Customer: Global container shipping company

Location: Northeast Ohio

 

The customer’s employees were experiencing poor quality connections to company severs and applications, making important information such as shipment schedules and driving routes difficult to access. Particularly at rural remote locations, an improved network connection was needed. MCPc installed a pair of Citrix solutions: XenApp application virtualization software and Citrix Access Gateway, a secure application access solution.

The customer was looking to provide improved, more reliable remote access to its hundreds of traveling employees, as well as to those individuals at its smaller sites where lower quality Internet access was prevalent. 

 

Due to the distributed nature of the business, the shipping company relied heavily on VPN connections for its users to access shared systems remotely. However, users were experiencing issues with poor connectivity and delay. The initial remote-access method utilized simple terminal services — a solution that works well on the LAN, but is challenged by the WAN and the Internet where network latencies can quickly degrade the user experience and connection quality. The customer, who has a long-standing relationship with MCPc, turned to MCPc for help in improving its remote-connection access for employees.

After discussing the customer’s needs and reviewing access methods, MCPc suggested a pair of Citrix solutions: XenApp and Citrix Access Gateway. This combination would provide users with secure access to a standard suite of applications from any location with Internet access.

 

MCPc installed several XenApp servers at the company’s headquarters, along with with 60 licenses, at the customer’s newest acquired location. The Citrix Access Gateway (CAG) was installed to provide easy access to the XenApp server farm, even from the most network-challenged, remote system users. Through the CAG, employees with proper access levels are able to authenticate their network and access applications in XenApp from any computer.

 

After seeing the improved connection quality of this location, the customer decided to continue rolling out XenApp access for all of its users through successive, incremental updates. In addition to the first 60 licenses, MCPc has installed 90 more to date, providing 130 of the company’s worldwide users with concurrent access to shared applications.

The customer is pleased with XenApp’s ease of use — it is simple to implement, support and clone. Their small IT staff is required less often for basic user connection issues, as remote access is efficient and more convenient for all employees.

 

End users are experiencing less lag time when accessing shared applications, as well as faster connections to company systems overall. In addition, XenApp is providing better printer support than the customer’s former solution, which had difficulty supporting the various populations of printers at the most distant locations.

 

The customer relies on its employees’ efficient remote access regularly, so that employees can check on the day’s schedules for sales and maintenance, container pickups, truck routes and more. The improved connections provided by XenApp and CAG offer a better user experience, as well as executives’ ease of mind in knowing that employees can always access needed information, no matter where they are located.

 

If your employees are experiencing poor connection quality to necessary system applications, MCPc is available to speak with you about application virtualization options and to develop a suitable environment for your needs.