WACO Africa implements Mimecast email solution
Mimecast, a leading supplier of cloud-based email archiving, continuity and security for Microsoft Exchange, was implemented by WACO Africa to assist in disaster recovery, business continuity and email backup.
WACO Africa was created through a buyout by management and an investment capital firm, resulting in the separation of the local operation’s management and back-office activities from those of its US and UK operations. This led to rapid de-linking of technology systems, particularly the global standard Lotus Notes messaging system.
“We had separated our system architecture from that of the UK, cutting dependency on that system and implementing our own services,” explains Ivan Caldwell, head of ICT at WACO Africa. “We were converting the company from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange and didn’t want to overspend on technology infrastructure. We didn’t really know how we were going to address the issues of backup and archiving. At the time of separation we hadn’t made any final decisions on services such as email continuity and archiving, but we knew those were extremely important to the business. WACO Africa’s IT needed re-architecture, and we were slowly putting in plumbing to provide the required framework.”
WACO Africa has 700 email users across 45 branch offices in the sub-Sahara region, with over 20 other project sites running simultaneously.
Caldwell prefers to follow a strategy of outsourcing. This entails employing Software as a Service (SaaS) and cloud computing whre it makes sense and can add meaningful value to business process, as well as reducing the demands placed on the technology team.
Mimecast simplifield migration to Microsoft Exchange, with the additional benefit of a ten-year email archiving solution that forms part of the disaster recovery and high availability strategy. It also includes perimeter-based antivirus and antispam, with no need to invest in additional hardware or software infrastructure. With the Mimecast UEM service, WACO Africa did not need to make any significant alterations to its system or to user behavior. Staff can use the archive search functionality either through the Mimecast Service for Outlook add-ons or the intuitive and secure web-based console known as the Mimecast Personal Portal.
The implementation of Mimecast’s UEM system was easy and took WACO Africa’s team just a week: “It was seamless and transparent. The cutover was really smooth. We have a good technical guy working alongside Mimecast’s excellent technical people,” says Caldwell.
