Ejner Hessel’s culture of continuous improvement: Security in the AMG class

Ejner Hessel and Nixu
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Ejner Hessel

Ejner Hessel is a family business founded in 1968 by road haulier Ejner. Today, the company is Denmark's largest car dealership with brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Renault and Dacia. Ejner Hessel has 23 locations and 1,200 employees, and sold more than 24,000 cars in 2019.

Stefan Bylling Møller is IT and Digital Director at Ejner Hessel. He has been behind the wheel since 2017 and, as he himself puts it: "Succeeding in a role like mine is all about being courageous and not just holding on to what you’ve got".

From home-made IT to secure and professional corporate IT

Stefan's primary task back in 2017 was to steady the operation. It was a question of getting the basics to work – the telephones and networks. A genuine operating organization and a service desk were therefore set up. "Since then, we’ve been on a journey," says Stefan Bylling Møller, adding: "New goals were set. Security in Ejner Hessel was to be in the AMG class, so we drew up a three-year strategy".

Reaching a new level in three years

In 2018, the company’s focus was on establishing a safety organization. Guidelines were rolled out for the monitoring and management of IT based on ISO27001/2, and the GDPR was implemented at the same time. In 2019, the focus was on security at location level. Amongst other things, this entailed a significant upgrade and alignment of the network infrastructure, the separation of locations so that an attack would not spread, along with multi-factor identification for all employees. In 2020, it was about the users. All accesses were reviewed and are now needs-based. AI monitoring was installed to minimize phishing by e-mail.

A partner that understands client’s challenges

“One of the reasons why Nixu has been on this journey for many years is that it takes a willingness to understand our industry and business. Nixu does this," says Stefan Bylling Møller, adding: "You have to do the boring work and go out and visit the locations and talk to the staff in order to understand the challenges they face, and that is what Nixu does. The partner must also be willing to find appropriate and pragmatic solutions. Nixu doesn’t pester me just to sell me something new, and I’ve always had the same contacts to whom I can always call and ask for help”.  

With the partnership, Nixu has supported Ejner Hessel for many years and provided services such as network, firewall and email protection.

It's boring in a cool way

The work to achieve security in the AMG class is well advanced: "We will never cross the finishing line, but we have created a culture of continuous improvement," says Stefan Bylling Møller, concluding: "I don’t think about it anymore; it’s stable and boring in a cool way". 

 

We will never cross the finishing line, but we have created a culture of continuous improvement.