Last quarter, Community Bank* had their best IT audit ever with only four non-critical recommendations. The auditor told them they ranked in the top five cleanest IT environments among his clients.

For Susan Moore*, Executive at the $500MM – $1B community bank, the news was particularly sweet. Five years earlier, she had faced the worst IT audit of her career with 40 critical/high rated findings. Her bank was vulnerable despite working with an MSP. Basic patches weren’t happening, systems weren’t being managed, and they were exposed to risks they didn’t know they had.

Going from their worst-to-best audit wasn’t just a matter of better scores. It represented a commitment to improvement, and a transformation from being stuck in reactive mode to building and nurturing a platform for innovation.

Needs Improvement = A Year of Cleanup Ahead

The ‘Needs Improvement’ audit revealed that fundamental IT hygiene wasn’t happening. Patches and updates that should have been routine weren’t being applied. The relationship with their previous MSP wasn’t working.

The implications of those findings went beyond the scores. With dozens of critical recommendations to address, the entire next year would be spent looking backward, filling holes instead of moving forward. For a community bank with multiple branches, there was no margin for this kind of setback, and it was clear they needed to look for a different IT partner.

XPERTECHS Understood Both the Technical Mess and Budget Reality

The Community Bank team vetted several managed service providers. XPERTECHS, a family-owned business, stood out because Mike Mellott, President, and Joe Mellott, Vice President grasped the reality of the situation—a bank with significant audit findings and broken trust in their IT partnership—and had a clear approach to fixing it. Their understanding extended beyond the technical mess to include budget parameters.

“Mike and Joe and the team knew where we are as a business,” Susan said. “They know I can’t just drop a half million dollars every six months on equipment. There are budgets and strategic plans to align in order to meet our goals. They’ve been very good about letting us meet smaller milestones until we got to where we are today.”

XPERTECHS’ approach was methodical. They assessed the situation, closed immediate security gaps, then built a three-to-five-year roadmap. The strategy was to harden the infrastructure first, then build on that foundation.

“We were a bit of a mess when we onboarded with XPERTECHS,” Susan explained. “We’ve worked together to clear out old problems. They helped us put up extra layers of security including their DEFEND package. It took us several years to build but we finally got there. We sleep better at night knowing we have a layered security system in place and a trusted partner working with us to maintain our perimeter. “

The work happened in phases and required collaboration between Community Bank’s small IT team and XPERTECHS. Quarterly Business Reviews kept everyone aligned on progress and next steps.

Proactive Planning Replaces Reactive Firefighting

The shift from multiple findings and recommendations to four non-critical recommendations is clear progress. But the numbers only tell part of the story. The bigger change is in how Community Bank now proactively approaches IT.

That approach showed up in the Windows 11 migration. Instead of waiting until Windows 10 support ended, XPERTECHS worked with the Bank to create a plan to get ahead of the deadline. They helped the bank order replacement pcs and laptops and worked with the internal IT Team to create a standard set of programs and applications based on job roles prior to deployment.

XPERTECHS provided boots on the ground support throughout the deployment. Employees throughout Community Bank complimented the experience. Replacing computers is often a disruptive experience for the end users but planning and preparation paid off. Plus everyone was thrilled to be equipped with faster, up-to-date computers.

Strong Foundation Enables AI Exploration

Community Bank is now exploring AI implementation, specifically Microsoft Copilot, to find operational efficiencies. This conversation would have been impossible five years ago when the Bank was in ‘Audit Reactive’ mode.

“As we’re looking at how AI can benefit our company, we’re going to lean hard on XPERTECHS to help us with our security structure and help our leadership team start to find efficiencies,” said Susan.

The conversations Susan and her team are having about technology demonstrate an undeniable transformation. Community Bank went from crisis management to competitive advantage, from looking backward to planning ahead.

Partnership Provides the Confidence to Move Forward

The partnership between Community Bank and XPERTECHS is now in its fifth year. What started as recovery from a compliance crisis has evolved into something more valuable: a trusted relationship where regular communication, accessible expertise, and deep understanding of the bank’s business gives Susan and the bank’s Leadership Teams confidence in their IT foundation.

XPERTECHS manages IT, security, and compliance proactively. That solid foundation—and the trust behind it—frees Community Bank to focus on strategic growth instead of constant crisis management.

*Names have been changed to maintain confidentiality

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