Cancer CAREpoint and Sagacent—Partnering for Success

Sagacent Helps Local Nonprofit Build a Secure IT Infrastructure

Cancer CAREpoint is a local nonprofit committed to assisting community members with the practical, psychological, and emotional burden that a cancer diagnosis delivers. Serving clients since 2012, they offer personalized Counseling, Assistance, Resources, and Education (CARE) services and programs across the SF Bay Area—all free of charge.

“We were founded based on research as well as personal experience that non-medical support can make a difference in treatment outcomes for cancer patients,” says Executive Director Dawn Hogh. “Based on this realization, our founders gathered people from the community impacted by cancer into focus groups and asked them to tell us what cancer care would look like to them. That led to the programs and services that Cancer CAREpoint offers.”

Cancer CAREpoint’s Mission

The effects of cancer can be long lasting, and Cancer CAREpoint is there to serve in whatever way their clients need them.

“Our mission is to transform support for cancer patients, survivors, family members, and caregivers in the Bay Area through one-on-one counseling, assistance, resources, and education,” Dawn says.

There are several things that make this very special nonprofit unique:

It was created by the community for the community.
Its programs and services are designed to help people with all cancer types connect to local resources and support.
It serves, not just people in active treatment, but also family members, caregivers, and cancer survivors who still need support after treatment.
Insurance or where patients are getting care is not an issue—everyone is welcome.
There is no term limit on services, and all of their services are free.

Programs and Services

So, who makes the magic happen at Cancer CAREpoint?

It starts with the Cancer CAREpoint team, comprised of 10 full-time employees and 18-20 specialized practitioners.

Cancer CAREpoint offers these programs and services:

Counseling: Cancer CAREpoint offers one-on-one and family counseling sessions with licensed therapists, both in-person and online.
Facilitated groups: Cancer CAREpoint provides both support groups, which can focus on a specific cancer or on different stages of cancer, and expressive-arts groups. Both group types are facilitated by counselors and provide a supportive community to explore the challenges of a cancer diagnosis.
Exercise and movement: Studies have found that cancer patients who engage in moderate exercise each week experience significant benefits, both physical and emotional. Exercise and movement classes at Cancer CAREpoint are designed to accommodate many levels of physical ability.
Mind-body: Research shows that cancer diagnosis and treatment can increase stress and anxiety. Mindfulness and meditation practices have been shown to positively impact the emotional and physical impacts of a cancer diagnosis.
Healthy cooking and healthy eating: These classes provide helpful information such as what foods can provide the highest nutritional value while undergoing treatment, delicious recipes for foods that can help with treatment side-effects, and tips for preparing meals when fatigued.
Wig Boutique: Customized wig selection and fitting as well as head coverings.
Financial support: One-time financial assistance for basic needs.

And again, all Cancer CAREpoint programs and services are free of charge.

Partnership with Sagacent Technologies

Dawn Hogh came to Cancer CAREpoint after 25 years of experience in high-tech companies, so she became the natural resource for anything IT-related. In that role, she and Sagacent have worked closely together, particularly when Maurice Unglik, Customer Success Manager, joined the team. They first completed a technology alignment project to assess the robustness of Cancer CAREpoint’s security posture. After that, they moved everyone onto Microsoft 365 with all of its robust security features, completed an office relocation, moved the on-premises server into the cloud, addressed a short list of technology alignment issues, and set up the right infrastructure to support the nonprofit’s operation over time.

“While Cancer CAREpoint is guiding its clients through the cancer-care labyrinth, Sagacent’s job is to keep their systems running smoothly and their data safe. We greatly admire the work that this nonprofit does and are honored to play our small part in their service to the community.”

—Ed Correia, President and CEO of Sagacent.

Technology Alignment

The Technology Alignment Program that Sagacent uses is based on the Center for Internet Security (CIS) framework, and is central to each client engagement. It starts with an engineer going onsite to test the environment against the CIS benchmarks and standards. A detailed report then identifies security gaps and highlights any areas that need attention across the client’s IT practices and processes.

In Cancer CAREpoint’s case, the report came back showing a very good score. “This meant that there were really only a handful of things that we needed to address, and Dawn and I worked collaboratively to deal with those in just a few weeks,” Maurice says.”

“Their mission, the knowledge and dedication of their team, who they are, and what they do inspires us to do our part to help them be successful as they support their clients and extended families. It’s quite inspiring to work with a customer like that, and Dawn has been a great collaborator and IT partner.”

—Maurice Unglik, Sagacent Customer Success Manager.

Partnering for Success

The value of having your IT partner just a phone call away—someone who knows how to safely navigate the complexities of today’s cyber world, someone who understands your mission, knows your infrastructure inside and out, and is a valued member of your team, cannot be overestimated. Every time Cancer CAREpoint has expanded or moved, they’ve had to figure out how to extend their infrastructure, and also make sure that all of the moving parts are reconfigured properly for efficiency and security.

Dawn explains, “Over time we’ve added offices and Sagacent has helped with that. In December 2023, we moved our office to a new location and that required a significant IT effort to bring everything up with a seamless transition for our staff. Sagacent came into the office to help set up the firewall and also people’s environments, making sure that everything on every desktop worked from day one. Migration from our physical onsite server to the cloud and a cloud-based backup and recovery system was also a large IT project that Sagacent helped manage for us.”

So, as a small nonprofit, what should you be looking for in an IT services partner?

Someone who can help you analyze the infrastructure, identify where there are gaps or areas of concern, put safeguards in place that prevent intrusions, and help you implement security best practices.
Someone who can look at efficiency and make recommendations about changes you can make and technology you can introduce that will make the operation more efficient and effective.
Someone who can ensure that your business is getting value for its IT dollars.
Someone who doesn’t just do the high-level strategy but also provides that menu of services to help you run efficiently, remain agile, and implement meaningful change going forward.

“Quarterly reviews are also very helpful as we continually assess and finetune our IT infrastructure,” Dawn says. “It’s important to look at where the business is going and decide how technology can best support that, always trying to stay ahead of the curve.”

“I would definitely recommend Sagacent to others. Service and support was elevated when Maurice Unglik came on board as our Customer Success Manager. We had a single point of contact who could address our questions and needs quickly and bring the right people together when we needed it. The challenge for nonprofits is they don’t usually have in-house technology skill to navigate today’s highly complex IT world, so it’s really important that they find a skilled, responsive IT partner to help steer that part of the business. Having someone who understands your mission and bridges the technology with what is happening day-to-day is really critical. Also translating IT programs and investments into real-world benefits, i.e., why do I care about this and what’s it going to do for the business? And the importance of keeping IT systems up to date and your data safe can’t be overstated.”
—Dawn Hogh, Executive Director, Cancer CAREpoint

“Dawn is technically proficient and has been a great technology partner. She understands why and how a technology solution or service is going to solve a particular business problem and has collaborated with us seamlessly to implement our recommendations for Cancer CAREpoint.”
—Maurice Unglik, Sagacent Customer Success Manager

Major Successes and Big Wins

“In our business, the ‘big wins’ are often what didn’t happen,” Ed Correia, President and CEO of Sagacent says. “Things such as hackers and bad actors breaking through firewalls, cyber and ransomware attacks that lead to serious financial consequences, and stolen or compromised data.”

“Sagacent takes security very seriously, and that’s why we take the steps that we do and put such robust safeguards in place to minimize and/or mitigate the possibility of these kinds of intrusions,” Maurice says. “In the case of Cancer CAREpoint, we know we’ve done our job well because they haven’t experienced anything like that on our watch.”

The Sagacent Story

Sagacent has 24+ years of making IT safer and easier for its clients. It is not only unique because of its expertise and customer relationships, but also because of its stellar track record and team of highly skilled IT professionals. Because IT operations and security need to work together, the Sagacent team combines high levels of IT management and cybersecurity expertise. They thrive on change—always learning and growing to stay ahead of an industry that continually reinvents itself. And they really care about doing right by their customers.