A Juniper Netscreen firewall has been installed and commissioned to secure the computer network of black empowerment medical aid scheme administrator Sigma Health Fund Managers at its Bellville, Cape Town, headquarters by the Square One Solutions Group, the IT-based business enabling solutions provider listed on the JSE.
Sigma, which has succeeded in making healthcare more accessible and affordable to previously disadvantaged communities, provides a range of administrative services to medical schemes such as Pro Sano. Services include collection of contributions, claims payment and processing, member database management and maintenance, financial accounting, and client and call centre services.
Managing director Shu'ayb Patel said Sigma had two years ago invested in an advanced IT platform to support the administrative processes that look after the interests of more than 130 000 medical scheme lives, mainly from previously disadvantaged communities. He added that the new firewall solution from Square One had replaced a Linux-based firewall leased from a third-party vendor as a more effective option to secure the company's network.
Square One, an Elite Partner of Juniper Networks, recommended Juniper's Netscreen 25 firewall as the most efficient and effective solution for Sigma.
"We implemented the firewall appliance in combination with Microsoft ISA (Internet server accelerator) software to control and manage the access to and use of the Sigma server," said Square One account manager Oscar Frutuoso. "We had to provide strong security with predictable performance, ease of management, simple deployment and installation while also delivering a high level of fault tolerance to ensure high availability."
Sigma IT manager Shawaal Davids said Sigma's approach to the design of the solution was "heavily influenced by the company's need to improve business productivity while striking an uncompromising balance between functionality and security".
The system was installed and commissioned during December when demand for services had eased. Frutuoso added that the new solution was required to run in parallel with the original system so that a seamless changeover was achieved with no interruption of customer services.
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