North Yorkshire County Council has implemented Egress Switch, an email and file encryption solution Egress Software Technologies.
North Yorkshire County Council provides services to 600,000 residents, from education to public transport and road maintenance. The delivery of these services requires working closely with district councils and a range of third parties, and is dependent on information, often of a sensitive nature, flowing freely between them. The council had previously adopted a data encryption solution to protect confidential information while in transit; however they found that the software no longer met user requirements at the time of renewal.
Christopher Wrightson, ICT service manager at North Yorkshire County Council, said: "North Yorkshire Council takes data security very seriously.
"We had previously put a solution in place to protect the sensitive information that we share with third parties, but there were challenges in using the software. This created barriers to data security and put a strain on the council’s ICT service desk, which was fielding numerous support requests from internal and external users."
North Yorkshire County Council decided to replace the solution with Egress Switch, which is said to combine sophisticated email and file encryption with simplified, ‘one-click’ functionality. This allowed the ICT team to facilitate rapid deployment to a large number of users, and coupled with intensive support from Egress, business value was delivered quickly.
"Ease of use was an important factor in our procurement," continued Christopher. "As Switch integrates with a range of email clients, including Microsoft Outlook, council officers can share confidential information securely at the click of a button. For recipients, the cloud hosted service means they do not need to download or install additional software. The ability to reply securely free of charge as often as they require ensures that confidential information is protected throughout its lifecycle. In addition, the high level of support offered by Egress to both subscribers and recipients gives us full confidence in the service and means that our ICT service desk no longer has to resolve such queries."
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North Yorkshire Council also benefitted from the Egress ‘Buy Back Scheme’. "This offered us a great incentive," explains Christopher. "With budgets being cut across the Public Sector, the council needs to ensure added business value for all spend."
The final project was jointly delivered to North Yorkshire County Council by Egress and leading security and infrastructure services partner Network Technology Solutions (NTS).
Egress UK sales manager, Kelly McCann, commented: "We are delighted that North Yorkshire County Council has chosen Switch. Research has proven that encryption solutions that are difficult to use will often be bypassed by users, putting confidential information at risk of data breach, and organisations at risk of monetary penalties and reputational damage. At Egress, we work closely with our customers to ensure that we continue to provide an easy-to-use and intuitive solution that integrates with existing business processes to actually enhance efficiency and productivity."
"In addition, we are very aware of the budgetary challenges our customers face in the current economic climate, which is why we introduced the Egress ‘Buy Back Scheme’. It is therefore particularly pleasing that this initiative has helped North Yorkshire procure the information security solution they needed."
