Avecto Privilege Guard Empowers Intouch Employees While Safeguarding Security.

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1 I N T O U C H S O L U T I O N S Avecto Case Study Avecto Privilege Guard Empowers Intouch Employees While Safeguarding Security. Boosts productivity and enables employees to focus on their work Enhances security and control while delivering much-needed flexibility Reduces helpdesk tickets and frees up IT staff Improves relationship between IT and users Page 1 of 6

2 Standard user rights are great for security purposes but, on their own, they limit flexibility and can hurt productivity. About Intouch Solutions Innovation is the name of the game at Intouch Solutions. The digital marketing agency was founded in 1999 with the goal of creating a whole new class of marketing solutions for pharmaceutical and health care businesses. Over the years, Intouch s passion for solving client problems with groundbreaking, needle-moving campaigns has earned it coveted industry awards from Clios to Agency of the Year and unprecedented growth. In the last year alone, the Kansas City-based agency has won dozens of new accounts, added New York to its roster of offices, and hired in excess of 100 people for a total of more than 400 employees. Challenges with Standard User Rights In order to deliver superior marketing solutions, Intouch is committed to giving employees tools that enable them to perform at peak productivity and creativity. However, because workers had standard user rights, they couldn t install software on their Windows 7 devices. This meant IT staff spent a lot of time helping workers download essential software, such as the latest photo editing application or the updated version of Adobe Acrobat. And with Intouch on such a hiring spree, the burden on IT was sure to increase. While this has reduced our ticket load by 10% saving our department 15 hours per week handling escalation, employees got really frustrated when they couldn t instantly get the software they needed, especially if those employee s were out of the office. Said. Page 2 of 6

3 Privilege Guard s out-of-the-box templates are plentiful and much more robust than the competition s. They ve made it very easy for us to elevate key rights. A good example of this has been were designers in the past used Flash animation on clients websites. If designers needed the latest version to create a particular video or a specific version for a test, they couldn t just download it and get on with their work. Instead, they had to contact IT and wait about 30 minutes for a support technician to install it. Employee productivity was interrupted and IT members were diverted from other tasks. Intouch needed a way to manage and elevate user rights so that employees could install approved applications without IT s help. The company tried using an alternative solution but found it wasn t adequate. The Intouch Solution Intouch found what they needed in Avecto Privilege Guard. I read about Avecto online and, when I called to inquire about the product, was impressed with what I learned about their customers and their capabilities, Brian notes. Intouch obtained trial licenses and successfully tested several rules, including one for Adobe updates. They used the Adobe Acrobat rules template, one of many that come out-of-the-box with Privilege Guard. In addition to Privilege Guard templates, which Brian found invaluable, Intouch liked the ability to create custom user messages. This way, when users see pop-up prompts, they know exactly why an application is not launching and what actions they can take. Intouch was also impressed with the ability to elevate rights at a granular level. For instance, by elevating CLSIDs (class identifiers), IT can allow users to remove shortcuts that are automatically placed on their desktop when programs such as Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome are installed. After several weeks of testing, Intouch was convinced Privilege Guard was the right choice. According to Brian, Avecto Privilege Guard worked great and did everything it promised. Intouch Solutions purchased 324 licenses and deployed it on about 300 desktops using a Dell KACE appliance. The remaining licenses will be used to accommodate company growth. Page 3 of 6

4 Avecto s customer support is awesome. Benefits Since deploying Privilege Guard, Intouch s helpdesk hasn t received any tickets for Acrobat updates. Employees who had been calling IT to install them, and waiting for their computers to be updated, can now immediately do it themselves. According to Brian, Privilege Guard makes it really easy for us to elevate rights for key applications without giving employees blanket admin rights. We get the security we need to guard against malware and spyware, with the flexibility that s so important to running our business. Privilege Guard has enhanced worker productivity at Intouch and eliminated the frustrations experienced when there was no privilege management solution in place. Employees can now focus on doing the innovative work that Intouch is known for, instead of being waylaid by software installation and update issues. Privilege Guard has also freed up significant amounts of time for IT staff. Not only have helpdesk tickets decreased substantially, but there are fewer distractions from things like walk-bys, when employees grab IT people who are on their way to other tasks so they can fix an installation problem. Privilege Guard is a huge help. It s definitely the best solution for managing user rights, and makes life much easier for IT and employees, says Brian. Page 4 of 6

5 With Privilege Guard, our employees can safely install business-critical software. The Results Boosts productivity and enables employees to focus on their work Enhances security and control while delivering much-needed flexibility Reduces helpdesk tickets and free up IT staff Improves relationship between IT and users Page 5 of 6

6 About Avecto Privilege Guard Avecto is the leader in Windows privilege management, helping organizations to deploy secure and compliant desktops and servers. With its award winning Privilege Guard technology, organizations can now empower all Windows based desktop and server users with the privileges they require to perform their roles, without compromising the integrity and security of their systems. Customers of all sizes rely on Avecto to reduce operating expenses and strengthen security across their Windows based environments. Our mission is to enable our customers to lower operating costs and improve system security by implementing least privilege. Avecto is building a worldwide channel of partners and system integrators and is headquartered in Manchester, UK with key regional headquarters in Andover, MA and Munich, Germany. Avecto Europe Hobart House, Cheadle Royal Business Park, Cheadle, Cheshire SK8 3SR UK Page 6 of 6