Reference story - Lindenhout

The reason

A large number of locations, often one-person locations, which is inherent to the profession. For instance, young people are taught how to live independently. In such situations the supervisor has a small office with its own workspace where he or she can make use of the all of Lindenhout’s ICT facilities. These ‘one-person locations’ are connected to the same network by means of a lower bandwidth connection. Managing the network became increasingly time-consuming and possibilities were limited. Edwin ten Haaf and Rob van Dick are system and network managers at Lindenhout. Together they ensure that all ICT services are available on all 500 workspaces.

Edwin ten Haaf told us how things were in 2007: “Our network was on its last legs. We kept on having problems with malfunctions and growing with the organization was time-consuming.” Moreover, the time was ripe for change. “We were managing the workspaces with software from our supplier at the time. The software did what it was supposed to do but its possibilities were seriously limited. Whenever a user logged on, the desktop was populated and shortcuts were placed in the Start menu by means of all kinds of scripts, in accordance with his or her network rights.

However, as the network grew and the number of employees increased, managing it took up more and more time.

“Creating users, for example, took up a lot of time and people kept asking for mobile access and other new options. We coped alright but it was far more labor intensive than with the latest software. In other words, it was an excellent moment for us to choose a replacement.”

Cost management: doing a lot with few people

A very important consideration in choosing a new solution was cost management. “We have to keep costs low,” says Ten Haaf. “In our case, that means a maximum of two system managers and two helpdesk employees alongside the IT project leader. Our new solution would have to relieve us of as many routine tasks as possible.”

The benefits

Quick implementation

Once the plan had been worked out, things happened really quickly: on 1 January the project got underway. We carried out a successful test beforehand, then, over the weekend of 20 April the switchover was made and everyone was able to work on the new network. We didn’t even have to adapt the workspaces.

Streaming of applications

The results speak for themselves. We now work with RES PowerFuse published desktops on the existing thin clients, which means the entire organization now uses the same workspace. Applications are streamed to the Terminal Servers using Microsoft SoftGrid and Citrix XenApp Server is deployed.

This way all sorts of software applications can run smoothly alongside one another on the server. Like many other care institutions, Lindenhout uses a lot of non-standard applications. Ten Haaf tells us more: “We still have a number of DOS applications we use to test children. Even these run smoothly in the network, although we are looking for alternatives.”

Making personal preferences manageable with RES Subscriber

As well as hundreds of thin clients, Lindenhout also has a handful of fat clients (desktops). Ten Haaf continues: “The PR and Communication departments had their own particular needs: Adobe Acrobat, image processing, sound and so on. We made separate installation images and rolled them out in one go to the desktops. We manage them with RES Subscriber. The employees have a desktop on the Terminal Server but if, for example, they select Paint Shop Pro, it is started up locally.”

Positive reactions from employees

How have our colleagues been reacting to the new network? Edwin ten Haaf is delighted with the positive reactions. “We toured all of our offices beforehand to inform staff about the new network, involving everyone and explaining to them the benefits and new possibilities. In the end the changeover went almost without a hitch and everybody could simply log on on the Monday morning and continue working.”

Scalability

RES PowerFuse makes growth and change easy. After the project was completed, RES PowerFuse’s enormous added value became even more apparent. Minister Rouwvoet stumped up extra cash to cut the youth care waiting lists. Ten Haaf continued, “This was of course fantastic, but it meant that we had to fill 75 vacancies from one day to the next. This also meant extra servers, extra disk space, setting up extra work stations, extra accounts and so on. We had to run like mad to keep up with the growth. Without the scalability of RES PowerFuse and our new network we would never have managed.”

Scalability, by the way, works both ways. “Yes, indeed! No-one knows whether this growth will continue or if it’s just temporary. It is entirely possible that we have to scale everything back down next year. It would be a waste of our investments in staff and equipment, but at least we’ll be able to effortlessly scale down the network solution if necessary.”

Great people to work with

 Edwin is not embarrassed to sing the praises of RES and IT Oost Nederland. “I have seldom come across a helpdesk that is as helpful as the one at RES Software. They don’t just look for a solution; they contact you later on to find out how everything went. IT Oost Nederland is also in a class of its own. Those people are passionate about their work, not stopping until everything works perfectly and only when the customer is fully satisfied.”

In a few mouse clicks

What about RES PowerFuse? “It really is a marvelous product. It doesn’t come cheap but once you’ve done the math, in the long run it pays for itself over and over again. Things that used to cost huge amounts of time can now be implemented across the organization in a few mouse clicks. I would recommend that everyone should try out the free trial version.”

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