— Appgate

No matter the challenge, OKIN Process continues to deliver for you day in and day out.

OKIN Process has a strong reputation of offering the experience and value necessary to get the job done right the first time. The industry leader in cybersecurity, Appgate, knew that they could ask OKIN Process for their versatile assistance during a key transition period. Because of the trust between the two companies, the partnership between OKIN and Appgate developed into what it is today.

The challenge

As an industry leader in secure access solutions, Appgate is changing the cybersecurity landscape by offering a portfolio of differentiated cloud- and hybrid-ready security products and services, including Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP), the industry’s leading Zero Trust solution.

While in the process of separating from their parent company, Appgate realized they needed to establish their own customer service desk infrastructure. They wanted a solution that could quickly scale without disrupting or impacting their customers.

Appgate sought a strategic partner that could provide a cost-effective platform that would provide a best-in-class experience for their customers. After evaluating a number of solutions, Appgate selected OKIN Process. Along with competitive pricing, the product enabled them to free-up resources to run the day-to-day business.

 

OKIN was very respectful of our time and managed to take very little direction to produce a customer service desk that was very operation, very quickly.

Jon Bolduc

Vice President of Support, Appgate

Solution

The relationship between Appgate and OKIN Process came naturally. Having worked together with a global telecom provider, Appgate had intimate knowledge of what OKIN Process could offer from a service desk/customer care perspective. OKIN Process’s history of cost efficiency and continual improvement made the decision straightforward. Furthermore, with best practice implementations right out of the box, Appgate was confident they would continue to deliver best-in-class service to their customers.

Appgate started using OKIN Process to set up an omnichannel service desk infrastructure. Appgate’s parent company had a large customer service support base, so OKIN Process was able to rescope to meet current needs while enabling them to scale up over time.

OKIN Process made it easy for Appgate to get started. The entire process took less than two months, from initial exploration to final implementation and training. According to Jon Bolduc, Vice President of Support, working with OKIN Process reduced the time to delivery by 66-75%, and reduced the cost by 66%.

Robust & Painless Deployment

Essentially starting from scratch, OKIN Process was able to quickly step in and develop different training packages and processes to maximize the agility of the existing Appgate team.

The OKIN team was well-suited for disseminating the knowledge transfer from Appgate and successfully training agents who could then proactively identify and resolve problems, without any disruption to Appgate’s services or customers. A signature trait of the OKIN team is to immediately provide the right solution to everyday challenges their clients may face.

Secure Enough to Handle Federal Programs

Since Appgate has clients in the federal government, the security of their BPO solution needed to be top notch. Fortunately, OKIN Process was experienced in implementing secure solutions for clients both in terms of the infrastructure used and the processes put in place for facilities and agents.

Appgate also appreciated that OKIN Process is ISO 27001 Information Security Management (ISM), ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems (QMS), and ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems (EMS) Certified. The programs and certifications at OKIN Process meant they could be a long-term partner for Appgate.

.

66% of the cost was reduced

The results

Seamless Ongoing Support

As OKIN Process took ownership of training, Appgate was able to focus on the strategic aspects of the separation process from their parent company.

“While we were busy separating from our parent company, there was a lot of workload with transition. If we had tried to do those things plus build out the customer service desk on our own at the same time, we would’ve seen interruption to service and our customers. This allowed us to do both at the same time,” stated Bolduc.

The flexibility of the OKIN team to continually improve efficiency in handling incidents meant the client was able to get the exact solution needed, delivered at the right moment they needed it. Bolduc notes, “OKIN was respectful of our time and managed to take very little direction to produce a customer service desk that was very operational, very quickly.”

Expanding on Existing Training

Appgate also leaned on the OKIN Process to help develop trainings for the larger Appgate community. These trainings have been used for the Appgate University and Appgate Support Trainings.

At the core of this successful partnership was the implicit trust and open flow of communication between the two. “A big selling point for OKIN was their ability to step in and put together training and processes to work with our existing infrastructure and audiences,” explains Bolduc.

Meeting SLAs 24/7

Providing 24/7 support means that OKIN Process runs three shifts of employees. The teams are very good at handing off projects to make sure everything is handled as quickly as possible and nothing gets dropped.

OKIN Process has also proved to be very reliable. “Despite the conditions or the challenges that are happening in the world, our OKIN Process team has continued to deliver for us day in and day out,” notes Bolduc.

Expanding the Relationship

Given the strength of Appgate’s Zero Trust cybersecurity solution, OKIN saw an opportunity to incorporate this offering into OKIN Digital. Now, as a reseller of Appgate, OKIN has been able to expand from providing a customer service desk to also providing demand generation and sales support. This has allowed OKIN Process and Appgate to develop collaborative relationships across their marketing and sales teams as well.

This partnership also serves as a competitive advantage, elevating the partners as trusted advisers to their clients who are already overwhelmed with noise in the crowded and competitive cybersecurity and business process outsourcing (BPO) spaces.

The results

With the earned level of trust and quality of work, Appgate has discussed the various ways they can leverage OKIN’s expertise as they continue to scale. Currently in the works are a couple of expansions to the customer service desk, onboarding of managed network services, and the setup of a Network Operations Center (NOC).

The projects so far have proven the value of OKIN Process, and Appgate will continue to incorporate OKIN Process for the support and growth of new products.