Customer Solution Case Study
/ Hosting Provider Uses Management Features in Latest Operating System to Deliver New Service
Overview
Customer: EVRY
Website: www.evry.com
Customer Size: 7,500 employees
Country or Region: Norway
Industry: IT services
Customer Profile
Headquartered in Oslo, EVRY is one the largest IT companies in Scandinavia. EVRY has more than 14,000 public and private sector customers.
Business Situation
To provide competitive services, EVRY needs to adopt new technologies ahead of the market.
Solution
EVRY was quick to deploy and demonstrate the business value that Windows 8 can offer its customers. It created a new managed desktop service for customers already running the Windows 8 operating system.
Benefits
· Reduced costs
· Improved employee productivity
· Enhanced security
· Introduced new line of business / “At EVRY, our motto is ‘We bring information to life,’ and Windows 8, with its touch-enabled computing and mobility and productivity features, is helping us deliver on our promise.”
Tor Leknes, Service Portfolio Manager, Workplace Nordic Operations, EVRY
At EVRY, a Nordic IT services firm, the outsourcing division wanted a better desktop management service for customers who are using both the Windows 8 and Windows 7 operating systems. EVRY is one of the first IT companies in the Nordic region to create a new managed service offering that uses Microsoft System Center 2012 and Windows 8 management and security features for these customers. With PCs and laptops running Windows 8 now managed by EVRY, its customers can enjoy flexible work scenarios and mobile computing environments that are protected by a cost-effective managed desktop service.
Situation
As one of Norway’s largest IT companies, EVRY delivers daily IT services to financial institutions, national public sector entities, municipalities, and health authorities in 50 Nordic towns and cities. Approximately 1 million Norwegians use services delivered by EVRY each day.
EVRY has an outsourcing division that represents a large percentage of its business. “We like to be ahead of our customers in the adoption of new technologies coming into the market,” says Tor Leknes, Service Portfolio Manager, Workplace Nordic Operations at EVRY. “We have tech-savvy customers who make it a policy to adopt new software as soon as possible and we need to be ready for them. That’s why we wanted firsthand experience of the Windows 8 operating system.”
EVRY currently manages more than 120,000 Windows clients for its customers, and most are running the Windows 7 operating system. EVRY used a combination of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012 to automate desktop deployments and Windows Server Update Services 3.0 Service Pack 2 to deploy the latest Microsoft product updates to these customers. However, for customers who are also using iOS and Android mobile devices, EVRY only provided a few enterprise applications through a virtual desktop solution from Citrix.
“Some of our customers are adopting Windows 8 in pilot projects that focus on mobile use case scenarios with tablets,” says Leknes. “We will be supporting customers who have heterogeneous desktop environments that include mobile device management, so we needed to develop a new, cost-effective managed desktop service that supports both mobile and desktop operating systems for these customers, and quickly.”
Solution
EVRY participated in the Windows 8 First Wave program for early adopters and deployed the Windows 8 operating system on approximately 600 PCs, laptops, and hybrid tablet devices. EVERY also provided field service and sales staff with Windows 8 tablets.
“To maintain our competitive advantage, it’s important for EVRY to be first to implement, deploy, and demonstrate the business value that Windows 8 can offer customers: enabling flexible work styles and possessing enterprise-grade management and security features,” says Leknes.
Also, EVRY is creating a new managed desktop service for its customers who already use Windows 8. The new service takes advantage of Microsoft System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 data center solutions to manage software deployment and updates management internally. “System Center 2012 Configuration Manager manages both Windows 7 and Windows 8 PCs, laptops, and mobile devices, so it’s the key technology for our new managed desktop service offering,” says Leknes.
The Microsoft Services Consulting team helped implement and deploy Windows 8 at EVRY, and helped demonstrate the business value that Windows 8 can offer, especially in the areas of flexible work styles and management. Microsoft Services supported EVRY in the early stages of the deployment for managed desktop services by helping the company explore key scenarios with Windows 8 deployment. These scenarios included mobile device support and Windows To Go, a feature in Windows 8 Enterprise that enables a fully managed Windows 8 desktop image to start and run from USB flash drives, with or without Internet connectivity. With Windows To Go, Every can create Windows To Go workspaces, which use the same image that the company uses for its desktops and laptops, and are managed the same way.
Microsoft Services Consulting also introduced EVRY to improvements in user experience through the virtual desktop infrastructure and remote desktop protocol functionality within Windows 8 and to security features including BitLocker encryption technology and Trusted Boot, which helps protect PCs from the additional threat of a boot or rootkit.
“To realize Evry’s goals for the Windows 8 operating system, the support of Microsoft Services was essential,” says Leknes. “Microsoft Services was a great help in the startup phase of the project, with excellent knowledge of the technology, as well as work experience in customer projects. The Microsoft Services contact network inside Microsoft was a great asset and the entire team was a very good source for tips for the success of the deployment.”
EVRY uses BitLocker to secure data on PCs, laptops, and tablets. To simplify BitLocker deployment, EVRY uses Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM), which is part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack. “Throughout the deployment, the Microsoft Services team addressed our technology questions and requests to our full expectations,” says Leknes.
EVRY is piloting the new managed desktop service internally and with two customers: an insurance company with 20 tablets running Windows 8, and a finance company that is testing a few Windows 8 devices. Both customers found that deploying Windows 8 on new and existing computers was seamless and that older business applications ran perfectly.
Benefits
By using Windows 8, EVRY is improving employee productivity and mobility, reducing costs, and building a new line of business. “At EVRY, our motto is ‘We bring information to life,’ and Windows 8, with its touch-enabled computing and mobility and productivity features, is helping us deliver on our promise,” says Leknes.
Reduced Costs
By using System Center 2012 to manage both Windows 7 and Windows 8 clients for customers, EVRY can reduce the cost of doing business and offer customers a new service. “Customers can reduce costs by choosing Windows 8 tablets in a managed device scenario. They are mobile and touch-friendly, and we can manage and secure them at less cost and without third-party solutions,” says Leknes.
With Windows To Go, consultants working for EVRY don’t need a fully managed PC. “The cost of supplying encrypted Windows To Go USB sticks for consultants is much less than the cost for PCs,” says Leknes.
Improved Employee Productivity
EVRY and its customers are excited about the productivity improvements that they see with mobile employees, who can now use Windows 8 tablets to do all their work on a single device. “Windows 8 offers a new level of workplace flexibility,” says Leknes. “As mobile devices gain popularity, more customers will adopt Windows 8. Everyone loves the long battery life, faster startup times and performance, and the flexibility of choosing touch-screen computing or traditional computing.”
Enhanced Security
With the latest security enhancements, EVRY can assure its customers that modern mobile devices are fully robust business tools suitable for the enterprise. “The out-of-the-box security functions of Window 8 are generating interest,” says Leknes. “Windows 8 tablets have the preboot authentication features that we see on PCs and laptops, and Microsoft has worked with the hardware community to help ensure that devices running Windows 8 are well protected against cold boot attacks.”
Introduced New Line of Business
With a new managed desktop service that supports customers’ PCs, laptops, and mobile devices running Windows 8, EVRY is boosting its competitive advantage by offering managed services at the forefront of the latest technology. “We see Windows 8 adoption as an enabler for our managed desktop services business, and we are looking forward to helping our customers as they adopt new technology,” says Leknes.
Windows 8
Built on the solid foundation of Windows 7, Windows 8 couples familiar Microsoft solutions with modern devices. Windows 8 helps people unleash their full potential by enabling a seamless connection to information. With full-screen immersive apps, built-in endpoint protection, strong authentication, and data encryption, Windows 8 provides a great user experience along with a more secure and manageable IT environment.
For more information about Windows 8, go to:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/consumer-preview