2 page Case Study - Posted 11/11/2007

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Krka

Pharmaceutical Firm Manages Seldom-Connected Laptops, Cuts Licensing Costs

Pharmaceutical company Krka needed to manage its technology environment—including laptop computers that connected to the network infrequently. Its solution: Microsoft® System Center Configuration Manager 2007. The company uses the Internet-based Client Management capability to push out regular updates to laptops over the Web. And the solution’s Asset Intelligence enables Krka to cut software licensing costs while making software more available.

Business Needs

Krka ranks among the top generic pharmaceutical companies in eastern, central, and western Europe. Its products are sold in more than 70 countries extending from Vladivostok, Russia to Lisbon, Portugal. As Krka has grown, so has the technology infrastructure it uses to support that growth.

The company now manages 300 computer servers and 5,000 personal computers—of which half are laptops used by sales executives and other mobile professionals. Many of the laptop users work largely independent of Krka facilities; they come into a Krka office and connect to the corporate network perhaps once or twice a year.

That gives Krka’s IT staff little opportunity to distribute security updates to mobile machines, let alone to distribute new operating system software or applications. Some laptops are updated every year or two, others may not be updated at all. And when a laptop that has acquired malicious software reconnects to the network, there’s the potential that it may infect other machines.

Much of Krka’s remote laptop management took place manually, because of the lack of technology solutions to automate that management. But the increase in laptop use, combined with the broad geographic dispersal of those laptops and the limits on available resources, made an automated, remote management solution highly desirable to reduce support costs, particularly in the Russian market.

Krka was using a variety of software management tools, including Microsoft® Systems Management Server 2003. But that solution was never designed to handle Krka’s mostly remote population of users who seldom connected to the network even by virtual private network (VPN).

Solution

Krka is gaining control over its remote laptops—and the rest of its technology infrastructure—thanks to Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, the successor to Systems Management Server 2003.

Thanks to Configuration Manager, we have the level of control over our environment that we need. The result is that our environment operates more efficiently. We can manage the environment the way we should, without the limitations we had before. Ivan Lukšič Head of Information Infrastructure, Krka

The feature enables Krka to manage client machines without requiring them to connect physically to the network or even requiring them to connect through a VPN. The capability uses a range of technologies—including public key infrastructure, secure socket layer, and Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server—to help deliver updates securely over the Web.

Krka is also using other System Center Configuration Manager features to facilitate laptop and desktop software distribution, such as the Task Sequencer.

“When we have trouble with a PC today, we may need to go through four or five steps to install and reboot the computer,” says Aleš Rajh, Systems Engineer, Krka. “With the Task Sequencer, we can automate these steps.”

A range of features support Krka’s use of System Center Configuration Manager for server updates, including the Task Sequencer and Maintenance Windows, which enable Krka to deploy updates and reboot servers at times that won’t disrupt users.

The Asset Intelligence capability of System Center Configuration Manager gives Krka a new level of knowledge of its environment, including information on both Microsoft and non-Microsoft software in use on its systems. And, when Krka is ready to deploy the Windows Vista® operating system on the personal computers and the Windows Server® 2008 operating system on the servers, it will use the Task Sequencer, Maintenance Windows, and Asset Intelligence capabilities to facilitate those efforts, too.

Benefits

“Thanks to Configuration Manager, we have the level of control over our environment that we need,” says Ivan Lukšič, Head of Information Infrastructure, Krka. “The result is that our environment operates more efficiently. We can manage the environment the way we should, without the limitations we had before.”

Update schedules for laptops and other personal computers are accelerating. Computers are now updated five times a year and Krka is planning to move to a monthly update schedule, from the less frequent basis on which computers were updated before. “This wouldn’t have been possible without Configuration Manager,” says Lukšič.

The Internet-based Client Management gets much of the credit for this.

“We’ve tested the Internet-based distribution capability extensively and it works perfectly,” says Rajh. “It also works very quickly. We publish an update and it’s deployed to all of our computers on the Internet in about 10 minutes. If the Internet connection is fast, the speeds are comparable to what we see on our LAN. And Configuration Manager helps to ensure that we do this securely, which is crucial.”

The Asset Intelligence capability of System Center Configuration Manager is already making a difference to Krka. Previously, Lukšič and his colleagues had to go through the time-consuming process of creating a manual report to validate compliance with their licensing agreements.

“With Configuration Manager, reports on what software we have can be generated automatically—the capability comes out-of-the-box,” says Lukšič. “And the result is that we spend less on licensing.”

For example, Krka used to maintain 70 licenses for AutoCad software—with another 30 people asking for the software. A report generated in System Center Configuration Manager showed that only 30 people were using the software daily and that 40 people were using it just once a month. That enabled Krka to move from 100 total licenses to 20 concurrent licenses—saving money while expanding user access to the software.

Krka also uses Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 and plans to integrate the two System Center products with the implementation of Microsoft System Center Service Manager.

“The integration of Operations Manager and Configuration Manager means we have one tool to use—System Center—to implement processes and manage our environment,” says Lukšič.