Customer Solution Case Study
/ Importer Boosts Productivity, Reduces Help-Desk Calls by 70 Percent with Operating System
Overview
Country or Region:United States
Industry:Manufacturing—distribution and services;Specialty retailing
Customer Profile
Kobrand Corporation, based in Westchester County, New York, imports and distributes premium wines and spirits from around the world. It has about 175 employees.
Business Situation
Kobrand needed to improve remote access and computer performance for its mobile sales force and make it easier for IT staff to manage the desktop environment.
Solution
Kobrand initiated a companywide rollout of the Windows 7 Enterprise operating system and Microsoft Application Virtualization.
Benefits
- Boosted sales force connectivity, productivity
- Improved IT administration, sped application upgrade
- Reduced help-desk calls by 70 percent, malware infections by 80 percent
Dean Ubriaco, Director of Operations and Information Technology, Kobrand Corporation
Kobrand Corporation attributes its success not only to its premium wines and spirits, but also to an effective sales force. However, the importer’s highly mobile team was having remote access issues and could not readily get the files it needed, computer capacity and performance were lacking, and it was hard for staff to maintain the desktop environment. By upgrading to the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Enterprise, Kobrand virtually eliminated connectivity issues and boosted sales force productivity. The IT group has greater ability now to implement Group Policy settings on companywide devices and, by using Microsoft Application Virtualization, it sped and simplified its upgrade to Microsoft Office 2010. Kobrand reports an 80 percent reduction in malicious software incidents, 70 percent fewer help-desk calls, and employees who are much more satisfied with IT services.
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Situation
Kobrand Corporation was founded on a commitment to excellence. Since 1944, quality has driven all aspects of the Westchester County, New York–based importer’s business, from the 33 premium wine and spirit brands that it sells, to the experienced people that it hires, to the strong relationships that it builds with retailers throughout the United States. With a mobile sales force comprising about half of the company’s approximately 175 employees, it is critical that Kobrand representatives can readily access corporate information when they are travelling and perform necessary tasks on their portable computers. However, because Kobrand was using Cisco Virtual Private Network (VPN) Client technology and the 32-bit version of the Windows XP Service Pack 3 operating system, this was challenging.
“Our salespeople need to be able to access the corporate network from wherever they are located. But there were always connectivity issues,” says Dean Ubriaco, Director of Operations and Information Technology at Kobrand Corporation.
Employees that were meeting with retailers in remote locations would find themselves in VPN dead zones. This could be due to lack of available communications infrastructure or hotels that wouldn’t allow VPN passthroughs. “Without connectivity, they couldn’t get into the corporate network to pick up email or access the files that they needed for their customer engagements,” says Ubriaco.
VPN-related issues also affected IT administration efforts. “We couldn’t apply Group Policy updates because remote employees often logged on to the network with locally cached credentials,” says Tom Rundle, Technical Services Manager at Kobrand Corporation. He explains that if employees logged onto Windows XP on their computers before logging on to the VPN, authentication between the VPN and the user would not take place and, therefore, Group Policy settings for everything from password changes to antivirus software updates could not be applied.
“The IT staff would constantly have to track down our salespeople and schedule time to remotely access their computers so that they could run all the Group Policy updates, or we would send them required files via email and call to make sure they uploaded them. It was time-consuming and very hard to manage the desktop environment,” says Rundle.
Employee computers were often exposed to malicious software (malware). “Most of our employees had administrator rights, which meant that they could download software and inadvertently infect their computers. These viruses ended up knocking out our sales people’s ability to access the internet about 40 times per month,” says Ubriaco. When that happened, the salesperson had to mail the computer back to corporate headquarters, where the IT staff would repair or, if required, reimage and then reconfigure the computer, and then mail it back. The whole process took at least three days, during which time the salesperson would not have access to the computer.
Kobrand employees also were constrained by the memory limits of the 32-bit operating system. “Our help desk would get calls when people ran out of spreadsheet capacity—they couldn’t add enough columns or rows to accommodate all their information. Employees would also complain about slow performance when working with large databases,” says Rundle.
In mid-2009, when Kobrand was preparing for a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) software implementation, it decided it needed to resolve the connectivity problem and upgrade to 64-bit architecture. “The ERP solution would require a lot of back-and-forth between the application in our data center and our employees’ computers. We wanted to ensure connectivity, make it easy for remote employees to get into our network and for IT staff to apply Group Policy settings, and provide the high-quality desktop environment that our employees need to be successful,” says Ubriaco.
Solution
Kobrand Corporation began researching connectivity solutions and planning for a hardware refresh. “Cisco didn’t have a 64-bit VPN at the time, but even if it did, it wouldn’t have met our increased access or Group Policy enforcement goals. Around this time, Microsoft released Windows 7 Enterprise and we felt that a 64-bit version of the operating system could help us address our remote access, performance, and security needs,” says Ubriaco.
The IT staff was particularly interested in the DirectAccess feature of Windows 7 Enterprise, which gives mobile users seamless access to corporate networks without a VPN and makes it easy to manage remote computers using Group Policy settings. “Unlike a VPN solution, all DirectAccess requires is an Internet connection to let employees access our local area network,” says Rundle.
Kobrand also liked the User Account Control feature, which could help reduce the chances of downloading malware by notifying users before making changes that require administrator-level rights and asking for permission to implement them.
In April 2010, Kobrand engaged with Micro Strategies, a member of the Microsoft Partner Network. “We wanted a partner that would help educate us about how to best use Windows 7 Enterprise and Micro Strategies had the expertise we were looking for,” says Ubriaco.
Micro Strategies used Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit to assess the company’s readiness for Windows 7 and plan the project, and the Windows Optimized Desktop Scenarios Solution Accelerator to identify the user scenario and corresponding Microsoft technologies that would help Kobrand to meet its needs. “The MAP and Solution Accelerator tools were extremely useful in helping us plan the ideal environment for Kobrand. We used the mobile worker scenario in the Solution Accelerator to provide guidance on the best technologies. It confirmed the importance of using DirectAccess and also noted the benefits of Microsoft Application Virtualization and Hyper-V virtualization technology,” says Elisa Stelwagon, Client Solutions Executive at Micro Strategies.
Micro Strategies suggested that Kobrand evaluate DAC-4000 DirectAccess Concentrator Appliance, from IVO Networks, to simplify deployment of DirectAccess. In August 2010, Kobrand tested Windows 7 Enterprise and DirectAccess Concentrator with about five people. The IT staff piloted the solution in November 2010 with 14 employees representing departments throughout the company. “We ran the nine applications that most of our employees required and everything worked great,” says Rundle.
Kobrand began rolling out Windows 7 Enterprise to production in November 2010, starting with the sales force. It completed deployment on 200 new Dell Latitude E6510 laptop computers and Dell OptiPlex 780 desktop computers in January 2011. All 250 Kobrand computers now have Windows 7.
The company used Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) to virtualize Microsoft Office Access 2003 database software and Microsoft Office Excel 2003 spreadsheet software. App-V transforms traditional applications into virtualized services that run on the local cache without actually being installed on the operating system. This enables applications, including different versions of the same software, to run on the same device without conflicting. “As part of the refresh, we wanted to upgrade from Microsoft Office Professional 2003 to Microsoft Office Professional 2010. By using App-V, we could let employees keep the older versions of Access and Excel on their computers along with the newer ones,” explains Rundle.
Kobrand runs App-V on Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V virtualization technology. “We wanted to test the virtualization server waters because we knew that it could help us consolidate physical computers and reduce electricity costs. The fact that Hyper-V was included with Windows Server 2008 made the decision to try it easy,” says Ubriaco. Kobrand has eight virtualization servers running on two Dell PowerEdge R710 and R410 computers. It also runs Microsoft System Center Essentials 2010, antivirus software, and application servers on the Hyper-V technology.
Benefits
Kobrand Corporation uses Windows 7 Enterprise to eliminate remote access issues and improve productivity of its mobile workforce. By combining Windows 7 with App-V, the IT staff gained tremendous ability to manage the desktop environment and accelerated application management tasks, while drastically reducing the volume of help-desk calls and malware instances.
“With Windows 7, we can provide the reliable connectivity and high-performing, secure environment that our sales force needs to be productive. Administration is now much easier for our IT staff,” says Ubriaco.
Boosted Sales Force Connectivity, Productivity
Kobrand no longer has to struggle with VPN issues. “We haven’t had any connectivity problems since we deployed Windows 7. Salespeople can easily access our network and all their email and files while onthe road. And using DirectAccess is simple. There are no extra steps like there were with the VPN and no productivity loss due to lack of connectivity. Employees just sign in and go right to work,” says Ubriaco.
Employees found that Windows 7 performs better. “The user interface is much more intuitive, so it’s easier for people to navigate and search,” says Rundle.
Because they are using the 64-bit version of Windows 7 and Office 2010, Kobrand staffers do not have capacity issues. “The amount of data that our applications can process now is far greater than it was with the 32-bit versions of Windows XP and Office 2003. Performance doesn’t slow down when employees are working with a large Access database and we don’t have to worry about running out of space in Excel worksheets. Everyone has plenty of capacity to do whatever they want,” says Rundle.
Adds Ubriaco, “We have happy users—and that’s no easy feat, especially when you roll out a whole new environment to a mobile workforce.”
Improved IT Administration, Sped Application Upgrade
The IT team has much greater ability to manage the Kobrand desktop environment. “By using DirectAccess, we can apply Group Policy settings toremote employee computers, knowing that they will be implemented,” says Rundle. Group Policy settings and software updates are distributed whenever the mobile computer has Internet connectivity, even if the user is not logged on.
By combining Group Policy security rules with User Account Control, Kobrand enhanced protection of its portable computers. “We preloaded just about all the software that our employees will need and took away local administrator rights. Now we can control what they can download, so they can install software like print drivers and specialized applications from our suppliers, but not the rogue software that resulted in so much malware in the past. By using Windows 7, we’ve been able to secure and standardize our desktops, which makes them much easier to manage,” says Ubriaco.
Kobrand improved application management and accelerated its upgrade to Microsoft Office 2010. “Without App-V, we wouldn’t have been able to run Access 2003 and Excel 2003 on the same computers as Access 2010 and Excel 2010. Instead, we would have installed Office 2010 minus Access 2010 and Excel 2010, along with Access 2003 and Excel 2003. We would have been frozen in the earlier versions until all the data and files that we needed could be fully moved to Office 2010,” says Rundle.
The upgrade process would have been laborious without App-V. “The IT team would have had to schedule time with each salesperson to connect remotely to their computer and then uninstall the older versions and install the newer ones. The process would have easily taken 45 minutes to an hour per salesperson. We saved about 90 IT staff hours by using App-V to virtualize Access 2003 and Excel 2003. Not only can we run all the applications at the same time, when we’re ready, we can remove applications without having to physically touch employee computers,” says Rundle. Instead of uninstalling applications from every computer, the IT staff only has to remove employee rights to the applications using Active Directory and take the application off the server.
Reduced Help-Desk Calls by 70 Percent, Malware Infections by 80 Percent
The number of calls that the Kobrand IT support staff receives has dropped dramatically, from about 160 to just 45 calls per month. “Since we deployed Windows 7, we have reduced help-desk calls by about 70 percent. This is directly attributable to the fact that we eliminated connectivity issues and improved performance,” says Ubriaco.
Kobrand has far fewer malware-related problems. “By using User Account Control, we cut the number of virus infections from approximately 25 to five per month, an 80 percent reduction. That’s had a very positive effect on salespeople who no longer have to mail computers back to IT for repair, and of course it’s great for the IT staff, too,” says Rundle.
Ubriaco agrees. “Now that we don’t have to spend so much time on daily administration and support, we can focus on implementing strategic projects that move our environment forward. Our IT team can accomplish more without adding headcount,” he says.
Windows 7
Works the way you want: Windows 7 will help your organization use information technology to gain a competitive advantage in today’s new world of work. Your people will be able to be more productive anywhere. You will be able to support your mobile workforce with better access to shared data and collaboration tools. And your IT staff will have better tools and technologies for enhanced corporate IT security and data protection, and more efficient deployment and management.
For more information about Windows 7, go to:
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