Great Eastern Life, Symantec in security suite deal

Great Eastern Life, Symantec in security suite deal: Page 2 of 2

By Edwin Yapp July 25, 2013

Benefits explained

When asked what were some of the benefits of using Symantec’s products, Chin (pic) gave an example of how its NetBackup software, implemented some three years ago, helped improved its backup time window from 13 hours to only six hours.

“And about one-and-a-half years ago, we implemented CCS, which gives us the capability to look at logs in a more meaningful way,” Chin explained. “In the past we were just ‘eyeballing’ logs manually. Without the CCS tool, it would be very laborious for us to perform these checks against hardening standards and known vulnerabilities.

“It also gives us better control of policy implementation and let's us have a bird’s eye view of our IT compliance posture, which helps our system engineers to respond quickly in identifying gaps,” he added.

Another major implementation by GEL was Symantec SEP, which not only involved technology changes but culture change management too, Chin said.

“Users in the past have a lot of flexibility when using their laptops, like being able to transfer files to CDs and flash drives freely. But with the SEP in place, they can’t and this hits every level of our organisation, including senior management,” he said, adding that this process had to involve managing expectations.

On why GEL chose Symantec, Chin said: “Symantec has a good track record and given that they invest about 14% of their revenue back into research and development, we are confident in their capabilities.”

Future plans

Looking ahead, Chin said Great Eastern Life is now working on the next wave of IT initiatives, which includes the possible adoption of private cloud solutions and software-as-a-service (SaaS).

These plans are aimed at catering to its escalating IT resource requirements with increasing business demands for IT services, as well as to its burgeoning pool of field agents which now totals more than 17,000, he added.

Quizzed on which aspect of cloud computing and SaaS GEL would be looking into, Chin said the company is currently monitoring these trends and technologies closely, to investigate how they can benefit the organisation.

He added that since GEL operates in Malaysia and Singapore, the insurer is regulated both by Malaysia’s Central Bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, as well as the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

“We cannot rule out technologies such as cloud computing as the increase in business demands require that we look into new implementation of technologies such as mobile apps and other tools for our agency force.

“Cloud is one way we can leverage on as it can help us implement solutions in a quicker manner without significant capital investment. That said, we are monitoring these trends and technologies closely to see how they can benefit our business,” he said, adding that as a financial institution, it would need to comply with both Bank Negara’s and MAS’ guidelines and rules.