Bühler, a multi-national equipment manufacturer that produces food ingredients and functional materials, recently modernized their remote support practices with centrally managed access controls to powerful effect. This clever strategic move gives the company more flexibility to limit access to preferred platforms. It shapes when and where these connections are permitted and under what conditions. Bühler’s employees love immediate solutions to technical challenges. This means they don’t need to wait on-site technicians when devices freeze or software crashes occur. With the internet of things, IT departments can solve glitches several miles away in a few minutes—often before the problem becomes apparent to employees—boosting productivity and reducing downtime. Bühler now rigorously enforces unified policies across the board from an international headquarters. This method guarantees that every remote support action is thoroughly tracked and adherent to rigorous cybersecurity measures, thus preserving certification to ISO 27001 guidelines.
Enhancing Efficiency Through Centralized Access Management
Bühler’s adoption of centrally managed access controls is an impressive step forward in developing its operational framework. This integrated system empowers the firm to precisely control and track every remote connection to its systems. Bühler leads by controlling who can use what systems and in what context. Such a proactive approach ensures that only authorized personnel are able to connect to sophisticated equipment and sensitive data. Further, keeping security under control is extremely important for security. This not only helps to prevent unauthorized access, but protects the company’s intellectual property and operational integrity.
The reality of implementing this new system has made a significant difference on Bühler’s employees. Previously, every time a device locked up or a software problem emerged, employees waited for a skilled technician to come on-site. This hold up held up their productivity and led to unnecessary frustration. This process would take several hours, creating costly downtime and disruption to ongoing operations. Remote access for the IT department is now in place. With one portal, they can instantly get connected to the troubled device and diagnose/fix problems from any remote location. With this kind of response time, downtime is kept to a minimum so that employees can get back to their work quickly. Just the ability to solve problems in minutes instead of hours is a huge leap in efficiency and productivity.
Additionally, these centralized access controls make it easier to allocate resources across the IT department. Technicians are able to resolve more problems remotely, decreasing long-distance travel and on-site visits. This proven approach is not only more effective, it saves time and money. It frees up the IT department to focus on more strategic projects that fuel the company’s long-term success. This locally based and highly streamlined support process means that any technical issue can be addressed quickly and efficiently, minimizing disruption and maximizing operational efficiency.
Fortifying Security and Compliance
Beyond improving efficiency, Bühler’s centralized access controls have greatly improved its security posture. By enforcing consistent policies from its headquarters, the company ensures that all remote support activities adhere to the same stringent standards. This centralized approach mitigates the risk of local variations resulting in inconsistent security practices across physical locations or departments. More importantly, it creates a robust, collective bulwark against rising cyber threats.
Bühler’s security strategy hinged on the monitoring of all remote support activities. Rather, each remote connection is recorded and forensically audited, offering an easily searchable record of who accessed what system and when. As a result, this disclosure keeps the organization ahead of any potentially malicious actions with the ability to immediately identify and react. During a security incident, you will need to lean on audit logs in order to identify how the breach happened. This is how you are able to take corrective action and prevent future incidents from occurring.
Bühler’s remote support activities are thematically organized to match very rigorous cybersecurity standards. These protocols include multi-factor authentication, encryption, and regular security testing. By following these procedures, Bühler reduces the chance of outside access and hacking. The company’s commitment to security is serious. It exemplifies this commitment by adhering to ISO 27001 standards, a widely accepted international standard for best information security management practices. By earning this certification, Bühler demonstrates its dedication to protecting clients’ data and systems from existing and emerging cyber threats. This compliance ensures the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of its information assets.
Ensuring Consistent Policy Enforcement
Bühler’s focus on rigorous policy adherence has been the foundation of their world-class operations. The company’s platform centralizes access control management. Perhaps the most important benefit of this approach is that it holds all employees, regardless of station or office, to the same standards. This consistency is very important to a safe and efficient operating environment. That’s why Headquarters needs to remain able to enforce policies in a strong, fair manner. Having that standard application of best practices helps to avoid human error or negligence within the organization.
This centralized system makes it easy for Bühler to update policies quickly and distribute new or changed policies as necessary. When there’s a new security threat, or regulatory requirements change, the company immediately adapts and implements those changes. They take the additional step of ensuring all employees are aware of the changes to their policies. This level of agility is essential to staying one step ahead of rapidly changing cyber threats and ensuring ongoing compliance with industry standards and regulations. Developing a culture of security awareness among employees begins with uniformly applying policies and practices across the board. This specific practice instills the value of sticking to set procedures and practices.
Additionally, the centralized access control management allows for effective audit and report generation. With Bühler’s new data access activity reports, she can quickly pinpoint anomalies and suspicious activity that may indicate a security threat. This data-driven approach helps to improve the company’s security posture over time. In addition, it enables the agency to hone its policies in practice based on on-the-ground experience gained. The ability to demonstrate compliance with internal policies and external regulations is an underrated golden goose. It helps improve Bühler’s sustainability reputation, while bolstering trust with customers and partners.
