With a plethora of competitive data services providers (SPs) in the marketplace, all competing on price, SPs are looking for a way to find a differentiator and to cut down on customer churn. At the same time they recognize that there is a growing need for a comprehensive layered defense against an ever expanding IT security threatscape that continuously threatens to deny access to their networks and to their customers’ services.

 

Cavalier Telephone (News - Alert), a leading provider of integrated local, long-distance, Internet and data communication services with service in the mid-Atlantic, Midwest and southeast regions, decided to use a third party security Software-as-a-Service (SaaS (News - Alert)) provider as opposed to going to the time and expense of building it themselves because they saw security as a highly specialized offering. Cavalier also wanted to be able to respond to the expectations of its small-to-medium-sized business (SMB) customers for increased IT security from their service provider. Gone are the days when the job of protecting customer networks can be left solely to the customer.

 

According to Clint McDonald, Product Manager, Cavalier Telephone, “Security is not like going out and digging a ditch. You need to have some qualifications in the field, you need to understand it really well, and you need to be a player in the market. As an IP services company with data services as our primary goal, security is very important to us.” So after evaluating several solutions which they found to be too expensive and too complex, Cavalier chose to partner with Perimeter eSecurity, a leading provider of complete eSecurity on demand to provide secure data services to its customers.

 

With Perimeter, Cavalier found that they not only had a solution but were able to make a very intangible service like security, very tangible to SMB clients. They also brought to the table a fully baked implementation, launch, marketing and program management plan for Cavalier.

 

Cavalier Telephone, a highly innovative company providing leading edge business IP, voice and data services, white-labels Perimeter’s services under the brand name of SecureIP. Cavalier took the inherent features of their networking capabilities, their voice expertise, their fast data services and their value added services like Web conferencing, the customer portal, and Web voicemail and layered security features on top of that for a highly comprehensive and compelling suite of services.

 

Cavalier connects to Perimeter’s network and it blocks all malicious traffic before it enters or exits their customers’ network. Cavalier rapidly rolled-out Perimeter’s Unified Threat Management (UTM) suite of security services which combines dozens of technologies from best-of-breed vendors. The UTM suite incorporates cutting-edge services such as traffic policy control, intrusion prevention, Web content filtering and e-mail audio-visual scanning. It combines traditional firewall monitoring services with a centralized management platform, which gives Cavalier’s SMB customers the ability to manage and monitor their security services and threat levels through an integrated portal. Cavalier customers can continuously monitor Internet activity, security alarms and other events.

 

The portal provides an online dashboard that carries Cavalier’s brand, logo, and unique URL. It gives each Cavalier customer an overall security protection rating, a security attack trends report and a consolidated snapshot of firewall and other core security service activities, 24x7x365. It also reports on what viruses and attacks were prevented, and the number of events stopped since service activation began, thus giving customers tangible evidence of the return on their security investment. Another key portal feature is the ability for customers to see what Internet sites their employees are visiting. In the near future, Cavalier plans to add a standalone desktop anti-virus product and data backup services to its security offerings.

 

Other benefits of the portal are its ability to show the end customer what services that they have not subscribed. This has the inherent ability to be a continuous upsell tool and a friendly reminder that security is a layered process. The more layers you add the better your security posture becomes.

 

Cavalier and Perimeter share the support of these security services. Perimeter supports the security application and Cavalier supports the connectivity to it. If a customer calls Cavalier expressing difficulties in getting onto the Internet for example, Cavalier will first check their connection and equipment and if there are no problems there, they will contact Perimeter to see what is going on in the next piece of equipment in the line or on Perimeter’s network.

 

 

Cavalier customers now view the company as a true data provider and a strategic partner, rather than just another telco. Cavalier customers are choosing to stay with the carrier longer because of the completeness of the security offering and because the services are continually updated to protect against the latest threats. The offering has increased customer satisfaction while providing Cavalier with a new competitive advantage and a new revenue stream. Their customers benefit from full IT security coverage and regulatory compliance, a single Cavalier Web portal, a single bill and a single point of contact. They can start with a few basic services and add additional security services as they like on demand. The services are priced on an affordable a la carte basis at a fraction of the cost of a T1.

 

Cavalier customers especially like the ability to track their employees’ online activities, what sites they visit and how much time they spend there. If they find occurrences of unauthorized use, they can take action to increase productivity by educating employees or taking other corrective actions. The portal has also helped Cavalier to increase the sale of its full range of products to its existing customers. Perimeter has helped Cavalier train their staff, market their security services, and has even offered performance-based bonuses to incent their salespeople to sell these products.

 

“Perimeter has proven to be a very qualified company,” said Cavalier’s Clint McDonald. “Their track record of providing these services to highly-regulated financial services institutions for the past eight years inspires confidence in us and our customers. They are willing to assist in any way that they can with marketing, sales incentives, training and other support. They have been very responsive partner and are very committed to seeing us succeed.”

 

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