Core Services
- Previous platform was difficult to manage, lacking innovation and containing significant technological limitations
- Excessive alerts peaking at 10,000 per week
- Cyber security resource stretched thin
Case Study
What we did for Personal Group
Industry: Business Services
Published: 08/12/2025
Personal Group, a UK-based employee benefits and insurance company, faced a critical challenge in their security operations with their existing platform. The tool was aging, highly complex, and drowning their small security team in an overwhelming volume of false alarms. As their agreement with the former provider ended, Personal Group took the opportunity to upgrade their Security Operations capability. They chose the SEP2 Wingman Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service, which utilises the Google security platform, viewing Google as a necessary strategic partner in the evolving tech industry. The goal was to secure robust 24/7 monitoring and gain much-needed operational efficiency to shift their security focus from firefighting to strategic enablement.
Personal Group is a UK-based employee benefits, insurance and reward consultancy company. Personal Group aims to help businesses positively impact their employees' happiness, health, and protection, with both technology and services. With around 250 employees working both from their office in Milton Keynes and from home, security is a continuous challenge. As the sole information security analyst, Jack Marshall requires robust, 24/7 detection and response capabilities to protect their employee data and ensure seamless business operations.
Personal Group ultimately chose SEP2 as a partner due to a desire for expert support. Jack emphasised the value of having experts on board, stating: “It was nice having experts - people who actually know what they're doing whilst supporting us.” This trust was crucial for the switch to the Wingman MDR service, which provided a timely opportunity to move from their aging system to the highly advanced Google security platform. Jack noted that the new tooling offered capabilities like AI summaries and was "far more advanced compared to our previous platform for nearly the same price."
As Personal Group's sole security resource, the managed service was a practical necessity, Jack said he values: “the support from SEP2, particularly the managed security response side. It's just me and god forbid if I take a holiday, there’s nobody else to cover. So knowing that there's a dedicated team in there that can ease the workload on me, and allow me to focus on what I need to do to support Personal Group was a no-brainer.”
Finally, SEP2's collaborative ‘Wingman’ approach was vital to their success. Jack appreciated that, unlike other suppliers who hide details, his team got full visibility, and the engineers "actually handheld us a lot and actually taught us the platform ourselves."
The partnership with SEP2 led to immediate and significant improvements in Personal Group’s security operations. Most significantly, the SEP2 team's proactive management resulted in a complete transformation of Jack's personal workload. He described the result as a "night and day difference," explaining that: “there's been weeks where I've had zero escalations or zero alarms to look at because SEP2 have already picked up the low-hanging fruit, realised it's a false positive or realised it's nothing and they've dealt with it straight away.”
This helped significantly in lifting the severe pressure of dealing with the "10,000 alarms a day" he previously faced. Beyond the daily operations, Jack praised the speed of deployment, describing the onboarding process as "really smooth," Jack said: “The whole process was fantastic. We'd set out a multi-week plan. On the kickoff day we actually had the guys come down to Milton Keynes and we got most of the plan achieved in one day.”
Moving forward, the relationship with SEP2 represents more than just a managed service: it provides the stability Personal Group needs to grow their security maturity. With the foundational work of monitoring and alerting now efficiently handled by SEP2’s experts, Jack is empowered to dedicate his time to strategic, forward-thinking projects that directly support the business.
He looks forward to the continuing collaboration with the SEP2 engineers, pointing out the "passion and dedication" that makes them feel like an extension of his team. Overall, he emphasised the peace of mind whilst working with SEP2: "it's nice knowing that we can take time to do the important things, or take time off and not have to worry."
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