In cyber security, change is constant, but some challenges remain stubbornly familiar. Do you remember the Anna Kournikova virus from over two decades ago? It spread rapidly by tricking users into opening a seemingly harmless email attachment. Fast forward to today, and it’s no surprise that email remains the number one attack vector. The only difference is that the stakes are higher, and as technology evolves, the threats grow more sophisticated.
In our latest Security Minutes video series, with Mimecast, Data#3’s National Practice Manager for Security, Richard Dornhart, and Mimecast’s Senior Sales Engineer, Matt Youman, discuss the critical challenges organisations face and how they can stay ahead. From polished phishing attacks to overlooked attack vectors such as collaboration tools, here are the key insights you can’t afford to miss.
Cyber criminals are leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) tools to revolutionise their tactics. In the first episode, Youman highlights the rapid rise of AI-driven phishing attacks:
With tools capable of learning, adapting, and automating attacks at scale, organisations can no longer rely on traditional defences alone.
While cyber criminals use AI to evade detection, it’s imperative to remember that AI is also a powerful ally for defenders. Youman explores how Mimecast uses natural language processing and social graphing to identify behavioural patterns to help you catch threats that static tools miss.
When Youman reviewed 2,000 emails that bypassed standard security tools, the results were staggering: payroll switch scams and other business email compromise threats had slipped through unnoticed.
Relying on static rules and limited keyword scans is no longer enough. Utilising AI-driven solutions can help you think like attackers, making it easier for your organisation to fight back
It’s not just email. Collaboration tools, essential to everyday business operations, are also becoming an increasingly popular target for attackers. Yet they’re often overlooked in security strategies. Youman shares how Mimecast addresses this blind spot by integrating collaboration platforms into its centralised security solution, enhancing visibility and simplifying management.
Are your collaboration tools secure? If not, attackers may already be exploiting the gap.
Even with advanced technology, people remain the final safeguard. Roles such as those in C-suite, IT, HR, and finance are prime targets due to their access to sensitive data. Youman emphasises that understanding and addressing human risk is vital to any security strategy.
Did you know that Mimecast’s 30-day Email Threat Scanner not only uncovers risks but also identifies patterns of human error? Making it a great tool for helping you tailor training to individual roles.
When was the last time you tested your human defences?
No single tool or strategy can eliminate cyber risk. Reflecting on recent incidents, Youman highlights the critical need to look beyond email when protecting your organisation from cyber criminals.
That’s why Data#3 and Mimecast advocate for a defence-in-depth approach. By layering advanced detection, automation, and human-centric strategies, organisations can:
The final episode showcases Mimecast’s Email Threat Scanner in action. This free tool provides a powerful way to uncover email-borne risks that have bypassed your existing defences. With access to the Mimecast console, you can:
With everything we’ve learned so far, it’s easy to see that the evolving cyber threat landscape requires more than just traditional security measures. The rise of AI-driven attacks, sophisticated phishing campaigns and overlooked vulnerabilities in collaboration tools reveal critical security blind spots that many organisations still miss. Relying solely on static defences alone is no longer enough to stay ahead of cyber criminals.
A comprehensive, defence-in-depth approach is necessary to safeguard your organisation against emerging threats. Don’t delay, each day leaves your organisation open to more attacks. With Data#3 and Mimecast, you’ll take proactive steps to identify and address potential risks that will help protect your organisation.
Mimecast’s Email Threat Scanner Report will give you actionable insights into your current security posture, helping you stay one step ahead of cyber criminals. Don’t leave your organisation’s security to chance—ensure you’re fully prepared for the threats ahead.
Contact your Data#3 Security Specialist today to request your Email Threat Scanner Report and uncover hidden threats before they become a problem.
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As J. Blackwood & Son embarked on a phase of organisational change, it sought to leverage its existing investment in Microsoft licensing while transforming to meet future requirements.
An upcoming license renewal prompted J. Blackwood & Son (Blackwoods) to investigate what licensing option would best align to forecast business needs. The business was looking to ensure licensing was optimised to support changing requirements and to pass greater autonomy to affiliates they had previously managed centrally. As a trusted Microsoft advisor, Data#3 was able to demonstrate knowledge of the many, complex licensing considerations, develop an understanding of Blackwoods’ business goals and deliver a clear view of the optimal path forwards via its Licensing Consulting Services.
Data#3’s strength is that they are extremely knowledgeable about Microsoft licensing and the software asset management process, and the modelling they did was excellent, despite our state of transition at the moment meaning our roadmap has many variables, making it quite a challenging analysis.
Adam Barlow – Head of IT Infrastructure and Cloud Services
From small beginnings more than 140 years ago, the renowned J. Blackwood & Son expertise (Blackwoods) and service has led the business to emerge as Australia’s largest provider of industrial and safety supplies.
As the largest of four businesses within the Wesfarmers Industrial and Safety (WIS) group, Blackwoods has traditionally taken the lead in technology acquisition. Now, as the other businesses’ technology environments have matured, Blackwoods has taken a key role in fostering their growing independence. When a major Microsoft licensing renewal approached, Blackwoods wanted to give each business control of its future agreements, without sacrificing legacy entitlements.
While Blackwoods is an expert in industrial and safety supplies, they also take risk very seriously within their own organisation. This means not only complying with regulations in areas such as workplace health and safety, but also managing risk in key business areas such as IT. Complying with software licensing requirements is just one element that Head of IT Infrastructure and Cloud Services, Adam Barlow, must factor into his planning.
“Exposure in the form of license compliance gap is a key risk, and without the right process, we also could be incurring costs for licensing that we may not be utilising to its fullest,” said Barlow.
Under a previous enterprise agreement contract, Blackwoods acquired Microsoft licenses on behalf of a group of four affiliated businesses within the Wesfarmers Industrial and Safety group (WIS). With strategic changes underway, when the renewal approached, it came time to give each of these businesses control of their own individual contracts, without losing advantageous legacy entitlements.
“Wesfarmers Industrial and Safety consists of Blackwoods and other companies. The Enterprise Agreement covers all businesses in the group, and we have been moving from a centralised IT services across the business to a point where each business is independent, so some of the complexity we faced with license renewal was ensuring allocation of sufficient licenses to each business unit as part of the process,” explained Barlow.
The combination of these structural shifts, and the changes in Microsoft licensing that had been introduced in the three years since the last contract was negotiated, meant that a thorough review was needed. Barlow wanted to ensure that each of the businesses came away with the best outcome.
“Blackwoods has been undergoing a rationalisation and optimisation program for IT infrastructure services, as well as modernising our end user compute fleet, and moving to Microsoft 365. We also have a large Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) program running, which is moving from a very old in-house developed ERP to Microsoft Dynamics 365, so that’s a huge amount change for an organisation of our size. The environment looks completely different today to three years ago when the Enterprise Agreement was signed. All those changes must be factored in, as they have implications on our licensing needs.”
With comprehensive IT management experience under his belt, Barlow had experienced several license audits from providers such as Microsoft, something he said would be “highly stressful” to embark on without a clear understanding of the environment.
“I have been through audits in the past, and they could be painful if you were unprepared or under-licensed. I talked to Data#3 to make sure that there would be minimal impact on the Blackwoods team, who were too busy working on other projects to spend months going back and forth collecting data. We had tight timelines, and Data#3 were incredibly receptive of that.”
Having dealt with complex licensing situations many times before, Barlow was aware of the advantages that come with enlisting specialist help. Blackwoods enjoy an excellent relationship with Microsoft and knew that as the software giant’s largest Australian partner, Data#3 had the capacity to delve more deeply into the current and planned use of Microsoft technology. They chose to use Data#3’s Technology Intelligence Solution, which provides a methodical review of the way the business’s users consume technology.
The business’s current technology use was mapped against the desired business outcomes, then a detailed proposal outlined a recommended licensing structure that would best suit Blackwoods in the coming years. The gathered intelligence supported Blackwoods to make the most informed decision possible when renewing a major investment, which represented ~$600K in cost savings when compared to the cost of just renewing the licenses that were due to expire.
“The Data#3 team engaged with our in-house IT team and gathered a lot of data in a four-to-eight-week process. They collected data about our environment, information about the current state, our future technology strategy, and our business direction requirements. Then, the team went away and crunched data, and came up with possible licensing models. There was a process of refining these models based on our review and input, and we settled on the most viable option for us. This process enabled us to play out different scenarios and make decisions around the structure of a new agreement,” described Barlow.
“For example, one option may leave us an amount better off, where an alternative model offered greater capability. We looked from both optimisation and cost perspectives and made sure we had the much-needed flexibility with licensing to achieve our strategic outcomes. Where we had project requirements coming up or rationalisation or consolidation, that was taken into account.”
The knowledge of Data#3’s specialist licensing team proved especially useful when it came to unravelling the complex situation of a contract that covered the four WIS companies. Blackwoods opted for an agreement that gave each business greater control of its technology decisions, while preserving legacy licensing entitlements.
“It still exists under the same agreement, but everyone has their own allocation, and more autonomy in terms of how they leverage their licenses going forward. Data#3 played a big part in working through the reconciliation of licenses and getting the right agreements set up,” commented Barlow.
“There was optimisation where we were able to identify where some savings could be used to offset against other things, for example, where changes had been made in our infrastructure footprint, we were able to optimise licensing, and this helped to offset costs related to our new ERP platform. It was really helpful.”
“There was optimisation where we were able to identify where some savings could be used to offset against other things, for example, where changes had been made in our infrastructure footprint, we were able to optimise licensing, and this helped to offset costs related to our new ERP platform. It was really helpful.”
Adam Barlow – Head of IT Infrastructure and Cloud Services
The Technology Intelligence Solution gave Blackwoods visibility of Microsoft licenses, including any that were unused. This knowledge will be especially useful the next time that the business faces a software audit, something that Barlow said will be “straightforward and relatively painless” without any surprises.
A deeper understanding of the way that technology is consumed by Blackwoods’ users has proven a valuable exercise. With the highly skilled Blackwoods IT team kept busy navigating structural changes to the business, as well as managing the impact of a global pandemic, investigating license usage is one less thing to fit into a hectic schedule.
“An organisation like Blackwoods has quite a bit of complexity, and timeframes were tight to complete our license renewals. The Data#3 team did a comprehensive briefing on their findings, helped us to complete negotiations with Microsoft, then they assisted with the mechanics of getting the renewal completed. They were very helpful in facilitating us working with the Microsoft licensing team assigned to our account, and getting agreements pulled together, and accommodated minor changes to quantity, to make sure everything was covered,” highlighted Barlow.
“We had some complexity around the Microsoft Dynamics licenses, and they were very helpful in sorting it out with Microsoft; it was a true partnership effort between Data#3, Microsoft, and ourselves.”
Understanding the implications of changing licensing options, and knowing the best match for specific business needs, is something that Barlow said would require a daily focus. This knowledge is powerful when it comes to managing costs and getting the best value for what is, to most organisations, one of the most sizeable IT outlays.
“Data#3’s strength is that they are extremely knowledgeable about Microsoft licensing and the software asset management process, and the modelling they did was excellent, despite our state of transition at the moment meaning our roadmap has many variables, making it quite a challenging analysis. They were able to be flexible and adapt to all variables we were inputting into the plan. Data#3 worked with us to bring common sense to the situation, and they did a great job of data gathering without a lot of hand holding from us,” recalled Barlow.
“Data#3 are more versed than we can ever be about the licensing options available. It was important to get an independent view. A highlight was the comfort that the decisions we were making around enterprise renewal were the best we could make at the time, we had no outstanding risk with licensing. The ability to find optimisation to help with our overall IT costs has been worthwhile, and we got a good outcome for the business.”
With a proliferation of applications and a complex end user environment, iNova wanted to build modern and secure workspaces that are consistent and easy to support.
A great variety of device types were in use at iNova, running multiple operating systems and a variety of applications. The decision was made to switch where possible to consistent, cloud-based applications. Due to previous experience, iNova were confident in the appointment of Data#3 to deliver a cloud roadmap, build a solution to better manage user workstations, and build a Microsoft Windows 10 Standard Operating Environment (SOE).
Data#3’s strength was that they had some really good technical resources on the case, the account management and solution architecture was fantastic, they added some real intel on the case – and the technical delivery team was consistently good throughout.
Michael Smit – Associate Director of Technology, iNova Pharmaceuticals
The Background
iNova Pharmaceuticals sells a range of market-leading, non-prescription medications in countries across Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. They help promote healthy lifestyles through weight management, skincare and lifestyle needs such as sun protection products, and offer popular remedies for coughs, colds and sore throats.
With staff in many locations, each with a different type of computer running diverse operating systems and applications, support had become a challenge and backups were limited. Many users required a greater level of mobility. A decision was made that cloud solutions should be sought where possible to help solve their challenges, and Data#3 was enlisted to help create a cloud roadmap.
The Challenge
For iNova’s pharmaceutical sales team, who spend little time in the office, collaboration and access to information was problematic. “Making the situation more difficult, most worked with aging machines which was a state of affairs that couldn’t continue,” said iNova Associate Director of Technology, Michael Smit. He knew initiating a modernisation project was vital.
“The main driver initially was that we were working with an archaic end user set up,” said Smit.
“It was about bringing our end users up to modern standards.”
The dated and complex environment meant that data security was an issue. When a sales-person’s laptop went missing, their ability to work was heavily impacted as data stored on the machine was also lost.
Consistency was a key issue that Smit identified.
“We had multiple versions of software, it was often outdated, with no adequate security,” said Smit.
“This was causing everyone’s computers to behave erratically, with a long stream of computing problems.”
This stream of problems made for a frustrating environment for users, and since they each had admin rights over their own computer, many took matters into their own hands. Applications were loaded by individuals to solve immediate problems, fuelling complexity making planning difficult for the IT support team.
“It was causing our guys to be stuck perpetuity in a break-fix environment,” said Smit.
If that weren’t complicated enough, iNova’s South African operations used a separate Active Directory domain, making collaboration with colleagues even more difficult.
“We knew that the right cloud strategy would help us simplify our systems to work better together.”
IT Outcomes
As iNova and the Data#3 team worked together to get a clearer understanding of the environment, the sheer volume of applications and versions installed became evident. Data#3 consultants conducted a full analysis and produced an accurate catalogue that outlined all applications and their purposes.
“It was difficult to articulate a firm plan upfront – we were working with so many different stakeholders’ data migrations, in many parts of the business,” said Smit.
“We needed to be dynamic in our planning process, and balance it with effective delivery.”
With detailed scheduling, budget and dependencies in place, the team of project management, SOE development and organisational change specialists began the process of transforming the end user experience. First on the agenda for Smit was to update user machines to a consistently high standard.
“We started with tackling the low-hanging fruit, and the first was to get everyone onto a computer less than three years old.”
Next, a modern, standardised platform based on Windows 10 was put in place, so that there would be consistency of experience throughout the organisation, and simpler support requirements.
“We are able to use Microsoft software such as Intune and Microsoft Azure Active Directory to remotely manage the environment. From that we had a base,” said Smit.
“Then we worked on migrating corporate information to the cloud.”
Transition of file shares to SharePoint Online gave iNova sales staff simplified access to their data from anywhere, without the need for VPN connections. Skype for Business Online moved meetings to cloud-hosted dial-in conferencing, for enriched collaboration experience. The consistency of a standardised environment is making support easier for the iNova IT team.
“We are less bombarded by support calls; we had 400 different versions of applications to support, now we are down to 90,” said Smit.
“The stability of Windows 10 and Office 365 is an order of magnitude better.”
Business Outcome
As users become accustomed to their new tools, the feedback has been positive.
“People love it and they are taking to it well,” said Smit.
Smit attributes much of the success to a change management program that included a range of training delivery methods and a ‘door always open’ approach.
“We did several rounds of training, in person and using a lot of online Microsoft training material. Then we held drop-in clinics for people to ask any question they wanted,” said Smit.
“We identified a set of skills that people should be aware of for each product, and we still use this as a basis to establish a level of proficiency.”
Now they are no longer faced with navigating the workday with aging machines loaded with an unplanned mix of operating systems and applications, users are able to work more effectively. The change has been good for morale.
“Users are less frustrated. People don’t have a toolbox, they have a computer – when it is constantly breaking, it is such a waste of time, so we’ve achieved an alleviation of frustration,” said Smit.
“They’ve been able to just get on with it.”
The process of streamlining and standardising has given the iNova team clarity about their software licensing obligations, so they can ensure they are correctly covered, with no overspend.
Security and data retention were key considerations for iNova, with the organisation’s management team recognising the necessity of protecting corporate information assets. The business is, said Smit, now far better protected.
“Now all our corporate information not stored in other apps is stored in the cloud,” said Smit.
“The outcome gives us better security, data retention, and infrastructure management.”
Conclusion
The transformation has, for iNova staff, been considerable, in just a short space of time. It was important to complete the project quickly so that the business could reap the benefits.
“If someone had suggested a complete hardware and software refresh and rolling out a productivity suite in 6-12 months, I would’ve said it couldn’t be done,” said Smit.
The right partnership is vital in major projects, and Smit said he was hard on Data#3 at times.
“Data#3 showed a real willingness to work with us and make changes where needed,” said Smit.
“If I did it all again, I wouldn’t hesitate to get the same team.”
One of the biggest challenges was, said Smit, closing out the migration to One Drive.
“We have a lot of field-based users working remotely overseas, and they may have to migrate a Gigabyte of data to the cloud – it can be hard to go that last mile,” sad Smit.
“Data#3’s strength was that they had some really good technical resources on the case, the account management and solution architecture was fantastic, they added some real intel on the case – and the technical delivery team was consistently good throughout.”
Strengthen Disaster Recovery capabilities in multiple locations to ensure high availability, business continuity, and data protection.
Design and deploy a new Disaster Recovery solution using a mix of VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) software, IBM servers, SAN switches and storage systems.
A robust, scalable and secure Disaster Recovery infrastructure that will recover critical business operations and systems within minutes of an incident.
A reduction in organisational risk through improved business continuity planning, data availability and visibility to create efficiencies that allow internal IT staff to focus on core technology projects.
“A reduction in organisational risk through improved business continuity planning, data availability and visibility to create efficiencies that allow internal IT staff to focus on core technology projects.”
Tom Grskovic, Account Executive, Data#3 Limited
The Challenge
As a growing 24×7 business, the company relies heavily on its systems and technology to deliver efficient services to customers across the country.
While the core production hub and Disaster Recovery environment are based in different locations, the existing set-up was struggling to meet the demanding timeframes, availability and performance required by the business. As such, there was considerable business risk if there was a system failure at the production hub.
What’s more, the existing solution was labour-intensive, often pulling IT resources away from their normal day-to-day responsibilities and impacting productivity across the business.
The company also needed to ensure they were meeting their Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance obligations, which included achieving Disaster Recovery testing benchmarks each year.
As a result, the company identified the need for a Disaster Recovery solution that could achieve a low Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and low Recovery Time Objective (RTO).
“Essentially, they needed a new real-time Disaster Recovery solution to ensure business continuity in the event of server failure, as well as to meet the demands of our 24×7 operations,” says Tom Grskovic, Account Executive, Data#3.
IT Outcomes
As the company’s long-term technology partner, Data#3 was engaged to design and deploy a new Disaster Recovery solution.
With an in-depth understanding of both their business and technology position, Data#3 designed a robust solution that incorporated components from both VMware and IBM. Specifically, the solution consisted of the following hardware and software:
From the outset, the company sought a solution that enabled straightforward and cost-effective business continuity and data protection. This was achieved through the deployment of VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) across their offices, as well as the utilisation of IBM storage capability.
The new solution delivers fast and reliable IT Disaster Recovery, plus it helps lower the total cost of ownership by decreasing operational expenses through automation and reducing capital investments using Software Defined Data Centre (SDDC) technology.
VMware SRM enables the company to perform frequent non-disruptive testing to ensure IT Disaster Recovery software predictability and compliance, plus it’s capable of protecting thousands of virtual machines with ease using centralised recovery plans.
Most importantly, they now have the ability to recover critical business operations and systems within minutes of a fault occurring.
Business Outcomes
The new Disaster Recovery solution adopted has addressed the critical issues of business risk and compliance. Where previously exposed to server failure and operational downtime, the business now enjoys peace of mind knowing that systems and data are protected around the clock.
What’s more, low Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and low Recovery Time Objective (RTO) means any downtime is limited, plus potential loss of revenue and loss of reputation is minimised.
Reduced business risk and the ability to meet ongoing compliance obligations not only strengthens the company’s ability to deliver 24×7 services to its customers, it also gives the business confidence to grow and expand its operations.
Key business benefits include:
Conclusion
The new solution has delivered highly available and resilient IT infrastructure to strengthen their Disaster Recovery capabilities.
“The customers Disaster Recovery environment and data protection capabilities are now where they should be, helping reduce business risk and providing us with ultimate peace of mind 24/7,” says Grskovic.
“More importantly, the new solution is future-proofed, allowing for further expansion as their operations continue to grow.”
Grskovic adds:
“Our deep understanding of their technology environment helped our customer to build a solid business case to design and deploy a solution that met their objectives, both now and in the future.”
To gain a comprehensive understanding of Jason Windows’ licensing profile, and to identify any compliance risks to ensure better visibility going forward.
Audit existing Microsoft licenses to identify purchases, obligations and any over- or under-provisioning that may lead to non-compliance.
Improved visibility of Jason Windows’ environment, whilst ensuring compliance with Microsoft licensing requirements.
The Background
Jason Windows has been supplying quality products to the Western Australian building industry for over 50 years.
As one of Australia’s manufacturing success stories, Jason Windows has provided custom-built windows for 80% of houses built in Western Australia.
The company pioneered the introduction of aluminium windows and doors in WA in the early 1960s and depends on the progressive use of technology, in particular automation, to survive in a highly competitive manufacturing sector.
The Challenge
When ICT Manager, Daniel Bersan, joined Jason Windows, his primary goal was to drive innovation and reduce manufacturing costs through the efficient yet innovative use of technology. Before he could embark on the route of streamlining business processes, he needed to fully understand the Jason Windows software environment.
“Nothing formal was in place to give me the insight I needed, I was essentially starting from day zero,” said Bersan.
“We had no formal processes in place to understand our budgetary obligations and I was concerned about the risk to the business if we weren’t compliant.”
For the busy team of skilled IT professionals at Jason Windows, the desire for better visibility was also about the ability to plan and budget more accurately. In a business that depends on efficiency, it was vital to get a clear view of licensing obligations and the need to know what was deployed, how, and when was essential.
“I knew it would be too expensive to put contingency measures in place for everything we do,” said Bersan.
“Instead of second-guessing actions, I needed certainty that we were getting value from our software spend.”
Jason Windows had to act to find clarity in the software environment.
IT Outcome
Bersan had enlisted Data#3’s help in a previous role, and he sought advice from his trusted contacts about how to tackle the situation. Data#3 recommended a full audit of the software environment, so that Jason Windows could gain visibility of the current situation, including awareness of any gaps.
The business was concerned that spending money on a software asset management (SAM) solution would not yield results. It was when Data#3 demonstrated the results achieved by other similar-sized organisations utilising SAM that Jason Windows recognised the benefits it could deliver.
Consulting with the Jason Windows IT team ensured they had a clear understanding of their requirements before they made the decision to utilise Snow software. Beyond the initial audit, they had ongoing visibility of software usage and spend, ensuring investments are well managed, with decisions based on accurate information.
“Data#3 had a willingness to work with us as a team,” said Bersan.
“The trust was there from a long-standing business relationship, and everyone was won over by the professionalism of the Data#3 team.”
Embarking on the software discovery process was a step into the unknown for Jason Windows, but they were very keen to learn exactly what they were responsible for. The Jason Windows ICT team worked closely with Data#3 to run the initial audit.
The result was pleasing. Jason Windows had no cause to fear unlicensed software leaving them vulnerable to risk. Moving forward, the IT team now have full visibility of their obligations.
“We have a clear, simple report, with various spreadsheets showing the exact situation,” said Bersan.
“This created a level of comfort for staff and we can be one hundred percent sure we are doing the right thing.”
Business Outcome
Thanks to the introduction of SAM, Jason Windows can see their exact Microsoft software position. They have eliminated the unknown aspect of licensing and reduced the risk of non-compliance.
Beyond that, the business is in a better position to plan future software investment without any budget going to waste.
“I have a clearer understanding of what I need to invest in and what I don’t,” said Bersan.
This clarity equips the IT team to change the perception of their role within the business. They had to prove themselves and take the project to the Board, explaining the need for risk mitigation in terms of software licensing. The company’s leadership now has full awareness of what their exposure might be if adequate licenses were not purchased, and the value of managing the situation closely.
While the compliance position of Jason Windows was quite healthy, thanks to the attention of the IT team, the report did expose the transactional nature of IT purchasing, something they are now addressing in the drive for efficiencies.
“When the housing market turns around, we know we’re ready, we can see what we’ll need and what it will cost,” said Bersan.
Conclusion
The audit of Jason Windows’ software environment, and the implementation of a SAM solution, ensure the IT department can budget accurately and mitigate the risk of non-compliance. The ability to budget accurately is a key measure in improving the perception of IT within the business.
“I have a much better idea of future licensing purchases based on the audit numbers,” said Bersan.
“In a business where custom-products are measured to the exact millimetre, accuracy matters. The same precision used in manufacturing,” said Bersan, “must apply to ICT, so knowing the exact software situation is vital.”
“When we measure a window, it has to be perfect, and we are so confident in our quality, we guarantee it for ten years. Our technology also has to be perfect, it has to exactly fit the requirements. This project helps us to achieve that,”
Daniel Bersan, ICT Manager – Jason Windows