Anger is clearly audible in the voice of the Managing Director of ITson GmbH when he talks about his previous collaboration with a large international firewall manufacturer. Fortunately, the old partnership has been cancelled. For the past three years, Uwe Scheler has relied exclusively on IT security made in Germany with Securepoint out of conviction. What he does, he does for the benefit of his customers and with complete conviction, reports Scheler. What happened?
Until the major reorganisation on the part of the manufacturer and the change of personal contact, the cooperation between ITson GmbH, the distributor and the manufacturer was very good. There was nothing to complain about. Then the manufacturer's co-operation with the distributor was suddenly terminated - the system house's personal contact person changed. That was the beginning of the end: ‘We simply no longer knew each other. The personal relationship was completely lost,’ says the Managing Director. In addition, there was a change in the partner programme in Germany, which led to significant changes in the framework conditions for the system house's collaboration with the manufacturer. This also led to a significant increase in the cost of firewall licences.
For Uwe Scheler, these were already enough reasons to question the collaboration with the manufacturer. The break in the business relationship occurred during the great coronavirus pandemic. One of ITson's customers had the task of transmitting daily reports to a district office in order to fulfil its legal obligations. ‘For this customer, a functioning internet connection to and from its head office was fundamental to the functioning of the company,’ reports Scheler. Then the worst-case scenario occurred: The manufacturer's firewall failed because the hardware was faulty. He says: ‘The old manufacturer had promised a 24-hour service to replace defective hardware. As a partner, we relied on that.’ The new appliance reached the system house after 19 days. At the same time, the Managing Director learnt that the manufacturer was no longer based in Germany. ‘Fortunately, we were able to offer our customer our own alternative solution in a very short space of time. This meant that our customer didn't have any serious problems,’ reports the Managing Director.
This was followed by countless attempts to get support via the manufacturer's hotline - without success. ‘We simply got nowhere and had to explain our problem over and over again. It was enough for us. We didn't see eye-to-eye, and there was no personal contact anyway. We needed a manufacturer that was on an equal footing and that we could trust. As a system house, we need to be able to handle warranty claims without any hassle,’ says Scheler.
"We reject anything other than Securepoint"
What followed was extensive research and the desire for a reliable collaboration. ‘We looked into the question: Which providers are there in Germany and how do they best suit our average medium-sized customer sizes with 10 to 50 workstations?’ explains Scheler. They finally became aware of Securepoint through their distributor Wortmann. On the system house's own initiative, a firewall test was requested. Uwe Scheler summarises the results of the test: ‘We quickly realised that the technology and management of the firewall worked well for us. The decisive factor was a joint appointment at the it-sa trade fair in Nuremberg. There, we were completely convinced by the personal contact and Securepoint's strategy. Then we made the decision: We will do IT security Made in Germany with Securepoint. We reject everything else.’
From Scheler's point of view, specialising in one manufacturer is the only right way for his system house - and is also well received by ITson's customers: ‘When we explain the switch to Securepoint to a customer, we always talk about our negative experiences with the previous manufacturer,’ says Scheler. He notes that trust in IT security made in Germany is increasing among all his customers. In his view, the introduction of the NIS2 directive and the daily examples of data espionage in companies are also responsible for this. ‘With Securepoint, we have secure products without backdoors - that always plays a role for all customers. In the end, the fair price-performance ratio and the migration offers that Securepoint provides are almost always the deciding factors,’ continues Uwe Scheler.
Always focussing on the customer together
In discussions with ITson's customers, the personal relationship of trust is also crucial. They follow the recommendations of the system house and thus receive a high level of protection in combination with high product quality. To date, Scheler has had hardly any difficulties with Securepoint products. If problems arise, the system house calls support and can resolve the issue directly. ‘I can always reach someone there,’ confirms the Managing Director. Together with Securepoint, ITson GmbH always focusses on customer satisfaction. ‘We solve problems together, quietly and at eye level. That works very well.’
