Project Log

Application availability with centralized management

Ace Designers has been able to boost application delivery and optimally utilize its existing bandwidth using Citrix’s Presentation Server. It centrally manages all of its branches today. By Abhinav Singh

Ace Designers specializes in the manufacturing of machine tools used in the automobile industry. In this industry segment, data management is of critical importance and there is the need to keep track of machine tools supplied to particular machines at the production sites at different manufacturing units. Ace Designers, which was running a CRM application from TriVium was unable to control and manage the application from a central location. It was facing latency issues and application delivery to remote locations was an impossibility. As Ace Designers has several remote branch offices this was a stumbling block. All of this has changed with the deployment of Citrix Presentation Server thanks to which secure and rapid delivery of the CRM application along with centralized management has become possible. Citrix has helped Ace Designers to address information accessibility problems at remote locations through bandwidth optimization and centralized delivery and this ensures better application performance for its users

Legacy latency issues

The company had decided to roll out a CRM solution to streamline information across its locations in 2002. It had gone ahead with 64 Kbps ISDN links to connect users to the CRM application. M Vadiraj, Senior Manager-Information Systems, Ace Designers Limited said, “There were many bandwidth latency issues as the speed with which a person could access the CRM application was slow. Additionally troubleshooting was required to rectify issues, which consumed lot of time. All this was hampering information flow at branch locations.” Through the CRM solution, service calls are tracked and designs and detailed configuration details reach remote users, primarily from sales and support offices, as quickly as possible. However, due to connectivity problems and bandwidth issues in certain locations, accessing these files was proving to be a major problem. Furthermore users were not able to access the CRM system. Vadiraj added, “To ensure that the CRM application and other information could be accessed by users around the country, we took the decision of capitalizing on the benefits of a centralized system. Our goals were to boost the performance of applications and ensure online availability of information at our remote locations.”

Overcoming latency issues

Ace Designers undertook an extensive evaluation exercise to choose a solution, which could address its application latency issues and also utilize its bandwidth optimally. In addition to Citrix’s solution, Ace Designers also evaluated Tarantula, a Linux-based commercial solution. Vadiraj said, “Tarantula did not suit our requirements as it did not support Windows applications. Since our CRM system was based on Windows, Tarantula was ruled out. Additionally the solution did not take care of bandwidth management.” As far as the Citrix solution was concerned, a demonstration was made at Ace Designers and the company was satisfied with the solution as it was server-based in a virtualized environment and the branch office people were able to enter data at normal LAN speeds. Vadiraj said, “The Client PCs do not require any software or applications to be installed (on the local machines). Everything is centrally managed and the local support is minimal.”

Higher throughput of CRM

The Citrix Presentation Server, which centralizes application processing on the server, has enabled the delivery of applications with high performance, even in an environment with bandwidth is a scarce resource. Application availability has improved and efficient IT management is the order of the day. Since the applications are shadowed to the terminal PC, the session continues to run on the server even if a user gets disconnected. The Citrix solution has addressed most of the issues related to application availability and bandwidth problems. User experiences have improved due to better application performance over the network as now the users can easily access the CRM application from any location and office in India.

Saving precious bandwidth

With enterprise-wide application delivery, data management has become easier and more streamlined. The online availability of consolidated sales and marketing information has also helped tremendously. “Earlier, we used to get the data from all the branches in staggered lots every month, creating a backlog of 8-10 days in getting relevant and timely information. Now, we have real-time availability of consolidated and critical business information at the same bandwidth of 64 Kbps,” said Vadiraj. Since the Citrix Presentation Server keeps application processing on the server and transmits only the user interface over the network it reduces bandwidth demand significantly leading to higher performance.

Previously, delivering application data to remote office users was a major problem due to insufficient bandwidth. All these issues have been suitably addressed due to the Citrix solution as it enables the optimal use of bandwidth. There has been a surge in productivity due to the easy and rapid availability of information.

Large software design files containing various machine tool diagrams can be easily delivered to various offices. These were earlier being sent through e-mail and fax. There has also been a reduction in IT administration costs due to centralized IT administration. Now, the IT teams spend less time on operational issues. Using the Citrix tools, the IT administrators at Ace Designers can provide fast and high-quality remote support to users around the country and troubleshoot issues from the central location. This has eliminated the need for deploying additional IT manpower at all locations and has thereby helped reduce the costs of IT administration and the overall IT environment.

In 2005 Ace Designers embraced the new version of the Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 version, which has a universal printer driver. This concept helps in redirecting the files to the local machines for printing purposes and all the printouts, although centrally controlled, can easily be printed on local machines. This printer driver, which is on the Citrix Server centrally, can cater to different types of printers from various manufacturers. In 2007 the company has also deployed Citrix NetScaler which has the SSL-VPN and the TCP/IP compression functionality and helps pages load quickly resulting in improved customer interaction. The application acceleration efforts have improved about 100 times after implementing NetScaler. This solution has a feature wherein a user can access multiple remote applications using different user names and passwords for different applications.

abhinav.singh@expressindia.com