FirstRand Bank in London takes control, so users get more freedom.

The Organisation

FirstRand is a leading financial services business based in South Africa. Its portfolio of financial services franchises provides transactional, lending, investment and insurance products and services to clients. It has a presence in eight African countries, as well as branches and representative offices around the world, including China, India and London.

The Challenge

The London branch of FirstRand Bank Ltd has users that travel across the world, working in the heavily regulated environment of financial services. They rely on their mobile devices both for work and personal use, and they expect the freedom to use their devices as they please, without compromising corporate security and compliance policies.

Appurity recommended the MobileIron Enterprise Device Management platform, working with the London team to deploy an on-premise private cloud solution. The platform integrates smoothly with the firm’s Microsoft infrastructure and gives users the freedom they expect, while securing sensitive corporate files and data.

“The Appurity team took a lot of trouble to understand our organisation and build the business case for the right solution. We went for MobileIron because it gave us the close control we needed.” Phil Griffiths, Head of IT Infrastructure, FirstRand Bank Ltd (London Branch)

The Solution

It’s no surprise that FirstRand Bank Ltd takes it for granted that its smartphone users will want to use their devices for personal purposes as well as for business. The key question for Phil Griffiths, Head of IT Infrastructure at the bank’s London branch, was how to provide the kind of security that would protect the business, while meeting users’ expectations and giving them the freedom to use their devices in their own way.

FirstRand Bank is a leading financial services business based in South Africa. Its portfolio of financial services franchises provides transactional, lending, investment and insurance products and services to clients. It has a presence in eight African countries, as well as branches and representative offices around the world, including China, India and London.

“We recognised early on that we would have to be flexible in the way we managed our smartphone estate,” says Phil Griffiths. “But as mobile devices became more central to the way people were working, we knew that that we needed a more rigorous and manageable security and device management solution.”

Increased mobility has presented this challenge in most industries, but in highly regulated environments such as banking and financial services, the ability to protect sensitive and confidential information is critical. Many of the London-based staff travel regularly between the UK, South Africa and other operational centres and they rely heavily on their smartphones to manage trades, negotiations and other client matters. This means that the mobility management solution has to provide close control over the devices, without compromising the user experience.

“We looked at a variety of mobile device management solutions,” says Phil Griffiths, “but they did not give us the flexibility we needed.

“A key consideration for us was the ability to wipe confidential work files and data if the device is lost or stolen, or when someone leaves. But we needed to be selective, and some solutions simply wiped the entire device, including personal data, which leavers may need to keep. Others gave us the containerisation we wanted, but they did not integrate easily with our Microsoft environment.”

The Result

The FirstRand team also looked at cloud deployments, but they struggled to deploy instances that performed to the level they needed. They turned to Appurity for help.

“The Appurity team took a lot of trouble to understand our organisation and build the business case for the right solution,” says Phil Griffiths. “We went for MobileIron, because it gave us the close control we needed.”

FirstRand Bank’s MobileIron deployment in London is an on-premise private cloud solution. “We looked at the cloud licensing option, but it offered very little difference,” says Phil Griffiths. “Appurity worked with us to prove the concept, and the project leader had his own phone configured for our private cloud. All the teething problems could be solved very quickly, because he could test directly from his device.”

User experience was a key factor in the decision to choose MobileIron. The platform slots smoothly into the bank’s management deployment, synchronising security across Android and iOS devices, while giving users the familiar interfaces they expect.

“Currently, we have about 60 users in London,” says Phil Griffiths, “and we’re looking to extend the coverage to another 60 or so in our Jersey office.

“MobileIron has adapted perfectly to the way we work, thanks to the input from the Appurity team. Our users gain all the freedom they need, and we have the flexibility and control that allows us to get maximum productive value from our mobile estate.”