Transcript
HE Parts is in the mining industry, but we don't mine. We do aftermarket repairs for mining equipment such as Caterpillar, Komatsu, Hitachi, construction machinery. Think of us as the Jiffy Lube that we service all cars. So we do that with all of our mining equipment. And we re-engineer parts, so we make them better than the OEM. We have important engineering drawings and IP that is critical to keep within our departments. Our legacy environment was very fragmented. So we had lots of different solutions out there, but it wasn't cohesive in our environment. So we run a very lean team, and we only have a few resources that are in each region. So having the depth of knowledge you really need is difficult if you're trying to get the best of the best and mash them together. I would also say you get blind spots if you're fragmented. So you think you might have the best of the best and everything's working great, but it's actually very fragmented, and you have these blind spots that you don't know are an issue until that issue arises. The benefits of consolidating into different products, one, there's a financial benefit. You have, it's more efficient, but more importantly, having that end-to-end products that are naturally meant to work together instead of trying to force it, that's when the magic happens. When you have that entire end-to-end security tool that can really give you the insights that you don't have when you have a mismatch of random products. We really have invested in our Forti package end-to-end. Everything from the firewalls, the switches, all the way through some of the software components such as DLP and endpoint protection and a multitude of others, including SOC as a service. But I think we have almost everything. Why Fortinet was the right long-term partner is they definitely invest in innovation and They definitely invest in the tools and the products, but also it's about strong relationships. Having lived through cyber attacks in the past and knowing the right vendor there on the scene, it's definitely a make-or-break situation. You want somebody you can trust and count on. Like most other companies, we have had some people become a victim of some phishing attacks. We engaged Fortinet and their incident response team to really help us. We had bought the tools, but we had not fully implemented them, but Fortinet team was able to come and work alongside us, helping us do a full forensics, ensuring that we were safe and compliant. It has really helped us accelerate implementing some of the other tools. So one of the first things that we are really focusing on is rolling out data loss protection within our environment, and we actually have visibility of where things are going. Whether that's rogue AI tools that we're able to see data being uploaded, even within our approved AI tools, we're able to call some of that data out where it is being put out in unsafe areas that aren't approved. So we're able to start pushing some of those rules out and fine-tuning in a safe and appropriate way to approach AI. With being a global company, we have a lot of remote workers. So some of the products, the SASE, the DLP, endpoint protection is really critical as we have people traveling, are we keeping the company protected? We've really been on a journey of first getting this discovery, being able to see the data and where it's moving, so that we can work with our head of compliance and our parent company to continuously tighten up our data policies. And so right now where we've started down this journey, we're slowly tightening the guardrails. Just being able to have the visibility and the clarity has really moved our team to the next level. Our growth for AGParts is critical, and that is a strong requirement from our CEO and board. If we are going to be able to go into new areas and new markets, we need to be able to stand up safe and secure networks and solutions that will be easy to roll out to the different groups. So really, I see the future of using Fortinet is in scalable, secure solutions no matter where we grow. If I was to say what I love about Fortinet, number one, it's the people. They are absolutely fantastic. Number two, it's the ease of use for my team. So as we're growing into the Fortinet landscape, I give them cool new tools to learn and focus on to keep them happy so that I can train them enough that they can leave but they don't want to.
