How the world’s largest pest control company supports its global workforce

Rentokil Initial is the world’s leading pest control and hygiene services company with a large mobile workforce and a distributed IT estate. To enable both office staff and field employees to work securely from anywhere, the company turned to Omnissa to deploy Omnissa Workspace ONE® in its hybrid security operations center. This enabled the company to gain greater control over its devices to reduce the threat of cyberattacks.

“Work from anywhere” increases flexibility

At Rentokil Initial, the FTSE 100 company’s office-based staff organizes mobile teams to visit customer workplaces to perform a variety of services such as pest control treatments, specialist disinfection following an outbreak of illness and even commercial fumigation to eliminate pests from holding containers.

To support its “work from anywhere” strategy, field staff use mobile devices, including printers, so they can update records and print paperwork for customers on location. Locating logistics in the field helps employees operate more efficiently, reduces vehicle emissions and eliminates paper processes.

Strengthening security through consistent device management

With a large global workforce and a history of growth by acquisition, Rentokil Initial had a widely dispersed IT estate. The company lacked an enterprise approach to device management and endpoint security. A high percentage of staff operate remotely across 90 countries, with multiple distributed IT departments. Because of its decentralized structure, Rentokil Initial needed to provide local IT teams the ability to manage devices themselves while still being able to monitor activity across different units globally.

“Managing complex environments isn’t just a drain on time—it also amplifies security risks by expanding the attack surface. A cyberattack could significantly disrupt business operations and damage the company’s reputation,” says Mike Howell, IT Shared Services Director.

“Empowering employees to work from anywhere was already a priority before the pandemic but we had to scale quickly and gain centralized visibility into our device landscape,” Howell continues. “Without a standardized approach, it became challenging to track which apps were in use and to pinpoint potential vulnerabilities.”

Although the company uses Google Workspace technology almost exclusively, company-owned devices run on a variety of operating systems on both fixed and mobile technologies. This complex environment includes approximately 16,000 Microsoft Windows devices, 9,000 Google Chromebooks and more than 46,000 Android devices.

The greatest security threat to any business is human error. Every device needs to be actively protected to reduce the risk of a security breach so users need comprehensive training in enterprise security. Companies that fail to provide adequate protection face a storm of negative media attention and fines if customer data is compromised, not to mention the painful process of rebuilding trust in their brand.

The company launched an initiative to enhance its security posture and a more consistent approach to manage workplace devices. This involved replacing legacy antivirus software and centralizing device management for greater visibility of the apps staff used.

Rentokil Initial’s acquisition strategy primarily focuses on smaller businesses but Gardiner recalls one particular merger that was an outlier in terms of size and scale. In 2022, Rentokil acquired Terminix, a North America-based pest control company. “With the assistance of [Omnissa’s] support teams, we were able to migrate 12,000 iOS devices from Citrix XenMobile over to Workspace ONE in just three months, which is a fantastic achievement.”

Not only does Rentokil Initial maintain consistency in device management to support its mergers and acquisitions, the team recognizes that security is paramount for their customers as well. To earn the business of a prospective customer, it’s not uncommon for Gardiner and team to provide evidence of compliance as part of a security audit. He credits Omnissa for being able to easily demonstrate that their devices are secure. Proving device encryption and presence of security software during audits “is as easy as a push of a button,” Gardiner says.

Staying ahead of the curve

Gardiner anticipates that meeting certain security requirements right out of the gate, before a customer has even signed on the dotted line, will just become more commonplace in the future. He’s ready and eager to keep pace with the ever-shifting challenges of his industry.

“When you look at Omnissa Intelligence reporting and all of the automations, one of the challenges we have is that IT teams don’t get any bigger but we see things rapidly advancing and we’re taking on more and more information,” says Gardiner.

“Our mission at Rentokil Initial is about protecting people, enhancing lives and preserving the planet,” Gardiner continues. “We want to keep our colleagues out there working, and Workspace ONE allows us to secure devices without disrupting business operations.”