Leveraging Virtualization... Erik's Way

One of our clients has a problem with the portable computers that users carry while they travel all over the world. When software crashes the only way to get the computers working again is by having the user reinstall the software by themselves. This costs lots of money and identifies the need that all their employees be trained as little admins. The solution we offered the customer contains several features to overcome their problems.

1. We build an Altiris Deployment Solution to deliver fast deployment when users are working at headquarters. The image we created is hardware independent and the customer can maintain it by themselves. They only need to get consultancy from us when a new portable arrives, and the drivers need to be brought in.
2. We build a Citrix server to deliver all applications, including the ERP system, at the moment that the travelers have an Internet connection. The Citrix server is installed with SVS and DVS4SBC to get the best flexibility for the applications.
3. SVS is installed on all the portables. All software is built as a layer. The users can now reset applications themselves. This prevents users from losing work when an application crashes. Best of all, the user doesn't need to call the support desk when they are in foreign countries. Telephone costs are reduced tremendously.
4. When all the packages where built, we put them on an FTP server. The user can can now pick up an application when they have an Internet connection. Even patches or new functionality is supplied this way.
5. We built a PHP site that gives users the ability to import new software automatically. The users don't need to be administrators anymore.

All this is managed through the Deployment Solution.

It is hard to count the return on investment. The whole project cost the customer over 20.000€ and for only 50 users that means every user cost 400€. That is over 500 US dollars.

If you think that is expensive, compare the costs related to their initial implementation:

1. Telephone costs to get the portable fixed are reduced over 100€ each month.
2. The support desk no longer needs to be available in non-office hours. The users in other time zones can help themselves.

The best cost reduction cannot be measured in money. It is the time that users lose when the computer is not doing what it should do. The users are no longer losing time that he/she should spend on working on the events.

It is always very hard to measure this, but that is exactly why we always tell customers that they should buy software management and distribution software.