Virtualized desktops add speed, flexibility, and security for financial services firm

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1 IN BRIEF egroup Customer: Williams & Fudge, Inc. Industry: Financial Services Corporate Headquarters: Rock Hill, SC Employees: 375 employees Annual Revenue: >$20 million Website: THE NUMBERS Virtualized desktops add speed, flexibility, and security for financial services firm Williams & Fudge was founded in 1986 and is a family owned business with the purpose Over 1,300 customers 260 dedicated virtual desktop users 260 concurrent users 100 percent server virtualization of serving the higher education community. They aid colleges and universities in the recovery of education-related receivables. OBJECTIVES Reduce help desk and IT support calls Simplify the user experience SOLUTION Implement EMC VNX and RecoverPoint VMware View to complement VMware vsphere for server virtualization, VMware vstorage API for Array Integration (VAAI), and EMC VSI plug-ins for vcenter. BUSINESS IMPACT Specific debt types include Perkins Loans (Cohort management), tuition, campusbased institutional loans, Health Profession and Nursing Student Loans, private education (alternative) loans, and other receivables such as parking, room, board, and library fines. Williams & Fudge has grown from 150 employees to 375 Reduced log-in time from 5 minutes or more to 30 seconds Drastically reduced frequency of help desk calls Relieved desktop management burden from IT staff Increased employee count by 140 percent without needing to hire more IT staff Reduced IT support cost per user employees in the past five years and was named one of South Carolina s fastestgrowing companies in Williams & Fudge continues to add 8 to 10 new employees per month and has over 1,300 clients in all 50 states. TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS FOR SERIOUS COMPETITORS 1

2 Challenge: Support Growing User Base Without Adding IT Staff The virtual desktop initiative has allowed us to more easily convert our users and upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. - Phillip Reynolds, Director of Enterprise IT Solutions, Williams & Fudge Being one of the fastest-growing companies in South Carolina doesn t come without its share of growing pains. Despite a 140 percent increase in staff, none of those new hires were in the IT department, which consists of two employees. Williams & Fudge s lean IT staff needed to respond dynamically to the needs of the business, supporting the users, but the limited staff coupled with existing infrastructure that couldn t scale to the firm s rapid growth meant that the IT department was scrambling to support users. It simply couldn t manage each desktop at the level needed for the company to continue offering professional, effective service to its clients. Williams & Fudge needed a scalable infrastructure and a way to alleviate the burden on the IT staff. Additionally, the company runs intensive Microsoft SharePoint applications, and its employees in the call center need smooth, instantaneous access to data when speaking with customers. Williams & Fudge needed an agile solution that would provide the responsiveness and speed required for day-to-day business operations. Solution: Desktop Virtualization with VMware View Williams & Fudge looked at several solutions, but virtual desktops were the only solution that came close to meeting their requirements. The speed and ease of a virtual desktop was the instant win for us, said Phillip Reynolds, Director of Enterprise IT Solutions at Williams & Fudge. Knowing that they needed an implementation partner with the right combination of experience and knowledge, Williams & Fudge chose Mt. Pleasant, S.C.-based IT solutions provider egroup for the implementation. egroup has a local presence to understand how our business operates, Reynolds said. They understood our needs and the business drivers, and the technical knowledge that egroup is able to instantly see, and then build solutions around what we already have TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS FOR SERIOUS COMPETITORS 2

3 and improve our infrastructure. There was just no hesitation of using egroup for their services. Williams & Fudge chose a plethora of EMC VNX solutions for their project, which also included server virtualization: VMware vsphere for server virtualization, VMware View for desktop virtualization, VMware vstorage API for Array Integration (VAAI), and EMC VSI plug-ins for vcenter to streamline integration between VNX and VMware and provision and copy virtual machines faster. Beginning with planning, Williams & Fudge and egroup set goals for the project and evaluated what needed to be purchased to reach those goals. egroup s application engineers helped the IT staff design and implement the environment and secure the new deployment, including setting up firewalls and network settings to ensure PCI compliance. The initial process took several months, and Williams & Fudge has rolled out virtual desktops to two-thirds of its employees. Business Benefits: Speedier Desktops and Fewer Calls to IT Virtual desktops have been a huge hit at Williams & Fudge. People love that they don t have to manage their computer, Reynolds said. Users also don t have to worry about software or operating system updates; the IT staff simply pushes those to the virtual desktops as they become available. All the user has to do is log in, and the new software is available. Williams & Fudge recently migrated to Windows 7 from Windows XP and only had to install the upgrade on one desktop instead of 260. For the users, it s been a seamless transition to virtual desktops. I think it's taking the users longer to get used to the new operating system than it is to get used to a virtual content on their computer, Reynolds said. Additionally, virtual desktops have meant less work for IT. Not only do they only have to manage one desktop, instead of 260, but because the user s desktop resets at log off, users haven t had to call IT with problems. If the desktop locks up, they simply restart the machine, grab a cup of coffee, and get back to work. TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS FOR SERIOUS COMPETITORS 3

4 The security settings of a virtual desktop have also reduced problems that would normally require IT intervention. Users can t change the desktop settings, install programs, or use USB drives, all of which could introduce security breaches. As a financial services company, these levels of security helps Williams & Fudge comply with regulations. As for the users, they re logging in at the speed of light. The virtual desktop has reduced the time to log in to the computer from 5 to 10 minutes on a traditional PC to 30 seconds, allowing the employees to get right to work. The main feedback from users is how fast it is and how they can get to their computer from anywhere, Reynolds said. For commission-based employees like those at Williams & Fudge, that means more time to earn money. Additionally, middle-level managers and others that need to work at places other than their own desks in the building can seamlessly log in to any terminal and have their desktop appear. The flexibility of taking work anywhere in the building is a huge gain for our middle managers and our people that float around the building and work in different roles. Whenever they go, they have their same desktop that follows them. - Phillip Reynolds, Director of Enterprise IT Solutions, Williams & Fudge Looking Ahead: Full Desktop Virtualization Deployment The virtual desktops have been so successful that Williams & Fudge has no qualms about implementing virtual desktops completely across the organization. As the older computers reach obsolescence, the company plans to be 100 percent virtualized by the end of 2013, according to Reynolds. And new hires, of course, are immediately provisioned onto a virtual desktop. Reynolds credits the strong foundation that egroup helped build as critical to the success of the virtual desktop deployment. Having someone that knows what they're doing and can tell you exactly what to do and then help you execute that, is probably the most important thing. Your foundation for the virtual desktop environment is key, because you can't go back and fix your foundation without wasting a lot of time and money, and probably wasting a lot of user patience, so to speak, he said. TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS FOR SERIOUS COMPETITORS 4

5 For Williams & Fudge, having the virtual desktops has increased user satisfaction and decreased the burden on IT staff, leaving the business to do what it does best. With the virtualization of our desktops, we re able to really grow our business and be very dynamic to changing business needs, all while keeping management costs low and without having to add additional help desk staff. That's probably one of the biggest wins of our conversion, he said. People love that they don t have to manage their computers. Users have a really fast experience, and it seems like they have a brand new computer every day. They love that. - Phillip Reynolds, Director of Enterprise IT Solutions, Williams & Fudge egroup, Inc TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS FOR SERIOUS COMPETITORS 5