expanding attack surface and the power to take on ever-increasing performance requirements of the borderless network—today and into the future.
With an automated, cloud-based platform, LogicMonitor enables global MSPs to supercharge their managed service offering and increase operational efficiency.
Fortinet empowers its customers with intelligent, seamless protection across the expanding attack surface and the power to take on ever-increasing performance requirements of the borderless network—today and into the future.
SentinelOne's Singularity Platform instantly defends against cyberattacks— performing at a faster speed, greater scale, and higher accuracy than possible from any single human or even a crowd.
Mimecast’s value begins with the most effective cloud-native platform for the #1 threat vector:
email.
Mimecast’s value begins with the most effective cloud-native platform for the #1 threat vector:
email.
With an automated, cloud-based platform, LogicMonitor enables global MSPs to supercharge their managed service offering and increase operational efficiency.