Losing a phone or – worse yet – having it stolen can be inconvenient and frustrating at the best of times, but for a business that relies on the trust of individuals within the IT industry it’s paramount your security protocols are absolute or trust can evaporate swiflty.
Henderson Scott is a leading UK recruitment agency in the IT sector serving both public and private sector clients, including well-known blue-chip companies. It deals with thousands of senior IT professionals across a variety of specialisms including cybersecurity, software technology, enterprise architecture and digital business transformation. Working in such a sensitive industry means it’s vital for the company to maintain strict client privacy. Something as simple as a lost phone could jeopardise that.
“We like to say we are experts in the industries we work in,” says the firm’s group IT manager, Richard Caldicott, “We’re not just selling people into businesses, we understand the technology and the environments they work in, so they have to have complete confidence in our discretion and the emphasis we place on security.”
For that reason one of the first decisions Caldicott made when joining Henderson Scott in 2016 was to introduce O2 Business’s mobile device management (MDM) service.
MDM is a full service mobile device programme by which all company phones are issued and managed centrally, which benefits both productivity and security. O2 is CAS(T) certified, government-grade recognition for security in telecommunications. Maria Fernandez, director of SMB sales at O2 Business, says: “MDM software really does anything administrators require to manage, monitor and secure their remote workers’ devices and all from a unified cloud-based dashboard. It allows IT to manage their mobile policies and keep track of devices, even letting them wipe data from lost or stolen devices.”
Previously only half-a-dozen senior staff had company mobiles. Today almost all staff possess one, with 52 lines currently active.
Henderson Scott was founded in 1999, at a time when work was still based around desktop systems. The growth of mobile connectivity, changing attitudes and the sensitive nature of recruitment has transformed its work practices.
“Our agents need to talk to people outside their daily working environment because those conversations are about their career aspirations. That can be on the move or while Coronation Street’s on,” says regional director, Mark Smith. “So much of what had to be done on a computer can be achieved on a phone by accessing database information, contracts, terms and conditions and document approval using digital signatures. It’s moved everything forward, speeding up the process.”
Caldicott was aware that O2 could offer the right solution, and engaged it to set up an MDM system for the company using Apple’s Device Enrollment Programme, which makes it possible to preconfigure devices with a profile, email accounts and specific apps then activate them remotely.
“I can replace a handset, post it anywhere in the world, turn it on and have it functioning in 24 hours. As a business that deals with so much personal information that’s very important.”
Caldicott subscribed to several business apps for the company’s mobiles, including Microsoft Office 365, operating in the cloud, along with SharePoint, a kind of mobile intranet which enables the sharing of files, data and resources within a closed group.
“The point is to give staff access to everything they need to do their job and nothing more,” says Caldicott. “So, for example, we disabled screenshotting. Because GDPR has reduced the places you can store data, we take it out the equation.”
Last year, Henderson Scott announced the highest turnover in its history, £27.4m, a growth of 37.7%. Caldicott baulks at the idea of taking any credit for the company’s record breaking efforts but feels that the O2 deal has made a contribution in terms of streamlining and efficiency despite the cost increase it entails. He is also keen to move the company’s systems management along at every opportunity thanks to his relationship with O2.
Speaking about the partnership Fernandez says: “The fast-paced nature of Henderson Scott’s business and their year-on-year growth ambitions meant that their requirements centred on the end-user experience and simple, seamless management of their whole estate. The solution in place does exactly that and we continue to talk to Henderson Scott about what more we can do to help them be more productive.”
Knowing that MDM is an ever expanding model, Caldicott concludes: “When we began, I ticked some basic boxes to see how it worked but we’ve added to it. I work closely with O2 and I’m keen to be part of any new developments they bring in. We cooperate with their beta testing so we can be among the first to install them. For a company our size, I think that’s impressive.”
