Centraal Beheer, a subsidiary of Achmea, faces the challenge of catering to a diverse customer base, ranging from individual consumers to SMEs. Each customer has unique service requirements, and failing to recognize these individual needs can lead to customer dissatisfaction and damage the company's reputation. To address this, Centraal Beheer has invested in various contact channels such as call-back, chat, video-chat, and co-browsing. However, the company needed a way to personalize these contact channels to improve customer experience and increase profits.

Richardson needed deeper and faster insights into its own sales performance metrics to win more opportunities in a competitive environment. Conversion metrics were particularly important, and the Sales Operations department was tasked with providing quarterly data for tracking, which took several days each quarter. Additionally, Richardson wanted better monitoring of its sales force at both individual and team levels, requiring greater visibility into sales behaviors and results. The company needed an information system to better determine its performance and identify areas for coaching and improvement.

YarcData faced challenges in determining the conversion rates of prospects into customers through various marketing efforts and identifying the source of its leads. They wanted to know the percentage of opportunities in the sales pipeline that came from different marketing events, web downloads, or self-sourced sales opportunities. Additionally, they needed the ability to drill down into the data to guide where to allocate more marketing dollars based on the success of previous efforts. Previously, YarcData relied heavily on spreadsheets and Salesforce.com reports, which made it difficult to extract the exact information they needed. This reliance on spreadsheets represented about 70% of their data presentation.

Vungle was eager to have greater visibility into its pipeline and be able to drill down into the data, such as specific results by sales rep, by team, and by stage in the sales process. Because of its long sales cycle and complex selling environment, Vungle wanted to gain better insights into opportunities within the pipeline: changes in volume, sticking points, speed of progression. It was looking to identify more predictive behaviors of success and to flag areas that might need course corrections. Additionally, with its multiple sales processes, Vungle needed a solution that could combine and report on key performance indicators in a single corporate sales process, while still providing detail on each separate process. Efficiency and ease of use was paramount for the startup, which was looking to streamline its report development process from two or three days each week to a click of the mouse. Similarly, the solution had to be easy to understand and use by the sales team, or it would be disregarded.

Intelladon faced three major challenges: accurately demonstrating marketing's ROI, integrating sales and marketing processes, and improving reporting efficiency. Custom reports in Salesforce.com were time-consuming and provided only basic metrics, lacking true ROI reporting and conversion tracking. The company needed to integrate marketing waterfall analytics into Salesforce.com and reduce the time spent on performance reporting, which was prone to human errors.

As the company grew, Online Commerce Group’s data become so large that, without a new generation Big Data Analytics solution, management couldn’t receive quality reports. The fast growth of the company meant that Data Manager Paul Auen was unable to run reports with large enough data sets to provide any real value to the business end. “Originally, we could do reports manually, but as the data sets got larger, the reports took longer and impacted the transactional database,” Auen recalled. “We were constrained between keeping the servers running or making it available for reports.” Online Commerce Group chose a popular business analytics tool, but it was too complex; Auen’s group was unable to run reports at the speed and frequency needed for the business. Quickly, the team abandoned and turned to Sisense. The company needed a solution that could: 1. Quickly analyze large data sets coming from multiple sources. 2. Provide drag-and-drop modeling and dashboard creation for business users. 3. Automatically generate reports and publish them to the company intranet. 4. Require a minimal capital investment and learning curve for use.

Paylogic considers itself a next-generation technological company, and its organizational structure and operations are highly automated. Instead of employing a standard monolithic ERP system (e.g., SAP), Paylogic has built its IT infrastructure using corporate-environment open-source standards. Automation is approached from a decentralized perspective based on this open-source IT backbone. The company uses different software packages for different functions and ties them together to form an enterprise collaboration platform. The result is impressive: Paylogic enjoys no-compromise IT functionality and flexibility with extremely low software costs. It was into this environment that the company sought to integrate a reporting and analytics tool. The company’s operational and historical data was consolidated into a homegrown data warehouse, based on a MySQL database. Paylogic was looking for a powerful and flexible business intelligence solution that would easily integrate with its existing system, which would not require rebuilding the data warehouse, which would allow non-technical business users to quickly create new reports and analytic queries and which would be relatively inexpensive.

FSV wanted to shift the focus from targeting large enterprise companies to a new area for growth, the small to mid-sized company. As a result, FSV’s approach to sourcing new business was in transition away from relying strictly on referrals.

Neil Johnson, security manager at Evercore, needed a robust SIEM solution to handle user behavior monitoring and provide comprehensive log search capabilities for data analysis. The existing vulnerability management solution managed by a third party was not meeting their requirements, prompting the need for a more effective solution. The primary drivers for selecting InsightIDR included the ability to alert on anomalous user logins and provide detailed log search functionalities. The head of IT was particularly interested in monitoring user activities to ensure that employee credentials were not compromised.

Before 2008, LSCS supported separate campus IT operations at each of its five campuses with distributed IT support services. Then a new CIO joined the college, and within a month, the Lone Star College System had completely centralized its IT services to support a new vision. Associate Vice Chancellor of Technology Services Link Alander explains, “Through that process we had a series of changes and challenges that had to be achieved to improve reliability and security.” While the college had so far avoided any significant security incident or data breach, it understood the need for a proactive security posture that would maintain user trust. It also needed tools to help prove compliance with regulations such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and other regulations. The LSCS security initiatives are part of 11 strategic technology initiatives, incorporated into the overall LSCS strategic plan for 2009 through 2011. One of its primary security goals is to use ISO 27000 standards as a framework.

Apptio faced a significant challenge in managing the security risks associated with employees accessing corporate data via personal mobile devices. The use of smartphones and tablets for work purposes had increased efficiency but also introduced potential security vulnerabilities. Prior to implementing Mobilisafe, gathering information on connecting mobile devices was a tedious process that did not yield adequate results. The company lacked a comprehensive security policy for mobile device usage, which heightened the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access.

AutomationDirect, a proactive company, wanted to change the security mindset of its IT staff to stay ahead of the latest threats. The company needed to ensure that its IT security practices were robust enough to prevent both internal and external threats. Tim Lawrence, IT security analyst at AutomationDirect, recognized that administrators often prioritize getting systems up and running over security, which could lead to vulnerabilities. After attending the Black Hat convention in July 2010, Lawrence devised a long-term security strategy to address these issues. The goal was to anticipate and thwart potential hackers and eliminate internal oversights that could create inadvertent vulnerabilities. AutomationDirect was not under any immediate known security threat, but the IT security team needed to promote overall security best practices to the entire IT staff to prevent any possible worst-case scenarios.

In 2008, Bob’s Stores faced the challenge of meeting new PCI compliance standards, particularly requirement 11 of the PCI DSS, which mandated regular tests of security systems and processes through internal and external scans. The IT department, led by Nick Sorgio, Assistant Vice President and technology manager, needed a vulnerability management system to meet these standards and protect customer data. The pressure to quickly comply with these new requirements was significant, and Bob’s Stores had no existing vulnerability management system in place. This made finding a suitable tool a top business priority. Bob’s Stores conducted a comprehensive assessment of various vulnerability management vendors, ultimately selecting Rapid7 due to its ability to identify vulnerabilities across networks, operating systems, databases, web applications, and a wide range of system platforms. Rapid7 Nexpose provided the necessary vulnerability assessment scanning and monitoring capabilities to meet PCI data security standards and offered sound vulnerability management practices as part of a comprehensive security program.

Bob Jones, the Information Security Manager for the City of Corpus Christi, Texas, faced the challenge of increasing security awareness across the organization and detecting and investigating attacks more easily. The city’s infrastructure is unique, akin to about 30 separate SMBs operating under a larger parent company, each with different requirements and compliance regulations. Bob's role was multifaceted, involving duties of an analyst, engineer, and penetration tester. He had to change an embedded culture and establish credibility with the CIO and IT Director. The primary challenge was the lack of visibility into assets on the Corpus Christi network, making it difficult to accurately qualify or quantify the level of risk. Bob needed to prioritize remediation to add value and avoid placing a greater burden on the business.

Diebold needed an effective threat exposure management solution that would offer scalability and visibility. Given the pivotal role vulnerability management plays at Diebold, selecting a vulnerability management solution was an important task which the team did not undertake lightly. A main priority for them was the effectiveness of the vulnerability scanner. Diebold needed accurate, up-to-date, real-time data. Scalability was also an important factor; being a global company, they needed the ability to reach around the world without adding administrative overhead.

Securing the Essentia Health network is a complex task due to its multi-billion dollar integrated health system that spans multiple states and roughly one hundred facilities in the Midwest. The network includes fifty thousand IPs, from facilities to medical device equipment. The security team must locate and resolve high-risk vulnerabilities to safeguard patient data and other critical information. Compliance with HIPAA, HITECH, and PCI DSS adds another layer of complexity. Despite compliance, security holes such as weak credentials and improper patches were prevalent. The team needed a solution to perform thorough testing against all active systems and demonstrate risk to secure necessary resources for a vulnerability management program.

Recently, Eyelock set out on a new project: making security airtight for logical access devices. They wanted an external team to take a very close look at their security architecture to implement a design that would allow for access to computers, websites, online banking, and the like. The RFP process kicked off, and the Eyelock team began evaluating various third-party vendors. The top three qualifications were extensive experience with embedded products, a high level of security expertise, and a strong overall reputation within the industry. Through a combination of these factors, Rapid7 won out.

Before Hillsborough County acquired a vulnerability management solution, ensuring that their over 250 servers were secure and compliant proved difficult for ITS’ team of three security engineers. The County’s process was to contract with outside vendors to run periodic vulnerability assessment scans. With new security requirements increasing the need for more frequent auditing, they needed an in-house solution. The County’s security engineers required detailed reports that identified vulnerabilities to be remedied before they could pose substantial risk to the network environment. To evaluate vulnerability management solutions, ITS defined a set of technical requirements against which to measure selected vulnerability assessment scanners. The desired solution would need the ability to perform stealth scans, schedule routine scans, support multiple platforms including Windows and Linux, scan multiple platforms, applications and devices, support unauthenticated and authenticated scans, scan all systems without installing an agent, perform incremental scans, and provide future support for wireless protocols.

When Allen Basey joined MCPHS University over two and a half years ago, he was tasked with developing new security procedures and policies, including comprehensive vulnerability scanning. As the sole person dedicated to maintaining security, he needed to improve the University's overall security posture without being overburdened. Initially, he opted for Tenable's Nessus due to its low cost, but found it required manual scans and lacked critical context for prioritizing vulnerabilities. This made it difficult to get IT support teams to take action, and researching how to patch vulnerabilities consumed valuable time, leading to crucial patches being neglected.

The Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) faced a complex compliance situation due to various regulatory mandates, including NERC CIP standards, HIPAA, and specific cyber regulations for their nuclear facility. As a publicly powered state, Nebraska's electric utilities are owned by the public, adding another layer of complexity. NPPD needed to ensure robust cybersecurity measures across its 4,000 assets spread over 19 sites, while also addressing the increasing sophistication of phishing attacks. The organization aimed to improve its overall security posture and meet compliance requirements effectively.

With a constantly growing network environment, Norwich University’s IT department found it increasingly difficult to have a clear view into all network equipment and servers—and their vulnerabilities—while still only conducting manual scans.

Permission Interactive, an e-commerce company handling sensitive customer information, faced challenges in meeting PCI compliance standards. Their existing McAfee vulnerability management solution was only helping them 'check the box' for PCI compliance without improving their overall security landscape. A full audit revealed significant gaps in security best practices and overall compliance, prompting the company to seek a more robust solution.

Identifying how many servers and systems were affected by Heartbleed and other OpenSSL vulnerabilities without having to scan every server manually. PNM Resources needed a way to quickly and accurately identify vulnerabilities across their extensive network of servers and systems. The manual process of scanning each server individually was time-consuming and inefficient, especially during critical incidents like Heartbleed. The challenge was to find a solution that could provide rapid, accurate, and comprehensive visibility into the security status of their assets, enabling timely remediation and risk reduction.

PNRHA needed to enhance its security posture to comply with Saskatchewan’s Health Information Protection Act (HIPA) and prepare for a province-wide security push. The organization lacked visibility into its security status and had no reporting or charting capabilities to demonstrate compliance. With over 100 servers, 2,500 employees, 1,500 desktops, and two major data centers, PNRHA faced significant challenges in managing and securing its extensive IT infrastructure. The security team, led by Senior Security Analyst Jarvis Meier, needed a solution that could scale with the organization’s growth and provide comprehensive security management.

Most security professionals are strapped for time. In the world of independent consultants, time is even more precious, as their clients prefer engagements to be brief while still yielding business value. Just ask Kevin Beaver, an independent information security consultant with more than 25 years of experience in IT. As the founder of Atlanta-based Principle Logic, LLC, Kevin specializes in performing independent information security assessments for Fortune 1000 companies, nonprofits, and government agencies, among others. For the better part of Kevin’s career, his focus has been on security. “When I graduated high school, computers were the next big thing,” he laughs. “I remember when the concept of people accessing your network first started getting attention.” Fast forward a few years, and he’s now the author of Hacking for Dummies – one of the best-selling books on information security testing that’s currently in its fourth edition.

As Stein Mart extended its IT infrastructure, it developed a security framework to protect it. But it lacked a comprehensive system for scanning and analyzing its security posture. The IT security team initially experimented with freeware that gathered and consolidated security data. However, the biggest problem was taking all the consolidated data and doing something with it. Stein Mart needed a better way to analyze the data, so that they could understand the risks and vulnerabilities in their current security posture and remediate them. Along with Security Audit Analyst Ambar Batista, Beckworth determined that Stein Mart needed an easy-to-use vulnerability and analysis solution with capabilities such as scanning, consolidating, and analyzing data across a multivendor, multiplatform IT infrastructure, scheduling scans on a regular basis, creating comprehensive reports that rank specific risks and vulnerabilities by criticality, suggesting remediation steps, interacting with an existing third-party trouble-ticketing system, and supporting remote scanning at every store.

University of Mary Washington needed to prove their compliance with PCI DSS and state security requirements. The IT department needed to help safeguard its extensive computing infrastructure.

Weill Cornell Medical College, located separate from the main university campus, serves as an academic medical center requiring HIPAA compliance. They have complex IT security needs and needed a solution to prioritize and protect from threats as well as grow with the college.

WildTangent, an online games service company, faced significant security challenges due to its bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy. The company had a highly mobile and geographically dispersed workforce, which necessitated the use of personal mobile devices for work purposes. While this approach increased productivity and employee satisfaction, it also introduced security risks. The initial mobile device management (MDM) solution implemented by WildTangent was difficult to configure, had a non-intuitive user interface, and required frequent manual updates. Additionally, not all features were available on every mobile platform, making it an inefficient solution for the company's needs.

Acosta has a highly mobile, geographically distributed workforce. They needed an efficient way to gain actionable insight into user behavior, effectively identify when a user’s account may have been compromised, and shorten the time needed for investigation of security incidents. The company’s large remote workforce and high degree of travel create a complex security environment, necessitating vigilant detection of compromised credentials and unusual user behavior. The challenge is further compounded by the need to manage user risk in a distributed work environment where employees frequently perform in-store marketing evaluations using mobile devices.