CASE STUDY
Context Challenge
Growthpoint Properties is the largest listed
South African REIT by market capitalisation
and assets, valued at more than R80.4 billion
and R116.7 billion respectively. When Growthpoint Properties approached
Mimecast, it was facing a complex
communications challenge.
Growthpoint is the 21st largest company in
the FTSE/JSE Top 40 Index. The company’s
diversified portfolio comprises 463 retail,
office and industrial properties of the highest
quality, located countrywide, including La
Lucia Mall, Brooklyn Mall, Woodmead Retail
Park and Constantia Village. Growthpoint also
owns 66% of Growthpoint Australia, which is
listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and
25% of Globalworth which owns property
assets in Romania and Poland. It has 635
staff located in three regional and several
remote sites across South Africa.
It had over 437 buildings to manage and
450 staff to provide with communications
infrastructure. But after unbundling from its
management company, The Investec Group,
it didn’t own a single PC or server, or even
have a designated office.
Working off radio links from remote and
temporary office locations highlighted
to CIO Alec Davis how critical email
communication was to the business.
“Initially we were simply looking to create
a separate Growthpoint email brand, but
soon realised our need for continuous
communication and email archiving for
compliance purposes,” he said.
“From previously enjoying Investec’s
state-of-the-art systems, we were thrust
into a position of needing the same level
of compliance but without the budget to
implement costly infrastructure.”
Over the years, its needs have changed and
while the initial solutions remain imperative
to the running of the business, the evolving
cyberthreat landscape has meant it needed
to review its cybersecurity.
“With so many retail and office properties in
our portfolio, we host the confidential data
of a number of prominent South African
organisations,” added Davis.
“We started to see an increase in targeted
threats such as spear-phishing and whaling,
so we needed to urgently implement
advanced security solutions to keep this
data safe.”
Solution
Mimecast provided Growthpoint with an
integrated email suite without the traditional
hardware, software or capital expense.
“When we first adopted Mimecast it was
to address continuity, archiving and email
hygiene,” said Davis.
FROM PREVIOUSLY ENJOYING
INVESTEC’S STATE-OF-THE-ART
SYSTEMS, WE WERE THRUST
INTO A POSITION OF NEEDING THE
SAME LEVEL OF COMPLIANCE BUT
WITHOUT THE BUDGET TO
IMPLEMENT COSTLY INFRASTRUCTURE.
www.intelligentcio.com
“But as the threat landscape evolved and
cybersecurity became a major concern,
implementing advanced security became
a no brainer. We already had Mimecast in
place so adding additional services was an
easy and seamless process. We now have
Mimecast’s full security offering, including
Targeted Threat Protection, Internal Email
Protect and Attachment Protect.”
Growthpoint has experienced major
expansion and it now has the full Mimecast
suite that employees use every day.
“Our users love Mimecast’s mobile
capabilities and archive search facilities,”
said Davis. “One of the biggest advocates
of Mimecast in the business is our CEO.
He uses it every single day and often goes
straight to Mimecast before even opening
his mailbox.”
INTELLIGENTCIO
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