Ansell, a leading manufacturer of safety solutions, helps protect workers across the globe and is now protecting itself from outside threats like hacking, phishing, and ransomware. They recently implemented a cybersecurity strategy across their operations -not an easy task for a global company that employs more than 15,000 workers.

The result: greater productivity, secure networks at 1/3 of the cost, and increased agility to support innovation and improve the customer experience.

The nature of their business added to the complexity. Ansell's manufacturing processes could not be interrupted for long periods of times and had to maintain consistent delivery across multiple markets. The company's board felt a sense of urgency due to the increasing concern of cyber breaches that could potentially impact patents and trade secrets.

"Cyber threats are a growing concern for companies, and as a manufacturer, we have patents and trade secrets that we need to protect from competitors."
-George Michalitsianos, IT Infrastructure Director at Ansell

A proper transition needed to occur within its aging infrastructure that connected its workers and operations. The company looked at this transition as a way to future-proof its network, create effective security, and boost efficiency. They also wanted to take advantage of new services such as collaboration and improving the customer experience within its call centers.

This meant looking at the network architecture holistically instead of piecing together a patchwork of solutions.

"Standardizing on Cisco solutions gives us an agile and secure platform to support our growth and innovation"
-George Michalitsianos, IT Infrastructure Director

Cisco brought that vision together and partnered with Ansell to deliver:

• Streamlined network security: A complete network refresh with security design as a focal point of the architecture through Cisco Integrated Services Routers (ISR), Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software with FirePOWERTM Services next-generation firewalls (NGFWs).
• Reduced process time: Superior network proficiency and reduced latency to support more traffic and improve worker productivity.
• Reduced executive travel for meetings, saving significant time and money: New collaboration services like the deployment of the Cisco TelePresence? IX5000 Series and Unified Computing System (UCS ) servers in the data center to support video.
• Centralized call centers enhanced the customer experience: Unified Contact Center helped agents support customer inquiries as well as metrics and tools to analyze call center performance.
• Quicker onboarding of new sites from acquisitions & ensuring global security standards are being met: simplified management of security and licenses through the Cisco Enterprise Licensing Agreement (ELA) to scale the business.

Find out more about how Ansell is changing its business here. And learn how we can help you with security in our interactive infographic: