Marcus SpenceGroup IT & Projects ManagerCounty Durhamhttp://www.hargreavesservices.co.uk/
Established in 1994 as a specialist bulk haulier, the Hargreaves Group has grown into a major force in the supply, movement and management of mineral resources and the provision of support services to the energy and waste industries. Today the Hargreaves group is the UK's leading energy support services provider, with a resource base stretching across three continents, a fleet of over 400 vehicles and a support services team capable of managing the largest energy and waste related projects. Group IT and Projects Manager Marcus Spence looks after the group's network and over 350 users at their Head Office in County Durham.
Hargreaves Services has 360 users on predominantly Windows PCs. Authentication is Microsoft Active Directory.
The existing system was 'black box technology' designed and configured by a consultant who operated their whole network. Marcus needed something he could change and monitor himself without the need to contact his supplier every time alterations were required. He suspected the Internet was being abused but was lacking the detailed reports he needed to prove it. The company also needed better email security as they were receiving excessive spam items. As the Group's IT infrastructure is hosted largely in an off-site data-center, Marcus was keen to find a stable and reliable system, so site visits could be kept to a minimum.
Marcus was immediately pleased with Guardian's ease of use and the seamless integration with their authentication system. The evaluation process was such a breeze that the alternative option barely made it out of the box!
Guardian has helped Hargreaves Services to significantly reduce Internet abuse, resulting in a more productive workforce with reduced bandwidth issues. Marcus says Guardian's web and email security features have proved particularly valuable, and generating the reports he needs to effectively moderate staff web use is a reassuringly easy job.Since its installation, Guardian has established itself as a reliable and dependable solution, requiring an absolute minimum in terms of maintenance and support.
Guardian has enabled us to educate our staff on Internet usage and brought about a more productive workforce with reduced bandwidth issues
We were receiving in excess of 2000 spam items a day and had a general feeling that the Internet was being abused. Smoothwall offered a package that dealt with both email and Internet usage, built on an inherently stable and reliable Unix platform.
We could connect to our AD and create differing web security policies for different user groups. It was easy to set up and update and we particularly liked the ability to create our own list of authorized and un-authorized URLs
We also attempted to trial one of the major brand leaders but found it hard to configure and even harder to contact support, so we sent it back without even placing it in a test environment.
Management and monitoring is a minimal task and the SmoothZap email security module has reduced the amount of Spam we receive, significantly freeing up time for our support staff. Although we have rarely required support, when we have, Smoothwall have been quick to react, this is our third year using the product and it has never been offline.
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