The Challenge
- The council’s old email encryption solution required recipients to create accounts before accessing emails – resulting in poor open rates from residents and third party organizations including the police and NHS organisations
- Digital skills across the organisation are varied; a secure email solution needed to be easy to use for employees
- The system needed to integrate with the organisation’s email archiving solution, Barracuda, supporting compliance
The Solution
- Zivver does not require recipients to create accounts to access secure emails; accessing encrypted emails is simple and convenient
- Seamless integration with M365 provides a clear user-interface for employees; Zivver interferes only when sensitive data is detected, empowering users to encrypt sensitive emails with one click
- The Zivver team worked with Preston City Council to architect the solution so as to ensure emails are archived and sent encrypted through Zivver, supporting the team in meeting their statutory requirements
Preston City Council is responsible for delivering essential services to over 150,000 residents in the city of Preston. With more than 600 employees and a wide range of sensitive public sector responsibilities, protecting personal data is a critical priority for the council’s IT team.
We spoke with Dan Harrison, Senior ICT Infrastructure Manager at Preston City Council, to learn why the team chose Zivver to modernise their email security.
“Being a local authority, we deal with a lot of sensitive personal information every day. We needed to rethink how we shared that information with both our residents and external partners in a way that was secure, simple, and efficient.”
Overcoming complexity and improving engagement
Before adopting Zivver, the council used an alternative secure email solution. While it met some requirements, Dan explains that the tool created unnecessary barriers – especially for recipients:
“We found the recipient experience was a major issue. People had to create an account just to open our messages. Understandably, recipients were often unwilling to do so, so they never saw the information we were trying to send. That created real problems for service delivery.”
The same applied to partner organisations such as the police, NHS, and Department for Work and Pensions.
“Some third-party organisations simply weren’t opening our emails, perhaps because their IT policies wouldn’t allow them to create external accounts with alternative email security tools. So, our messages weren’t getting through.”
A more user-friendly, cost-effective alternative
When it came time to renew their existing solution, the council conducted a full market review and discovered Zivver:
“We’re a public body, so of course cost matters. But usability was just as important, especially with varying levels of digital skills across our workforce. Zivver offered both: a simpler user experience and a more cost-effective solution.”
“The user experience is cleaner, for staff and for the public. Recipients do not need to create accounts to access secure emails. The messages explain clearly what’s happening, and how to access the content. It’s just a friendlier solution for everyone.”
A collaborative proof of concept
To ensure the solution met all technical and user needs, the council ran a three-month proof of concept (POC):
“The Zivver team were fantastic from day one. They helped us tailor the solution to our environment – including our VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) and integrate with existing tools like Barracuda for email archiving.”
“We need to ensure messages sent through Zivver are still archived in line with statutory requirements. Zivver worked with us to architect the set up so that emails flowed through our Exchange Online system, ensuring they were both encrypted and archived when necessary. That flexibility was critical to our adoption of Zivver and the team made it happen.”
Stakeholders across the organisation participated in hands-on testing, using predefined Zivver use cases:
“It was a great way to get people familiar with the tool – both from a training and testing perspective. It helped us understand the full experience, including how things looked for recipients. We are now moving ahead with a full roll-out of Zivver across the organization and I’m confident that it will work for everybody.”
“Councillors, for example, use iPads and other devices, and may not have the same IT experience as office-based staff. But they’re handling highly sensitive information, and engaging with residents about personal and community matters, so we need a solution that’s secure without being complicated. Zivver makes that possible.”
Feature-rich but user-friendly
“Zivver integrates with our single sign on solution, so the log in experience is seamless for users; they sign into Outlook and Zivver is instantly signed in, too, so they don’t need to remember an additional password.”
“As a bonus, Zivver has also provided a much-needed large file sharing capability – helping users work more efficiently, all within a secure email environment.”
“The business rules are also proving useful. Zivver alerts users to sensitive personal information, such as financial data, in the body of their email, so they know when to encrypt it before sending.”
Support from POC to launch and beyond
From deployment to daily use, Zivver has delivered – not just in functionality but also in support:
“The product team have been brilliant; friendly, approachable, reliable and responsive. If they don’t know the answer during a call, they come back within a couple of hours with a solution. There was no pressure to rush the implementation. They worked with us at our own pace, which really helped.”
“Ultimately, Zivver has given us a better solution at a lower cost. It’s secure, it’s simple, and it works. A win-win for us.”
