Royal Auris Group
Royal Auris Group Modernizes Security with Mimecast
Solution
- Email security with Targeted Threat Protection
- Web security
Problem
- To effectively manage security and compliance risk, Auris needed a new array of tools to support its new data-centric security strategy, focused on the protection of student and client personal information
Benefit
- Saves 48 days per year in help desk incident response time
- Provides a superior alternative to Microsoft 365 tools
- Helped Auris transition to a more effective centralized security model
Customer Vision
Royal Auris Group operates dozens of schools, treatment centres and offices across the Netherlands for anyone who has difficulty hearing, speaking or articulating language. Because it works with people with special needs, the protection of personal data is a critical issue for Auris. And, because Auris is publicly funded (by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport), there is an even greater focus on regulatory compliance.
In 2020, as part of an ongoing effort to change the organisational model from one of “regional autonomy” to centralized shared services, Auris centralized its IT function and, as part of that, conducted a “state of security” analysis, resulting in a heatmap of risks that need to be mitigated over the next three years. A key area of need identified in the heatmap was web and email security, and the solution Auris chose was Mimecast.
Customer Strategy
Auris wanted to adopt a strategy of datacentric security, focused on the protection of student and client personal information. “We determined this is the main reason for our existence as an educational and healthcare organization – caring for people must extend to how you care for their personal data,” says Arie Taal, Chief Information Security Officer, Royal Auris Group.
Mimecast was one of the key tools Auris and his team selected to fulfill this mission, adopting the email security with threat protection, and web security modules. “Before Mimecast, we often had issues with suspected phishing and other fraudulent email, which kept our help desk busy,” Taal says. “Today, Mimecast stops those at the gateway.”
He also says that Mimecast helps to reinforce the importance of security to Auris employees. “Cybersecurity had always been somewhat abstract in the organization,” he says. “But since the introduction of the heatmap, the resulting roadmap and the implementation of tools such as Mimecast, people have a much better understanding of how their choices can have real-life consequences on our ability to protect personal information and fulfill our organizational mission.”
Customer Outcome
Taal says the implementation of Mimecast has already delivered tangible return-on investment for his teams.
Based on internal studies, Mimecast is saving an estimated 48 days per year in help desk time alone, or roughly 40% of the annual investment in Mimecast. “And that’s just savings from reduced incident-response costs – it doesn’t even begin calculating the value of having a vastly improved security and compliance posture,” he says.
Taal added that the company’s migration to Microsoft 365 was another reason to choose Mimecast. “Using Microsoft 365’s security tools would have required a lot of configuration work and additional licenses,” he says. “Mimecast takes all that heavy lifting off the table. And, we can manage both web and email security through a single console, so it’s much easier to manage.”
“Using Microsoft 365’s security tools would have required a lot of configuration work and additional licenses. Mimecast takes all that heavy lifting off the table. And, we can manage both web and email security through a single console, so it’s much easier to manage.”
Arie Taal, Chief Information Security Officer, Royal Auris Group.