Renewable Energy Leader Keeps Compliant and Saves Teams Time With Proofpoint
The Challenge
- Retain email conversations to meet regulatory requirements
- Help HR teams stay efficient and agile
- Keep existing IT environments running smoothly
The Solution
- Proofpoint Archive
The Results
- Flexible cloud-based archiving simplifies legal discovery and regulatory compliance
- Streamlined archiving reduces risk of fines and damaged reputation
- Interoperable solution integrates smoothly with existing environment
The Challenge
Setting a Global Example for Clean Energy Progress
Growth and innovation are embedded deeply in the culture at RWE. Between 2024 and 2030, the organisation plans to invest 55 billion euros worldwide in offshore and onshore wind, solar energy, batteries, flexible generation and hydrogen projects. And by the end of the decade, RWE’s green portfolio will grow to more than 65 gigawatts of generation capacity, which will be perfectly complemented by global energy trading. Its aim is to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040.
To help the organisation achieve these bold objectives, Paul Beddoe, head of workplace technology at RWE, must not only keep the company’s IT architecture running smoothly, but painstakingly document its operations to meet compliance regulations.
“Our mission is to provide secure and stable core infrastructure and endpoint management solutions for RWE on a global basis,” said Beddoe. “In our trading division, we are legally obliged to record both voice and email conversations about trading and other business transactions—as is customary in banks, for example.”
As RWE began exploring ways to make its archiving and compliance processes more efficient, the organisation sought a flexible solution that would work seamlessly with its existing productivity applications and communications processes.
Paul Beddoe, head of workplace technology, RWE
The Solution
Unlocking Cloud-Based Compliance
Ten years ago, RWE evaluated its options and chose Proofpoint Archive. And the company hasn’t looked back. Part of the Proofpoint Intelligent Compliance family of products, Proofpoint Archive simplifies legal discovery, regulatory compliance and data access for the company’s users. The solution lets RWE quickly collect, search and retrieve that data on demand. It’s also flexible and customisable. This enables the global organisation to establish and enforce policies and review processes for specific regulations and geographies.
“We archive our Microsoft 365 mailboxes, because it is a regulatory requirement for us to do so,” said Beddoe. “We primarily use the solution’s built-in archiving capabilities, such as search, legal hold and export functionalities. Proofpoint provides us with the flexibility we need to cope with the requirements from different regions.”
“We’ve provided role-based access for our HR team, enabling them to access Proofpoint Archive to do their specific jobs,” said Beddoe. “Our HR team is familiar with the solution and they know how to use it, and our compliance teams do as well. They have access to the solution, and they are able to retrieve the emails for very specific sets of users.”
The Results
An Evolving Solution for Changing Needs
Proofpoint Archive delivers the comprehensive reach that RWE requires to address compliance requirements for a variety of teams and processes.
“Proofpoint delivers the simplicity we need to fully cover our primary communications, which is email,” said Beddoe. “It processes and archives nearly 12,000 messages daily, more than 2.3 gigabytes of data. We continue to use Proofpoint because we’ve been happy with it, and there’s been no reason to change that.”
As part of its efforts to continually improve efficiencies, RWE also meets regularly with the Proofpoint customer support team to explore ways to optimise its solution. Beddoe and his team often ask questions about configuration recommendations, as well as some of the newer functionality that Proofpoint recommends for them.
“The customer health check meetings provide great insights into how we’re doing and what’s being used, which is particularly useful,” said Beddoe. “I really do like those meetings.”
Beddoe is also impressed with the dependable operation of the solution. Over the past ten years, Proofpoint Archive has provided reliable operation without issues.
“The product simply works,” said Beddoe. “We have other products that require frequent updates, and our involvement to do it as well. Sometimes the issues continue even after the updates and emergency fixes come out. We don’t get any of that with Proofpoint Archive.”
With its archive solution running smoothly, RWE is now considering adding the renowned Proofpoint Email Protection solution to its deployment. This email gateway can be deployed as a cloud service or on-premises, using advanced machine learning technology to detect and block threats like business email compromise (BEC). Beddoe and his team hope to continue the success they have seen around compliance with Proofpoint and the peace of mind when it comes to archiving email communications.