Avanan > Case Studies > How This Distribution Company Went from 15 Hours a Week to 15 Minutes a Week Managing the Email Threat

How This Distribution Company Went from 15 Hours a Week to 15 Minutes a Week Managing the Email Threat

Region

America

Country

United States

Product

Microsoft 365
GreatHorn
Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration

Tech Stack

API
Cloud Email Security

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Digital Expertise
Productivity Improvements

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
Cybersecurity & Privacy - Cloud Security

Use Cases

Cybersecurity

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
Cybersecurity Services

About The Customer

Dawson Distributors is a distribution company based in the Northeast. The company's IT department is run by Sally Lewis. The company had initially used Mimecast to protect its Microsoft 365 environment, but was frustrated by the need to change their MX records. This led them to switch to GreatHorn, attracted by the promise of ease of use, automation, and time savings. However, the company found that GreatHorn was not as effective as promised, leading to a significant amount of time spent on remediation and investigation of emails. The company was spending 12-15 hours a week in the admin console, reviewing release requests. The 'Report Phishing' button provided by GreatHorn was supposed to automatically pull reported emails from all inboxes, but this was not happening, leading to a significant amount of time spent sifting through emails.

The Challenge

Dawson Distributors had been using GreatHorn for their email security for two years. However, they found that the solution was not as effective as promised, leading to a significant amount of time spent on remediation and investigation of emails. The company was spending 12-15 hours a week in the admin console, reviewing release requests. The 'Report Phishing' button provided by GreatHorn was supposed to automatically pull reported emails from all inboxes, but this was not happening, leading to a significant amount of time spent sifting through emails. The company was constantly inundated with phishing emails reported by colleagues, leading to a significant drain on resources. The company needed a solution with far better efficacy against phishing, so they could spend less time reviewing emails and more time on other IT tasks.

The Solution

Despite her negative experience with GreatHorn, Sally Lewis still wanted an API-based solution. However, she wanted a different approach than what GreatHorn and others provide. She found that API solutions like Abnormal worked in the same way as GreatHorn, pulling out a malicious email after it reaches the inbox. This was not ideal, as research has shown that it takes, on average, 82 seconds for a user to click on a phishing attack. Lewis was attracted to Avanan's solution, which connects via API but works differently. Its patent is inline protection, stopping malicious emails before they reach the inbox. With Avanan, Lewis was able to reduce the time spent on remediating phishing emails from 15 hours a week to just 15 minutes a week. With phishing solved, Lewis has time back in her day to work on other critical IT issues.

Operational Impact

Significant reduction in time spent on remediating phishing emails, from 15 hours a week to just 15 minutes a week.
Improved efficacy against phishing, reducing the number of phishing emails reaching the inbox.
More time available for other critical IT tasks.

Quantitative Benefit