A secure Google Workspace for a growing advisory firm, ready for AI
Thirdway Advisory's founder was about to hire and wanted to use AI safely. We reviewed the firm's Google Workspace, worked through the priority fixes and supported it to SMB1001 Bronze certification.
InnovateX Solutions reviewed Thirdway Advisory's Google Workspace environment, remediated the priority findings, drafted the security policies and supported the firm to SMB1001:2026 Bronze certification in July 2026. The business is now set up for new staff and for AI tools.
The situation
Thirdway Advisory is a founder-led advisory firm. In May 2026 its founder, Dan Moussa, was about to bring on an executive assistant and wanted to start using AI tools in the business. Both would give more people and more software access to client information, and the firm’s Google Workspace was still on a basic setup. Dan wanted the gaps found before anyone new was given access.
What we did
We started with a discovery session and a security review of the Workspace tenant. None of the findings were critical, but several had to be fixed before a second person could safely log in, so we put those first. Where the firm’s licence didn’t include a control, we planned a workaround for it.
Under a scoped remediation statement of work, we then tightened sign-in and administrator access and set up the new assistant’s account and permissions before their first day.
SMB1001 is an Australian cyber security certification for small and medium businesses. We drafted the policies the Bronze level requires and went through them with Dan before submitting the assessment. Thirdway Advisory was certified at SMB1001:2026 Level 1 (Bronze) in July 2026.
The result
Thirdway now has a Workspace set up for a growing team, written security policies it owns and can keep current, and an independent certification it can show clients. With access under control, the firm can bring AI tools into its daily work on a sound footing.
Where AI fits
Safeguard is the first step of our 6S method: agree which data AI tools can see, which tools are approved and where a person checks the output. For Thirdway, securing the Workspace was the groundwork that step depends on.
If your business is about to grow or bring in AI, Next Move will point you to where to start.
