Resources and LearningCase Studies

UniSuper approached M2K to evaluate, support and deliver two different security solutions to solve their core business needs. In this case UniSuper required to successfully secure, report on, and prevent security threats across their corporate and bring your own (BYO) devices.

After understanding the objective, two mobile threat defence vendors were selected for an in-depth comparison across capabilities and performance against an extensive success criteria.

Over the course of several weeks, M2K successfully integrated and validated both solutions, ensuring UniSuper was equipped and confident to pick the solution that will be the line of defence for their mobile security: today and tomorrow.

M2K’s criteria for success that was tested:

• Performance against typical threats a user will encounter such as malware, phishing and risky hotspots
• How well the solution integrated and performed with UniSuper’s existing software and solutions
• How well the solution managed the threats of a device and secured its information when attacked
• Extensive reporting extracted to show what insights can be leveraged and utilised
• The overall end-user experience and how easy it was to use

Through working with M2K and the selected security vendors, UniSuper was able to confidently make an evidence-based decision on a solution that best met their business needs. Through the true partnership formed between M2K and UniSuper, UniSuper has chosen to proceed with implementing a mobile threat defence solution across their device fleet, with M2K as their managed service provider.

Ericom acquired M2K in January 2020

The NSW Department of Justice (NSWDOJ)  is the governing body of corrective services in NSW and aspire to build stronger communities through crime reduction, education, and rehabilitation.

In a corrective services facility, the control of disease is paramount to ensure the safety of a prison population. COVID-19 presented a dynamic challenge for facility operators who needed to balance the social requirements of inmates with the strict Government response to the pandemic NSWDOJ needed provide inmates with the ability to retain social bonds with friends and family remotely via video conferencing tools while also adhering to Government requirements made available through personal inmate tablets.

Ericom was previously engaged by NSWDOJ in collaboration with Telstra and the American offender technologies provider GTL to complete a comprehensive overhaul of the legacy inmate telephone systems. Ericom were subsequently engaged to roll out the inmate tablet project that had been slated for completion in 2021/22.

While the scope of the inmate tablet project had been mapped out as part of our initial tender for NSWDOJ Ericom needed to respond quickly and efficiently due to the urgent nature of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The turnaround for this project was significantly shorter than a standard rollout. Ericom worked closely with NSWDOJ to deliver the project from solution design, implementation, documentation and support process creation over a matter of days.

Ericom continues provide managed service support and maintenance of the tablets.

The outcome has been the successful delivery of 500 inmate tablets with 110 more on the way. NSWDOJ saw a positive take-up by end users. Within the first few week’s inmates were booking up to 3,000 sessions per week  and within a month they were booking over 1,200 sessions per day on average.

The responsiveness and energy invested upfront was critical to  ensure a smooth transition during a very difficult time . Ericom have provided comprehensive device installation and  support and have been responsive to the changing needs of NSWDOJ as they navigate and adapt to the challenges presented by COVID-19.

Ericom’s work with Pybar Mining involved switching over an end-of-life Software-Defined Wide Area Network to a new solution across 20 sites within a short timeframe. The nature of this kind of work is urgent because mining operations depend on robust, secure networks to keep their complex and essential communications systems working optimally.

In order to avoid the problem of having to invest more into a soon-to-be retired product, the underground mining operator reached out to Telstra and Ericom for help finding a suitable alternative. They needed a simplified management platform as their internal IT team was small and dedicated to supporting other areas of the business. Ericom and Telstra worked together to provide their client with a demo and technical session showcasing different software.

After having conversations with Ericom about various options, the company chose to go with Fortinet, a leading SD-WAN solution for large, security-sensitive enterprises. Ahead of the 6-week deadline they were given, Ericom had priced up the right solution, processed the paperwork, and ordered and supplied the hardware. Allowing time to get equipment to various remote locations was critical so that everything could be successfully installed before the hard stop date of the legacy software.

Anticipating this risk, Ericom and Fortinet arranged for the hardware to be collected and driven to a meeting point to speed up the hand-over process. Another challenge was ensuring the network was set up for remote access by our IT support team as it would be difficult to send someone out to these sites.

Following the guidance of Ericom and Fortinet, the company was able to complete the installation themselves with minimal hassle ahead of their transition deadline. They have reported that the system is working even better than their last and that everyone is very happy with it because it provides a singular management platform for ease of management by their internal IT staff. The new system improved their ability to deploy, troubleshoot, manage and report on their environment.

Not only that, the success of the project meant that Ericom was able to expand the company’s Fortinet environment to several other solutions that have further enhanced operations and IT management.  The project was a collective effort involving four team players (Ericom, Telstra, Fortinet and Pybar Mining) who worked extremely well together for an outstanding outcome.

Northern Beaches Council is local government authority located in the northern beaches’ region of Sydney. In 2016 Manly, Pittwater and Warringah councils amalgamated as part of the state governments reduction of local government areas.

Operating with amalgamated workforces resulted in three unified communication (UC) systems inherited from the former councils. These legacy systems presented issues restricting efficient staff communications within one organisation over a number of sites. We were tasked with providing a solution that enabled all staff to come together in a new collaborative environment. The following telephony challenges were identified: 3 different phone systems all operating different call centre platforms. The project affected 1,800 staff geographically spread across multiple locations.

Telstra and Ericom responded to the Tender requirements and conducted various presentations outlining the capabilities of Telstra and how they were best equipped to deliver a solution to meet the end user requirements and the handling of change management and risk mitigation. Training and documentation would be provided to all employees and the councils internal IT teams. The Telstra and Ericom team deployed a full Telstra Cloud solution for telephony and contact centre which comprised of TCO365 and Genesys Cloud. The solution integrated with the rest of Northern Beaches Microsoft suite and Salesforce.

The delivery of one platform across all three former councils has increased productivity and, in some circumstances, removed two telephones from one desk. The UC solution has enabled users to communicate in a single tool across voice / message / video and screen sharing reducing the need to travel between offices to conduct meetings. Incoming calls to council have also been simplified through Genesys Cloud which streamlines the call process resulting in better customer experience and management of call overflows between three primary sites. The deployed solution has provided Northern Beaches Council a flexible and agile Business Continuity Plan for remote working during COVID 19. The successful project implementation is a direct reflection of the collaboration between Northern Beaches Council, Telstra and Ericom. All parties worked closely to ensure the recommended solution satisfied client requirements and the deployment rollout was in stages to minimise staff disruption.

For 35 years, PANDA (Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia) has been supporting individuals and families to recover from perinatal anxiety, depression and postnatal psychosis. PANDA is a non-profit organisation operating Australia’s only free, national Helpline through a combination of paid and volunteer staff.

PANDA were operating in an aged infrastructure environment no longer under manufacturer’s support. The server and file storage were running Microsoft Windows that officially went end-of-life in January 2020. In addition, the offsite data-backup platform was considered redundant should a cybersecurity threat occur. Ensuring patient records and confidential data remained secure was top of mind.

M2K and Telstra designed a solution that not only met the needs of PANDA but also incorporated cost saving measures and funds to achieve maximum technology value. The existing aged server was replaced and virtual servers with required file storage and backup hardware/software were provisioned. Amazon Web Services Cloud Storage was introduced as an offsite storage destination providing great cost savings accessing AWS annual credits available to non-profit organisations. Advanced Unified Threat Management (UTM) firewalls were included utilising Telstra Technology Funds to help offset overall costs. The firewall solution added redundancy, VPN access capabilities and additional layers of security, that allowed staff to move freely and work remotely from virtually anywhere, while ensuring tight security measures in place to protect PANDA’s most valuable data.

The designed solution does more than address PANDA’s business requirements and potential risks, it provides world-class innovative technology now and into the future. Being a non-profit organisation and living the True Partnership with M2K and Telstra, PANDA enjoys a modern solution at minimum costs. True ‘value for money’ was realised and business objectives were met. The delivery of this solution was perfectly timed right before the global pandemic of COVID-19. M2K as the IT Managed Services provider, was able to transition all staff including the Helpline team, to work remotely in matter of 2 business days. With the new infrastructure, PANDA are now well equipped with the agility and speed to respond to change.

Ericom acquired M2K in January 2020

M2K manages Jemena’s mobility services queue within our ServiceNow portal. The integration is achieved through direct vendor login and has enabled M2K to manage day-to-day requests and processing of tasks.

M2K attend to service faults, adds, moves and changes; provisioning of devices; billing analysis and billing credit issues directly to Telstra on behalf of Jemena.

Our team have visibility and transparency of all activities through updates to the tasks and requests, including tracking numbers and a link to Startrack’s online tracking portal.

Jemena has found the collaboration with M2K to be very beneficial – we have been able to leverage M2K’s expertise to assist our users with their day-to-day mobility needs. This support has reduced the burden on our internal Service Desk team and frees them to focus on their core business activities. M2K provides piece-of-mind to the IT teams, who know our end users are being directly kept up-to-date. We know M2K’s support is working thanks to the positive user experience feedback we receive.

Ericom acquired M2K in January 2020