Queensland Sugar

SecurEnvoy helps global commodity trader Queensland  Sugar create mission critical authentication services

Business Driver:

A core role undertaken by QSL on behalf of their shareholders is max-imising the return on sugar in the fluid, global commodity trading mar-ketplace. Hedging currency or trading sugar futures is vital to safeguard the best interests of stakeholders and protect Australia’s national inter-est. To meet this mission critical business need QSL required highly available systems, processes and security safeguards to ensure their staff could securely reach company assets. QSL was an early adopter of a competitor’s token based solution but high ownership costs and an unclear technology roadmap prompted QSL to review alternative solu-tions. SecurEnvoy’s market leading SecurEnvoy MFA was selected as the solution most able to meet QSL’s evolving business demands.

Solution:

SecurAccess was selected because their technology worked seamlessly within QSL’s Citrix environment. The solution was built upon solid, proven SMS technology that could be used anywhere within reach of a telecom service provider. Using mobile phones as the authentication endpoint also solved a costly ongoing replacement problem caused by lost or misplaced tokens. To counteract possible performance bottle-necks created by network congestion, poor reception or geographical issues, QSL also deployed a password recovery service built with SecurPassword. This reduced the reliance on the service-desk to manually recover forgotten or expired passwords for stakeholders seeking access to QSL’s digital assets.

At a Glance:

QSL believes that adopting technology that leverages greater returns on existing infrastructure provides the impetus to drive competitive advantage in the cutthroat global commodities mar-kets. QSL’s leadership team review their current and proposed technology investments annually and select only those solutions that align with strategy and deliver measurable business benefits. Protecting QSL’s knowledge assets with the most effective security and risk mitigation measures was of paramount importance during their rigorous selection process. Multi-factor authentication bolsters QSL’s overall security and protects the organisation’s digital assets reliably, efficiently and affordably.

• Proven, ubiquitous SMS authentication has been protecting QSL for more than five years, reliably and cost effectively
• Multi-factor authentication has proven to be an effective safeguard that is easy to manage and maintain
• Password resets have been reduced from 30 per month to effectively zero, slashing ownership costs and reducing user frustration
• Multi-factor authentication is an integral component in building QSL’s highly resilient business processes
• Lowering QSL’s risk profile helps the organisation protect themselves in the event of a catastrophic outrage that could expose QSL to loss and litigation

 

QSL’s SecurEnvoy solutions work flawlessly helping secure our global infrastructure and communications. The service levels provided by SecurEnvoy are consistently outstanding.-Salvo Spina Chief Information Officer Queensland Sugar Limited

Conclusion:

QSL are in the “Risk” business where timing is critical to capture opportunity from volatile global trading markets. Financial instruments and foreign currencies must be hedged or held, depending on the prevailing conditions on exchanges or FOREX markets. Similarly, an unplanned system outage poses risks if trading operations are stymied or unavailable. One example is port levies where delays for berthing and loading a bulk sugar carrier can exceed $1 Million per day and must be prevented at all costs. QSL’s leadership team review their technology goals annually and have built resilience and high availability into every node within their infrastructure to mitigate down-time risks.This approach proved a life-saver when QSL’s head office was made uninhabitable because of a building fire. Staff performed their roles from home and maintained operations until repairs were completed. Pivotal to this strategy was implementing security safeguards that underpins every transaction with SecurEnvoy’s multi-factor authentication. SecurAccess helps QSL protect digital resources and provides peace of mind for the leadership team who are accountable to shareholders for overseeing more than a $1.5Bn in annual turnover.Another risk QSL faced was the inability to trade if the infrastructure failed. QSL had factored this into their corporate risk profile and created a comprehensive Disaster Recovery (DR) plan that covered contingencies that could financially penalise operations. SecurAccess ensured that only those with stakeholders with the correct credentials could gain access to assets specific to their role. This was also important to ensure suitable safeguards were in place and compliance with state and federal regulations were being met.

• QSL selected reliable, ubiquitous SMS authentication to meet the needs of local, travelling and internationally based employees
• Identity and authentication risks have been reduced helping to meet business continuity objectives and ensures around-the-clock trading
• Burdensome, costly, password management tasks have been eliminated with the deployment of SecurPassword – a self-service password recovery service. This has reduced monthly resets from 30 to zero and eased employee frustration
• SecurAccess was the only access solution QSL tested that integrated seamlessly with QSL’s complex Citrix environment
• “Security Token” headaches (loss and ownership costs) have been eliminated with SMS authentication
• SecurEnvoy’s products proved their worth when the organisation had to initiate their DR plan. Employees worked from home with minimal interruptions to business and trading operations