Centralized management and thin clients lead to higher call center productivity

About Algar Tech

With more than a decade in the market, Algar Tech offers solutions for business processes, distinguishing itself with their close relationship and commitment to each client. With international presence and a complete portfolio, Algar Tech carries in its history important partnerships, titles and certifications, in addition to being enshrined as the fastest growing IT company in Brazil according to IDC, in 2012.

Delivering agility and scalability in IT

Algar Tech has a call center with over five thousand positions, and to keep productivity up was accustomed to a process of revitalization of its IT assets every five years. This process generated high costs and required time and dedication of professionals, and these necessary updates throughout the park always had a large impact on both user productivity and especially on the IT department. The company’s greatest challenge was to find a way to leverage centralized management of its assets, which at the time were traditional desktops, and find a way to reduce the cost of these updates.

Ultimately, the solution itself had to change. The traditional model of computing had to be updated using the most modern technologies which in turn would also reduce operating costs and allow greater control and scalability. Algar’s IT found what they sought: combining Citrix virtualization and NComputing thin clients, managed with LCS consultancy, to deliver desktops on demand, flexibility and highly manageability.

Implementation and results

The delivery of desktops on demand has changed the landscape of Algar’s IT. Today, the company has a centralized Windows image that Citrix XenDesktop delivers to end users. This empowers Algar Tech to make any necessary updates to the IT environment one time centrally and then deliver that image to end users. The powerful performance end users receive is only possible with the use of the N-series Thin Clients from NComputing, which has the Citrix Receiver for Linux firmware built directly into the N-series chipset, the Numo3. This is what powers the optimized graphics performance (with reduced server processing) that end users leverage.

According to Algar Tech’s IT manager, Marcio Menegatto, the greatest impact on users was changing the culture from the use of traditional PCs to thin clients. “The difference was solved by delivering a desktop with superior capabilities to what the users were accustomed to and with the ability to log in from different devices and get the same session, profile, performance and operating system,” explains the manager.

With ROI for the project expected in the second year, Algar has replaced over 300 computers in its call center with thin clients, at an average pace of 50 per month. The goal for 2014 is to deploy 1200 N-series thin clients.

Today, it is possible to list many benefits of this technology upgrade. Among which was a 90% reduction in support calls to fix operating systems, hardware and desktops crashes. Besides delivering high performance, the N-series thin clients are also much quieter. A significant reduction in the noise within the call center helped increase user focus and productivity. According to Menegatto, Algar expects to save over 60% on their energy costs.

Algar was also able to centralize and set policies for the configuration of the N-series thin clients with the vSpace Management Center (VMC) software, allowing greater flexibility and speed in deploying the N-series thin clients. Using VMC for control of the operations, all changes in the configuration of the N-series thin clients are now performed with a few mouse clicks in the centralized, web-based tool. This architecture allows the service to be redefined in a few seconds, plus inventory and hardware control of the thin clients can be audited in real time.

Going forward, since all points of service will be standardized with the N-series thin clients, the challenges that accompany growth and update within the company will be solved. “With a central image, we are ready to onboard more employees by installing only a new N-series thin client and immediately being ready to provide that user with a high performance desktop experience,” explains Menegatto. “The adoption of the N-series thin clients and Citrix’s virtualization technologies has created a new reality for Algar’s IT. With centralized management and the use of the N-series thin clients from NComputing, all processes, from the preparation of new employees to updates in the user’s operating systems, occur faster and simpler than ever before”.