About the company
- Industry: Manufacturing
- Company size: Large
- Location: Germany
Evonik Industries AG is the largest specialty chemicals company in the world, with an annual revenue of $15b Euros. Headquartered in Essen, Germany, Evonik employs 36,000 people and carries out activities in more than 100 countries.
CHALLENGE
Seeking an open mobile platform with high security
Evonik is one of the world's leading companies in specialty chemicals. Wall paint that does not drip, tires that reduce fuel consumption, and deodorants that do not stain your favorite blouse. There is no area of life where you can not find their specialty chemicals. Accordingly, its broad portfolio calls for a wide variety of processes, which increasingly includes the use of mobile tools.
When the specialty chemicals company looked for a suitable mobile provider three years ago, its IT department sought mobile devices with an open software platform. Android was the favorite after a market analysis. An operating system that many manufacturers use, but lacked sophisticated security concepts. Samsung and its security platform Knox was the exception.
SOLUTION
Knox as the deciding factor
"If Knox had not existed, we would not have Samsung today," says Jochen Dragesser, Service Owner Mobility at Evonik Industries AG.
Evonik was convinced to take on Samsung devices and solutions because of Knox‘s built-in security, which offered direct anchoring of security features in the devices themselves. An important aspect, because in parts of logistics Evonik has a duty to provide documentation. In the past, employees logged everything on paper and also took pictures with digital cameras. The information then had to be digitized again separately. Today, the protocol is simply filled in directly on the tablet on site and the stock levels are also photographed directly with the tablet and put into a database. Work processes and administrative tasks are thus not only simplified - information is also available to authorized employees everywhere in real time.
"It was important to us that our employees were able to work mobile, that they had full access to the necessary data with their devices, and yet that they met all the security standards we needed to handle sensitive corporate data," explains Dragesser. "Knox does it. The platform provides high protection and ensures the wide availability of applications.“
The flexibility and protection of the devices and solutions has convinced us. We therefore also rely on Samsung for the further implementation of our digital strategy and look forward to future cooperation.
RESULTS
In addition to the aspects of security and scalability, the real changeover to the mobile work tools was Dragesser's personal highlight: "There was no migration project. The change has kind of fueled itself. We did not force anything. And yet, the number of mobile devices has doubled in three years. A resounding success.“
At present, more than 7,000 Samsung devices are in use through the company.
"Samsung Knox services such as Knox Mobile Enrollment have also contributed to this,“ Dragesser says. “This service allows IT administrators to connect thousands of compatible devices to the network and corporate IT infrastructure at the same time - without having to sign in each device individually.“
In addition, Evonik uses Knox E-FOTA, the paid Samsung Enterprise Firmware over-the-air service. It enables the central provision, scheduling and execution of selective firmware updates without direct user intervention. This ensures effective control over the OS versions on Samsung devices.
And Evonik has joined Samsung‘s Enterprise Technical Support (ETS) service, giving them direct access to a dedicated team of experts specializing in enterprise mobility. ETS has helped Evonik ensure Knox solutions work with its third-party UEM provider, as well as prevent lost productivity through unplanned downtime, new operating system deployment advice, and interoperability with Enterprise Mobility solutions.
"ETS has enabled our tickets to be processed faster than before. The cooperation with the provider of the UEM solution also went smoothly, "says Dragesser. "We were very confident after the test phase and have integrated Samsung's new service as an integral part of our processes."
Automated EMM enrollment
Add thousands of Samsung devices to your MDM/EMM at once, without manually enrolling each one.
Versatile OS version control
A FOTA (Firmware-Over-The-Air) service that lets you remotely control Android versions of deployed Samsung devices.
Premium support
Tier 3 direct support for every Samsung hardware and software-related issues.
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