The Challenge

As a digital, cloud based organisation, Equiem’s reliance on connectivity is paramount. Maintaining the productivity of all staff is a top priority. The security of its networks, data and payments processing is crucial.

The move to new office space for its NSW branch in Sydney drove the opportunity to refresh Equiem’s underpinning technologies and to test a high calibre Managed Services Agreement (MSA) partner.

There were a wide number of elements to be considered in Equiem’s firewall solution. Of its 200 staff globally, 140 of them are in Australia including a number of on-site concierge teams and some remote workers. In the US, Equiem utilises shared office services such as WeWork rather than having its own dedicated real estate. Highlighting the organisation’s rapid and continuing expansion, in four years its worldwide Apple fleet expanded from 40 to 300 seats.

Alister Rutter, Equiem’s Group Platform Support Manager, says: “As an organisation we are constantly adapting to change. And the IT team has to be as agile as the rest of the business. But not every State has on-site IT resources to look after the day to day requirements of staff or environment management.”

Coming from a services provider background, Alister knew what he was looking for when stipulating his criteria for the project: “I was able to say exactly what I wanted – the creation and maintenance of the strongest and most secure platform. It was all about access and failover. I’d had experience with most of the leading technologies so was quickly able to assess the capabilities of those recommended for our managed service use and end point protection. So we were very happy to go with Compnow’s proposal”.

The Solution

The fixed price, comprehensive Managed Service Agreement (MSA) saw Compnow deploy and now manage the firewall and internet connections that support Equiem’s business and technical strategies.

This 36 month engagement includes Sophos security appliances, the fibre connectivity and the remote, on-site, scheduled and emergency maintenance elements. The emergency component guarantees a Compnow engineer on-site within four business hours.

Scheduled remote visit tasks include the latest updates to tested versions of firewall firmware. All associated hardware is kept in prime order with temperature, RAID + HDD, power supply and fan testing. Equiem’s backups are tested for correct functioning. And every change or rectification is strictly documented.

Following on from Compnow’s first engagement to complete the fitout of Equiem’s Sydney office, was a refresh at the company’s Melbourne headquarters. Then a replica fitout in Brisbane when Equiem moved to new Queensland premises.

Equiem pay premium monthly on ‘connection plus’ internet licenses “at the highest level of access because we can’t afford any disruption to our customer servicing or for any staff productivity losses,” Alister says. “Obviously we have ‘last resort’ failover with mobile dongles but don’t encourage that as it they result in additional risks.

“Our productivity is also protected because we know someone from Compnow is at the end of the phone 24/7 or can be here in super fast time depending on what our problem might be,” Alister says.

Because payments are processed through the platform, this added to the security requirements for the solution. The accepted proposal includes Sophos security over Equiem’s three firewalls, modems/routers and failover capacity, while Rukus protects Equiem’s wireless access points.

In the US, Equiem uses shared office services such as WeWork and manages its high value endeavours via the Jamf Apple device manager and its communication endpoint and network security risk with Sophos.

Giving Equiem further confidence in its global expansion is that Compnow is able to provide support internationally, either as a remote service or via its network of like minded and skilled partners on the ground around the world – particularly in New Zealand, the UK and the US.

The Benefits

“Compnow’s MSA proposal has translated 100% from proposal to delivery,” Alister says.

The scheduled quarterly health checks are carried out in the evenings and “Compnow has specific technical people on standby for just in case. They have failover on everything!” he says.

“We know every technology project will have its moments and I’ve dealt with a lot in my time. We’re impressed by Compnow’s engineering capabilities and its responsiveness in the face of any issues we’ve had. In Melbourne we had a on-premises issue and it was a job I wouldn’t expect to have fixed in a weekend but Compnow did it – without it having an impact on us.”

Alister also cites a recent Sophos patch as a great example of how Compnow looks after Equiem’s critical security. The update meant the VPN and admin passwords had to be changed. Working remotely, the Compnow team followed the strict protocols and patched the Sophos environments in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. “Compnow got everything organised for a quick turnaround,” he says.

Communications is another plus in Compnow’s servicing. “They’re always on the front foot and everything is communicated clearly. It’s simple for us to log tickets using our Compnow dashboard. I don’t ever have to ask what’s happening. They just get things done,” he says.

“Since we commissioned Compnow I’ve had a lot of peace of mind. I can go on holidays and not worry about the business,” Alister says.