CXC-Case-Study-Header-Image-v.2

CXC streamlines its global IT infrastructure with Tecala

Established in 1992, contingent workforce management company CXC has grown to become one of the largest operators in the sector. With a presence in more than 50 countries, CXC helps companies engage and manage contractors and casual staff by assisting with everything from onboarding and invoicing to payroll and risk compliance.

Scalability through improved global support

Until about eight years ago, CXC operated as a network of offices in different markets around the world. A decision was then taken to conduct a management buyout and bring the Australian and New Zealand offices under the same corporate umbrella. About four years later, that umbrella was extended worldwide with all remaining offices becoming wholly owned operations.

CXC’s Director of Technology, Dominic Sargent, says at that point the company increased their focus on consolidating, streamlining, and standardising the underlying information technology infrastructure.

“This was when we became aware of the limitations of our existing technology partner who we had been working with for more than 10 years,” he says. “We decided it was time to find an alternative which was better placed to meet our requirements for a modern workplace and leading IT infrastructure that could scale over time and provide robust security for an ever-present cyber threat landscape.

After conducting a thorough assessment, a decision was made in January 2019 to embark on a consulting engagement with Tecala to leverage their standard approach to aligning technology with our overall goals for global growth in the years ahead.  

A key part of the overall strategy was building out a public cloud security roadmap which concentrated on tightening security measures across the business. This was then followed by ongoing consulting to provide CXC with a future IT plan, which included the migration to Tecala’s cloud and managed services.

The agreement also covered day-to-day IT support for all offices and staff together with access to strategic advice and change management to enable a smooth transition for new solution deployments and assistance with future planning.

The relationship went ‘live’ in July 2019 when Tecala took over responsibility for centralised 24/7 helpdesk support and was also tasked with streamlining and standardising infrastructure support and developing a standard operating environment that could scale with remote access and reporting capabilities.

Work also began on a series of company-wide IT projects.

Security in the cloud

As the cyber-crime industry continued to flourish, it became crucial for CXC to provide secure access across multiple locations.  The initial consulting engagement, building out a public cloud security roadmap, emphasised the tightening of security measures across the business. This flowed into a future state roadmap which included migration to Tecala cloud and managed services.

Change management for identity-based access

To provide breach protection through superior identity-based access, including Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), Tecala worked with CXC to complete an Azure Active Directory-based single-sign-on deployment across the company. 

The project was significantly enhanced by Tecala’s change-management program, developed to ensure a smooth transition without disruption to staff. The process involved ensuring that staff in all offices were aware of updates that were being made and how this might impact them.  The training and readiness component ensured that staff had secure remote access and understood the benefits of disaster recovery as a service.

“The deployment was then fully completed in just three weeks. It involved the replacement of our legacy identity management platform and a shift to the new Microsoft alternative. The result has been the elimination of passwords and the introduction of identity-based security.

We have already seen a number of attacks that have been thwarted by the SSO system and so it’s already proven to be a significant upgrade for the company.”

Sargent says this project improved the user experience for all staff. Everyone can now log into their device and have access all the corporate IT resources they require without the need for multiple logins and passwords.

Streamlining and standardising infrastructure for the Modern Workplace

Overcoming the challenge of shadow IT

Another challenge that Tecala helped CXC to overcome was a proliferation of shadow IT across global offices. Because many offices had been operating relatively independently for many years, they had invested in a range of different hardware, software, and services.

“We had no oversight of exactly what was in place and whether it was being updated and patched,” says Sargent. “Working with Tecala this situation has now been resolved and we now benefit from a standard operating environment across the company.”

Improving user experience

Developing a standard operating environment that could scale and enable remote access and reporting capabilities was an initial priority. Tecala completed a comprehensive refresh of the networks across the three company offices in Australia, one in New Zealand and another in the Philippines. The disparate legacy system was unable to provide remote management or reporting. Consequently, Tecala’s rollout of a centrally managed infrastructure and certificate-based access system “enabled us to do away with passwords and significantly increased security for all staff” says Sargent.

Strategic technology support 

As part of the strategic partnership, the two organisations come together each quarter for a strategy workshop. The consensus that is achieved in this forum facilitates an ongoing optimisation of the environment to support CXC’s growth plans.

“These strategy workshops enhance our ability to think beyond today,” he says. “We work together to understand emerging technologies and, critically, assess how they might support and drive our business strategy. Tecala continues to challenge the status quo and, together, we ensure the IT roadmap stays current.”

Future objectives enablement

Although much has been achieved during its relationship with Tecala, CXC still has a range of IT projects yet to complete.

Sargent says plans include finding ways to further improve collaboration and standardisation, and the deployment of a fully managed hardware solution which will enable full configuration for new devices and staff members anywhere in the world.

“Once this is operational, staff members globally will be able to purchase a new device and, when they first log on to our infrastructure, that device will be fully configured with our standard operating environment and applications. This will happen without the need for any hands-on attention by either our internal IT team or Tecala.” Sargent says CXC recently re-signed with Tecala and extended its contract to continue to optimise CXC’s technology environment and user experience.

“When it comes to our IT infrastructure, Tecala has really changed the game for us,” he says. “We now have consistent, 24-hour support that can assist our company around the world. What’s more, we are confident that we are keeping abreast of technology advancements that will support our business outcomes. I’m confident they will remain not just a provider, but a true partner into the future.”

When it comes to our IT infrastructure, Tecala has really changed the game for us. We now have consistent, 24-hour support that can assist our company around the world. What’s more, we are confident that we are keeping abreast of technology advancements that will support our business outcomes. I’m confident they will remain not just a provider, but a true partner into the future.
Dominic Sargent
Director of Global Technology, CXC Global

Why a Technology Capability Assessment?

We use our Technology Capabilities Assessment to engage directly with you and your teams, to measure how well your existing ICT solutions, services and platforms are meeting your business objectives.

Once we fully understand your business dynamics we’ll provide recommendations on the solutions and long-term strategies you need to ensure your people and business enjoy the very best experiences from your IT platforms, services and applications.

Related Client Stories

Case-Header-CXC-reinforces-email-security
New-Logo-RGB-white

Professional Services
17th Apr

CXC

Growing global contingent workforce management company, CXC, has engaged with Tecala to strengthen its email protection framework, significantly reducing the number of malicious messages received by staff.

CXC

Growing global contingent workforce management company, CXC, has engaged with Tecala to strengthen its email protection framework, significantly reducing the number of malicious messages received by staff.

HESTA-2-Featured-Image-no-logo
Logo-HESTA-white-1

Superannuation
14th Mar

HESTA

HESTA’s senior management took the decision to undertake a strategic review of the organisation’s entire information technology strategy. The goal was to ensure that the resources in place could not only support current operations, but also scale to meet future demands.

HESTA

HESTA’s senior management took the decision to undertake a strategic review of the organisation’s entire information technology strategy. The goal was to ensure that the resources in place could not only support current operations, but also scale to meet future demands.

Case-Header-LifeFlight-Featured-Image
Logo-Lifeflight-White

Not for Profit
15th Feb

LifeFlight

In the fewer than six months since its launch, LifeFlight’s new mission system has processed more than 2000 missions. For LifeFlight crew, it used to take half an hour to finalise each mission’s information across various systems. With the Jigx mobile app, it can take as little as a minute after returning back to base.

LifeFlight

In the fewer than six months since its launch, LifeFlight’s new mission system has processed more than 2000 missions. For LifeFlight crew, it used to take half an hour to finalise each mission’s information across various systems. With the Jigx mobile app, it can take as little as a minute after returning back to base.

Case-Header-DKG-Featured-Image
Logo-DKG-White-v2

Financial Services
9th Feb

DKG

A leading provider of innovative insurance products and services, DKG Insurance Brokers chose to adopt an automation-first mindset during 2020. Their goals? To create exceptional customer experiences and opportunities for their employees; and build a more competitive, future-ready business.

DKG

A leading provider of innovative insurance products and services, DKG Insurance Brokers chose to adopt an automation-first mindset during 2020. Their goals? To create exceptional customer experiences and opportunities for their employees; and build a more competitive, future-ready business.

Case-Heading-Steadfast-Underwriting
steadfast-logo-v4-white-sharp

Financial Services
9th Feb

Steadfast Underwriting Agencies

Brokers end up spending up to three-quarters of their day re-keying information between emails, spreadsheets, and other systems. Robotic process automation (RPA) is a key antidote to this issue.

Steadfast Underwriting Agencies

Brokers end up spending up to three-quarters of their day re-keying information between emails, spreadsheets, and other systems. Robotic process automation (RPA) is a key antidote to this issue.

Case-Header-Coates-
Logo-Coates

Professional Services
6th Feb

Coates

Coates, Australia’s leading equipment solutions provider, partnered with Tecala to build an intelligent automation solution that could relieve its accounts payable (AP) team from being buried under the mountain of invoices that were coming in daily from over 4,000 suppliers.

Coates

Coates, Australia’s leading equipment solutions provider, partnered with Tecala to build an intelligent automation solution that could relieve its accounts payable (AP) team from being buried under the mountain of invoices that were coming in daily from over 4,000 suppliers.

Shine-Lawyers-Case-Study-Header
Shine-Lawyers-Logo-Transparent-v2

Legal Services
6th Dec

Shine Lawyers

As a firm focused on cutting legal complexity, Shine Lawyers wanted to simplify its client on-boarding process. As a firm focused on cutting legal complexity, Shine wanted to simplify its client on-boarding process.

Shine Lawyers

As a firm focused on cutting legal complexity, Shine Lawyers wanted to simplify its client on-boarding process. As a firm focused on cutting legal complexity, Shine wanted to simplify its client on-boarding process.

Greenwich-College-Featured-Image
Greenwich-College-Logo-B-W

Education
8th Nov

Greenwich College

An AI-powered bot unlocks productivity gains and future-proofsone of Australia’s largest private tertiary education providers to help process enrolment applications within 24 hours of receiving them.

Greenwich College

An AI-powered bot unlocks productivity gains and future-proofsone of Australia’s largest private tertiary education providers to help process enrolment applications within 24 hours of receiving them.

ifm-update-my-plan-manager-hero-1
MPM-Logo-RGB-GreenBg-Hires-Png-Re-sized-1

Financial Services
13th Oct

My Plan Manager Group

Tecala, an Australian, award-winning technology services provider, partnered with My Plan Manager to create and implement the Automated Claims Experience (ACE) platform incorporating the UiPath AI-powered automation solution.

My Plan Manager Group

Tecala, an Australian, award-winning technology services provider, partnered with My Plan Manager to create and implement the Automated Claims Experience (ACE) platform incorporating the UiPath AI-powered automation solution.