Challenge.

At Bergische Diakonie in Aprath, people can be themselves and get the help they need. The some 1,900 employees provide services in the fields of elderly care, integration assistance and child and youth welfare in the region of Mettmann, Wuppertal, Remscheid and Solingen, offering support during times of hardship and worry. The digitalisation of the subsidiaries was an important strategic objective of the Bergische Diakonie as it would optimise the agility and health of their employees. To make sure digitalisation didn’t get stuck in a rut, the Bergische Diakonie needed a new, faster internet line that offered a greater bandwidth to transmit data faster between the Bergische Diakonie and the outside world. However, the data—in particularly related to the charity and healthcare—are highly sensitive and needed to be specially secured. Bergische Diakonie was therefore looking for a security solution they could manage themselves an install without any significant impact on work. It also had to be a cloud-based security solution—a first in the charity and healthcare industries.


Bechtle recommended the Mimecast solution and we were very quickly won over to that idea after the web demo and highly informative presentation and received professional training on how to use the solution. It was particularly important to record the status quo in detail during implementation. Bechtle is a partner we can rely on at all times, in all business areas—a considerate partner who worked with us as equals.

Joschka Kruse, IT Systems Administrator, Bergische Diakonie Aprath


Solution.

Bechtle was able to meet the Diakonie’s wishes with two components—the Bechtle data centre in Frankfurt is secured by modern security technologies, and the e-mail system’s security is provided by the Mimecast cloud-based e-mail security solution. While the next-generation firewall solution of Bechtle's data centre ensures consistently high levels of security for the cloud set up by Bechtle, Mimecast protects the Diakonie’s employees from phishing and residents’ and patients’ data from unauthorised access. The Mimecast Cyber Resilience bundle Bechtle first demonstrated online and then on-site includes an end-to-end e-mail security solution and 100% service availability for uninterrupted e-mail access. Mimecast runs fully in the cloud, leveraging several highly developed detection modules and various threat data sources to protect e-mails against spam, malware, phishing and targeted attacks, meaning that Bergische Diakonie is able to maintain all Service Level Agreements (SLA). The solution also provides protection against malware attacks that are launched by clicking on links, attachments, etc. Moreover, guaranteed mailbox continuity ensures uninterrupted access to current and archived e-mails with Outlook for Windows both through a web browser and mobile app. Even when Exchange or the e-mail program are down. Mimecast also makes life easier for the administrators monitoring the flow of e-mails and managing e-mail traffic. Bechtle therefore closed a critical gap in security with its solution that also complements Bergische Diakonie’s existing infrastructure.

Within just one month, Bechtle had implemented Mimecast and greylisting at the Aprath site. To do so, Bechtle used Mimecast’s Managed Implementation, which saw a professional services consultant supervise, plan and review both milestones and legacy policies. The consultant also handled the complete setup and configuration of the solution. During the process, Bechtle and Mimecast worked closely with Bergische Diakonie so that existing (partly highly complex) policies and environments could be taken into consideration.

Business benefits.

Thanks to the Mimecast e-mail security solution, employees are now much more aware of potential malicious content and can enjoy a much better e-mail experience, while the IT department has been relieved of a considerable amount of work. With this solution, a gateway for trojans, phishing and other malware has been closed and corporate security and the security of work in and via the cloud has increased significantly. All e-mails are always available and statutory required e-mail archiving is guaranteed.