Recently, spam e-mail became a little too sophisticated to be blocked by Tabor’s traditional blocking methods…

Situation

Established in 1908, Tabor College is a small liberal arts college committed to helping students develop a distinctly Christian worldview and lifestyle by providing a high-quality liberal arts and professional / career education in a Christian context. The college is owned and operated by the Mennonite Brethren Church.

With a primary campus in Hillsboro, Kansas, plus a satellite campus in Wichita, Tabor College has a computer network of approximately 250 work stations used by 500 students, plus faculty. Clearly, Tabor’s modest IT department has its work cut out for it. Recently, spam e-mail became a little too sophisticated to be blocked by Tabor’s traditional blocking methods—at least 80% of all incoming e-mail was junk. Chris Glanzer, Tabor College’s IT Director, needed to find a cost-effective, low-maintenance solution for this rapidly growing problem.

Solution

Glanzer discovered Securence, and it was exactly what he and Tabor College were looking for. One thing that initially attracted Glanzer to Securence was that it was a low investment service that didn’t involve Tabor College having to buy new equipment. “Because we weren’t purchasing any hardware,” said Glanzer, “we also didn’t have to purchase a hardware maintenance agreement.”

Still, Glanzer had some initial reservations about Securence. However, it didn’t take long for the service to impress him. At first, he thought he might be giving up too much control by choosing a service that didn’t offer custom configurations for individual inboxes. “I thought that would be a big deal, but it’s not,” says Glanzer. “If the service does what it’s supposed to do, which is filter out junk mail, then you don’t need to customize things, it just works.”

Securence didn’t just work, it worked exceptionally well. Glanzer saw Tabor’s incoming spam drop from 80% to almost nothing. “I get maybe one or two pieces of junk mail per week. Now, it’s almost a novelty to get a piece of spam,” he says.

Glanzer is also very impressed with Securence’s accuracy. “We have been using it for about two months, easily filtering over 250,000 pieces of mail.” It was also very easy to integrate Securence with Tabor’s existing network. The entire setup took about ten minutes to complete. What’s more, the service is virtually maintenance free for Glanzer, and he knows if he has any questions, he’ll get good customer service. “My account rep is great,” says Glanzer. “He has been more than patient. Up until recently, I was the lone person in our IT department, so to catch me was nearly impossible, but he just keeps trying.”

Securence offers a highly effective, low maintenance solution to spam e-mail problems for a low cost. By switching to Securence, Tabor College was able to reduce their incoming spam from 80% to almost nothing.