Asset Management, Client Management, Endpoint Security, Service Desk, and Workflow Management

Executive Summary

Overview
beCogent Ltd. provides call center and help desk services to a wide range of companies, including Virgin Media, JD Williams, John Lewis Direct, and House of Fraser. The company is headquartered in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, and has call centers in Glasgow, Erskine, and Kilmarnock.
Barriers
Rapid growth was straining beCogent’s infrastructure, forcing the company to consider upgrades. beCogent also set a goal of achieving Level 1 compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard, which would be a first for a United Kingdom outsourcing company and touch on information technology (IT) in a number of ways. A primary need was to upgrade patches at 2,500 endpoints and 130 servers, a task made harder by the lack of an accurate inventory of software and hardware assets. In addition, since so many IT processes were manual, a major patching project threatened to consume substantial IT resources and negatively impact customer service.
The Solution
beCogent turned to Symantec software and Symantec services to drive the needed IT transformation. Altiris IT Management Suite allowed the IT staff to track assets, such as software licenses and equipment leases, and to maximize beCogent’s investments. Symantec ServiceDesk is driving new levels of customer service, enhancing the productivity of help desk staff, and providing timely information about service levels and staffing requirements. The combination of these software solutions has helped beCogent achieve its goal of PCI compliance.
Benefits
TOEI™ analysis by Alchemy Group found that Symantec software (Altiris Asset Management Suite, Altiris Client Management Suite, and Symantec Endpoint Protection) delivered actual and projected savings of $678,481 for the period from September 2009 through December 2011. This TOEI was jointly developed by senior beCogent IT staff and Alchemy Group. To ensure the integrity of this analysis, the assumptions and formulas were audited by an independent finance and accounting firm (all savings are expressed in U.S. dollars1).

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