CUSTOMER CASE STUDY NORMAN’S HALLMARK

Gift and card retailer
dramatically enhances wireless performance, coverage,and security with sophos.
Established in the late 1930s, Norman’s Hallmark is a family-owned andoperated card and gift specialty retailer with 54 stores located throughout
New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In addition to offering Hallmark-brand products,
Norman’s retail outlets also offer a diverse array of fashion merchandise, books,
games, gourmet foods, and bath and body items.
With a staff of more than 600 employees, Norman’s Hallmark is on a fast
growth path, continually expanding its operations and opening more retailstores. Recently, the organization decided to expand its central operation andmove to a much larger space to house its headquarters office and warehouse.

CUSTOMER-AT-A-GLANCE
Norman’s Hallmark
126 Terry Drive Newtown, PA
18940 (215) 579-2600
Industry
Consumer products retailer

Websitenormanshallmark.com
Number of Users
More than 600 employees
across 54 locations

Sophos Solutions
Sophos XG Firewall
Sophos Wireless Access Points

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY NORMAN’S HALLMARK‘We deployed the Sophos Wireless Access Points
following the recommendations from the site survey,
and the wireless network is working flawlessly.
Coverage, speed, bandwidth, and roaming areexcellent, and wireless printing is now fully in place.’
Greg Paladino
CTO
Net2 Technology GroupChallenges
ÌÌ Improving in-building wireless connectivity and coverageÌÌ Ensuring a faster, updated, and more secure wirelessexperience for remote and mobile employees and guests
ÌÌ Simplifying deployment and management of wireless access points
ÌÌ Protecting the network against ransomware, malicious
traffic, and known and unknown threatsÌÌ Preventing the lateral spread of attacks via infected devices

How does poor wireless connectivity affectproductivity and employee morale?
When the big move was underway, Norman’s Hallmark was using SonicWall
firewall and wireless access points, which fell short of expectations. The
organization experienced spotty wireless coverage and connections
when users would try to access the corporate network with their mobile
devices locally and remotely. For example, regional managers attending
monthly meetings at the corporate office were unable to connect
their laptops wirelessly. As a result of a poorly functioning wirelessnetwork, productivity suffered and employee frustration mounted.
With the previous solution, Norman’s Hallmark had to set up two
networks—one for internal use and one for guests. But, all too often,
vendors and other visitors had trouble connecting to the guest
network, so they would be provided with a password for the internal
network. This defeated the whole purpose of having a guest networkin the first place and exposed the network to potential risk.

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY NORMAN’S HALLMARK‘Sophos changed our whole approachto delivering security. The singlepane-of-glass management console
expanded our visibility and allows
us to efficiently manage all ourclients from a central interface.’
Greg Paladino
CTO
Net2 Technology GroupWhy does it make sense to do a site survey
before implementing a wireless network?
Fortuitously, team members from Norman’s Hallmark’s trusted technology
advisor, Net2 Technology Group, had just attended a webinar on wirelesstechnology where the Sophos wireless site survey was presented.
Net2 Technology Group, a Sophos MSP Connect partner, was familiar
with the wireless connectivity struggles that Norman’s Hallmark wasexperiencing and worked with Sophos to initiate a site survey.
Net2 Technology Group CTO Gregory Paladino views the site survey
as an all-important first step in implementing a wireless network, asit provides a clear picture of the physical environment from a radio
frequency (RF) standpoint and from the perspective of business
requirements. Net2 Technology Group uploaded Norman’s Hallmark
floor plans to get a complete visualization of access point placement.
The MSP collaborated with Sophos and placed five Sophos WirelessAccess Points in the Norman’s Hallmark new main office and four in thewarehouse to run the test and determine signal strength and coverage.

This survey enabled Net2 Technology Group to design a wireless network
for Norman’s Hallmark with the right amount of coverage and capacity
to allow key applications to perform the way they should. Based on
the findings, Net2 Technology Group proposed nine Sophos WirelessAccess Points and a Sophos XG Firewall. Deployment of the Sophos
Wireless Access Points was fast, involving just a few simple steps.
“We deployed the Sophos Wireless Access Points following therecommendations from the site survey, and the wireless network
is working flawlessly. Coverage, speed, bandwidth, and roamingare excellent, and wireless printing is now fully in place. Our clientis getting consistent speeds of 30 Mbps across the entire facility,”
reports Paladino. “Apart from vastly improving the performance of
the wireless network, Sophos makes Net2 Technology Group lookgood and has strengthened our relationship with our client.”

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY NORMAN’S HALLMARKHow does Sophos
XG Firewall complement
Sophos Wireless?
Net2 Technology Group manages the access points
through the Sophos XG Firewall Control Center,
which Paladino describes as “seamless and easy.”
Sophos XG Firewall provides visibility into his clients’
network, users, and applications directly, along withon-box reporting. From the Control Center, Paladino
and his team can gain insights into risky wirelessactivity, suspicious traffic, and advanced threats.
When threats are detected, Sophos XG Firewall’s
next-generation security technologies help keep
Norman’s Hallmark users and guests secure
and productive. Integration of deep learningfrom Sophos Intercept X prevents malware andransomware from getting on the wireless network.
Sophos XG Firewall also relies on deep learning
to catch unseen malware lurking in suspicious
payloads and stops these threats dead in theirtracks. High-performance, real-time intrusion
prevention protects the network from known
and unknown attacks from viruses, hackers andother online risks. Additionally, if an unhealthyor compromised device tries to access thecorporate wireless network, Sophos XG Firewall’s
automatic threat response kicks into gear andidentifies and isolates it. This helps prevent thelateral spread of threats from infected devices.

Now, Norman’s Hallmark employees cansecurely and seamlessly connect to thecorporate Wi-Fi network – no more dropped
connections, dead zones, or sluggish
performance to impede productivity.
The successful implementation of the Sophos
wireless solution at Norman’s Hallmark has
inspired Net2 Technology Group to present a similar
model to other clients. The MSP has also been
exploring opportunities to incorporate Sophos
Synchronized Security into its clients’ wirelessnetworks. Through the Security Heartbeat™,
Net2 Technology Group can monitor the healthstatus of any Sophos Central-managed endpoint
or mobile device, while having the endpoints
and the firewall communicating with eachother. If a user’s device is noncompliant, webaccess is restricted on trusted Wi-Fi networks,but, once health is restored, the user gets fullconnectivity. Bringing cutting-edge security totheir customers is important to Net2 TechnologyGroup, allowing customers like Norman’s
Hallmark to stay ahead of the threat landscape.

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Sophos is a registered trademark of Sophos Ltd. All other product and company names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

‘Apart from vastly
improving theperformanceof the wirelessnetwork, Sophos
makes Net2Technology Group
look good andhas strengthened
our relationshipwith our client.’
Greg Paladino
CTO
Net2 Technology Group

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