3 engineers migrating 520 firewalls al over the country in 4 months? That’s nothing short of a feat. Yet, Circet Professional Services did not shy away from the challenge. In fact, Christophe Libbrecht and his team even completed the job a few weeks before the agreed deadline. With praises from happy customers to top it all!
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What exactly did this project involve?
Christophe: “Payments, banking and insurance, almost everyone does that digitally nowadays. But for financial institutions, this means they need to keep investing in their digital applications and their security. At the same time, the branch networks themselves also need to remain cyber proof.
Proximus contacted us to migrate the firewalls in 520 branches of BNP Paribas Fortis and insurance division Fintro. Specifically, for our technicians this meant disconnecting the old hardware, installing new devices, and checking and testing everything extensively.”
“Every day was a race against the clock.”
Project Coordinator Christophe Libbrecht
What was challenging about this project?
Christophe: “Every day was a race against the clock. In any case, the planning was quite a puzzle with all those branch offices spread across the country. Four assignments were planned every day to ensure we could complete the contract on time.
In addition, the agreement with BNP Paribas Fortis was that we would adhere to strict work times: at 8 a.m., 9.30 a.m., 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. The systems were down for a while during our work, and employees couldn’t make appointments with customers as a result.”
Were there any unforeseen circumstances?
Christophe: “Thanks to our technicians’ meticulous preparation, we’ve almost never had to deviate from our schedule. Every two weeks, I took turns planning a day to bring recovered material to the warehouse in Evergem or Flémalle. On those days, the colleagues also prepared the new hardware by installing specific firmware, testing parameters, checking hardware for defects, etc.
This allowed us to keep unforeseen circumstances in the branch offices themselves to the absolute minimum. And if a defect did pop up or if we received an error message, our colleague always had a spare device at hand. We didn’t leave anything to chance.”
“Proximus is full of praise and determined
to work with us again.”
Project Coordinator Christophe Libbrecht
Why is this a vital project for Circet?
Christophe: “520 migrations in such a tight deadline seems like a lot, but this wasn’t our first rodeo. A while ago, we completed a similar contract at no fewer than 700 different locations. Still, it’s always a huge boost when everything runs smoothly and without a hitch.
In addition to being thoroughly prepared, we were always flexible and professional. And we were rewarded for that. We were even able to complete the final migration two weeks before the official deadline.
Proximus is full of praise and determined to work with us again in the future. And BNP Paribas Fortis, our client’s client, is also happy with our performance. The praise came from the highest level in the bank.
Of course, we get a lot of satisfaction from that. Not to mention that the importance of cybersecurity can never be underestimated. By contributing to this through our work, we help build the infrastructure of tomorrow.”