he right talent in the right company, through the best tools and processes. That is how StepStone® creates the perfect match between candidates and organisations. Founded in 1996, but now around 2.500 staff members in 21 countries. Daily do they post the team thousands of job offers, their websites are visited more than 55 million times a month. Which creates a lot of challenges.
StepStone also offers services in other European countries en worldwide with the help of strategic collaborations with leading online head hunters in the considering markets. The unique range allows the group to meet possibilities in recruiting requirements for big or small organizations, for single time recruitment or projects. All the activities, the different devices, documents and personal data, is a challenge for security! If that aren’t trusted grounds for Spikes.
That StepStone is extremely security minded, is not a secret. Security is the core of the company, the IT department is permeated. “We are daily busy with sensitive data”, tells Serge Groven, Corporate IT manager. “We are already GDPR compliant. At StepStone private data is very long segregated and well protected. To manage it, do they often work with complex and expensive software from different vendors.”
A new solution and an experienced, flexible partner
Is there an alternative for fragmented technologies? Sure, but the search is not in a night sleep. A Proof of Concept (PoC) is an excellent start point, starting from the current platform and the current security landscape, additionally with the requirements and goals for the alternative. Such as the need to secure the desktop and remote to manage, the want for encryption, security to isolate also the mobile devices, and identity broker, document policies etc.
In summary: StepStone wanted to create security wise a one-stop-shop, to reduce the costs and the creation of a single pane glass (integrated IT system management). If you bundle the needs, do you arrive at Microsoft Enterprise Mobile and Security (EMS) for the solution. EMS is a whole set of tools to manage devices better and secure data. The PoC would show if the EMS would successfully redeem the goals.
Proof of Concept with Spikes
Spikes was allowed, as Microsoft expert, to work in these PoC. “The Spikes team had delivered excellent work for StepStone, in the past”, continuous Serge. “As 3 years ago, during a time pressured SharePoint project and Office 365 projects. Spikes showed itself multiple times as a problem solved and flexible partner with exceptional security knowledge. We could use Spikes expertise once again. Spikes is tenacious in structural project support and budget follow-up, which was exactly what we needed.”
The PoC were started led by Serge, supported by the CTO, with an eye on the full roll-out of EMS within the group. Teams out of diverse countries worked all together. With Spikes, we decided to go with a segmented approach to test the most critical functions of EMS with 30ish end users of the IT department. Think about elements such as Intune mobile device security, MDM-qualities, data classification and encryption. Spikes often consulted Microsoft to gain more information to accomplish the goals of StepStone, good testing and to see if there is a match with EMS or not.
EMS E3 or E5?
There is an EMS E3 and an EMS E5 version. The focus was mostly on E3, but mater in the project, we also started to talk about E5. This is more expensive version with a lot of functions, the ‘Rolls Royce’ of EMS. “To get a clear overview of the differences, we asked Spikes to work out a workshop EMS E3 vs. E5. The result was a deep analysis and mapping. Out of this analysis could we take away how Spikes knows our company through our long-term collaboration, an added value for the PoC and the further implementation”, continues Serges.
What turned out to be? EMS E5 would be beneficial for a limited number of end-users, for diverse processes and rolls, amongst other things through the advanced log-on tracker and the self-learning system. It offers potential for out-roll of the security.
The added value
The PoC provided its services perfectly. EMS E5 lived better up to the expectations and could be perfectly implemented for a group of employees. The features of EMS E3 released the goals less, and the Spikes consultants shared this information honestly during the assessments.
“We know where we are now and how to optimize”
“We know where we are now and how to optimize”, concludes Serge. “As a result of the enlighten analysis and security expertise of the Spikes consultants, under the close attention of their customer success manager that meticulously up served the status, timing and budget. Our experience is that most of the IT companies are not able to present enough technical documentation and product knowledge. Spikes does have this ability and that is where they differentiate for every product and IT project.”
