Managing risk and simplifying licensing

for Adventist Risk Management

A Softchoice Case Study

—

Overview

1

Adventist Risk Management (ARM) is the captive insurance company

of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, providing health insurance to

employees across North America and a broad range of other insurance

plans and services to the Church around the globe.

The church itself is a major presence in healthcare, education and disaster relief, via affiliated institutions including Adventist hospitals and universities.

Supporting these ministries — by mitigating risks ranging from mechanical problems affecting church vans, to coordinated cyberattacks — requires scalable, secure IT infrastructure. With only a limited number of category-specific IT specialists on staff, ARM has relied upon the expertise of Softchoice and additional partners to continuously manage its Cisco, Microsoft, Nutanix and other licenses, monitor its key systems and guarantee up-to-date cybersecurity.

“We are a small organization with enterprise IT needs,” explained Tony Vargas, VP and CIO at Adventist Risk Management. “Between our insurance and claims management systems, we have a substantial amount of infrastructure both on-prem and in the cloud. Thanks to Softchoice’s professional services, we have a clear view of what’s happening in these environments, without having to dedicate our limited staff to tasks such as log audits.”

With only a

limited number of

category-specific

IT specialists on

staff, ARM has relied

upon the expertise

of Softchoice and

additional partners to

continuously manage

its Cisco, Microsoft,

Nutanix and other

licenses, monitor its

key systems and

guarantee up-to-date

cybersecurity.

Managing risk and simplifying licensing for Adventist Risk Management

A license to specialize

2 Managing risk and simplifying licensing for Adventist Risk Management

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has a truly global

footprint. Its ministries serve millions worldwide,

not only through the church’s services, but also

the Adventist organizations, which care for patients,

educate students and provide relief during disasters

like hurricanes and tornadoes.

As the church’s captive insurer, ARM’s ministry is to protect all of these ministries. But to reliably do so, ARM has needed to maintain IT operations at a scale beyond its own relatively small size. Because ARM’s limited internal team consists mostly of generalists, it has sought out more specialized expertise from external partners, for managing its particular licenses and making the right purchasing decisions about hardware and software.

After opting to move on from a previous vendor, ARM started its partnership with Softchoice in 2019.

The Softchoice professional services team immediately began working with ARM to fill in all specialization gaps, and more specifically to guide the company in optimizing its:

• Complex and ever-evolving security environment, which included the Cisco Identity Services Engine, Cisco TrustSec segmentation and Cisco Smart Net Total Care.

• Cisco license agreements, with an eye toward transitioning to a consolidated Cisco Enterprise Agreement, to save as much money as possible while also keeping everything current.

• Large and expanding Nutanix cloud footprint, a key piece in supporting ARM’s growth and its remote workforces, plus the ongoing changes to Nutanix’s licensing options.

• Licenses from Microsoft and from other software makers including Adobe, via a review of all line items to make sure ARM was getting the best available prices and coverage for its IT operations.

3

Right at the beginning of the partnership, Softchoice reviewed

ARM’s upcoming Cisco license renewals and identified which of its

security components could be moved into a more manageable

Enterprise Agreement.

Through Keystone Managed Services from Softchoice, ARM also got one-stop-

shop support for its Smart Net environment. Moreover, Softchoice conducted

broader assessments of ARM’s licensing and networks and brought in a team of

Microsoft experts within the first 60 days, to evaluate those licenses in particular.

“Softchoice worked with all of these vendors, to review our licensing and ensure

we were always where we needed to be,” said Vargas. “And those changes saved

us dollars and brought us additional resources that hadn’t been available to us

prior to our engagement with Softchoice’s professional services team. Overall,

this partnership has been a much better experience than our previous one, and I

always feel confident that Softchoice is there working for us.”

For example, when ARM had to shift to a remote work arrangement over the course

of just four business days in 2020, Softchoice worked on getting ARM employees

the equipment they needed despite global shipping delays and shortages.

As a result of the Softchoice engagement, ARM has been able to reduce some of

its IT spend and redeploy its funds toward the vendors that deliver the most value.

Although cost reductions have varied across licenses, the ARM team estimated

average savings of at least 10%.

“Overall, this

partnership has

been a much better

experience than our

previous one, and I

always feel confident

that Softchoice is

there working for us.”

— Tony Vargas,

VP and CIO, Adventist Risk Management.

Managing risk and simplifying licensing for Adventist Risk Management

4

Locking down and scaling up security

“Softchoice’s team and partners, and the services they all provided, enabled us to control that complexity and to monitor our systems on a continuous basis.”

— Tony Vargas,

VP and CIO, Adventist Risk Management.

Because the Seventh-day Adventist Church is

simultaneously a prominent religious, healthcare-

focused and educational organization, it has been

a common target of cyberattacks.

As the insurance provider for the church, ARM is subject to

similar attacks. Minimizing the risk of such incidents has always

been a priority for ARM in its partnerships, and Softchoice

has focused on this goal throughout the ARM-Softchoice

relationship.

Softchoice enlisted partners including Arctic Wolf and Lyrical

to strengthen ARM’s security posture by identifying gaps and

ensuring that its protections could scale to its operations.

Managing risk and simplifying licensing for Adventist Risk Management

ARM benefits from a multi-layered security architecture

built on up-to-date licenses. This high level of protection

and integration has been pivotal in the wake of the COVID-19

pandemic, as ARM has seen a substantial long-term increase

in the events handled by its firewalls and security devices.

“There are many moving parts in cybersecurity,” said Vargas.

“We use most of Cisco’s security infrastructure, with a lot

of different solutions and integrated pieces, and it can

be challenging to keep track of the various dependencies

between the individual components. Softchoice’s team and

partners, and the services they all provided, enabled us to

control that complexity and to monitor our systems on a

continuous basis.”

The customerAdventist Risk Management is the captive insurer of the

Seventh-day Adventist Church. It offers health insurance to

employees across North America, and property and vehicle

insurance in addition to risk management services, to the

Church around the world. Albeit a small organization with

very few IT staff, ARM has enterprise-grade IT requirements.

The original askARM needed an external partnership to ensure its IT

operations were both secure and scalable. More specifically,

it sought Softchoice’s help to optimize its licensing, manage

its Smart Net environment and review its network and

security infrastructure.

The Softchoice valueSoftchoice conducted in-depth assessments of ARM’s

licenses and requirements and ultimately streamlined the

company’s licensing agreements, to deliver better value

and savings, while also reducing total complexity. Softchoice

partners including Arctic Wolf and Lyrical reviewed ARM’s

security posture to strengthen its multilayered protection

against attacks.

5 Managing risk and simplifying licensing for Adventist Risk Management

About Adventist Risk Management