Porsche Informatik Modernizes Europe’s Largest

Porsche Informatik Modernizes Europe's Largest Automotive Retail Group with Zscaler

Bloy by Peter Friedwagner, Head of Infrastructure and Cloud Services, Porsche Informatik 

When customers, employees, business partners, and suppliers in the automotive industry began expecting more complex, mobility-driven online and in-person experiences several years ago, our company—Porsche Informatik—set out to develop a next-generation digitalization platform that would fulfill the sales, leasing, financing, online, and back-office technology needs across all units at our parent organization, the Porsche Holding Salzburg.

Like many large and respected enterprises, Porsche Holding had accumulated various types of aging technologies over the years. Having successfully directed modernization efforts at other esteemed brands, I joined Porsche Informatik to spearhead the move to state-of-the-art technology infrastructure that would unify, streamline, and mobilize retail and wholesale sales functions across VW’s more than 150 operating countries and over 600,000 workers.

As the effort included adopting leading cloud-enabled solutions such as Microsoft 365, we needed to re-engineer our security architecture by moving away from legacy equipment and the obsolete castle-and-moat approach. To do so, we selected the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange as a true cloud native solution, not just one revised to be cloud-delivered. It provided the security, performance, scalability, and flexibility we required.

Technology investment pays unexpected dividends

Due to Zscaler’s inherent capabilities and tight integration with Microsoft, deploying our new collaboration and security solutions proved rapid and smooth. We conducted four parallel work streams that implemented the Zero Trust Exchange, together with M365, for our subsidiary’s 30,000 employees. As a testament to Zscaler, we completed the initiative in a matter of months.

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, which made our adoption of the Zero Trust Exchange and M365 even more fortuitous. We had gained the agility to rapidly transition our entire company within weeks to remote work, supporting business continuity and employee productivity during the multiple waves of pandemic closures reliably and cost-effectively. This helped our enterprise maintain profitability and ensure critical R&D efforts could proceed.

Powering today’s experiences while keeping overhead low

Beyond COVID, having robust mobility technologies supports our group’s business model for delivering modern customer experiences, regardless of whether an individual visits a retail location or interacts with any of our brands digitally. For Porsche Informatik employees, it means having the same high-quality, high-performance experiences working at home, in the office, or on the road.

In addition to assisting us with successfully addressing the new realities of hybrid customer interactions and workplaces, our partnership with Zscaler has benefited Porsche Informatik in numerous other ways. This includes the ability to keep management overhead low because the same number of IT staff can now manage a global connectivity footprint that is approximately 300% larger than before.

Exceptional service and support confer business advantage

Another advantage to working with Zscaler is the outstanding support and service we enjoy. Our Zscaler team is exceptionally knowledgeable, attentive to understanding our business, and proactive with supplying suggestions for utilizing the Zero Trust Exchange most effectively in our environment.

On the rare occasion when we’ve experienced a hiccup, Zscaler has been incredibly responsive in resolving our issue. And, most importantly, we receive invaluable information about Zero Trust Exchange innovations in the development pipeline, which helps us envision new ways to serve our business and gain market advantage.

Fulfilling our brand promises

For more on how the Zero Trust Exchange assists us with fulfilling our brand promises, I invite you to watch the accompanying video. There, you’ll learn about our successes and the benefits of our Zscaler partnership.