Flawless Endpoint Security & Data Protection with Symantec Products, Delivered by a Trusted Advisor, Managed Solutions
Download Symantec Customer Success Story
If you live in and around Ipswich or Brisbane in Queensland, Australia and you’re working around your property, you’d do well to visit The Haggarty Group. The company fabricates and sells steel construction materials, provides welding supplies, and is one of the largest metal roofing companies in Queensland. It also manufactures hoses, distributes oil-based products, handles rubbish and recycles scrap metal. The family-owned Haggarty Group established in 1949 has grown from a small scrap metal collector into a diversified company that wears many hats.
But one hat it doesn't wear is information technology. The Haggarty Group has 19 desktop computers (including point-of-sale terminals), 6 laptops, and four servers, but no IT department. Instead, it contracts with Managed Solutions, a local provider of computer support to businesses.
Invisible—Until Turned Off
One of the first things Managed Solutions did when the Haggarty Group engaged it in 2003 was to install Symantec AntiVirus™ on all of the company's computers. Prior to Managed Solutions' arrival, each machine had whatever virus protection came with it from the factory, creating an inconsistent hodgepodge of solutions. But with a single, consistent solution from a trusted provider, viruses became virtually nonexistent; Joanne Egan, the Haggarty Group's administration manager, recalls just one virus outbreak in the last six years, and says management is a snap. "I just ring Troy if there’s ever a problem," Joanne says.
"Troy" is Troy Adams, the Managed Solutions representative who supports the Haggarty Group. In late 2008, Troy helped the Haggarty Group upgrade to Symantec Multi-tier Protection, adding Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange and Symantec Premium AntiSpam to the Haggarty Group's security arsenal. He's also deployed the included Symantec firewall on each machine and upgraded the antivirus protection to Symantec Endpoint Protection.
Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange has been a boon for the Haggarty Group's systems. In a recent month it detected and removed 302 inbound viruses from email before they ever reached the Haggarty Group's systems, while Symantec Premium AntiSpam detected and quarantined over 100,000 pieces of spam (compared with 20,000 legitimate emails). This has provided the Haggarty Group with improved system performance and employee productivity. "People generally don’t notice that Premium AntiSpam is there—unless we turn it off," jokes Troy. "Then they know pretty quickly."
Troy appreciates the Symantec products' seamless integration with Microsoft Exchange, and notes that Symantec Endpoint Protection does not affect the performance of the Haggarty Group's PCs. He's also become a fan of Symantec service. "I get very fast response from support technicians," Troy says. "With other products it can take four hours just to speak with a technician."
Backing Up Two Offices
When Managed Solutions took over the Haggarty Group's IT operations in 2003 the company had just one server. Managed Solutions implemented a backup routine using Veritas Backup Exec™ 8.6, and the backup system and regimen have grown and upgraded through the years to reflect the growth of the business. Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 Small Business Edition now supports four servers in two locations, including the company's Microsoft Exchange email server and the Microsoft SQL Server behind the Haggarty Group's accounting system.
Backup Exec performs a full backup to tape of 150 gigabytes of data each night. The process takes less than two hours under Backup Exec 12.5, which is approximately half the time the process had taken with earlier versions of Backup Exec. All Joanne needs to do is swap tapes from the drive and an on-site fireproof vault. With Backup Exec, even files that are open (intentionally or not) are backed up.
Both Joanne and the support desk at Managed Solutions get an email each morning informing them of previous night's backup. "It's pretty smooth," Joanne says. "Every couple of months there might be a failure, but we've never been unable to restore a lost file when we’ve had to." This 100 percent success rate is far greater than the previous backup solution had delivered.
Joanne and Troy rest easier knowing that the Granular Recovery Technology in Backup Exec Agent for Microsoft Exchange would let them recover individual email messages if they were lost. Fortunately, such a need has never arisen. "It's been pretty easy all along," Joanne says. "I don't even have to monitor it."
Symantec's ease of management is a benefit for both the Haggarty Group and Managed Solutions. "It doesn't take a lot of administrative time," Troy says. "We monitor and watch so Joanne can focus on other things." And in a diversified, growing company like the Haggarty Group, she has plenty to focus on.