TasNetworks Increases the Efficiency of Their Mobile Work Management Software By 25% Using Absolute Secure Access Company-Wide
TasNetworks delivers power across Tasmania—the southernmost state of Australia. As the owner and operator of the utility, TasNetworks provides the electricity transmission and distribution network that delivers a safe, cost-effective, and reliable electricity supply to more than 285,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers. With more than 50 depots dotted over an area roughly the size of Switzerland, the company’s 700 field workers pride themselves on rapidly investigating and restoring power after service outages anywhere across the state.
Improve Efficiencies and Connectivity for a Distributed Workforce
Keeping a workforce connected and productive across a variety of terrains can be a challenge for any company. In the case of TasNetworks, field workers were often frustrated by devices that looked connected but weren’t and dropped connections in poor coverage areas. End users found themselves wasting critical time due to disruptions caused whenever Windows timed out while roaming between Wi-Fi and cellular networks, especially if it occurred during a mobile work manager sync. Their workaround was to connect their devices via Ethernet at each depot and wait for the sync to complete, often wasting several hours each day. Compounding these issues, the IT team had limited visibility into what was really going on throughout the remote network.
The power of applying policies to different groups of devices is impressive because it makes it really easy to test, evaluate, deploy, and then scale it out. Absolute Secure Access makes it simpler than any other product we’ve seen.
How They Did It
Transitioning to a Seamless Remote Work Structure
After learning about Absolute Secure Access from another Australian utility, TasNetworks started a proof of concept to solve the field workers’ connectivity issues. Once COVID-19 restrictions started taking effect, and all employees suddenly found themselves working remotely from home, their existing SSL VPN couldn’t scale to accommodate the 1,100+ workforce. As a result, the decision was made to go with Absolute Secure Access company-wide, including office workers using desktops and laptops from their new home offices.
Providing a Secure and Reliable Connection
TasNetworks uses the Absolute solution to provide a reliable connection for all remote users as well as the troubleshooting tools, policies, geolocation features, coverage mapping capabilities, and advanced analytics dashboards so IT can see what is happening in their mobile deployment.
The flexibility of Absolute Secure Access is amazing. I was able to quickly set up DNS-based split tunneling using granular policies for a group using Teams hosted in the cloud when they suddenly had to work from home. It just worked, which was awesome. There’s no way we could have done that with our old VPN.
Enhanced Visibility = Improved Productivity and Business Continuity
In addition to secure, reliable remote access and positive user experience for end users, Absolute Secure Access provides the IT team with the visibility, management, and troubleshooting tools needed to keep the workforce productive and the business running smoothly. The solution’s dashboards provide IT with information about their mobile devices and user behavior including lost device identification, service coverage mapping, as well as data usage.
For the TasNetworks team, Absolute Secure Access:
- Reduces data usage by 25% with data compression
- Quickly transitioned field and office workforce to ‘work-from-home’ during the pandemic office closure
- Provides secure and reliable access to applications and data from anywhere
- Increases efficiency of their mobile work management app by 25% due to an uninterrupted sync process and more productive time in the field for workers
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