In the midst of cloud transformation

Ponsse has grown from a small family-owned company to a world-class manufacturer of forestry machinery. Ponsse’s mission is to contribute to its customers’ success with productive and reliable forestry machines and services.  Confidential customer relationships, honesty and reliability are at the core of Ponsse’s values. With a strong international reputation to uphold and valuable intellectual property and product development blueprints to protect, solid cyber security is non-negotiable at Ponsse.

To increase productivity and cost efficiency, Ponsse moved from an on-premise email solution to Microsoft 365. The cloud transformation left Ponsse running with only the built-in security capabilities of Microsoft Office 365. 

Jukka Vidgrén, IT Designer, responsible for Ponsse’s IT development, infrastructure, virtualization and security, did not want to settle for a single layer of security. 

“It’s a lot easier to target organizations when there is only one solution in place," Vidgrén says. "In the case of Office 365, it’s easy for an attacker to test the Microsoft tenant. Without additional layers of protection, you can target a phishing email directly at the system administrator and see if it works.”

“Ponsse is a well-respected company, and cyber security is key in maintaining that reputation. It’s important to understand that if your security is not in good shape, your reputation can be ruined in the blink of an eye," Vidgrén says.  

“It is important to understand that if your security is not in good shape, your reputation can be ruined in the blink of an eye.”

– Jukka Vidgrén, IT Designer Infrastructure

Seamless integration with a cloud-native solution

Ponsse’s email and communication flow of nearly 1800 employees and its internationally distributed operational ecosystem called for efficiency. The company needed a flexible, cloud-native security solution for its Microsoft 365 environment that was easy of use, swift to deploy and required minimal administration work.

“The solution is so easy to use that anyone can learn it in ten minutes,” says Vidgrén.  

“The solution is so easy to use that anyone can learn it in ten minutes.”

– Jukka Vidgrén, IT Designer Infrastructure

“It was important to find a SaaS-based security solution. That’s where the world is heading," Vidgrén says.  "It was a defining factor for us, as it makes everything a lot easier to manage and spares our resources. Other vendors offered secure email gateway solutions leveraging older technologies. That wasn’t for us. Those solutions require a lot of installation work.”

Vidgrén says Ponsse found the perfect combination in Microsoft’s spam filtering and WithSecure's protection against malicious content. The API-based architecture of WithSecure Elements Collaboration Protection is scalable, adaptable and detects advanced threats immediately.

The ability to find lingering threats that had already been received before deploying the solution tipped the scales for WithSecure – something secure email gateway solutions lack. 

Ponsse’s requirements and selection criteria:

• Cloud-native, API-based solution
• Protection against advanced threats beyond Microsoft’s built-in capabilities
• Easy to use and deploy
• Seamless compatibility with Microsoft 365

Layered protection and ease of use the main benefits

Ponsse’s Microsoft 365 environment is now protected with an added security layer – precisely what Vidgrén and the team were looking for.  

”Layered security is key with cloud services," Vidgrén says. "In practice this means onion-like multilayer protection. You don’t rely on just one solution.”

"Layered security is key with cloud services."

– Jukka Vidgrén, IT Designer Infrastructure

Since the deployment, the solution has stopped email-born threats from entering Ponsse’s environment. It has detected a number of malicious links and confirmed them as dangerous. 

For Ponsse's IT team, WithSecure's cloud protection offers ease of use and efficient workflows.  Vidgrén says these benefits free up his team's resources for other tasks. A well-designed solution and dashboards, along with easy configuration, require little work from the team.  

“Ease of use is definitely the most important benefit," Vidgrén says. "Had we chosen another product, it would have meant excessive training and configuration work. We’re talking about weeks of extra workload annually.”  

"Ease of use is definitely the most important benefit. Had we chosen another product, it would have meant excessive training and configuration work."

– Jukka Vidgrén, IT Designer Infrastructure

The solution also enables Ponsse’s IT team to scan emails received even before WithSecure’s solution was deployed. “You can access the history of older emails. You can’t do that with older gateway solutions,” says Vidgrén.  

Benefits

• Additional security layer Collaboration Protection
• Seamless cloud-to-cloud integration
• Effective protection against malicious content
• Ease of use, from deployment to configurations

Vendor expertise and smooth collaboration were key

Ponsse appreciates the smooth collaboration with WithSecure, and the opportunity to influence product development.

“We feel that things move forward much better than when working with larger vendors," Vidgrén says. "With very large vendors there may not even be an opportunity to discuss things. We now get support directly from the vendor.”

That support includes valuable cyber security insights from WithSecure’s experts, who constantly handle a full spectrum of threats. Vidgrén points out that this access to expertise is the benefit of working with a vendor specialized in cyber security.

As Ponsse’s digital transformation progresses, the role of cyber security will only grow, Vidgrén says. "We've put a lot of emphasis on security, and in the future this will only increase. Cyber security is extremely important, and the incidents popping up make one realize this more and more.”

"The role of cyber security is increasing on every level at Ponsse. We’ve put a lot of emphasis on security, and in the future this will only increase."

– Jukka Vidgrén, IT Designer Infrastructure