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Medway Council
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Customer Spotlight
Medway Council delivers better for less with
Thintech
Medway Council serves a complex population of 270,000 in Kent. The
council’s geography is 50 per cent rural, 50 per cent urban and embraces
some of the most deprived and most affluent communities in England.
Like most local governments, Medway has faced financial constraints
following a reduction in central government funding. Head of ICT Moira
Bragg runs a team of 60 that supports the council’s 100 separate
locations. She explains, “Most local governments are looking for ways to
transform their services. At Medway, we have a programme called ‘Better
for Less’ that is looking for ways to drive efficiency: doing things better,
but cheaper. It’s very much about agile working.”
The challenge: using IT to empower cross-organisational
transformation
Medway faced a number of challenges across its ICT estate. Historically,
hardware budgets were under the control of individual departments.
Some, facing budgetary pressures, had delayed hardware updates with the result that many PCs were now
seven or eight years old. Users no longer switched off their machines at night because they could take 40
minutes to boot up each morning. If PCs were not being restarted, important security updates were not taking
effect. The council also needed to update its Microsoft® Office software.
Beyond these concerns however, Moira was aware that a fresh approach to ICT could help drive
transformation right across the council. Utilisation of physical desks across the council was between 50 and 60
per cent. If users could be unshackled from their desks, the council could begin to realise greater efficiencies
by rationalising its real estate portfolio. Rather than being hampered by history, geographically scattered
departments could be reunited in single offices, reducing travel and improving efficiency further.
The solution: virtualisation enables agile workstyles
Moira and her team were aware that similar organisations had achieved substantial benefits from a virtual
approach. They developed a business case to determine what cashable savings might be available if Medway
took a similar path. Satisfied as to the potential savings, Moira and Simon Austin, the Programme Manager for
Medway’s Agile Working programme, put the project out to tender.
It quickly became clear that a Citrix solution would be the best technical fit for the council’s needs. However, it
initially appeared too costly. At that point, Citrix Gold Solution Advisor Thintech contacted the council. MD
Brett Loveday convinced Moira that his firm could deliver a virtual desktop solution using Citrix XenDesktop®
Industry:
Government
Key Benefits:
£1 million savings
generated over five years
24% lower energy
consumption
Reduced real estate
requirements
Greater data security
Citrix Products:
Citrix XenDesktop®
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that was within Moira’s budget and which met the team’s criteria for speed, security, remote access and
usability aspects such as quality of audio, video and support for dual screens.
The ICT team took the opportunity to centralise hardware procurement within their team. An initial survey
defined 10 – 15 per cent of users would require a mobile solution. All other users would migrate to new thin
client Dell Wyse® terminals. With a successful proof-of-concept completed, the team began to roll out the
solution, starting with the most difficult departments; those scattered across many sites and using a wide
variety of applications. Children’s Services, with its sensitive data needs, was also high on the list. With the
most demanding departments handled first, the roll-out will gather speed as it continues.
Key benefit: 24 per cent lower energy consumption contributes to £1 million savings
Moira was able to take “before” and “after” energy readings at one early site. The move to a virtual desktop
solution on thin client hardware has reduced energy consumption by 24 per cent. This, combined with savings
from centralising hardware procurement and moving desk-based users onto thin client terminals, was projected
to save Medway Council £1 million over five years. The project is currently tracking well ahead of this.
Key benefit: mobile workspaces enable reduction in real estate
Moira’s team has established drop-in centres for mobile staff at libraries and community hubs. Within existing
offices, they have created hot-desking areas and dissolved the old one person, one desk, one device model.
As a result, the council has been able to consolidate Children’s Services into a single building from the three it
required previously. The council has identified a further three buildings where leases will not be renewed over
the next year. As Simon explains, “Users are really, really happy with the new technology. Log in times have
reduced, they have the new version of Microsoft® Office and they can sit wherever they like.” Simon has also
noticed this leading to more collaborative working with staff empowered to gather together for ad hoc projects.
Key benefit: delivering greater security for critical data
Data is also more secure, held in a secure data-centre rather than scattered across individual PCs. As Moira
explains, “One of the biggest surprise for me was the plethora of in-house developed apps that were deemed
to be Business Critical, but were not being backed-up. We now have those relocated to our servers in a
secure environment.” The solution has given Medway greater control over USB devices; any data copied to
such devices is now encrypted first.
Looking ahead
Medway’s ICT team has migrated the 500 most challenging of 2,800 desktops. Completing the desktop
deployment will take about a year. After this, the team will address mobile needs and are considering Citrix
XenMobile® to manage this. A virtual telephony solution, to complete the mobile workspace, is also on Moira’s
transformation list.
About Citrix
Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS) is a leader in mobile workspaces, providing virtualisation, mobility management, networking and cloud services
to enable new ways to work better. Citrix solutions power business mobility through secure, personal workspaces that provide people
with instant access to apps, desktops, data and communications on any device, over any network and cloud. This year Citrix is
celebrating 25 years of innovation, making IT simpler and people more productive. With annual revenue in 2013 of $2.9 billion, Citrix
solutions are in use at more than 330,000 organisations and by over 100 million users globally. Learn more at www.citrix.com.
