Network Access Control
Initial situation:
Our approach:
qedcon provided a technically experienced project manager who quickly analyzed the situation, contacted all technical stakeholders and first improved communication within the project team. The rollout was initially stopped and comprehensive information was provided to all those involved together with the management. After the project team had investigated and analyzed the existing problems and communication errors, the rollout procedure was changed and continued in two phases from that point on:
1) Implementation of NAC in "monitoring mode", which meant that network access was not initially blocked, but merely monitored, thus enabling evaluation by the project team.
2) Activation of the "blocking mode", which basically prevents a device from connecting to the network unless this is expressly permitted.
The project manager also undertook active "over-communication" and contacted all branches, both before the activation of the monitoring mode and before, during and after the activation of the lockdown mode. qedcon also prepared various status reports to upper and middle management as well as various reports for the stakeholders concerned.
Challenges and dependencies:
As there were technical difficulties throughout the project, postponing the rollout was, in retrospect, the right decision to give the project team the opportunity to solve problems, test a new approach and significantly improve communication.
There were also dependencies on group policies (GPOs), which also had to be coordinated in detail in order to avoid difficulties.
Implementation:
Conclusion:
In this project, qedcon's employees impressed with a high level of technical understanding, communication and stakeholder management skills as well as competent project management.
This project exemplifies the importance of combining these skills, which we are very proud of and are working to further develop and promote.
