Create a Research Account

TOEI™ Research Login

TOEI™ Research

BVA™ Research

Messaging Security, Security Management, Server Management, Web Security, Email Archiving and e-Discovery

Executive Summary

Overview
Unum, headquartered in Chattanooga, TN, is one of the world’s leading employee benefits providers and a market leader in disability, group life, long term care, and voluntary benefits. Established in 1848 as Union Mutual, Unum now consists of Unum US and Colonial Life in the United States and Unum UK in the United Kingdom. Ranked 251 on the 2008 Fortune 500, Unum employs about 10,000 people, serves the needs of 171,000 businesses, and protects more than 25 million people worldwide when illness or injury occurs. In 2008, nearly 400,000 new disability claims were processed and $4 billion in disability benefits were paid.

Barriers
A reliable information technology (IT) security posture was required to protect Unum from the constantly evolving threats. Malware and spam had to be blocked from penetrating the company’s computer network, and those that succeeded had to be resolved faster. Threat research and monitoring had to be automated, and endpoint risks controlled. Additional information technology obligations included improving email discovery speed and reliability, complying with increasingly stringent regulations, and controlling rapid data growth and storage costs.

The Solution
Lynda Fleury, Unum’s assistant vice president and chief information security officer, was chartered in 2001 to drive a comprehensive enterprise security initiative that aligned Unum’s security posture to the continually changing threat landscape. First, Unum’s security monitoring and management processes were outsourced to Symantec Managed Security Services. Second, for email archiving and e-discovery, the Unum team implemented Symantec Enterprise Vault, including Discovery Accelerator and Microsoft Exchange Journaling, with the help of Symantec Consulting Services. Third, to improve compliance with regulatory and policy standards, the team chose Symantec Enterprise Security Manager. Fourth, messaging security was outsourced using MessageLabs Hosted Email Solutions from Symantec. Fifth, Symantec DeepSight Threat Management System was added to provide actionable intelligence about current security threats. Finally, Symantec Web Gateway appliances were deployed to automate Web gateway security.

Benefits
The different Symantec solutions are enabling Unum to realize tangible business value in a number of different areas. A Total Operational and Economic Impact (TOEI™) analysis by The Alchemy Solutions Group pinpointed the following realized and projected business value:

Security Management Labor Productivity Gains: $1,285,160 in IT labor productivity gains through outsourcing security monitoring and management from January 2004 through December 2009
Proactive Threat Management Labor Productivity Gains: $86,264 in IT labor productivity improvements through automating threat management from July 2007 through December 2009
e-Discovery Labor Productivity Gains: $148,014 in IT discovery labor productivity gains from January 2004 through December 2009
Messaging Security Cost Savings and Productivity Gains: $552,153 in IT labor productivity gains and server and storage cost avoidance through outsourcing messaging security from January 2007 through December 2009
Web Gateway Management Labor Productivity Gains: $6,741 in IT labor productivity improvements through automating Web security from January 2008 through December 2010
Email Storage Cost Savings: $244,667 in storage cost avoidance from 2009 through 2010

For more information on Alchemy Group or to download this document, go to http://www.alchemygroupinc.com/category/research/bva/

Customer Quotes

Still not convinced? Hear it straight from those that who worked with Alchemy Group.

More

Our Blog

Insights is a blog exploring issues related to achieving predictable revenue and margin contribution on a quarterly basis.

More

TOEI ™ Research

View and download examples of the TOEI™ research we've done for real customers.

More