Twelve locations in Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Singapore, Romania, and Portugal make up the group that works to optimize customer service and to constantly continue to develop software – customer focus and a best-in-class mindset are what characterize this company. With XENTIS, the company has built an excellent reputation in the banking sector. This unique solution for the integrated and modular investment management system manages over a billion euros in asset investments for financial service providers. In 2019, Profidata decided to restructure its internal IT services. In doing so, the company wanted to concentrate more on its core business: customer service and software development. Basic internal IT services that do not yield any economic value should be passed onto reliable external partners that continue to operate these services to a high standard.
“T-Systems took our requirements seriously and designed an appropriate solution”, Martin Frolik, Member of the Executive Board at Profidata. Profidata now has a homogenous infrastructure for IT security at its disposal. The harmonized landscape reduces complexity and facilitates modern management; changes and bug fixes are made easier. “This reduces the workload of our internal IT management team considerably – meaning we have achieved the main goal of this project.” This standardization facilitates a unified and consistent reporting process across locations and guarantees that all branches in the group have the same level of security. Specialist personnel on site for the care of firewall appliances is no longer necessary. The management team from T-Systems assists Profidata with its expertise.
The hybrid operating model also allows the internal IT management team at Profidata to access the management console and to carry out their own changes where necessary. This means that Profidata still has a high amount of flexibility and responsiveness. As the team is familiar with Checkpoint, no new training is required. The operating model and new architecture ensure a high-quality security service. At the same time, T-Systems and Checkpoint are continuing to develop the firewall landscape further with the customer. This means Profidata is well-positioned to continue to operate its business in a solid and secure way with finance service providers, despite ever-increasing cyber risks.
Managed firewall services from T-Systems relieve the strain on our internal IT team and secure a lasting high level of security for Profidata.
Martin Frolik, Member of the Executive Board, Profidata
Security services play an essential role in the sector of financial services. For the outsourcing of basic services, Profitdata decided on an experienced security partner: T-Systems. The company was not only tasked with taking over firewall management across Profidata, but also updating the infrastructure and modernizing the management system. Profidata wanted to have an efficient security infrastructure that supports international collaboration, but also gives the internal IT team the opportunity to easily develop the firewall landscape (hybrid operating model).
With managed firewall services from T-Systems, Profidata has a complete firewall solution. Locations with outdated firewall appliances receive new and efficient state-of-the-art devices with software-controlled functionalities from T-Systems’ partner Checkpoint. This facilitates an extensive automation of firewall management. All devices at all locations can now be managed from a central console in Switzerland. T-Systems takes over the managed services for incident, problem, change, configuration and release management for the firewall landscape during office hours – including monitoring and reporting. Not only that, the Customer Order Portal gives the internal IT team from Profidata the option to carry out changes to firewalls themselves via the web interface.
The intelligent automation then checks whether a standard change or a more complex change is being launched. In the first case, the change is carried out immediately; in the second, the change is only implemented after being checked by a T-Systems specialist. As well as managed firewall services, Profidata also decided to purchase E-Mail Protect Pro from T-Systems. The email security solution works hand in hand with firewalls and filters incoming emails automatically, with the help of black and white lists. The managed cloud solution monitors email traffic and successfully blocks virtual threats. It blocks viruses, spam, and ransomware. It also prevents complex, effective attacks on critical IT infrastructures and confidential data, known as advanced persistent threats (APT).
