At a Glance
Founded in 1819, The Oslo Stock Exchange is currently Norway’s only regulated securities trading market. It offers listing and trading in a wide range of different properties, and also works with companies all over the world in the energy, shipping, and seafood sectors. As its global reach continued to expand, staff at the organization began travelling further and further afield.
In order to provide its remote workers with secure access to email and corporate intranet – and to ensure its devices were properly managed and monitored – The Oslo Stock Exchange chose BlackBerry® Work and BlackBerry® UEM.
The Organization
As the only independent stock exchange in the Nordic countries, the Oslo Stock Exchange lists and trades a wide range of equities, goods, and products in five different marketplaces: Oslo Børs, Oslo Axess, Merkur Market, Nordic ABM and Oslo Connect. Thanks to Oslo Børs, the largest of these, the Oslo Stock Exchange is also one of the world’s leading markets for the energy, shipping, and seafood sectors.
Currently, the Oslo Stock Exchange hosts 220 listings as of May 2017, with over 100,000 average daily trades. Companies from all over the world travel there to trade.
The Challenge
Because the Oslo Stock Exchange works closely with financial data, it’s subject to regulations such as MiFID II. Initially, it was able to meet these regulatory requirements with ease. But employees began to travel more as its market reach expanded, and the organization quickly realized that something needed to change.
Its mobile workers needed to be able to read and respond to emails outside the office. They needed a secure way to connect to corporate resources, something their existing infrastructure could not provide. More importantly, they needed to ensure that said connectivity was secure and compliant with regulations such as MiFID II.
“Initially, we supported our remote workers through a Citrix® Remote Desktop – this allowed them to access corporate resources from a laptop while on the road,” explains Thomas Skjønhaug Head of IT Operations and Infrastructure at Oslo Stock Exchange. “However, as we continued to expand to new regions and our staff traveled more, they began favoring smartphones over laptops. This presented a new challenge for us, as Citrix Remote Desktop was not designed for smaller screens – we still needed Citrix, but we needed another solution, too.”
After some evaluation, Skjønhaug and his associates opted to use to use Good® for Enterprise (GFE), equipped its workers with the ability to read and respond to emails while on the road. For a time, this solution worked quite well. It did everything the Oslo Stock Exchange needed it to do.
However, as GFE neared its end of life with Good’s acquisition by BlackBerry, the organization realized – via BlackBerry Platinum Solutions Provider Wizor’s deep knowledge and experience – that this was an opportunity to reevaluate and further enhance their mobile infrastructure.
A BlackBerry partner for over 11 years, Wizor targets heavily regulated industries in the Nordic region. Its clients include banks, police forces, government organizations, and oil & gas – making them a natural fit for BlackBerry. It has worked with the Oslo Stock exchange since February 2017.
The Solution
Originally, the Oslo Stock Exchange was considering moving back to Citrix entirely, deploying it onto their smartphones and tablets. Uncertain of how to proceed, they approached Wizor for advice. A consultant from the firm introduced them to BlackBerry UEM, setting them up with a test license. After a brief evaluation period, the organization decided to deploy BlackBerry UEM and update its GFE installation to BlackBerry Work.
“Wizor helped us understand that we were already familiar with BlackBerry Work in its previous incarnation,” says Skjønhaug. “Deploying it would be easy – we wouldn’t have to put in effort to test, train, and deploy a new platform. As for BlackBerry UEM, we got a test license and quickly realized that it ticked off all our boxes.”
Working with Wizor, the Oslo Stock Exchange was able to deploy and install both solutions in a few days, even with its complex network and strict security requirements. After installation, there was only minimal training required. The Oslo Stock Exchange’s new mobility infrastructure was up and running in less than a week.
“Through our pilot program, we were able to show them that BlackBerry’s software was not only stable and scalable, but also easy to maintain and support,” explains Morton Holter, Managing Director at Wizor. “Ease of management and low overhead were extremely important to them. They have enough on their plate already – they needed something efficient and intuitive.”
The Results
Since deploying BlackBerry Work and BlackBerry UEM, the Oslo Stock Exchange has enjoyed a number of significant gains. These include better mobile productivity and efficiency, greater employee satisfaction, and an improved mobile security posture. Wizor’s support was instrumental throughout the deployment process, and they continue to assist the organization to this day.
Ease of Use: Through Wizor’s technical expertise, the Oslo Stock Exchange was able to deploy BlackBerry UEM and BlackBerry Work in a matter of days. The solutions are easy to use for both IT and end users, and should the organization encounter any technical issues with either, Wizor can immediately walk them through a solution.
“BlackBerry UEM is stable, our employees are happy with it, and it does not create any extra noise for our IT department,” says Skjønhaug. “There’s very minimal overhead, and with Wizor’s help, any technical issues we encounter can be solved with ease. Given our experience, I would happily recommend BlackBerry to anyone who asked.”
Greater Efficiency, Productivity, & Satisfaction: Thanks to BlackBerry Work, the Oslo Stock Exchange’s staff can quickly and easily read and respond to emails while on the road. They are also able to use the BlackBerry® Access secure browser with BlackBerry Work to browse a list of preapproved sites. This is, notes Skjønhaug, something that was not possible with Good for Enterprise.
“Our IT department is happy with BlackBerry’s software because it’s easy to use,” Skjønhaug says. “And so are our end users. It isn’t something you need to spend a lot of time to understand or set up – it just works without any problems.”
Enhanced Security: Supported by BlackBerry’s intuitive management console and powerful end-to-end security, the Oslo Stock Exchange can rest assured that its mobile devices and data are kept safe. The IT department is able to quickly manage devices and accounts, deploying and rescinding devices with ease. It can also remotely wipe any device that may be compromised, adding further protections for corporate data.
“It’s very important for us to stay secure,” explains Skjønhaug. “We regularly deal with data that, were it leaked into the wrong hands, could devastate a company’s share price – we have a duty of care to prevent that from happening. With BlackBerry, we can ensure that duty of care is met.”
Future Plans: Moving forward, the Oslo Stock Exchange is evaluating the possibility of deploying BlackBerry® Workspaces to help it enable secure file sharing and collaboration. Decision-makers are also looking into the possibility of BlackBerry® Dynamics, which will allow developers to create custom mobile apps for the organization. Finally, the Oslo Stock Exchange is considering the possibility of encrypted voice and encrypted mail.
“Currently, we still use Citrix to login to our computers and edit documents and things like that,” Skjønhaug says. “We will be evaluating the applications BlackBerry offers – perhaps sometime in the future, we will use BlackBerry software exclusively.”
Organization Profile
Industry Financial Services
Employees 100
Location Norway
https://www.oslobors.no/ob_eng/