Nebulas Security proved an extremely professional partner, in providing an excellent solution which has not only proved to be cost effective but has also improved productivity. Infrastructure Manager, Camelot.
The Challenge
Over 94% of the UK population either live or work within half a mile of a lottery terminal. Great news if you fancy a flutter, but a logistical challenge for Camelot, operator of the UK National Lottery. Every day each of the 160 Camelot sales staff visit up to 6 customer locations scattered throughout the country to inform and update the 30,000 National Lottery retailers on new games, promotions, display advice and training to help them maximise sales and returns to Good Causes. Reaching this many retailers means that the Camelot sales force is always on the road.
Although Camelot had been using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) solution, it had reached the limit of its capabilities. The organisation needed a new flexible secure remote access solution that would allow each sales person up to 500MB of bandwidth a month to send and retrieve critical information located on Camelots central information systems. 100MB downloads per person would be required, and with 150 concurrent downloads throughput was critical. It had to be flexible, resilient, easy to use, cost effective and most importantly 100% secure.
The Solution
Camelot called in Nebulas Security at the outset of the project to design a fresh solution that could meet these criteria. Having assessed Camelots business needs, in conjunction with Camelots IT Services, Nebulas Security recommended that an appliance-based Secure Socket Layer (SSL) solution replace the existing IPSec-based VPN. It was decided that the sales force would utilise Tablet PCs in order to provide a lightweight flexible portable solution. This would allow sales staff to securely and remotely connect into Camelots corporate network from any location: the retailer using their dial-up points, in the car using 3G capabilities or from home via broadband.
Nebulas Security deployed an SSL VPN solution in conjunction with Integrity Server, from Zone Labs (a Check Point company), to provide end-point protection for the Tablet PCs. This provided a central point for termination of all remote user connections, combined with centralised management of the personal firewalls. Perimeter firewalls were reconfigured in High Availability to increase levels of resilience and redundancy in the solution.
The new solution enables multiple sales staff to connect to the corporate network at the same time, transmitting bandwidth-heavy files at high speed all within a highly secure environment. In the past our sales staff could access our network remotely, but the data transfer rates were sometimes slow. Our new solution overcomes this problem, increasing flexibility and access to the corporate intranet, continues the Infrastructure Manager at Camelot.
The proof of concept was conducted in June 2004, the pilot solution rolled out in July with the system going live in August 2004.
The Benefits
Since implementing the system, Camelot has eradicated all printing costs associated with sales staff, achieving a high return on investment within only three months. In addition, productivity amongst the sales team has improved.
Although our sales staff still make the same number of customer visits a day, they are able to fit them in more comfortably, investing more time with each retailer said the Infrastructure Manager at Camelot. Camelots corporate mandate is to maximise revenue for Good Causes in the most efficient way. This new technology helps our sales staff do exactly that.
The solution has demonstrated Nebulas Securitys insight into the security challenges facing organisations today and is a showcase for the companys consultancy and implementation skills.
The Future
Camelot is currently migrating 400 additional staff onto the SSL VPN system, allowing secure remote access for all laptop users. The company will continue to leverage the range of rich features the new technology offers, opening up its potential even further.
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