Press Releases

Belton Contracting Ltd has partnered with Holistec Systems to implement a new Microsoft 365 Business environment, moving the growing contracting company away from individual personal Gmail accounts and onto a professional, centrally managed business communications and collaboration platform.

The move represents an important step in Belton Contracting's growth, providing its expanding team with company-managed email, shared business data and modern collaboration tools built around Microsoft Exchange Online, OneDrive for Business and Microsoft Teams.

"As the business grows, the systems behind it need to grow as well," said Daniel Belton, General Manager at Belton Contracting. "Moving to Microsoft 365 gives us a much more professional way to manage our email, documents and communication, while giving us a platform that can easily expand as we add people."

Holistec Systems designed the new Microsoft 365 environment around Belton Contracting's new corporate identity, replacing the limitations of individually managed consumer email accounts with business email delivered through Exchange Online.

The change provides a significant improvement behind the scenes. User accounts, mailboxes and access to company information can now be centrally administered, allowing new employees to be added quickly and departing staff to be removed cleanly while business information remains under company control.

OneDrive for Business provides each member of the team with secure business file storage and synchronisation across their devices, while Microsoft Teams introduces a common workspace for messaging, meetings, collaboration and the sharing of information between people in the office and those working remotely or on site.

"This is one of my favourite types of technology project because it coincides with a business reaching a new stage in its development," said Mike Ross, Regional Director – Australasia, at Holistec Systems. "A single Gmail address might be perfectly adequate when a company starts out, but eventually you reach the point where the technology needs to reflect the business you're becoming."

"With Microsoft 365, Belton now owns and controls its business identity and information. Each person has their own professional account, their files can follow them between the office and the field, and Teams gives everybody a common place to communicate and collaborate. Most importantly, the platform can simply grow with them."

The Microsoft 365 deployment also establishes the foundation for additional security and management capabilities as Belton Contracting expands, allowing Holistec Systems to progressively introduce further identity, device and information protection without requiring another fundamental change of platform.

For Belton Contracting, the project is about more than changing email systems. It represents the transition from a collection of individual productivity tools to a professional business technology platform designed for growth.

For Holistec Systems, it demonstrates that digital transformation doesn't always need to involve a large infrastructure project. Sometimes the most important transformation is giving a growing New Zealand business the tools, identity and technology foundation to take its next step.

Holistec Systems has announced the successful deployment of a fully integrated OPNSense OpenVPN authentication platform enhanced with Cisco Duo Push Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), providing New Zealand organisations with a secure, intelligent, and remarkably simple remote access experience.

The solution combines the enterprise networking capabilities of OPNSense, the identity management strengths of Microsoft Active Directory, and the market-leading user experience of Cisco Duo, creating a modern VPN platform that delivers both exceptional security and outstanding ease of use.

Instead of relying on cumbersome one-time passwords or hardware tokens, users simply launch their OpenVPN client, enter their normal Active Directory username and password, and receive an instant Duo Push notification on their mobile device. A single tap to approve the request securely authenticates the session, allowing the VPN connection to establish within seconds.

"Our goal has always been to improve security without making life harder for our people," said Mike Ross, Regional Director – Australasia, at Holistec Systems. "By combining OPNSense with Duo Push, we've removed almost all of the friction traditionally associated with multi-factor authentication."

At the heart of the solution is the Cisco Duo Authentication Proxy, which acts as the intelligent bridge between OPNSense and Microsoft Active Directory.

The authentication process follows a simple but highly secure workflow:

• The user initiates an OpenVPN connection.

• OPNSense validates the user's credentials against a Microsoft Active Directory RADIUS server.

• The request is securely forwarded to the Duo Authentication Proxy.

• Duo verifies the user's identity and immediately sends a Push Notification to their registered mobile device.

• Once approved, authentication is completed automatically and the VPN session is established.

This architecture means organisations continue to leverage their existing Active Directory identities and security groups, while adding a world-class second authentication factor with minimal infrastructure changes.

Unlike many MFA implementations that require users to manually enter rotating verification codes, the Duo Push experience dramatically reduces login times while improving security through device trust, contextual verification and real-time authentication intelligence.

The solution also provides administrators with detailed authentication logging, central policy management, user self-enrolment capabilities, and the flexibility to enforce stronger authentication policies for privileged users or sensitive applications.

"Remote access is no longer just about encryption," said Mike Ross. "It's about verifying the identity of every connection in a way that's effortless for legitimate users but extremely difficult for attackers. Duo Push achieves exactly that."

By combining OPNSense OpenVPN, Microsoft Active Directory, RADIUS, and Cisco Duo, Holistec Systems has created a secure remote access platform that delivers enterprise-grade protection without compromising user productivity.

The solution is now available as part of Holistec Systems' managed cybersecurity portfolio and is suitable for organisations of all sizes seeking to modernise remote access while defending against credential theft, phishing, and unauthorised VPN access.

Apparelmaster, New Zealand's leading textile rental and managed workwear provider, has partnered with Holistec Systems to modernise its cybersecurity infrastructure with the deployment of enterprise-grade OPNSense firewalls at both its Wellington headquarters and Tauranga operations centre.

The project marks the first phase of a wider network modernisation programme, replacing legacy Fortinet infrastructure with a high-performance Business Edition (BE) OPNSense platform, delivering enhanced visibility, greater flexibility, and lower total cost of ownership.

"As our business continues to grow and evolve, we wanted a security platform that gives us enterprise capability without enterprise complexity," said Bevan Ritchie, Managing Director of Apparelmaster. "The new OPNSense solution provides excellent performance, strong security, and a platform we can confidently build on for the future."

Supplied and deployed by Holistec Systems, the new firewall platform delivers advanced capabilities including intrusion detection and prevention, secure site-to-site connectivity, VPN services, application visibility, traffic shaping, and real-time monitoring. The solution also provides Apparelmaster with greater transparency and control over its security environment compared to traditional proprietary firewall platforms.

The deployment utilises production-grade OPNSense hardware from Deciso, the creators of OPNSense, ensuring enterprise reliability and full vendor support. The hardware platform is purpose-built to maximise throughput while maintaining advanced security inspection and reporting capabilities.

"Many organisations are discovering that they can achieve better performance and more flexibility while significantly reducing ongoing licensing costs," said Mike Ross, Regional Director – Australasia, at Holistec Systems. "OPNSense has matured into a genuine enterprise firewall platform, and Apparelmaster's investment demonstrates the confidence that large New Zealand organisations are placing in open, transparent security technologies."

The Wellington and Tauranga deployments provide a secure foundation for Apparelmaster's critical business systems, enabling reliable connectivity between sites while protecting operational systems, corporate applications, and customer data from an increasingly sophisticated threat landscape.

As Apparelmaster continues its digital transformation journey, the new OPNSense platform positions the organisation with a modern security architecture designed to scale alongside future business growth.