Partner Solution Case Study
/ IT Partner Boosts Revenue up to 10 Percent with Cloud-Based PC Management Solution
Overview
Country or Region:Canada
Industry:Professional services—IT services
Partner Profile
One of Canada’s fastest-growing companies, Broadview Networks provides and supports customized IT infrastructure solutions to help customers of all sizes maximize the value of their IT investments.
Business Situation
Broadview wanted to better manage its customers’ client computers, streamline IT operations, and avoid unnecessary on-site visits by taking advantage of cloud technology.
Solution
Broadview added Windows Intune to its service portfolio, allowing it to monitor client PCs and perform essential management tasks on them remotely, through the Internet.
Benefits
- Single, comprehensive, subscription-based solution
- Proactive, time-saving PC management
- Higher revenue, lower costs
Tyson Choptain, Systems Consultant, Broadview Networks
Rapidly growing IT provider Broadview Networks recognizes the efficiencies that cloud-based technologies can offer and wanted to use the cloud to minimize the IT resources required to manage customers’ PCs. To achieve this goal, Broadview adopted Windows Intune software and services, a solution for PC management and security that includes subscription licensing for Windows 7 Enterprise. Now, with an easy-to-use web-based console, Broadview can administer PCs remotely over the Internet, conducting update management and accessing alerts, reports, and security policies—with no large upfront capital investment. By proactively monitoring and updating PCs, Broadview and its customers lower operational costs while increasing the health of, and visibility into, their environments. Broadview expects that offering Windows Intune will help it to increase revenue by 5 to 10 percent within a year.
Situation
Based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, IT solution provider Broadview Networks was named by Profit magazine as one of the fastest-growing Canadian companies in 2009 and 2010. It achieved that growth, in part, by providing superior customer service as a Microsoft Partner, for which it was recognized as a “Top 10 Microsoft Partner” out of more than 9,000 such companies in Canada. Broadview Networks serves customers of all sizes, with about 40 percent of its business coming from smaller customers with limited IT resources. For these customers, Broadview is often the primary or even sole provider of IT technical support.
Broadview Networks has long acknowledged the economic and business value of cloud-based technologies for its customer base. “Our average customer of 25 to 50 users that installs the Windows Small Business Server operating system only performs significant IT upgrades about every five years,” explains Tyson Choptain, Systems Consultant at Broadview Networks. “They see more frequent upgrades as prohibitively expensive. However, with cloud-based services, the cost model is changing, lowering the initial capital expenditure requirements and allowing customers to maintain an up-to-date environment.”
Broadview has been successful in leading customers into cloud-based services such as the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite, and with that success, the company has been looking into other cloud services that it could offer, including ones that would better support its customers’ client computers. Such services would especially help smaller and midsize customers take advantage of the enterprise-class capabilities that Microsoft cloud services make possible.
The company also wanted to use its time more effectively by identifying and remediating PC issues proactively, rather than reactively, thus containing problems earlier and improving overall IT health and uptime. Additionally, Broadview wanted the ability to monitor client PCs and perform common, essential management tasks on them remotely—tasks such as software inventorying and update management. This would help reduce the need for on-site customer visits.
Finally, Broadview Networks wanted to improve not only its customers’ IT operations, but also its own. By streamlining internal PC management and decreasing the time required for it, Broadview IT professionals would have more time available for billable customer work or for more complex internal tasks, such as deploying and maintaining the company’s server infrastructure.
Solution
To address these IT goals, Broadview Networks chose Windows Intune, an all-in-one solution that brings together Microsoft cloud services for PC management and endpoint protection,and an upgrade subscription for the Windows 7 Enterprise operating system. Through a simple, web-based console, Broadview Networks can access alerts, reports, and security policies, using any Microsoft Silverlight–enabled browser. All that is required is an Internet connection and that the Windows Intune client software be installed on each PC that needs to be managed.
Broadview selected Windows Intune because its IT professionals can use it to better monitor PCs and more quickly respond to IT issues, without always having to visit the customers’ location. The company’s IT staff can also provide better overall PC protection by managing the deployment of security updates and by employing client security technology built on the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine used by the Microsoft Forefront Protection Suite.
Additionally, with upgrade rights to Windows 7 Enterprise included, Windows Intune provides a simple, subscription-based upgrade path for Broadview customers to standardize their PC environment on the latest operating system, further simplifying IT infrastructure management.
“Windows Intune is going to keep our customers more current in terms of malware protection,” says Choptain. “And together with the Business Productivity Online Standard Suite or its successor Microsoft Office 365, it’s also going to ensure that they have the latest productivity and operating system software.”
Benefits
By adopting Windows Intune, Broadview Networks can offer its customers a single, comprehensive PC management solution that makes it easy to monitor client PCs and keep them up-to-date. Essential administrative tasks can be handled remotely and proactively, reducing costs and avoiding on-site customer support visits. The ability to offer the service without significant infrastructure investment will help increase revenue for Broadview, and both the company and its customers will lower their operational costs while increasing visibility into their IT environments.
Single, Comprehensive, Subscription-Based Solution
Because Windows Intune is a complete cloud-based solution for essential PC management tasks, Broadview customers can avoid the up-front costs associated with adopting on-premises management solutions. Plus, the simple subscription-based pricing, including operating system licensing upgrades, gives Broadview customers the security and management advantages of a homogeneous Windows 7 Enterprise environment. Choptain explains that, without this Windows Intune benefit, many smaller clients would hold off on upgrading their operating systems until they replace their hardware, which might take years.
Also, the fact that customers don’t have such large initial capital expenditures means that they have more flexible spending options. “With cloud solutions such as Windows Intune, startup costs are much smaller, so our customers have more flexibility to fund system upgrades, buy new machines, and improve their IT in other areas,” says Choptain.
He adds that Microsoft cloud services in general will help Broadview keep its customer more current with the latest in productivity, management, and security software. Says Choptain, “With Windows Intune, customers reduce the complexity of their environment by standardizing PCs on a single operating system, and then use the cloud-based management and security service to keep those PCs up-to-date and more secure.”
Proactive, Time-Saving PC Management
With cloud-based PC management and built-in malicious software (malware) protection, Broadview can proactively manage PC issues, fixing small problems before they become more severe or widespread. IT professionals can perform routine PC management tasks using a web browser, and they can monitor each Internet-connected PC in real time through the Windows Intune administration console to quickly assess, diagnose, and repair issues.
“Before, we used to spend lots of time approving and downloading security updates during site visits. Now, we not only can manage the deployment of these updates, but also get immediate insight into which PCs have them installed and see any potential problem areas. Consequently, our on-site customer visits can be reserved for more specialized or complex issues.”
Higher Partner Efficiency and Revenue
By using Windows Intune, Broadview Networks eliminates the need to purchase, deploy, and maintain additional IT equipment to support its customers’ PC management needs. “We don’t have to invest in any infrastructure for our customers to benefit from Windows Intune cloud-based PC management,” Choptain says. “There’s no big up-front cost for us. I don’t have to put in a server and then manage that as well.”
The ability to offer this needed service without significant investment is expected to contribute directly to the company’s bottom line. Choptain estimates that Windows Intune can grow the company’s revenue by 5 to 10 percent in the next year, without adding significant costs.
Better IT Visibility Resulting in Lower Operational Costs
Choptain already knows the impact that Windows Intune can have on reducing an organization’s operating expenses, because he’s been testing it internally at Broadview Networks. Because the company doesn’t have anyone assigned full-time to managing its own network, Choptain regularly does the job himself. Choptain has found that Windows Intune greatly simplifies his management processes, and he estimates that it saves him several hours each month. Choptain can use this time to take on more billable work, which means the company makes more money.
Broadview customers can enjoy similar benefits in operational efficiency. For example, one such customer is a nonprofit that operates on a particularly tight budget and has no dedicated IT professional. Its general manager handles the IT support for five locations himself, in addition to managing financial, accounting, and human resource issues. Broadview Networks provides many of the nonprofit’s IT services, and Choptain believes it is an ideal candidate for Windows Intune. Right now, the organization has no ability to see the health of any computers in its network. “Currently, we’re called in to provide end-user support only after there’s a problem with one of the machines. We have no visibility into the health or state of that machine. We’re going in blind,” Choptain says.
Windows Intune will also make it easier to monitor asset inventory. Alternative options, such as inventory management software, might cost the nonprofit more than U.S.$1,000. “If there’s a PC that’s recently had a lot of problems, Windows Intune will support drilling down into the details of that PC to view its make, model, age, and what software it’s running. This will help the general manager determine whether it makes more sense to continue supporting the PC, upgrade its software, or just replace it,” Choptain says.
In addition, traditional PC management solutions would require the nonprofit to place a server in each of its five locations—an undertaking that could cost up to $15,000. Choptain concludes, “By using Windows Intune, our IT professionals can perform update management and check the health of all the organization’s machines using the web-based administration console. That’s a much more efficient way to proactively manage PCs.”
Windows Intune
Windows Intune simplifies how businesses manage and secure PCs using Microsoft cloud services and Windows 7, so your computers and users can operate at peak performance from almost anywhere. You can provide a better experience for your workforce that's easier to manage by standardizing your PCs on Windows 7 Enterprise or on an earlier version of Windows—it’s your choice. Windows Intune fits your business by providing a comprehensive desktop solution that gives you big tech results with a small tech investment.
For more information about Windows Intune, go to: