Julius Blum GmbH – Central client management for a virtual desktop strategy.
Julius Blum GmbH, headquartered in Höchst, Austria, is a family business steeped in tradition. It employs some 5,900 people and in the 2012-13 financial year earned revenues of 1.317 billion euros. The company, which specialises in functional furniture fittings, is renowned for its high quality, innovation and sustainability. Julius Blum operates seven factories in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg, with additional production sites in Poland, the USA and Brazil as well as 27 subsidiaries and representative offices.
Project details.
- IT Security
- Server & Storage
- Manufacturing
- Microsoft, AppSense
- >1,500 employees
Project objectives.
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012 (SCCM) and AppSense User Virtualization Platform were introduced primarily to meet the following goals:
- Save time when managing desktop infrastructure
- Increase flexibility for end-users, enabling them to use a variety of devices
- Enhance security on end-devices
Given the size of the project, it was clear that we would need an experienced partner. Outsourcing the project’s management would ensure that we progressed in a clearly defined direction. We also wanted to use this opportunity to build up our in-house expertise in this area over the course of the project. Bechtle helped us do just that.
Otto Büchele, Head of Information Systems Basic Services, Julius Blum GmbH
Solution.
The solution included introducing Microsoft SCCM 2012 (System Center Configuration Manager) as the management platform. User profiles were virtualised by integrating AppSense Environment Manager and Application Manager, which feature:
- Central user administration
- Policies and personalisation controls
- User-rights administration
- Application control
- Compliance with software licensing terms
Business benefits.
“The design we developed together with Bechtle helped us meet a broad range of requirements with respect to Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), traditional deployment of software and OS, as well as the virtualisation of Windows user profiles,” says Andreas Nussbichler, Head of IT Infrastructure for Julius Blum, explaining the benefits of the company’s solution. Desktop infrastructure management is now much easier, and end-users can also be managed more flexibly. The software is administrated centrally and can be distributed quickly while still being tailored to the specific requirements of different end-devices. IT administrator Markus Meusburger was especially impressed by “the subject-matter expertise and flexibility of Bechtle’s system engineers.” He adds, “Their knowledge and experience helped us implement the project swiftly, so that we could take advantage of its benefits as quickly as possible.”