Large U.S. government agency reduces labor costs by $500,000

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Industry

Government

Organization profile

Largest US government agency with a global presence

Organization size

340,000+ employees

Business needs

Easier image management

Saving IT time, resources, and cost

One of the largest government agencies in the U.S. relies upon technology to maintain consistent communication, provide quality training, and to stay abreast of world issues. But as the speed of information — and the growth of its staff — continues to escalate, the agency’s systems administrators face the increasingly challenging and complex task of keeping critical system images up to date across thousands of disparate desktops.

To overcome these challenges, the organization decided to switch from multiple OEM solutions to SmartDeploy. Since then, it has been able to simplify the overall process and cut down image deployment time —saving thousands of dollars in labor costs as a result.

According to the organization’s senior system administrator, the benefits of using SmartDeploy were immediately apparent to the organization’s leader. “Once my boss saw the time, resource, and cost savings provided by SmartDeploy, he was sold,” he says. “We made the switch right away — and began seeing results instantly.”

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“Before SmartDeploy, it took five months and a team of seven people to build our system images. Now we’re done in two weeks and we’ve reduced our team head count by more than 70%.”

— Senior system administrator, large government agency

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Many complex challenges

The senior system administrator was charged with managing, modifying and deploying system images across thousands of desktops. And because he relied on several OEM solutions, he faced a number of challenges, including a tedious and time-consuming image modification and deployment process that required numerous technicians— and hundreds of labor hours over the course of the year.

For example, with the organization’s VB-scripted Windows PE environment and 50 system images in its library, it took an average of five months to build all images. Maintaining an image library that large was a tedious and cumbersome task, and obtaining driver support was difficult, as well as costly. The senior system administrator knew the current process was not sustainable in terms of resources required and costs incurred, and needed to find a more efficient, user-friendly, and cost-effective solution as quickly as possible.

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One powerful solution

After assessing several possible alternatives, the senior system analyst narrowed down his selections to one powerful, affordable solution: SmartDeploy.

This new system only requires a single image for each build, employs easy- to-use wizards, and can be used from a virtual machine — all without imposing infrastructure requirements. Plus, the SmartDeploy professional support team works closely with customers to help resolve any issues they’re facing as soon as they arise, and to gather ideas and feedback that can be incorporated into new features to continually update the product.

“Being able to communicate directly with the product team and discuss new features is huge,” says the senior system administrator. “SmartDeploy gives us that — and it’s something that would never happen with a large software firm.”

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Faster, easier image deployment

Rather than manually creating and managing thousands of PCs spread throughout the organization, users can leverage SmartDeploy’s delta images, which enable them to release software updates to remote network endpoints while working with existing images. That means that system administrators can provide updates to branches outside of the office headquarters, regardless of bandwidth constraints or connection integrity.

For the organization, this translates into a much simpler and more streamlined universal system deployment process. “With SmartDeploy, there’s no training required,” the senior system administrator remarks. “The basic steps are so straightforward and clear-cut, it was easy to get up and running.”

An intuitive interface and simple wizards help users automate common tasks and accelerate the overall image capturing process. With the Capture Wizard, for example, users can capture an image from the version of Windows they’re working in, or perform direct file-to-file imaging on a local workstation through the Virtual Disk Component. Either way, the wizard moves the user through the process in just three short steps — making it much easier for the organization’s systems administrators to maintain up-to-date images in less time.

“Speed and flexibility are crucial to our organization — as is maintaining up to-date system images,” the senior system administrator points out. “Because the process was so complex before, we could only update once every 18 months. Now with SmartDeploy, we can do it every 90 days.”

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“Now we can use our master image indefinitely, thanks to the SmartDeploy Platform Packs. That is a huge time saver—and it reduces frustration. ”

— Senior system administrator, large government agency

Saving time, reducing frustration

The senior system administrator was charged with managing, modifying and deploying system images across thousands of desktops. And because he relied on several OEM solutions, he faced a number of challenges, including a tedious and time-consuming image modification and deployment process that required numerous technicians — and hundreds of labor hours over the course of the year.

For example, with the organization’s VB-scripted Windows PE environment and 50 system images in its library, it took an average of 5 months to build all images. Maintaining an image library that large was a tedious and cumbersome task, and obtaining driver support was difficult, as well as costly. The senior system administrator knew the current process was not sustainable in terms of resources required and costs incurred, and he needed to find a more efficient, user-friendly, and cost-effective solution as quickly as possible.

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Less infrastructure, lower costs

By simplifying the overall imaging process, the organization has been able to reduce the number of system administrators required to build and deploy images. As the senior system administrator notes, “Before SmartDeploy, it took five months and a team of seven people to build our system images. Now, we’re done in two weeks and we’ve reduced our team head count by more than 70%.”

With streamlined and simplified Windows deployment — from the data center to the desktop to the branch office — the organization doesn’t have to worry about providing in-depth training to technicians or integrating new infrastructure to support the system imaging process. As a result, technicians have more time to focus on proactive projects — and the company is saving hundreds of thousands of dollars it would have otherwise spent on resolving deployment issues.

“We saved half a million dollars in labor costs using SmartDeploy — that’s 100 times the amount we invested in the product!” the Senior System Administrator notes. “But more than that, we’re regaining critical hours that we can devote to maintaining system integrity and harnessing new innovations in technology that drive our continued success.”

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