Monitor ERP Dramatically Reduces Cybersecurity Risks While Remotely Supporting Customers Worldwide

The Challenge: Monitor ERP’s Sweden-based IT support team needed to provide robust security and fast resolution times to more than 5,000 customers and 300,000 daily users in more than 30 countries.

The Solution: Monitor ERP’s IT team replaced their previous solution with Splashtop On-Prem. They made the switch in order to maximize control, security and speed when addressing customers’ unique support needs.

The Outcome: With Splashtop, Monitor ERP’s IT team delivers secure, customized support experiences – at a 50% lower cost than their previous solution. The team also enjoys peace of mind with comprehensive log data around user-specific system and server usage, preventing excess liability.

“It’s the combined aspects of security and control over how we want to deploy remote support to different groups. The policies and groupings within Splashtop are truly powerful.” – Christopher Hagman, Team Manager of IT and Cloud at Monitor ERP

Summary

Monitor ERP, based in Hudiksvall, Sweden, provides training, consulting and support services to more than 5,000 customers and 300,000 daily users in more than 30 countries. The IT team at Monitor ERP had been using TeamViewer for remote support, but they needed more control and better security from their remote support solution. On top of that, their customers had growing concerns about the spread of cybersecurity breaches crippling businesses.

Monitor ERP’s remote support team found they could no longer rely on the remote support tool they had been using. It lacked basic logging capabilities and advanced authentication features, so they couldn’t control server access or verify users. When Monitor ERP sought help to customize security configurations, their requests were unanswered. The company’s IT leaders had to act fast. They needed a customizable solution that they could configure to the specific needs of each customer.

Today, Monitor ERP uses Splashtop On-Prem to remotely support thousands of customers, including third-party consultants who need to keep their ERP systems up and running 24/7. They have customized the remote support experience to each of their customers’ unique needs, without incurring extra costs. In fact, they have reduced remote support costs by 50% while optimizing control over the environment. As a result, their remote support experience is more secure and efficient for end-users.

The Challenge: Supporting 5,000 Unique Customer ERP Deployments Across 30 Countries

For small and midsized manufacturers, enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the lifeblood of the company. ERP software is used to plan and manage all aspects of the business – everything from finance and supply chain management, to manufacturing and fulfillment operations. As a result, keeping an ERP system secure and high performing is critical to manufacturers’ success.

Monitor ERP’s IT support team serves thousands of companies around the world, with massive growth across Asia in recent years. Their customers had grown increasingly concerned over the widespread cybersecurity breaches that had plagued many small and midsize businesses. They wanted Monitor ERP to ensure the company’s remote support was as secure as possible, without slowing down the support process.

Monitor ERP knew they had to rapidly change their remote support solution for a more customizable and secure solution. “We didn’t feel that we had full control over TeamViewer anymore,” said Christopher Hagman, Team Manager of IT and Cloud at Monitor ERP. “That meant we could not guarantee secure remote support the way customers wanted it.”

Authentication had also become a major security gap with their previous solution, according to Teija Öberg, the IT technician at Monitor ERP in charge of remote support. “People only needed a single I.D. code to connect to customer servers, show customer computers and perform a wide range of tasks. Those same ID codes could be shared with anyone,” Teija explained. “Even worse, anyone with the same TeamViewer software could connect to the server or computer. All of this left security exposed.”

The Solution: Monitor ERP Switches to Splashtop For Flexible Security and Control

Monitor ERP evaluated 10 different remote support solutions and tested five of them before ultimately selecting Splashtop. Christopher noted that each of the other four solutions they trialed had high-quality features, but none of them matched Splashtop for having all the features they needed.

“It’s the combined aspects of security and control over how we want to deploy remote support in different ways to different groups,” explained Christopher. “The policies and groupings within Splashtop are truly powerful.”

Christopher also cited Splashtop’s option for remote support from an on-premises server as a key differentiator. “That was quite important to us, because we want to ensure our most security-conscious customers that their connection to our ERP system happens only between us and them – no intermediaries.”

Along with the Splashtop On-Prem deployment option, Monitor ERP also incorporated Splashtop’s two-factor authentication and advanced encryption methods into a unique, four-level user authentication process that is backed by Active Directory identification. “The Splashtop authentication is far more secure than what we had,” said Teija.

Minimizing liability exposure: Monitor ERP had no way of obtaining log data from their previous remote support solution. But with Splashtop, they use log data to review user activity and backtrack, in the event that something goes wrong. “You must understand that Monitor ERP has control over our customers’ entire manufacturing environment. Since we have access, we control everything. If something bad happens, we’re possibly liable for that loss,” explained Christopher.

Splashtop gives Monitor ERP’s support and legal teams peace of mind knowing they can see (in real time and historically) the specific person connected to a system, where they were located and what actions they took. “It gives us the confidence to say things like, ‘Okay, we made a mistake here,’ or ‘It wasn’t us, so we’re not accountable for this,’” said Teija. “Liability can be a really high cost. And I mean, for us as a company, we want to be able to know that if you’re using our remote software, we’re the only one that can access it.”

Driving consultant network success: Monitor ERP’s internal consultants also use Splashtop, and the group of users has quickly grown much larger than anticipated. They use Splashtop during implementation to set up customers’ ERP systems on their servers, as well as when changing servers, renewing servers, migrating databases, and more. “It felt quite liberating to be seated at my office computer in Sweden while configuring a consultant’s email on his Android phone in Germany,” said Teija.

Splashtop allows Monitor ERP to grant different rights to different consultants. “This is much easier than using a VPN and more secure overall, because we assign each consultant to specific rights groups and prevent them from drifting into other areas,” noted Teija.

Splashtop enables Monitor ERP’s head office to maintain control over permissions, so the consultants are only granted access to the clients they’re directly servicing. This has boosted their relationship with third-party consultants who serve Monitor ERP customers on an ad hoc, local basis. These consultants can securely support their clients using Splashtop directly through the Monitor ERP solution.

“With Splashtop, third-party consultants are just one click away. If they’re on the phone, they simply give the nine-digit access code to our support agent, and they’re suddenly connected. That’s effective, fast support,” said Teija.

Monitor ERP consultants also feel safe knowing that no one else is entering the server through the Splashtop connection or tampering with their customers’ environments. “Basically, we don’t even let in support if it doesn’t come the right way to us,” Teija clarified.

Results: Custom Controls and Security Drive Faster TTR—At Lower Cost

Splashtop provides Monitor ERP with all the aspects of control and security that make it possible for the IT team to have full perspective and administration of remote support. “If we need to make any changes within the system, such as policies or groupings, we can do it ourselves,” said Christopher. Teija added: “Splashtop also knows how to jump in with their own support if we ever do something wrong. That’s been really valuable, especially during initial deployment when we explored different ways to customize our support to our various customers.”

The Monitor ERP IT support team is also delighting overseas customers with faster time to resolution (TTR) – at a lower cost. The team can now instantly connect from their Sweden-based servers to customers in China and Malaysia. As a result, they have reduced their infrastructure spending. “We used to need Asia-based servers, because TeamViewer connections lagged. With 300,000 cases, we’d lose a lot of time when it took a full minute or two to connect,” said Teija. “That just doesn’t happen with Splashtop.”

Their clients, although reluctant to change, ended up loving Splashtop as well. Teija told us, “We had a lot of people complaining saying, ‘What is this software? Is it going to be worse? Why are we changing?’ But every single one that started using it came back to us and said, ‘Yeah, this is really good. It’s a positive change.’”

Overall, having optimized security and control over their remote support has enabled Monitor ERP to cut their support costs by 50 percent. “It’s stunning to have better remote support security, control and speed while spending that much less to obtain it,” noted Christopher.“We’ve signed a long-term agreement with Splashtop, it will be one of our main tools as we grow,” Christopher Hagman

About Monitor ERP

Monitor ERP is based in Hudiksvall, Sweden and offers training, consulting and support services to over 5,000 customers in more than 30 countries. They’re a complete ERP system that provides modern manufacturing companies with control over their entire business.

About Splashtop On-Prem
Splashtop On-Prem is a remote support and remote access solution that can be fully self-hosted inside an enterprise network. Splashtop On-Prem is built to meet the needs of today’s digital enterprises. It comes packed with robust security, high performance, and many handy features. It is customizable and compatible with a variety of tools and operating systems.