When your mission is to be the pre-eminent empowerment stockbroker on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), but you need relocate your premises, move to a new Internet service provider, figure out how to provide business continuity while being plagued by the nuisances of spam and viruses, you need to look at innovative software as a service (SaaS) solutions to make it happen.
This is the approach of Ajit Bawa, IT manager for leading securities broker firm, Kagiso Securities, who recognised the holistic value of Mimecast
Unified E-mail Management (UEM) to solve the company's spam and e-mail headaches.
“From a business perspective, we were constantly aggravated by the impact spam was having on e-mail communication,” says Ajit Bawa, IT Manager for
Kagiso Securities. “And to continue to offer transactions with the highest level of professionalism on our trading systems, we needed to ensure our IT infrastructure could support a well functioning administration system. Our IT systems need to work perfectly. If any of our brokers are thinking about
IT then we aren't doing our job.”
The traditional approach led Bawa to evaluate a range of anti-spam and anti-virus products, all of which came up lacking. “These products solved only part of the problem for us,” says Bawa. “Then we discovered Mimecast and realised we could solve the spam and virus issues and add full archiving, business continuity and forensic e-mail auditing, all without imposing any additional pressure on the infrastructure. This meant not needing to upgrade any hardware or train up any IT staff in specific areas of the product.
“Most importantly, in this day and age, it meant no capex outlay, no additional bandwidth cost with no vendor lock-in either. Plus, a pay-per-user billing system meant we gained flexibility in terms of usage and costing,” adds Bawa.
Mimecast UEM is a SaaS implementation, where Internet e-mail is transparently routed through Mimecast's carrier-grade data centres. Here it is stored in a highly secure repository that provides the ability for clients to access mails remotely via the Web, a mobile device or a Microsoft Outlook plug-in, and to search archives going back months or even years in fractions of a second. Mail is transferred from and to the Kagiso Securities' existing servers after being scanned for malware, spam and subjected to intelligent content monitoring.
“Mimecast's solution was completely non-invasive. It was quickly and seamlessly integrated with our existing architecture within just three days. It runs in the background and for me that works since most of our IT is outsourced to various niche and expert providers,” says Bawa.
The ability to manage the cost of the solution within the operational budget rather than having to consider large capital expenditure outlays was also a big point in Mimecast's favour when the board of the company was consulted for a decision to implement the solution. “This additional functionality talks directly to our business driver for first-class continuity and we'll continue to unpack their benefits as we grow and develop with Mimecast's service,” says Bawa.
“The implementation for Kagiso Securities is seen as a key example of how Mimecast can assist in complex business environments such as securities and broker trading,” says Garth Wittles, managing director of Mimecast South Africa. “The initial need for spam and virus protection was met, with the unexpected benefit of business continuity, which will ensure that in spite of the office move and the service provider migration, Kagiso Securities staff will still have absolute access to e-mail. With the widespread implementation of the Outlook plug-in, most employees won't even have to click out of their e-mail client to continue trading.”
“Now, Kagiso's traders can focus on trading, the IT department and focus on improving our infrastructure, and Mimecast is left to focus on e-mail. Mimecast reduces resources spent on the mundane administrative activities going through quarantine folders while also ensuring critical functions are taken care of,” concludes Bawa.
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