Help the Aged

DRIVES DOWN COSTS WHILE ENHANCING SECURE REMOTE ACCESS

Based in the United Kingdom, Help the Aged is a charity dedicated to creating a world where older people can live their lives free from poverty, neglect and isolation. The main activities of Help the Aged are campaigning on behalf of older people; service provision for disadvantaged and vulnerable older people; fundraising; and providing expert insight to guide national and regional policy formulation. The organisation also operates a nationwide network of charity shops. The charity’s headquarters are in London, and it also has premises devoted to specific functions such as sales and warehousing, as well as national offices in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, plus many home-based staff.

THE CHALLENGE: FRAGMENTED IT
INFRASTRUCTURE CREATES SUPPORT PROBLEMS

Help the Aged’s IT functions are centralised in the London office and for a long time it was using a server farm running Citrix® MetaFrame® Presentation Server 1.8 to provide application access to about 360 terminals. The disparate nature of the IT infrastructure meant that approximately 240 home-based staff members were using PCs with applications installed on the desktop.

 

“It didn’t make sense to have half of our users running applications on their local PCs and half accessing applications running from a Citrix server. It was costing a lot in time and money to support this infrastructure, and staff using the desktop applications often experienced problems,” explained Tony O’Haire, Infrastructure Manager.

 

He continued, “Running applications on the PCs meant lots of support calls requiring specialised expertise, and responding to these requests often meant travelling all around the country. We only have seven people in our IT team and the demands placed upon them were very high. By building a standardised desktop environment, we could provide guaranteed remote access to all applications while at the same time drastically reducing support costs.”

 

IMPLEMENTING A CITRIX SOLUTION
FOR REMOTE OFFICE CONNECTIVITY

Help the Aged already had an excellent relationship with Citrix, and when looking to upgrade and expand their IT network it seemed a natural choice to stay with this environment.

 

Therefore, Help the Aged turned to Centric Networks, a Silver Citrix® Solutions Advisor, and specifically requested a standardised desktop platform based on Citrix technology.
“The Citrix solution that Centric Networks worked with us to devise was by far the best solution for achieving our aims,” said O’Haire.

 

Help the Aged upgraded to Citrix Presentation Server™ and Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Server running on HP server hardware. It also replaced the PCs with 320 Wyse Winterm thin-client terminals.

 

Office-based staff now access applications hosted on Citrix Presentation Server via the Winterm terminals. The substantial number of home-based staff now connect through a broadband Internet connection over a Cisco VPN client link, which then runs off Citrix® Program Neighborhood® to provide a full desktop solution. The Citrix hosted system is able to support any type of device that home users are using, allowing for secure remote connectivity to office applications.

 

Immediately following the implementation, the IT team was able to scale back its support operations. “Support calls dropped by approximately 20 percent due to easy remote access. Because all applications are now centrally installed and managed on Citrix Presentation Server rather than being scattered across desktop PCs, we can resolve support issues easily and quickly,” said O’Haire.

 

NEW INFRASTRUCTURE CUTS COSTS AND ENHANCES ORGANISATIONAL EFFICIENCIES

Another benefit of Citrix access infrastructure is a dramatic improvement in access to applications from any Help the Aged location. “There were many occasions prior to the new Citrix Presentation Server implementation when staff could not access the information they needed because a PC was not working properly. This meant daily operations were affected. But now there is consistent access to all applications across the entire organisation,” said O’Haire.

 

“Personnel can now go to any Help the Aged location and immediately access the information they need from a Winterm terminal. This could be a key financial programme, Microsoft Office application, Outlook for e-mail or a CRM application, such as the customer databases used for targeting people for fundraising initiatives. Regardless of where they are in the organisation, they have the same experience and no longer need to carry laptops around,” he explained.

 

FLEXIBLE ACCESS FOR FLEXIBLE WORKING

The consistent remote access provided by Citrix Presentation Server is also used to increase home working opportunities for Help the Aged staff. “Because it doesn’t matter where people are, we have the freedom to introduce more flexible working arrangements, which in turn boosts employee morale,” said O’Haire.

 

The Citrix Presentation Server implementation has also bolstered the organisation’s drive to keep costs down. “Keeping administration costs to a minimum is essential for any charitable organisation. By standardising our desktop environment on Citrix Presentation Server, we not only slashed IT support costs but also have developed a robust and reliable infrastructure. It is simple to maintain and guarantees secure, remote and consistent access to all key applications and data from any physical location,” he concluded.