"It does everything we expected it to do. One thing is certain, in the context of security for teleworking, we will continue to place our trust in Parallels Secure Workspace in the future to keep up to date with the strictest security measures."
Optimco is a Flemish insurance company targeting Flemish policyholders through the channel of independent insurance brokers. With 65 employees, Optimco offers a full range of insurance products for 1200 independent brokers. Their IT partner Accel advised Parallels Secure Workspace as a safe, cost-efficient and user-friendly way to enable their staff to work remotely.
The Сhallenge
As an insurance company, Optimco has some sector-specific IT requirements.
“One of our top priorities is business continuity,” says Steven Jansen (IT Director, Optimco). “Our services must always be available, otherwise we leave our brokers out in the cold. A lot of business and time is lost if our products are offline for a while”.
There is also a focus on IT security that is inherent to the industry.
“Security and data privacy must be always guaranteed. On the one hand, we work with sensitive private data, so we are bound by a set of measures and requirements imposed on us by the National Bank of Belgium. On the other hand, customers in sectors such as insurance or banking expect us to prioritize security – it’s up to us to live up to that expectation.”
Another challenge is the inherent competitiveness of insurance companies.
“We have critical customers looking for competitive prices. To keep them as attractive as possible, we need to work in a cost-efficient and accessible way. Unfortunately, in practice this often leads to ways of working that are the polar opposite of secure, so we were looking for a solution that is extremely secure on the one hand and accessible, affordable, and scalable on the other,” says Steven.
The Test
In order for employees to work from home without compromising on security or ease of use, Optimco was looking for a digital workplace. Their IT partner Accel spotted the requirements and offered Parallels Secure Workspace as the ideal solution.
“With Parallels Secure Workspace, Optimco employees can securely access all their applications and files on any device via any browser, without having to install anything,” says Johan Vervloet (Account Manager, Accel). “After we gave a demonstration of the solution, we initiated a test phase for about ten employees. One of the great things about Parallels Secure Workspace is the speed with which it can be deployed— after one day we had the environment live, and Optimco could get to work.
“Setting up Parallels Secure Workspace has been facilitated surprisingly quickly, in contrast to the set-up time of other solutions we’ve looked at”, says Steven. “In the testing phase, our employees who used it noticed how easy it was. Even during our proof of concept, it became a habit for many of us to log in at home via Parallels Secure Workspace and start our workday. The digital workplace met all our challenges (it was safe, affordable and reliable), and we decided to partner with Parallels Secure Workspace for a share of our employees”.
The Solution
When the lockdown in Belgium was announced, companies had to react quickly to guarantee the continuity of their activities. This was often done in rather questionable ways, but Optimco already had the appropriate remote working solution in its pocket— Parallels Secure Workspace digital workplace.
Everything was pretty much in place, but a company-wide rollout was still needed to allow everyone to telework without any problems.
“That turned out to be no problem at all,” says Steven. “I remember it well: when we got wind of the lockdown, we contacted Accel to purchase the required number of licenses, and a few hours later – on a Saturday, in fact – everything was in place for everyone to be able to work from home safely on any device or network starting Monday. Once again, we were amazed at how quickly we were helped, and were glad we didn’t have to start thinking of new solutions in a hurry”.
Johan laughs: “I can vividly imagine that at many companies, the weekend looked completely different!
The feedback from Parallels Secure Workspace users is positive.
Little changed in their way of working, and they are not limited in their productivity within the Parallels Secure Workspace environment.
The administrators are also satisfied: “We know Parallels Secure Workspace as a very secure, fast and reliable solution that is also cost-efficient,” says Steven.
His colleague Hans Dubois (ICT Manager) joins him: “It does everything we expected it to do and what we were promised before the purchase. One thing is certain: in the context of security for homeworking, we will continue to place our trust in Parallels Secure Workspace in the future to keep up to date with the strictest security measures”.
Curious about how other companies use Parallels Secure Workspace? Learn more!
