Securing global operations

Design Eyewear Group from Denmark is one of the world's leading eyewear houses – with design at the heart of the company. The organization’s mission is to provide high quality products with excellent service available whenever its customers need it. From its logistics center, located just south of Aarhus, it delivers spectacle frames to more than 13,000 opticians worldwide. Design Eyewear Group operates in global markets, and has sales offices in Paris, Bilbao and San Francisco.

With customers, offices and employees dispersed across many locations around the world, operations need to run like a well-oiled machine. Customer experience is heavily dependent on the reliability of Design Eyewear Group’s IT infrastructure. Therefore it was important for Michael Thorsen, IT Manager and Security Officer at Design Eyewear Group, that the company was future-proof on the cyber security front and that all security gaps remained closed both on the company’s computers, servers and cloud collaboration environments.

Top priorities for Design Eyewear were protecting the company's intellectual property and ensuring that sensitive financial and customer data couldn’t fall into the wrong hands. Furthermore, Design Eyewear Group needed a centralized cyber security platform so that its IT department in Denmark could easily manage and oversee security status across every office.

Futureproofing is key

One of Design Eyewear Group's biggest challenges was that the software behind several of its security solutions was rapidly becoming obsolete or was being replaced by new versions. The company’s solutions were not keeping up with a rapidly evolving threat landscape as cyber criminals develop more and more creative and complex tactics and techniques to bypass placed cyber security defenses. Moreover, the company had grown to such point it was difficult for the IT department to get a holistic overview of their scattered security solutions, to manage them effectively and ensure they were up to date.

"We have purchased cyber security solutions in the past that did not fully protect us against emerging threats over time. For this reason, we wanted a solution that would give us the best possible security now, always being up to date, remaining efficient in the future, and that could be managed from a central management center," says Michael Thorsen.

“We wanted a solution that would give us the best possible security now, always being up to date, remaining efficient in the future, and that could be managed from a central management center.”

Michael Thorsen, IT Manager and Security Officer

Thorsen decided to address this problem by contacting Design Eyewear Group's long-standing IT hardware and software supplier, ed A/S, to start seeking the best fitting security solution for the company’s needs.

Advice from a trusted partner

After thoroughly reviewing alternatives in the cyber security market, ed A/S made their educated recommendation for Design Eyewear Group. They suggested Design Eyewear Group should take a more consolidated approach in their security strategy, and provide more comprehensive protection for the company's computers, servers and cloud collaboration services. Design Eyewear Group also wanted to be able to manage and overview the systems from a single pane of glass.

WithSecure Elements was a clear winner on all fronts. WithSecure Elements solutions are cloud-based, enabling continuous availability and automated updates, regardless of the location of Thorsen’s team and end-users. They wanted a comprehensive protection that extends beyond endpoints to Microsoft 365 cloud environment, which WithSecure Elements offers in a unified package.

Bringing visibility into security

Thorsen and his team are now able to manage the company's cyber security from a single pane of glass. Having a centralized management center has removed the frustration and confusion of managing separate nonsynchronous applications. It has also become significantly easier to keep track of Design Eyewear Group’s overall security posture – a challenge with their previous setup.

"We have long used WithSecure's different endpoint solutions and have always been extremely content with them. We like how WithSecure takes such a holistic approach to cyber security. It brings much efficiency into our everyday life," says Thorsen. "With WithSecure Elements for Microsoft 365, we now know how much malicious material is coming in through different channels, for example through emails. We can also see what percentage of our devices are being targeted by hackers. We have now become painfully aware of how vulnerable we really are,” he admits.

“We have now become painfully aware of how vulnerable we really are.”

Michael Thorsen, IT Manager and Security Officer

Future looks only brighter and brighter for Thorsen: “WithSecure Elements detection capabilities are designed to constantly improve over time based on the data collected and analyzed." Thorsen reckons that besides more effective protection with Elements, additional future cyber security projects will be easier to execute. “It will be easier to launch other security activities as I can easily pull data about our current security status. It is also beneficial to be able to clearly show management the value of aligned cyber security.”

“It is also beneficial to be able to clearly show management the value of aligned cyber security.”

Michael Thorsen, IT Manager and Security Officer

Growing with confidence

Design Eyewear Group is confident that its business will continue to grow. That means more employees, more customers and – of course – more endpoints in the future. Their expanding IT environment will require solid protection, and possible new additional capabilities. Michael Thorsen will rely on their trusted advisor ed A/S, which has connected Design Eyewear Group to cyber security vendors for many years.

"I am extremely happy with the cooperation I have with ed A/S. They are always strong on support, pricing, and licensing. A few reasons why we've been working with them for so long," says Michael Thorsen.

With WithSecure's security solutions, Design Eyewear Group is well equipped to focus on day-to-day operations without worrying about their cyber security. The company can now accelerate their business growth with confidence.

"WithSecure is absolutely top class. I have never experienced any problems with the company's software. The applications run as they should and are easy to manage. I couldn't find a better alternative," he concludes.

“The applications run as they should and are easy to manage. I couldn't find a better alternative.”

Michael Thorsen, IT Manager and Security Officer