2 page Case Study - Posted 5/29/2008
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German Technical Services Provider Saves €200,000 a Year with IT Management
Germany-based TÜV NORD provides technical services from 70 offices worldwide. More than 5,000 employees rely on portable computers when out of the office. But, hard disk drive failures resulted in huge productivity losses. With a system based on Microsoft® System Center Operations Manager 2007, the company can identify failures before they occur. Employees now work more productively, saving TÜV NORD €200,000 (U.S.$316,000) a year.
Business Needs
TÜV NORD provides consultancy, certification, and testing services for technical safety, environmental protection, and management systems and products. Based in Hanover, it is one of the leading technical service providers in Germany, and has 8,000 employees working in 70 offices across Europe, Asia, and America.
For the majority of employees at TÜV NORD, daily work involves travelling to meet clients and performing inspections. While out of the office, more than 5,000 employees rely on portable computers to access vital business information such as customer data, technical records, as well as their personal schedules. For example, a transport safety inspector can access vehicle testing databases and then create and process an electronic report.
Frank Boerger, Head of Client Management, TÜV NORD, says: “Portable computers are an essential tool for inspectors and employees on the move. Any unexpected hardware failures mean huge productivity losses.” Keen to maximise efficiency, TÜV NORD created a monitoring system to remotely detect portable computer failures. The company identified that defective hard disk drives caused the most failures. However, it was not possible to predict when a hard disk drive would fail.
For Boerger, this risk of downtime was unacceptable. So, in 2006, he decided to investigate a solution that could not only react to failures, but prevent them. He says: “For that, we needed to see into the operating data of the computers. We wanted a solution that could predict when a hard disk drive was coming to the end of its life.”
Solution
After investigating various technologies, Boerger chose Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 as the best fit for the new system. This decision was based on its offline cache capabilities.
TÜV NORD created a pilot project involving 140 portable computers. Following the success of this pilot, it extended the system to all portable computers fitted with a customer relationship management (CRM) system. With the release of Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007, the company was keen to upgrade to take advantage of improved monitoring and reporting features.
In less than five days, Boerger’s team installed System Center Operations Manager 2007, configured it, downloaded the client software, and linked the solution to the help desk. Now, the client management department at TÜV NORD can monitor more than 5,200 portable computers, and receives advance warning of imminent hard disk drive failures.
Operations Manager reads each computer’s event log and temporarily stores data in an offline cache. When a computer forms a data link with a computing centre for CRM synchronisation, Operations Manager transfers the event log reports.
Boerger says: “80 per cent of all portable computers report to the synchronisation server at least once a week. This gives us access to the current operating data so we can evaluate it.”
A high frequency of read-write errors in the hard disk drive indicates that it is approaching the end of its life. In this case, Operations Manager sends a report to help-desk employees. The technical team then calls an employee and agrees an address where the replacement machine should be sent.
Within 24 hours, a new, personally configured notebook arrives. Once the employee has populated the replacement machine with updated data, they return the previous computer.
Benefits
With a new system based on Operations Manager, TÜV NORD can now detect hard disk drive failures on its 5,200 portable computers before they happen. By eliminating unnecessary downtime from failing machines, employees work more productively. In addition, they have confidence in the support provided by the IT team.
- Employees experience significantly less downtime on portable computers. Boerger says: “With the new system based on Operations Manager, we’ve increased productivity across the business, saving €200,000 a year.”
- The business has seen an excellent return on investment. Boerger says: “We made an initial spend of around €80,000 and the system paid for itself after just five weeks.”
- Employees experience minimal disruption and can maximise productivity due to the rapid deployment of replacement machines.
- Portable-computer users receive notification of hard disk drive issues before they notice a problem with their machines. This provides valuable reassurance and increases their confidence in the business.
- IT employees enjoyed a straightforward implementation with easy-to-install software, causing little disruption to activities across the company.
- Employees are under less stress as a result of the early warning system. One employee reported to Boerger that: “It’s fantastic. It means we no longer have to meet with a client and explain that the computer doesn’t work. It makes life much easier.”
- In 2006, the company received the Help Desk Award for the best innovative solution from the Help Desk Forum (www.help-desk-forum.de/).
- Boerger is planning further applications with Operations Manager, including remote verification to ensure that group guidelines are correctly loaded onto portable computers.
For More Information
For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit: www.microsoft.com/resources/casestudies
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