With a mission to enable organisations transform with technology in a digital, mobile-first, data-driven world, Embee has become a preferred technology partner for major businesses across industries with a global footprint. In particular, Embee’s cloud journey has helped transform over 1500+ organisations, and commands among the highest cloud consumption portfolios in India.
A noteworthy engagement this past year was with one of our customers – a multinational software company catering to leading global enterprises with solutions based on their flagship procurement and supply chain management product. For customer, delivering unified business solutions with enhanced enterprise security and compliance was imperative. With evolving vulnerabilities in the cyber-world and new compliance measures world-wide, they faced a challenge that compromised its business as well as limited its market. In summary:
Unique security requirements
Customer faced new security threats on a variety of fronts including Data Protection, Identity & Access, Mobility & Device Management, as well as Advanced Threat Protection
Lack of compliance:
They needed a way to overcome regulatory barriers. Lack of GDPR compliance with their existing system kept them out of several global markets.
Multiple vendors:
Inadequacies in their existing system compelled customers to engage with several vendors, creating multiple dependencies and increasing costs. No single product provided an all-rounded solution.
No application standardization:
Updating, patching and integrating multiple security products was cumbersome. The troubleshooting and support skills were different for each application, making processes complex
Hampered collaboration:
Customer have their business units spread across in the globe, but their legacy system restrained users from different time-zones from accessing information/data on-the-go due to security constraints, resulting in hampered collaboration.
“To excel in business you have to digitally transform. We had begun this journey 2 years ago when we adopted the Microsoft 365 E3 plan with Embee. However, we did not have a robust strategy in the security space. We of-course had security solutions in place but they weren’t integrated with the overall system. And to be aggressive today we realised we needed a rigorous security strategy.”
– Associate Director- IT, Customer Organization
The Solution:
As part of a comprehensive Gap Analysis Assessment, Embee’s solution architects studied a plethora of use-cases. The summary of the assessment is attached separately. Consequently, they developed an in-depth strategy to implement the remedial solutions.
The team followed the three-pillar solution of the M365 Suite- OS Modernization, Mobility and Advanced Security & Compliance. The idea was to address multiple security components such as data protection, OS modernisation, and GDPR compliance with a holistic and robust solution- without affecting current operations and workloads.
Embee successfully deployed the solution and delivered a hands-on workshop to demonstrate all the security and compliance functionalities. Among the technologies implemented were:
1. Office 365 E5:
- Office 365 ATP for email ATP and zero-day protection
- Office 365 Threat Intelligence for attachment detonation, sandboxing, URL blocking
2. EMS E5:
- Azure AD Premium Plan 2, for mobility & advanced security
- Azure Information Protection Plan 2, for advanced protection against data theft.
- Microsoft Intune, for MAM & MDM solutions
- Advanced Threat Analytics, to identify User entity behaviour.
- Microsoft Cloud App Security, for a cloud access security broker.
3. Windows 10 E5
The solution utilised the modernized OS with Windows 10 Defender ATP to achieve behaviour-based threat detection and a built-in threat intelligence.
Getting an edge over competition
The solution showcases the all-round supremacy of the M365 Suite. Customer was simultaneously evaluating several products. For example,
- Symantec for end-point security, advanced security and compliance
- A combination of Okta an Airwatch for mobility & security
- Triton ForcePoint for DLP
Customer ultimately saw the cost-efficient, all-rounded value in the M365 suite, which combined all aspects of end-point, advanced security, compliance and mobility under a single umbrella of authentication.
“When Embee positioned Microsoft’s 365 E5 plan we were tempted, but weary at the same time as the investment was 2 fold than budgeted. The team at Embee came back with a robust ROI plan – they mapped our infrastructure under the various options, evaluated the option of consolidating our solution under a single umbrella versus a host of vendors and ran through the cost implications in the long run. The picture was quite clear then..”
– Associate Director- IT, Customer Organization
The Impact:
Customer immediately saw real business values that solution reflected. The different pillars of the solution had tremendous consequences:
- OS modernisation: Interoperation among security products such as Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), Windows Defender ATP, Azure ATP, among others gave them advanced visibility into the security threats and breaches. The team also:
- Eliminated redundant solutions and reduced costs
- Enabled BYOD and mobility scenarios with modern OS
- Managed desktops and devices using a single/unified console
- Secure mobility: With Microsoft 365 E5, customer could securely access business data anywhere, anytime, from any device with persistent information protection, successfully preventing data leakage on devices or apps. With the solution, customer:
- Stopped external threats
- Stopped malicious codes
- Prevented identity theft
- Detected and blocked threats
- Enabled auto-response and remediation of threats
- Advanced GDPR compliance: With control over PII data in unstructured sources and a comprehensive rights management solution with data and identity protection, customer could successfully ensure GDPR compliance.
- Hassle-Free Support: Embee did not collaborate with any other partner to deliver solution of this scale. Being a FastTrack partner of Microsoft, Embee ensured that the on boarding was completed at a rapid pace with zero downtime.
- Scalable Solution: The solution accommodates the growth journey of customer and can be scaled to any number of users.
Ultimately, the solution helped to focus on what matters: The solution reduced the need to pay for redundant solutions from multiple vendors. It also freed up internal resources who can now focus on strategic tasks to expedite organizational growth.
Sailing smooth with Microsoft 365 E5
The project was implemented on a large scale of over 3000 users. This use-case led to two further successes. There are only two enterprise level customers, that have adopted Microsoft 365 E5 within India. Both are Embee customers. Moreover, it is our commitment and attitude towards our customers that sets us apart.
“We’ve been engaged with Embee for over many years and they are truly an extension of our internal IT team. As consultants, they have guided us on each technology investment, which has been a stepping stone to accelerate us towards our business goals. Embee has been of great support for us. Their commitment and always available attitude is what sets them apart.”
– Associate Director- IT, Customer Organization
Here are further reasons why customer chose Embee to be their solution implementation partner:
- Early technology adopter: Embee was among the earliest adopters of the Cloud in 2011-2012, and has kept upgrading its portfolio on M365 and the Azure platform.
- Recognitions: Known to deliver distinguished customer service, Embee was most recently recognized as the Country Partner of the Year 2018 by Microsoft, and APAC Cloud Software Partner of the year 2017 by Candeferro
- Experienced enterprise solution provider: Embee has been driving digital transformations for customers from diverse industry verticals, successfully implementing solutions for over 1500+ (small, mid-level, and enterprises) organizations to date, and among the highest cloud consumption portfolio in the country.
- Strategic Alliance with Microsoft: Embee & Microsoft go back over 28 years, and the close alignment with Microsoft leadership, SSP’s and TSP’s enables Embee to deliver the most effective solutions on the Microsoft platform. Microsoft has consistently recognized Embee, most recently in the Q3 PLC at Mumbai for having the highest Customer Adds in O365.
Embee is a recognized leading technology partner in India with 34+ years of experience in delivering digital transformation to its 2000+ customers. We are uniquely positioned to empower businesses to be more with Cloud and Datacentre Technologies enabling them to leverage the latest resources on various cloud platforms while optimizing costs, through application modernization and serverless computing.
