Recruitment Firm Secures Intellectual Data with SMBology’s Expertise

Company Overview

SMBology’s client is a Houston-based company specializing in the recruitment of mid-to-senior-level executives for both national and international energy-related industries. With offices operating in both Houston and Chicago, the company’s practice areas include finance, accounting, sales and marketing, energy trading, oil and gas, risk management, and technology.

Business Challenge

Recruiters need to be able to easily match potential hires to open positions, all while working from multiple locations. As such, to maintain its national reputation as a dependable staffing/placement firm, the company required a secure and reliable centralized infrastructure that could be accessed remotely. In addition, the firm’s résumé database was and continues to remain one of its greatest assets. Accordingly, the company needed to enhance its data recovery system in order to prevent possible business continuity issues and secure its proprietary intellectual property from employee theft.

In need of an IT partner to address its business requirements and concerns while providing guidance for future growth, the recruitment firm decided to pursue an IT partnership with SMBology.

SMBology’s Solution

Performing an initial analysis of the company’s organizational processes, SMBology was able to quickly identify areas in need of improvement and suggested the addition/implementation of new products in order to better serve the company’s goals.

SMBology greatly increased the reliability of the client’s backup and data recovery systems by implementing several best practices. SMBology installed add-ins necessary for recovering BlackBerry data and SQL databases, reviewed and updated the company’s backup settings, and implemented the appropriate software agent usage. The net result was a comprehensive database and data recovery solution.

Security improvements were made by closing 18 unnecessary openings into the client’s network. Security and software patch management was changed from a manual and unreliable process into an automatic and centrally monitored practice. System updates were introduced to facilitate server and workstation updates, including security patch updates. Additionally, best practices for remote data access were established, providing the company’s remote offices/users with the ability to securely access all necessary company data from anywhere in the world.

After evaluating employee/user access to the recruitment firm’s résumé database, a broad range of modifications were made to protect intellectual property. Group policies were established and implemented via Windows’ Group Policy Management Console in order to better manage file access. This administrative tool also disabled the use of external USB drives, unauthorized folder access and ensured data would be saved to company servers, not individual or group workstations. Additionally, SMBology’s system administrators provided up-to-date knowledge on the latest security products, recommending additional utilities that could be used to prevent the stealing of intellectual data via email attachments or by being saved to removable media devices (external hard drives, etc).

Moreover, SMBology educated its client on best practices for auditing employee access, useful in both the prevention and investigation of security breaches. Virus protection for email and attachments was also enabled.

To facilitate future company growth overall, SMBology reviewed the firm’s current equipment and provided an IT asset replacement strategy to maximize its value. Some IT assets were found to be in need of immediate replacement and, at the client’s request, SMBology upgraded the firm’s server infrastructure increasing the network stability, speed, and storage space.

Results

Utilizing technical acumen and experience, SMBology increased the reliability of the recruitment firm’s IT infrastructure and decreased the probability of losing crucial company data by implementing better security measures, including data backup and recovery systems. Greater employee efficiency was achieved by establishing secure remote desktop access, providing users the ability to gain access to company resources/information when needed, despite their location.

Due to the project’s success and client satisfaction, SMBology continues to manage this firm’s IT infrastructure, ensuring a high availability of network resources by consolidating server functions, optimizing storage space, and resolving server alerts.