Case Study

Access Control Automation Major Power Utility Organization

Understanding the Power of Automation in Cybersecurity:

Automation has become increasingly popular for organizations across multiple industries. It helps them to manage their front-end operations, increases efficiency, improves productivity, and decreases time spent on repetitive, manual tasks. The research firm Gartner expects there will be a 30% increase in the use of automation for front-office functions like sales and customer experience by 2023. When properly utilized, automation raises both the output and the quality of your products. In this case study, we’ll review the automation techniques Compuquip Cybersecurity implemented to increase efficiency, productivity, and overall team output for a power utility organization.

In 2019 alone, there were just over 7,000 reported breaches, with more than 15 billion records exposed as a result.

Project Background: The Cybersecurity Challenges Our Client Experienced

As with any other complex organization, there are plenty of interconnected bells and whistles that must work seamlessly together in order for a power utility company to run efficiently.

In previous case studies, we highlighted the types of industrial control systems (ICS) that a power utility, transportation network, or nuclear facility might use. For this case study, we were called on board to help the power utility organization address the following issues:

Service Level Agreements (SLA) not being met.
Support desk unable to resolve tickets in a timely manner due to lack of team bandwidth.
Poor customer experience when submitting tickets.

In addition to the organization’s inability to uphold its SLAs, the major delays in approvals for submitted tickets was contributing to a never-ending backlog of unresolved service requests. Our customer rightly believed that process automation was the best solution to the problem, so we were immediately brought on board to begin the automation implementation across their full network.

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The Top Benefits of Ticket Automation for Organizations

Process automation has many benefits, especially for any organization that deals with internal or external ticketing. We’ve seen numerous cases where automation can solve several problems for a customer all at once. Some of these benefits of automation include:

Complex ticket routing and amplification.
Knowledge and asset management.
Web-based interface.
Ability to create self-serve options.
Automation of monotonous tasks.

Customers often ask how automation can help their organization strength its security posture in addition to driving efficiency.

Automation enhances security by restricting access control so that only a few authorized individuals can make changes to user accounts. Although automation isn’t required in cybersecurity infrastructure, it provides numerous benefits by creating efficiencies for your IT teams.

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Compuquip’s Solution for Our Client’s Cybersecurity Challenges

Given the size of major power utility organizations, our team knew this automation project would be on a larger scale than anything we’ve done in the past. We began with the implementation of a cloud-based ticketing system. The system we selected not only delivered the numerous benefits that come with an automation ticketing tool, but it also eliminated many of the process-related problems the power utility company was facing on a daily basis.

With an automated ticketing system in place, the power utility closed the gap of setbacks in their network, allowing their IT teams to focus on more significant projects. Repetitive tasks that once chewed into employees’ time could now be handed over entirely to the automated, front-end ticketing solution.

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Lessons Learned Through the Compuquip Approach to Cybersecurity

At Compuquip, we’ve performed numerous automation projects for clients of all sizes and industries. Along the way, we’ve learned that many companies can encounter internal challenges that prevent their employees and systems from communicating effectively. Whether it’s a large organization like a power utility or one that falls outside of the ICS category entirely, failing to address this lack of coordination paves the way for more significant problems to develop down the road.

The Results of Compuquip’s Cybersecurity Solutions

Successfully implementing process automation was a gratifying experience for us, especially since we continue to work with the power utility organization on other issues as a long-term partner. By solving this particular issue, we demonstrated our ability to serve as their backbone when it comes to their IT challenges.

The project also provided our team with valuable information about the automation challenges facing organizations of this size, adding to our experience in implementing new software across networks safely and securely.

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