Large Enterprise transformation to Office 365 with security improvement
Customer Sitution
Our client, a leading global manufacturer of flexible packaging, employs approximately 8,550 people (as of May 2022) and produces customized packaging solutions at multiple locations worldwide. Our customer is trusted by international companies and local market leaders in the consumer, personal & home care, and pharma industries for their sustainable and innovative packaging products.
Partner Solution
Projects like our client always require sorting out AD directory services, integrating with Office 365, and changing authentication. AADP is a natural response that ISCG proposes to customers with ever-increasing threats. These threats are particularly dangerous when the environment is extensive and team members sometimes only know each other from online conversations. In this case, the risk of socio-technical attacks (e.g. phishing) should be reduced by implementing strong MFA authentication. Our client has implemented MFA on their Office 365 (O365) site, requiring a second authentication factor for users connecting from outside the company network. All O365 users are prompted to configure MFA during their first login to the O365 portal. Enabling MFA improves authentication security without requiring additional licenses, and it can be integrated with Conditional Access functionality using Azure AD Premium. Services & Microsoft Technology used: Microsoft 365, Office 365, and Azure Active Directory Premium (AADP).
Key Drivers & Business Objectives
The customer has started the process of migrating its systems to Office 365. The project has been divided into phases and each Office 365 service is being separately implemented for the entire group. In the project, one of the key elements to design and launch was simplification for business users to access the services, a single identity, and strong authentication. The main problem faced by the IT and ISCG departments was to provide a reliable method for global authentication and to choose the right authorization method that does not affect the behavior of business users.
Value Provided & Business Outcomes
- Users covered by the project 8500.
- Easy and Security access to internal and cloud environment.
- Training for IT and for the users.
- Special use case in the project – Power BI sensitive dashboards with extended authentication.
Win Insights
- Microsoft AADP won over other technologies considered because of the speed of deployment, ease of integration.
- A strong authentication mechanism was introduced.
- Cloud application access is more secure.
- As always international, global projects are specific and more time consuming based on local requirements.
Lessons Learned
- Communication of change management is the key to to the success of the global projects.
- From AADP1 it is easy to jump to AADP2 because Customer have seen positive results of increasing security and plan to have more functions available in Plan2.
- Implementing such a solution is a great innovative advantage in terms of security benefits.