4-page Case Study - Posted 7/23/2007

Views: 1787

Rate This Evidence:

Information Control Corporation

IT Solution Provider Streamlines Remote Network Access with Easy-to-Use Gateway

Information Control Corporation (ICC) is a Microsoft® Gold Certified partner that provides outsourced IT services for a wide range of companies in Ohio, including software development and integration, business intelligence, infrastructure services, and project management. Most ICC employees work at customer sites and had trouble accessing the multiple corporate network sites remotely. To streamline the remote logon process, ICC created a single extranet portal and deployed Microsoft Intelligent Application Gateway 2007, part of the Microsoft® Forefront™ line of business security products. With the solution in place, employees can now use a single password to log on to the corporate network, making it easier for them stay in contact with ICC headquarters even from remote locations.

Situation

The use of Microsoft Intelligent Application Gateway 2007 has helped streamline connections for remote users and is helping our administrators get more done with their time.  Adam Conkle Network Administrator Information Control Corporation

Providing a safe and secure method for remote employees to communicate with headquarters is a challenge to any organization—including companies specializing in IT services. For ICC, it was a particular problem because many of its employees have to use identities and e-mail addresses that are associated with the client sites where they work. Logging on to the ICC network to check their own ICC e-mail messages, fill out time sheets, check on company announcements, and other activities, had become difficult and time-consuming.

“We had seven different extranet Web sites for various purposes, such as entering employee timesheets and viewing company information,” says Matt Richardson, IT Manager for ICC. “But it was hard to get employees to log on because they had to enter different passwords for different sites. It was time-consuming and problematic for them when they were working off-site.”

There were also security concerns. The fact that there were several extranet sites for employees increased the chances that someone could gain unauthorized access to the ICC network, and forced the ICC IT department to distribute authentication procedures across the different sites. Additionally, because the employees often found the logon process frustrating, they resorted to carrying company files around on portable media such as USB flash drives, which increased the risk that company information could be lost or stolen.

“We needed to find a way to consolidate our information, reduce the number of outward-facing Web sites, and streamline the security process for logging on from remote locations,” Richardson says.

Solution

To simplify access to the ICC corporate network, the company’s IT department decided to deploy Microsoft Intelligent Application Gateway 2007, part of the Microsoft® Forefront™ line of business security products. IAG 2007 provides Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) virtual private network (VPN) functionality, a Web application firewall, and endpoint security management that helps ICC provide access control, authorization, and content inspection for its employees’ remote connections as they access the ICC network. These connections can be initiated through PCs at client sites or through other Internet connections such as portable computers.

With IAG 2007, which the ICC IT department deployed in March 2007, the company’s remote employees can use a single logon to quickly log on to a virtual private network. After the gateway authenticates their identity, they arrive at a central ICC portal that runs on Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007. Once there, they can select from any of nine different company intranet sites that are published for a variety of tasks, including reading corporate announcements, checking their internal ICC e-mail messages, and entering their work hours into an intranet-based time-tracking software application. All of these activities can be done without having to reenter their logon IDs.

Benefits

The ICC employees and IT staff benefit from IAG 2007 deployment in several ways. Employees now find it easier to access the corporate network, so that tasks such as entering timesheets and checking e-mail can be done faster. Additionally, the solution provides a greater level of security by reducing the number of outward-facing company Web sites and giving easy access to company files. The use of IAG 2007 has also streamlined IT operations.

By giving our remote employees access to file shares through Intelligent Application Gateway, we’ve eliminated the need for anyone to carry around physical drives to store information.  Matt Richardson IT Manager Information Control Corporation

Easy Access to Corporate Network

IAG 2007 helps ICC employees access the company network more easily than in the past.

“Now they only have to remember a single password to get into the corporate network, and they can do it from any Web browser, including at client sites,” says Richardson.

“Also, because they can check their e-mail, read company news and announcements, and enter their timesheet information all from a single site, they have more incentive to log on. Plus it makes it easier for us to deliver company information and communications to our remote workforce.”

Greater Security

IAG 2007 helps deliver improved security for the company in a number of ways. First, it makes it easy for the ICC IT administrators to ensure compliance with the company’s application and information usage guidelines through a single remote access policy that can be configured based on device, user, and the company applications that are accessed by remote employees.

IAG 2007 also helps increase security because the company’s IT department now only has to protect a single Web site, instead of several. ”It’s a much smaller public-facing footprint for our extranet, which is inherently more secure,” says Richardson.

With the single site, ICC has also made available a central portal through which remote employees can store and access company files, which also helps improve security. “By giving our remote employees access to file shares through IAG 2007, we’ve eliminated the need for anyone to carry around physical drives to store information,” Richardson says. “That minimizes the risk that proprietary company data will be lost or stolen.”

Streamlined IT Operations

The deployment of IAG 2007 helps to streamline tasks performed by the IT department.

“The deployment of IAG 2007 and the virtual private network was very easy,” says Adam Conkle, ICC Network Administrator. “In the past, creating a virtual private network could get pretty complicated, but now all we do is send out an e-mail message with instructions on how to log on to the network.”

The single logon has helped to dramatically reduce calls to the help desk. “We now only get one or two calls per month for password resents,” says Conkle. “That’s down from at least one or two a day in the past, when employees had to remember multiple passwords. That frees up more time for the IT staff to work on development projects. The extra time also helps us resolve trouble tickets faster, so IT problems get fixed faster. The use of Microsoft Intelligent Application Gateway 2007 has helped streamline connections for remote users and is helping our administrators get more done with their time.”

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com

For more information about Information Control Corporation products and services, visit the Web site at:
www.iccohio.com

Microsoft Forefront Product Portfolio

The Microsoft® Forefront™ comprehensive line of business security products provides greater protection and control through integration with your existing IT infrastructure and through simplified deployment, management, and analysis. Forefront is a comprehensive solution that helps provide protection for the client operating system, application servers, and the network edge.

For more information about the Forefront product portfolio, go to:
www.microsoft.com/forefront 

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published July 2007