EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Company: SitelIndustry: Business Process OutsourcingLocation: Nashville, Tennessee, USAEmployees: 56,000

Business Challenge

• Develop solid network failover• Simplify management capabilities and

interfaces for client transparency• Secure networks to help ensure customers

are PCI-compliant

Security Solution

• Cisco ASA 5585-X Next-Generation Firewall• Cisco Identity Services Engine• Cloud Web Security

Business Results

• No noticeable downtime when voice network failover occurs

• Flexible, scalable web security• Quickly and easily segment agents’

connection into client data centers

Business ChallengeSitel is one of the world’s largest providers of customer care outsourcing services. With services delivered in 40 languages in more than 110 locations across 23 countries, Sitel delivers live, engaged customer care services customized to the specific needs of the individual companies they serve.

Connecting to customers via both inbound and outbound channels, over voice, chat, email, social media and other pathways, Sitel helps its clients’ customers with technical issues, account updates, and sales and marketing engagements. “Any type of interaction that our customers would have with their customers, we manage on their behalf,” says Andrew Kokes, vice president of product marketing at Sitel.

With 56,000 global employees, Sitel’s network is unique, because Sitel employees are running software applications that reside within their clients’ data centers. “Think of us like an Internet provider. We pass traffic across the network just like an ISP, so that when our agents pick up the phone in Florida or Manila or Panama City, they hear the customer calling into our clients’ organizations and can access the clients’ applications in their data centers,” says Kokes.

This configuration requires extreme security. Sitel must wall off the Internet and vendor connections, as well as segment agents at each of its 110-plus locations. In addition, Sitel’s customers’ business calling cycles can fluctuate dramatically due to seasonality or other factors. Call volumes or customer interactions can spike up, then drop back down, only to rise again.

Customer Care Outsourcing Provider Protects Multiple Networks

1 © 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.

Customer Case Study

Sitel uses Cisco ASA 5585-X Next-Generation Firewalls to secure client data traversing networks and Internet.

“The problem we face is how to create a good end-customer experience and still be able to easily scale up or down. We have to manage this complexity – with a degree of transparently that doesn’t compromise the network – for our customers,” says Scott Franko, director of converged services for Sitel.

Franko continues, “Port changes are the number-one IT request, and firewall configuration changes are second. So much of our day-to-day IT activity is simply providing never-fail connectivity for our agents.”

Many of Sitel’s clients also handle PCI (Payment Card Industry) data. “A number of our clients are bound by PCI regulations. This means we need to lock down our agents’ network regions – and when you consider how global our company is, you get an idea of how large a challenge that is,” says Franko.

Security SolutionSitel relies on Cisco products to help create a secure, reliable network. At the center of its security infrastructure, the organization uses the Cisco® ASA 5585-X Next-Generation Firewall.

Compliance with security standards, as well as clients’ need for segmentation and security, means that Sitel uses firewalls at each of their locations. “In addition to the 5585-X Next-Generation Firewalls running in Dallas, we also use two Cisco ASA 5540 Firewalls at each site – both to protect from Internet traffic, as well as to segment off agents who are extending into our customers’ networks. So we have somewhere north of 200 firewalls running across the company,” says Franko.

The largest number of weekly change requests comes from port changes. “Sitel’s business is all about offering flexibility and scale. Because of this, our agents often move from one customer to another within the same week, depending on demand. One third of our weekly changes are port changes. It’s simply an astounding number,” says Franko.

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is also being implemented through Cisco Services, prescribing which users and devices can access which parts of a network. It is a key component of the organization’s ability to quickly and easily manage port changes, as well as handle customer-specific mobile requirements. Cisco SMARTnet™ will cover technical services for the ISE deployment, including 24-hour access to expert support engineers, rapid hardware replacement options, proactive alerts, and extensive online tools.

Finally, Sitel also uses the Cisco Cloud Web Security, Cisco Cloud Email Security, and Web Security Appliance to extend web and email security and control.

Customer Case Study

“When we looked at the bandwidth we needed for Internet connectivity, client connectivity, and securing data, the Next-Generation Firewall was what we needed. It has the uplink capabilities and the backplane speeds that we needed. This means our new data center not only functions today, but will also still be viable in seven years.” Scott Franko Director of Converged Services, Sitel

2 © 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.

Business ResultsThe Cisco ASA 5585-X Next Generation Firewall was a natural fit for Sitel’s green-field data center that the company built in Dallas, Texas. “It didn’t take us long to realize that Cisco is our vendor of choice for the components going into our new data center – not just because of our longstanding history with them and the integration with our existing equipment, but also because of the innovation they bring.”

“When we looked at the bandwidth we needed for Internet connectivity, client connectivity, and securing data, the Next-Generation Firewall was what we needed. It has the uplink capabilities and the backplane speeds that we needed. This means our new data center not only functions today, but will also still be viable in the foreseeable future,” says Franko.

Every Second CountsThe most important feature of the ASA 5585-X firewall is the active-active capability. “Older models had an active-passive failover capability. But with active-active, we can have both clusters running at once. This means if a data center goes offline, the failover takes over with no delay, because both are running simultaneously,” says Franko.

This capability is crucial, because it means that voice over IP (VoIP) phones don’t have to re-register on the network should a failover occur. Almost 33 percent of Sitel’s network traffic is voice data between agents and end customers. Every second counts because, notes Franko, customers will hang up if agent response time is delayed by just three seconds.

“With an active-passive configuration, it can take up to five minutes for a phone to re-register – and if agents aren’t active, customers aren’t being served. But with active-active, it rolls over and that customer never misses a beat,” says Franko

Reducing Labor-Intensive TasksEach of Sitel’s locations is also protected by a pair of Cisco ASA 5540 Firewalls. Prior to implementing the 5540 firewalls, Sitel used access control list (ACL) rules.

“We were managing individual access, which was just a nightmare,” says Dirk Maxwell, vice president of global security for Sitel. “It was not fun and very labor intensive. It was a challenge from a technology perspective, but also from a labor perspective.”

The ASA 5540 with IPS and IDS capabilities lets Sitel segment its agents, so they can securely connect to their customers’ networks, as well as allows Sitel to protect from Internet traffic and malware. “Cisco’s technology allows us to maintain security and still be able to scale easily. We can move firewalls from one customer to another. It could be – in fact, it used to be – incredibly complex. Cisco makes it much simpler,” says Maxwell.

Customer Case Study

3 © 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.

Sitel’s use of Cloud Email Security also is a move to streamline how the company’s email communications are protected. Previously, the company used a collection of email systems from multiple vendors across several regions. Consolidating email security into the cloud versus appliances enables Sitel to more cost-effectively protect and manage those communications assets.

Additionally, Cisco Security Manager has been a key tool used by the Sitel IT team members, as they look to change how they manage the security of the network. “If we are going through audits, then someone has to handle the needed changes. Cisco Security Manager can help us see where the configuration changes are taking place. We plan to do more with this tool,” Maxwell says.

Flexing with Client NeedsSitel specifically benefits from the scalability of the Cisco Web Security Appliance (WSA). “The great thing about the WSA is that not only are they an appliance, but they also function as a virtual machine. Should I find that traffic is increasing because of our clients’ seasonal ramps, I can easily spin up another VM version of the WSA – and I can control it all from a single window, so we don’t have to manually input rules into multiple WSAs,” says Franko.

The WSA also integrates easily into Active Directory. “We can use an agent’s AD credentials to assign what rules apply to them. On the reporting end, I can also easily see what websites that agent visited,” says Franko.

Cisco Cloud Web Security further enables Sitel to control corporate Internet web browsing, thereby protecting internal resources, in areas in which there are more Internet egress points governed by local regulations. It also helps the company secure its clients’ approved websites.

Sitel manages its broad Cisco Security portfolio through a Cisco Security Enterprise License Agreement. “The Security ELA makes the licensing so much simpler. It had been a drain on technical resources. We want our IT executives to spend their time getting security solutions in place and running the network, not messing with contracts and licensing,” says Franko.

Next StepsIn the next six months, Sitel is implementing Cisco Identity Services Engine. The solution will help the company with port changes, agent mobile device management, and customer mobile device management.

“We provide mobile device support and mobile device app support for our clients, so we needed the ability in our environment to not only support our customers around this, but also secure the devices our agents are using on our network. We see ISE as a key control point in letting us introduce an overarching mobile solution for mobile device management,” says Maxwell.

Customer Case Study

4 © 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. C36-732521-00 08/14

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For More InformationTo find out more about the Cisco ASA 5545-X Next-Generation Firewall and other Cisco security solutions, go to:

• http://www.cisco.com/go/asa

• http://www.cisco.com/go/cws

• http://www.cisco.com/go/ces

• http://www.cisco.com/go/wsa

• http://www.cisco.com/go/ise

PRODUCT LIST

Security• Cisco ASA 5585-X Next-Generation Firewall • Cisco ASA 5540 Firewall• Cisco Cloud Web Security • Cisco Cloud Email Security• Cisco Web Security Appliance• Cisco Identity Services Engine• Cisco Security Manager

Routers and Switches• Cisco Catalyst® 4500, 3750X, 2960• Cisco Aggregation Services Router 1001

Data Center• Cisco Nexus® 7000/5000/2000

Services• Cisco SMARTnet™