I met the Director of OT from a major manufacturing group at a conference just outside Boston, sitting at a weathered steel table on the hotel patio. They’d just wrapped up a massive roll-up—merging seven facilities under one umbrella. He looked at me, shook his head, and said, “It’s like trying to conduct an orchestra where every instrument plays in a different key.” 

With their rollup strategy executed, his team inherited a tangle of control systems, legacy equipment, and site-specific processes—along with seven different remote access technologies. “We had VPNs and jump servers across some sites, browser portals at others, an RPAM tool we never fully configured, and don’t even get me started on the Excel-based workflows,” he added. “The only thing they had in common was how much overhead they created.” 

His team’s goal was clear: standardize secure remote access. Not just for internal engineers and operators, but for the OEMs and contractors their operations depended on every week. “We needed to cut through the mess. Time is money in manufacturing, and we were burning both just trying to get people to their equipment.” 

They’d spoken with the usual IT SRA vendors. Most promised fast deployments and scalable platforms. “But once we got into the details, it was always the same story—six to twelve months to deploy, a box shipped to your site, and a ‘how to get started’ PDF,” he said. “We couldn’t wait. We needed something we could stand up in days—not quarters.” 

That’s when I introduced him to the Dispel Zero Trust Engine. We talked about how Dispel was different. Our flexible deployment models—SaaS, Private Cloud, Hybrid, or On-Prem—were purpose-built for their operational realities. I told him, we would partner with his team from day one, handle onboarding directly, stay hands-on through deployment, and wouldn't leave until the job was done. 

Fast forward through a few months of talks and Dispel was able to deploy their first site in under 3 hours. Within the first 30 days, they had consolidated all seven locations onto a single platform—no more jump servers, no more tool sprawl. 

They gained centralized control, role-based access tailored to every user—from field engineers to OEMs—and burst-capacity vendor access that could flex up or down and scale to 100+ vendors on demand. 

But the biggest win? Time. “Our plant manager isn’t spending 10 hours a week troubleshooting vendor access anymore,” the Director said. “Now we’re focused on uptime and shaving down OpEx. We finally have a remote access solution that works the way we do.” 

Real-world results. Built for operational reality

Every unproductive hour now costs automotive manufacturers up to $2.3 million, according to Siemens, The True Cost of Downtime 2024. And 31% of facilities spend 30+ hours each week on scheduled maintenance, per a recent WorkTrek report. With stakes this high, scalable, efficient remote access isn’t optional—it’s essential. Dispel is built for exactly that: to meet the demands of modern OT environments and scale when and where you need it.