Chemical Manufacturer ESI Reduces the Time to Integrate Acquired Companies by 80% with Cato  

Baltimore Aircoil Replaces MPLS with Cato, Improving Voice Quality, Enabling Video Conferencing, and Increasing Agility Speak with IT leaders about the challenges facing mergers and acquisitions (M&As), and “beating the clock” is a common theme. When companies sign the papers to merge or be acquired, the clock is ticking for IT teams to integrate the two organizations.   “It’s about making one plus one equal three,” says Dustin Collins, Global CIO of Element Solutions Inc (ESI), a leading global specialty chemicals company that has completed many acquisitions. “With every new addition, the name of the game is synergies. The sooner these companies can be integrated into ESI’s processes, the sooner the investments can contribute to our bottom line.”  Collins was a seasoned IT veteran even before he came to ESI.  Versed in the financial and technical aspects of leading IT teams, Collins led diverse projects ranging from service desk consolidation to modernizing the user experience with Microsoft tools to a global SD-WAN deployment. But it was at ESI that he encountered the “M&A Challenge.”  The $2.33 billion specialty chemical manufacturer operates 130 locations and 5,000+ remote users in 100+ countries worldwide. It opportunistically makes a few small acquisitions yearly and occasionally acquires a much larger entity. Integrating business operations and getting all entities operating together as quickly as possible is a key goal for the IT team.  Having completed dozens of M&As, Collins and ESI’s Global CISO, James Schnoebelen, found how to reduce the time it took to realize value from an acquisition by 80% and more while improving security and the user experience. The secret? A combination of technology and great vendor partnership.   Changing Technology Infrastructure Was Essential  ESI’s technology infrastructure is “the backbone of the company,” says Collins. Without it, production plants can’t operate, engineers can’t collaborate, and sales teams can’t generate revenue. Until recently, the 100+ ESI sites had SD-WAN appliances connected by local ISPs. Firewalls at each location secured the network perimeter, and remote access was provided to users through a remote access VPN.  The configuration was complex. The SD-WAN network was a drag on fully integrating new companies into the ESI family of businesses. It took months to increase network capacity and unify a newly acquired entity with the rest of ESI.   Complexity also impacted the remote experience.  “Using the old VPN was confusing because it was inconsistent in terms of being on the road versus in the office. People had problems even just connecting,” says Collins.  “There were blind spots in the network,” says Schnoebelen. “We were concerned that we might miss something on our network, whether related to a cyber scenario or egress of Internet traffic.”  ESI sought a less complicated networking solution and stronger security capabilities. More importantly, the company needed the means to accelerate its business results.  SASE Simplicity Changes IT Operations, Staffing, and the User Experience  After evaluating the market, Collins and Schnoebelen settled on Cato, replacing the old SD-WAN appliances and remote VPN infrastructure with the Cato SASE Cloud Platform. Cato is the only SASE solution built from the ground up on a global, resilient, scalable, open, and modular SASE architecture. By converging SD-WAN, a purpose-built global cloud network, and an embedded cloud-native security stack, Cato connects and secures the complete enterprise–sites, remote users, and cloud resources.  With smarter, simpler infrastructure, Collins found that ESI could shorten their M&A times dramatically. “It used to take us three or four months to bring a new office into our fold, now we can do that in just a few weeks,” says Collins.  Equally as important, though, was the impact on IT operations. “We are no longer focusing only on connecting devices or connecting sites. We can leverage the capacity that we’ve gained by putting our efforts into other value-added activities that deliver more results to the business,” Collins says. “Now we’re spending more time on strategic projects like business process automation and business continuity planning instead of worrying about what connects to what. We leave the IT grunt work to Cato.”  IT staffing and career progression at ESI have also radically changed for the better.  Cato is so smart that it’s simple for non-security or networking specialists to handle operations that previously required far more training. This has an enormous impact on hiring.  “Now, when we hire people, we don’t have to pay for hard-to-find specialization capabilities. We can hire generalists who bring more diverse value to the company,” according to Collins. “The result is amazing. Not only does our business benefit from value-added resourcing and capacity, but our IT employees are happier because they are working on more meaningful projects that deliver tangible business results, rather than the thankless job of just keeping the lights on.”  The simplicity and elegance of Cato also extend to resolving user complaints. “We’ve been able to remove some of the friction users have felt with IT for years,” explains Collins. “Our users complain less now because the network access is seamless.”  Deployment Ease Enables Improving ESI’s Security Posture   With SASE, Schnoebelen and Collins improved ESI’s security posture. The Cato platform makes high-quality, contextualized data available in one place for real-time protection and detection.  “We’ve been able to add layers of security for all users that would have been more challenging to deploy in the past—services such as advanced anti-malware, NGFW, SWG, and threat prevention (IPS),” says Schnoebelen. “It’s not that those technologies weren’t in place before. They were. But Cato simplifies how they are delivered, and that makes all the difference.”  Schnoebelen emphasizes that it’s not a matter of if one will be attacked, but when, and so he and his team have put and continue to improve the processes for addressing that situation in place. “The key is being able to detect a threat and respond quickly and efficiently,” he says. “This comes down to visibility to identify the problem as well as simplicity to resolve the issue without too much fanfare. Cato provides us with both.”  Cato: A New Kind of Business Partner   Converting to SASE has been transformational for ESI, but the collaboration with Cato has also transformed what it means for a vendor to be a partner.  “Cato’s responsiveness to our requests and needs are unmatched, from my perspective,” says Schnoebelen. “One example of that partnership was supporting our requirement to deploy Cato globally to more than 100 sites in four months—and they did it.”  “We started with Cato looking to shorten the time needed to complete the integration of acquisitions and improve our security. We found a true partner who helped us reimagine how IT can serve the business. We achieved our initial aims and much more,” said Collins.  “With Cato, we’ve been able to save money, all the while improving our security posture, enhancing our employees’ user experience, and transitioning our network and security staff to focusing on more value-added projects,” says Collins. “There are not many times as a CIO that you can check the box in all these areas – faster, more secure, happy users, and a happy team – all for less cost and more business value. That’s the Cato SASE Cloud Platform.” 

CIAL Dun & Bradstreet Improves Networking and Security in Latin American with Cato Speak with IT leaders about the challenges facing mergers and acquisitions (M&As), and “beating the clock” is a common theme. When companies sign the papers to merge or be acquired, the clock is ticking for IT teams to integrate the two organizations.   “It’s about making one plus one equal three,” says Dustin Collins, Global CIO of Element Solutions Inc (ESI), a leading global specialty chemicals company that has completed many acquisitions. “With every new addition, the name of the game is synergies. The sooner these companies can be integrated into ESI’s processes, the sooner the investments can contribute to our bottom line.”  Collins was a seasoned IT veteran even before he came to ESI.  Versed in the financial and technical aspects of leading IT teams, Collins led diverse projects ranging from service desk consolidation to modernizing the user experience with Microsoft tools to a global SD-WAN deployment. But it was at ESI that he encountered the “M&A Challenge.”  The $2.33 billion specialty chemical manufacturer operates 130 locations and 5,000+ remote users in 100+ countries worldwide. It opportunistically makes a few small acquisitions yearly and occasionally acquires a much larger entity. Integrating business operations and getting all entities operating together as quickly as possible is a key goal for the IT team.  Having completed dozens of M&As, Collins and ESI’s Global CISO, James Schnoebelen, found how to reduce the time it took to realize value from an acquisition by 80% and more while improving security and the user experience. The secret? A combination of technology and great vendor partnership.   Changing Technology Infrastructure Was Essential  ESI’s technology infrastructure is “the backbone of the company,” says Collins. Without it, production plants can’t operate, engineers can’t collaborate, and sales teams can’t generate revenue. Until recently, the 100+ ESI sites had SD-WAN appliances connected by local ISPs. Firewalls at each location secured the network perimeter, and remote access was provided to users through a remote access VPN.  The configuration was complex. The SD-WAN network was a drag on fully integrating new companies into the ESI family of businesses. It took months to increase network capacity and unify a newly acquired entity with the rest of ESI.   Complexity also impacted the remote experience.  “Using the old VPN was confusing because it was inconsistent in terms of being on the road versus in the office. People had problems even just connecting,” says Collins.  “There were blind spots in the network,” says Schnoebelen. “We were concerned that we might miss something on our network, whether related to a cyber scenario or egress of Internet traffic.”  ESI sought a less complicated networking solution and stronger security capabilities. More importantly, the company needed the means to accelerate its business results.  SASE Simplicity Changes IT Operations, Staffing, and the User Experience  After evaluating the market, Collins and Schnoebelen settled on Cato, replacing the old SD-WAN appliances and remote VPN infrastructure with the Cato SASE Cloud Platform. Cato is the only SASE solution built from the ground up on a global, resilient, scalable, open, and modular SASE architecture. By converging SD-WAN, a purpose-built global cloud network, and an embedded cloud-native security stack, Cato connects and secures the complete enterprise–sites, remote users, and cloud resources.  With smarter, simpler infrastructure, Collins found that ESI could shorten their M&A times dramatically. “It used to take us three or four months to bring a new office into our fold, now we can do that in just a few weeks,” says Collins.  Equally as important, though, was the impact on IT operations. “We are no longer focusing only on connecting devices or connecting sites. We can leverage the capacity that we’ve gained by putting our efforts into other value-added activities that deliver more results to the business,” Collins says. “Now we’re spending more time on strategic projects like business process automation and business continuity planning instead of worrying about what connects to what. We leave the IT grunt work to Cato.”  IT staffing and career progression at ESI have also radically changed for the better.  Cato is so smart that it’s simple for non-security or networking specialists to handle operations that previously required far more training. This has an enormous impact on hiring.  “Now, when we hire people, we don’t have to pay for hard-to-find specialization capabilities. We can hire generalists who bring more diverse value to the company,” according to Collins. “The result is amazing. Not only does our business benefit from value-added resourcing and capacity, but our IT employees are happier because they are working on more meaningful projects that deliver tangible business results, rather than the thankless job of just keeping the lights on.”  The simplicity and elegance of Cato also extend to resolving user complaints. “We’ve been able to remove some of the friction users have felt with IT for years,” explains Collins. “Our users complain less now because the network access is seamless.”  Deployment Ease Enables Improving ESI’s Security Posture   With SASE, Schnoebelen and Collins improved ESI’s security posture. The Cato platform makes high-quality, contextualized data available in one place for real-time protection and detection.  “We’ve been able to add layers of security for all users that would have been more challenging to deploy in the past—services such as advanced anti-malware, NGFW, SWG, and threat prevention (IPS),” says Schnoebelen. “It’s not that those technologies weren’t in place before. They were. But Cato simplifies how they are delivered, and that makes all the difference.”  Schnoebelen emphasizes that it’s not a matter of if one will be attacked, but when, and so he and his team have put and continue to improve the processes for addressing that situation in place. “The key is being able to detect a threat and respond quickly and efficiently,” he says. “This comes down to visibility to identify the problem as well as simplicity to resolve the issue without too much fanfare. Cato provides us with both.”  Cato: A New Kind of Business Partner   Converting to SASE has been transformational for ESI, but the collaboration with Cato has also transformed what it means for a vendor to be a partner.  “Cato’s responsiveness to our requests and needs are unmatched, from my perspective,” says Schnoebelen. “One example of that partnership was supporting our requirement to deploy Cato globally to more than 100 sites in four months—and they did it.”  “We started with Cato looking to shorten the time needed to complete the integration of acquisitions and improve our security. We found a true partner who helped us reimagine how IT can serve the business. We achieved our initial aims and much more,” said Collins.  “With Cato, we’ve been able to save money, all the while improving our security posture, enhancing our employees’ user experience, and transitioning our network and security staff to focusing on more value-added projects,” says Collins. “There are not many times as a CIO that you can check the box in all these areas – faster, more secure, happy users, and a happy team – all for less cost and more business value. That’s the Cato SASE Cloud Platform.” 

Diamond Braces Uses Cato to Boost WAN Security, Performance, and Reliability Speak with IT leaders about the challenges facing mergers and acquisitions (M&As), and “beating the clock” is a common theme. When companies sign the papers to merge or be acquired, the clock is ticking for IT teams to integrate the two organizations.   “It’s about making one plus one equal three,” says Dustin Collins, Global CIO of Element Solutions Inc (ESI), a leading global specialty chemicals company that has completed many acquisitions. “With every new addition, the name of the game is synergies. The sooner these companies can be integrated into ESI’s processes, the sooner the investments can contribute to our bottom line.”  Collins was a seasoned IT veteran even before he came to ESI.  Versed in the financial and technical aspects of leading IT teams, Collins led diverse projects ranging from service desk consolidation to modernizing the user experience with Microsoft tools to a global SD-WAN deployment. But it was at ESI that he encountered the “M&A Challenge.”  The $2.33 billion specialty chemical manufacturer operates 130 locations and 5,000+ remote users in 100+ countries worldwide. It opportunistically makes a few small acquisitions yearly and occasionally acquires a much larger entity. Integrating business operations and getting all entities operating together as quickly as possible is a key goal for the IT team.  Having completed dozens of M&As, Collins and ESI’s Global CISO, James Schnoebelen, found how to reduce the time it took to realize value from an acquisition by 80% and more while improving security and the user experience. The secret? A combination of technology and great vendor partnership.   Changing Technology Infrastructure Was Essential  ESI’s technology infrastructure is “the backbone of the company,” says Collins. Without it, production plants can’t operate, engineers can’t collaborate, and sales teams can’t generate revenue. Until recently, the 100+ ESI sites had SD-WAN appliances connected by local ISPs. Firewalls at each location secured the network perimeter, and remote access was provided to users through a remote access VPN.  The configuration was complex. The SD-WAN network was a drag on fully integrating new companies into the ESI family of businesses. It took months to increase network capacity and unify a newly acquired entity with the rest of ESI.   Complexity also impacted the remote experience.  “Using the old VPN was confusing because it was inconsistent in terms of being on the road versus in the office. People had problems even just connecting,” says Collins.  “There were blind spots in the network,” says Schnoebelen. “We were concerned that we might miss something on our network, whether related to a cyber scenario or egress of Internet traffic.”  ESI sought a less complicated networking solution and stronger security capabilities. More importantly, the company needed the means to accelerate its business results.  SASE Simplicity Changes IT Operations, Staffing, and the User Experience  After evaluating the market, Collins and Schnoebelen settled on Cato, replacing the old SD-WAN appliances and remote VPN infrastructure with the Cato SASE Cloud Platform. Cato is the only SASE solution built from the ground up on a global, resilient, scalable, open, and modular SASE architecture. By converging SD-WAN, a purpose-built global cloud network, and an embedded cloud-native security stack, Cato connects and secures the complete enterprise–sites, remote users, and cloud resources.  With smarter, simpler infrastructure, Collins found that ESI could shorten their M&A times dramatically. “It used to take us three or four months to bring a new office into our fold, now we can do that in just a few weeks,” says Collins.  Equally as important, though, was the impact on IT operations. “We are no longer focusing only on connecting devices or connecting sites. We can leverage the capacity that we’ve gained by putting our efforts into other value-added activities that deliver more results to the business,” Collins says. “Now we’re spending more time on strategic projects like business process automation and business continuity planning instead of worrying about what connects to what. We leave the IT grunt work to Cato.”  IT staffing and career progression at ESI have also radically changed for the better.  Cato is so smart that it’s simple for non-security or networking specialists to handle operations that previously required far more training. This has an enormous impact on hiring.  “Now, when we hire people, we don’t have to pay for hard-to-find specialization capabilities. We can hire generalists who bring more diverse value to the company,” according to Collins. “The result is amazing. Not only does our business benefit from value-added resourcing and capacity, but our IT employees are happier because they are working on more meaningful projects that deliver tangible business results, rather than the thankless job of just keeping the lights on.”  The simplicity and elegance of Cato also extend to resolving user complaints. “We’ve been able to remove some of the friction users have felt with IT for years,” explains Collins. “Our users complain less now because the network access is seamless.”  Deployment Ease Enables Improving ESI’s Security Posture   With SASE, Schnoebelen and Collins improved ESI’s security posture. The Cato platform makes high-quality, contextualized data available in one place for real-time protection and detection.  “We’ve been able to add layers of security for all users that would have been more challenging to deploy in the past—services such as advanced anti-malware, NGFW, SWG, and threat prevention (IPS),” says Schnoebelen. “It’s not that those technologies weren’t in place before. They were. But Cato simplifies how they are delivered, and that makes all the difference.”  Schnoebelen emphasizes that it’s not a matter of if one will be attacked, but when, and so he and his team have put and continue to improve the processes for addressing that situation in place. “The key is being able to detect a threat and respond quickly and efficiently,” he says. “This comes down to visibility to identify the problem as well as simplicity to resolve the issue without too much fanfare. Cato provides us with both.”  Cato: A New Kind of Business Partner   Converting to SASE has been transformational for ESI, but the collaboration with Cato has also transformed what it means for a vendor to be a partner.  “Cato’s responsiveness to our requests and needs are unmatched, from my perspective,” says Schnoebelen. “One example of that partnership was supporting our requirement to deploy Cato globally to more than 100 sites in four months—and they did it.”  “We started with Cato looking to shorten the time needed to complete the integration of acquisitions and improve our security. We found a true partner who helped us reimagine how IT can serve the business. We achieved our initial aims and much more,” said Collins.  “With Cato, we’ve been able to save money, all the while improving our security posture, enhancing our employees’ user experience, and transitioning our network and security staff to focusing on more value-added projects,” says Collins. “There are not many times as a CIO that you can check the box in all these areas – faster, more secure, happy users, and a happy team – all for less cost and more business value. That’s the Cato SASE Cloud Platform.”