COVER STORY
“ With Node4 ’ s SOC solution in place , it ’ s really brought home just how little sense it would have made for an organisation of our size to try and deliver its own 24 / 7 capability – particularly in the context of having to attract and retain a team with these highly sought after skills – and why it was such a sensible choice to take a managed services approach ,” she continued .
A trusted , long-term IT partner
Taking stock , Hopkins explained that Node4 has made a substantial contribution to ArrowXL ’ s IT infrastructure and information security – and that , today , the company also plays a vital role in providing advice and consultancy on future projects . “ Our partnership with Node4 is so important because we have a relatively small in-house IT team . They supplement our skills , knowledge and expertise in specialisms we ’ d be unable to attract and retain .”
“ They ’ re not afraid to talk about new technology and help us drive innovation – just as they did when proposing the SD-WAN and the managed service security offering . That ’ s why I see Node4 as an extension of my team – and much , much more than a service provider . It ’ s a partnership that will only strengthen as we embark on more IT infrastructure improvements over the coming months and years ,” she concluded .
Rachel Hopkins , Chief Information Officer at ArrowXL , expands on the organisation ’ s work with Node4 and sheds light on why this collaboration has been so beneficial .
How do you ensure you maintain an exceptional service at the centre of all your operations and where does technology come into play ?
As far as my team ’ s function is concerned , our ability to deliver great consumer and customer service is all about ensuring that our systems , applications and technologies provide the availability that ’ s needed for a 24 / 7 operation . We ’ re all about ensuring that our technology is as good as it can be to give that responsiveness and availability to our colleagues in the business to be sure deliveries can happen in a timely fashion and meet consumer expectations .
Customer service is really important because deliveries involve our staff coming into your home , delivering large objects and making sure there ’ s no damage . We therefore must make sure that interactions with customers are really positive , friendly and respectful .
Can you expand on what you set out to achieve and how far Node4 ’ s solution delivered on expectations ?
We had a really big project and Node4 was our partner on this . It involved moving to a new data centre with improved availability and resiliency . It was also about replacing our networks , both Local Area Network and Wide Area Network , with new SD-WAN technologies . We also wanted to consider how to improve our information security stance and Node4 helped us with the deployment of the Security Operations Centre . All of these things have propelled us from being a laggard in this space to something that ’ s much more state-of-the-art and fit for the future .
How have your customers benefitted from the overhaul of your infrastructure and how do you expect this to continue / progress ?
The best way of explaining this is to discuss some of the problems we had with our previous infrastructure . Imagine a situation where there ’ s no resiliency – if a switch fails , all the users in that general facility are unable to do their job . This then means they can ’ t pick , they can ’ t put away , they can ’ t put parcels on vehicles , they can ’ t load or unload vehicles . Like all other businesses , we ’ re highly reliant on technology and if it is not functioning as designed , then we ’ re unable to operate our business in a timely fashion and all of this impacts customer service . Our customers need to be at home when the delivery happens so giving them reliable time slots and arriving at that time is crucial . If IT creates delays in some of the upstream processes , this negatively impacts customer experience . With our previous infrastructure , we had some quite significant outages , which created operational disruption and impacted our capabilities .
Why was taking a managed service approach to security the best option for your business ?
We ’ re talking specifically about the information security and cyberspace , which is an area that is evolving rapidly . It ’ s difficult for organisations with smaller IT departments to employ and retain the expertise that is needed to keep pace with the rate of change in the space . I ’ m a great believer in doing the things you ’ ve got a core competence in and using experts and third parties where you don ’ t . In my department , the core competence my team has is understanding our business and the processes that we need to operate successfully .
In my experience , attracting information security professionals with the breadth of expertise needed and then retaining those people and being able to pay in line with their expectations is really difficult . This area in particular is one where using a specialist outsource provider offers huge advantage , especially if that provider is already hosting your infrastructure and has access to that infrastructure meaning they are able to respond quickly .
Can you expand on the benefits and added value that the solution has delivered to the business from a cybersecurity perspective ?
We now have the services of a virtual CISO who is able to give us advice when new subjects arise and that ’ s really useful . He ’ s helping us with the education of our users and how we can protect ourselves from ransomware and other similar attacks . He ’ s able to assist with technology advice when considering new solutions . We ’ re also being given insight into the kinds of activity occurring inside our perimeter which is additional intelligence we didn ’ t have previously . u www . intelligentciso . com
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