John Holland (JH) is one of Australia’s leading engineering and
construction services providers to the infrastructure, energy and
resources, and transport services sectors. JH is working with Citrix to
create an enterprise mobility environment in support of its “Day in the
Life of John Holland” strategy, which involves the implementation of a
virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). JH has implemented XenApp,
XenDesktop, NetScaler, and GoToTraining as key components in the
organization’s shift to a less redundant, more cost-efficient IT
infrastructure.
As a project-based organization, JH can have up to 100 projects running
in offices and remote locations at any one time across Australia and
southern Asia. In the past, JH would have technology infrastructure that
needed to be set up for each project with backup systems. This was
costly and time intensive for IT, and often involved risk due to the
remote and sometimes harsh locations of projects along with natural
weather occurrences. Productivity was less than optimal because
employees weren’t always able to complete tasks on site in real time,
instead having to travel back to the site office to fill out paperwork
or access systems via their desktop. The plethora of device options
being used by employees also created challenges with delivering apps and
information securely and timely. With the goal of making employees more
agile, while enabling anytime, anywhere access to applications and data
on any type of device, JH’s “Day in the Life” strategy eradicated the
duplication of tasks allowing employees to focus on core objectives.
The key benefits of this Citrix deployment include:
-
Cost savings – JH reduced IT expenses through the
centralization of servers that typically cost between $5,000-$25,000
per project site, which eliminated the need for IT equipment at
multiple project sites. In addition, JH optimized organization
efficiency by enabling employees to spend more time at sites on
critical items and interacting with staff rather than having to travel
between sites and the office to complete paperwork.
-
Increased productivity – Productivity and employee engagement
also benefitted from the mobilization of more than 20 processes that
can now be completed on any device from the project site,
significantly reducing the time investment required by
employees.
-
Improved customer satisfaction – Adoption of this business
strategy helped improve customer satisfaction as employees are able to
spend more time on site and contribute to improving the quality of
results.
-
Corporate social responsibility – JH significantly
reduced carbon emissions from the reduction of multiple site servers
along with an improved ability to access accurate data for any legal
requirements.
“By centralizing our data systems using Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop,
we’ve eliminated redundant infrastructure and introduced cost savings,
while also making it easier for employees to submit data at the project
location in real time.” -
David Banger, CIO, John Holland Group