Ergo equips BidX1 to drive innovation in the real estate industry with IT transformation deal

Ergo, Ireland’s largest IT solutions provider with a growing global footprint, has announced a deal with real estate company BidX1, which has seen the company transform its network and IT security strategy. Partnering with Cato Networks, the deal will significantly enhance BidX1’s security and connectivity to drive innovation, support business growth and facilitate ongoing international expansion.

Established in Ireland in 2011, BidX1 is a leading property company with a digital platform that enables buyers and sellers to complete transactions seamlessly online. Now active across five markets –Ireland, UK, Spain, Cyprus and South Africa – this innovative approach has seen BidX1 sell more than 15,000 properties with a Gross Transaction Value of over €3 billion.

As part of its managed services division, this project saw Ergo roll out a Cato Networks Secure Access Service Edge framework and SD-WAN solution, along with Zero Trust Network Access for BidX1’s remote users.

It involved a shift to a 100% cloud-based environment for BidX1, which had been using physical premise-based firewalls and networks for its users and websites. As well as enhancing security and improving connectivity, this new IT foundation can be scaled to enable further business growth and support new regions in line with BidX1’s expansion plans.

This new approach also provides greater security and protection for more than 100 BidX1 staff located across five locations, together with the company’s customer base, by delivering a managed firewall service, implementing authentication processes and providing disaster recovery capabilities. Furthermore, the in-house IT team can better manage, monitor and control access to internal networks.

The new portal centralises visibility of company systems and constantly assesses performance across the entire IT environment. Furthermore, it delivers a full audit log of the network, including detailed data insights.

The Cato Networks framework allocates a static IP for each geo location of BidX1. This enables staff to connect to and access resources based on the country they are in at that time, streamlining administrative tasks and making the systems overall easier to use.

The cloud-only foundation established by Ergo is also a more cost-effective approach and is easier-to-use, compared to BidX1’s previous IT infrastructure. It can be managed by the in-house team, which can choose which features to activate, and was installed seamlessly, in a matter of weeks, with configuration completed by Ergo off-site in advance.

Commenting on the rollout, Alba de la Fuente, IT Operations Manager, BidX1, said: “Cloud-based technology and data-driven insights are key enablers for our platform, an online real estate marketplace which attracts thousands of bidders each year. This latest phase on our digital journey will enhance our service delivery and enable further business growth. We’re very pleased to benefit from the cutting-edge solutions developed by Cato Networks, as well as the experience and expertise of Ergo, which has been second-to-none both in terms of communication and implementation.”

John Clancy, Managing Director, Managed Services at Ergo Group, added: “We really enjoyed partnering with BidX1 on this project, a company that is driving true innovation in the property sector, as Cato Networks are doing similarly in the SASE space. Our aim was to leverage the technologies of Cato Networks to create a secure, smart way of working which would equip BidX1 with the means to continue on their digital transformation journey and support their growing global footprint and operations.”

Mark Draper, Area Vice President, EMEA Channel Sales, Cato Networks, commented: “We are very pleased to be working with Ergo. Their experience and credibility have accelerated the enterprise opportunity in Ireland, and the BidX1 opportunity is a great reflection of this. It’s been a fantastic journey to date and one that will increase significantly as more enterprises adopt a cloud-native approach to security and networking throughout 2024.”

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