2021 marks the year of CLICO 30th anniversary

CLICO - the largest with 100% Polish capital, specialized value added distributor - is turning 30 years this year.

CLICO has been operating on the market of advanced technologies since 1991, successfully introducing and promoting in Poland and other countries of Central and Eastern Europe innovative solutions of the world market leaders. From the very beginning, the company set itself a clear strategy implemented as part of value-added distribution (VAD), understood in a way that goes far beyond the common interpretation of this concept. Using 30 years of experience, CLICO educates the market by offering - apart from the best products of technology world leaders - a comprehensive set of consulting, educational and audit services, which supports all types of organizations in the process of improving cybersecurity in the areas of IT, OT and IoT.

From the very beginning, CLICO had ambition to provide complete and unique solutions focusing on three areas: security, networking and management. This strategy has been consistently implemented to this day by focusing on the highest quality products and the highest competences. As an authorized center, CLICO offers highly valued technical support, as well as authorized and in-house trainings, covering not only technologies and products in the distribution portfolio, but also general issues. In addition to four Polish offices in Krakow, Warsaw, Katowice and Rzeszów, CLICO currently has also local branches in Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia and Hungary. For years, the company has also been represented in the Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

“When we established CLICO almost 30 years ago, we were simply enthusiasts of computer technologies, enthusiasts of what had just been passed through great political and social changes, and what to say - we were complete business amateurs. The company was founded by three colleagues that knew each other from college [Janusz Jarosz, Roman Piekutowski, Tomasz Ryś], who had experience in scientific work, cooperation with international entities and also little experience in the so-called private industry, including the IT industry. If we add to this, that the company was founded without any capital and loans, just with a little support from the Progress & Business Foundation that was promoting a new style of business back then, we can probably boldly define CLICO as a success „rags to riches” story”. - recalls Tomasz Ryś, co-owner and CEO in CLICO group.

For 30 years CLICO has been constantly providing customers with effective protection and a complete security system. To meet this challenge, CLICO follows global trends looking for promising solutions and expands its distribution portfolio with new innovative technologies in the areas of networking, security and management. Early in 1995, as a result of implemented strategy, Check Point Software Technologies appeared in CLICO distribution portfolio, in 2002 OneSecure (acquired then by NetScreen, and then by powerful Juniper Networks), in 2007 WAF (Web Application Firewall) of Imperva, and then NGFW (Next Generation Firewall) offered by Palo Alto Networks, which in early 2008 was just a developing start-up unknown almost to anyone.

“Our professional services department brings together a dozen engineers and trainers with many years of experience and the highest levels of certification in the field of IT networks and security. As a team, they regularly monitor and follow global trends, which then results in adding new categories of solutions to our distribution portfolio, such as UEBA (User and Entity Behavior Analytics), Threat Intelligence, Cloud Security, SCADA / OT Security, or SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation And Response). That is why we can respond to contemporary challenges and needs not only of the largest companies in Poland, but also in the entire world, ”comments Grzegorz Rospond, Sales Director at CLICO.

CLICO is also a training center in which numerous professional training courses are carried out, directed to a wide range of students of various knowledge levels. CLICO trainers team is currently about 30 not only trainers, but also experts and practitioners, of whom almost 10 people are working in our international branches. All trainers have high technical qualifications, confirmed by engineering and coaching certificates and many years of professional work as technical support engineers. This guarantees a unique quality of training. We have almost 20 authorizations of certified training centers (ATC), including independent organizations such as (ISC) 2 and the EC-Council.

CLICO also specializes in security audits of IT systems and OT / SCADA industrial automation control systems. The main goal of such services is to provide an assessment of the reliability and performance of security systems, as well as compliance with the requirements of law and industry regulations. Security audits are carried out by CLICO team consisting of certified security analysts, pen-testers and security engineers from various technologies. Audit team members have, inter alia, the following certifications: (ISC) 2 CISSP & Instructor, EC Council CEH & Instructor and EC Council CCISO & Instructor.

“Looking at the beginning of my professional career, as in 1996 I was a student at CLICO, I can say that the perception of security has changed significantly. Security has become a "living" process in every organization. This process requires constant research and improvement, in which CLICO engineering team actively supports customers and partners by providing professional technical services, security audits and, recently, red team exercises for SOC / CSIRT teams. We are also improving our skills all the time " - comments Ph. D.  Mariusz Stawowski, Technical Director, recalling the beginning of working at CLICO.

Our 30th anniversary in 2021 is a time full of challenges, especially in the perspective of global Covid-19 pandemic. We are aware that we would not have been here, where we are today, if it weren`t for our Team. Because the driving factor of every business and every company are people who build it together and work for its development. We are very grateful that we have met (and we still meet) fantastic, creative, energetic and dedicated people on our way. Individualists with different characters, unique competences, with great ideas that are shared at every step and that bring amazing results. People who want to create CLICO together, who co-create our company philosophy and mission, business ethics  and cultivate the 30-year-old DNA of the company by implementing it every day " - add together Janusz Jarosz CFO CLICO and Tomasz Ryś, CEO CLICO.