How Pohjantähti strengthened its cyber resilience with SoftwareOne

Elevating security posture in a regulated landscape

Founded in 1895, Pohjantähti Mutual Insurance Company is a customer-owned Finnish non-life insurance provider. The company operates across more than 20 locations throughout Finland, from Helsinki to Rovaniemi, with its headquarters in Hämeenlinna.

Pohjantähti operates in a highly regulated industry. As a financial institution, it must comply with stringent security and resilience requirements, including the European Union’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA).

Pohjantähti has an in-house ICT team led by CIO Jukka Grönroos. “Our relationship with SoftwareOne goes back many years,” says Grönroos. “They support us with our Microsoft 365 environment, from consulting to licensing.”

While Pohjantähti maintained a stable IT environment, the insurer recognized an opportunity to further optimize and centralize its defenses within the Microsoft ecosystem.

Some organizations approach cybersecurity services primarily as a monitoring challenge, but Pohjantähti wanted something broader. “We were not only looking at monitoring security, but rather continuously improving our security,” he explains.

 “The reason we chose SoftwareOne’s Managed Security Posture was that it offered both: monitoring and the continuous hardening of our security at a decent price point.”

The project was agreed in summer 2025, with implementation beginning shortly afterward. By November, the company was ready to begin full operational monitoring.

A structured roadmap for continuous improvement

SoftwareOne’s Managed Security Posture service is designed for organizations that have standardized on Microsoft technologies and want to improve their security maturity in a structured and sustainable way.

Built around the Microsoft security ecosystem, the service combines technical expertise with ongoing advisory support. Rather than simply applying predefined policies, SoftwareOne works collaboratively with customers to assess their environment, identify improvement opportunities, and recommend security enhancements based on business priorities and risk levels.

This is how Grönroos and his team engaged with SoftwareOne’s Managed Security Posture.

“When we started the project, we already had several security controls in place, but we saw an opportunity to strengthen and integrate them further.”

A key element of the transformation involved consolidating security capabilities within the Microsoft environment. The project provided a foundation for broader security improvements and enabled the insurer to take fuller advantage of the capabilities delivered through the MSP service.

One of the aspects of Managed Security Posture Grönroos values most is the structured advisory process that accompanies the service. “It’s been very good,” he comments.

Pohjantähti participates in regular advisory sessions with SoftwareOne security specialists. During these meetings, the team reviews security posture, discusses progress, and identifies the next priorities.

“SoftwareOne prepares material and suggestions for the next phase,” says Grönroos. “Most of the agreed next steps are carried out by SoftwareOne, but they also advise us on what we can do ourselves to improve our security landscape.”

The maturity framework provides valuable context.

“We usually check our maturity score during the advisory call,” says Grönroos, “but we don’t overly rely on it. The most important thing is to implement our strategic initiatives and then see how this affects the security score.”