London Borough of Camden Case Study
The London Borough of Camden makes BYOD a reality, turning to Accellion to
support seamless collaboration via devices of users’ choosing, around-the-clock
SharePoint access, and strong security controls to meet internal data access
policies and external regulations.
Background
The London Borough of Camden is one of 32 boroughs in London, England, and
has a population of 220,100. It is divided into 32 wards and the council has more
than 8,500 employees.
Challenges
As part of the strategic IT plan set by the council in 2012, it needed solutions to
save money, improve the security and collaboration of its workforce, and overall
modernise the core technologies being utilised by employees. Implementing a
BYOD policy was an important part of the strategic IT plan, as the policy:
• Improved productivity by allowing staff to work from anywhere
• Reduced IT equipment costs by shifting from a PC-centric environment to
mobile computing
• Fostered happier employees by giving them the freedom to use devices of their
own choosing for business-related activities While the Borough had
traditionally allowed the use of BlackBerrys among its staff, the
organisation was also ready to support a Choose Your Own Device
(CYOD) environment – allowing employees to work from any type of
devices across any operating systems and platforms. But, the move to
BYOD and CYOD was not done in haste. “We were aware of the
tremendous upside of supporting a BYOD policy, but we were also
realistic about the potential risks,” said Ian Lawrence, IT Manager with the
London Borough of Camden. “That’s why we outlined our must-have
usability, security and compliance requirements that had to be met in
order to move forward.” A key first step was automating the
management of the wide-range of mobile devices and associated
applications that would enter the organisation. The Borough decided to
deploy MobileIron’s Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform and
MobileIron AppConnect.
The London Borough of Camden needed to find a mobile file sharing solution
that provided:
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Internal controls: The Borough needed ultimate authority about where and
how its corporate data was stored, accessed and transferred.
Impact levels: Government regulations mandate different levels of security
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and access dependent on the type of data, such as personal identification.
The organisation needed a solution that could support varying impact
levels (ILs), which are outlined by government standards, to differentiate
access availability.
Multiple deployment options: While the organisation required that data be
stored on-premise, it wanted the flexibility to move to a public cloud or
hybrid environment in the future, if desired.
SharePoint integration: The organisation invested in SharePoint as its
primary content repository and so needed to ensure that mobile users
could continue to access SharePoint as needed, from anywhere,
eliminating the need to turn to consumer-based file sharing workarounds,
such as Dropbox, which was banned from use by the Borough.
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Seamless workflows: The solution of choice had to be intuitive, allowing
both employees and external third parties to quickly ocate and securely
share desired documents, edit as needed and upload current versions.
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True collaboration: While sharing files was key, employees also needed to
be able to share ideas – providing comments and input about works in
progress via a shared workspace.
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Audit trail: To maintain compliance with BYOD guidelines from the
Information Commission Office (ICO) and prevent potentially large fines,
the Borough required a solution that automatically tracked all data
changes and mobile file sharing activities. •
Multi-layered authentication: Mobile data access was required to be
authenticated via LDAP, as well as via an assigned user pin number.
Then a search was underway for the right vendor and the right solution. Armed
with its list of requirements, the Borough turned to a trusted third party – mobility
and wireless experts at Qolcom – for platform recommendations. Accellion
Secure Mobile File Sharing topped the list. After an extensive, in-house
evaluation, the London Borough of Camden agreed, finding that Accellion was
the only vendor that met and exceeded all of its requirements. Solution With the support from Qolcom, The London Borough of Camden deployed
Accellion to support its transition to BYOD and CYOD. The project is undergoing
a phased rollout – first for key executives, followed by the next level of
management and then remaining employees. Now with Accellion, employees
access and collaborate on important documents via iOS and Android
smartphones and tablets, whenever and wherever needed. Accellion also provides secure, real-time mobile access to files stored in
SharePoint and other Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems without a
VPN, so SharePoint continues to serve as the Borough’s trusted content source.
Users can easily and securely check documents in and out of SharePoint from a
mobile device without loss of encryption or breaches in data security. And, with
Accellion Mobile Apps for MobileIron AppConnectTM, the organisation has its
much needed mobile security, including user authentication, the ability to block
application usage at an individual or global level, the option to deauthorise apps
and remotely wipe devices if any are lost or compromised. Employees use Accellion workspaces as the go-to location to collaborate on
documents that require input from multiple staff members, whether internal or
external constituents. Being able to securely share information from any location
and from any type of devices has boosted productivity, keeping projects moving
forward and ensuring that all individuals are working off of the most up-to-date
materials. From a security standpoint, the Borough benefits from real-time visibility into all
mobile file-sharing activities, maintaining a comprehensive audit trail if needed for
regulatory reporting. All accounts are integrated with LDAP, giving its IT staff full
control over user accounts. Additionally, each piece of data that is shared or
edited is encrypted both in transit and at rest. Finally, Accellion provided a
private-cloud, on-premise deployment option, a government regulation that is
enforced so no data is stored on public servers.
“Accellion acts as the single platform for users to access, review and collaborate
on content from mobile devices of their choosing,” said Lawrence. “Now we have
a solution that’s integrated with our MDM solution and SharePoint, allowing us to
securely mobilise our most important content and make BYOD a reality.”