Active relationship work
Client management and ticket system under one roof - this concept from aagon enables the wholesale company Boltze to link assets, clients and tickets. This gives the IT department a complete overview of the relationship between what is connected in the company's IT.
Boltze Ideen Deutschland GmbH & Co KG came to Client Management in a roundabout way: A few years ago, the wholesale company initially introduced acmp Helpdesk as a new ticket system. In the course of this, the IT department discovered the functional scope of aagon GmbH's client management products and immediately expanded its aagon portfolio. "Sooner or later, we would have dealt with the topic anyway," says Daniel Butkiewicz, network specialist at Boltze.
With aagon, the ticket system and client management are on the same platform - one of the software provider's major advantages for IT managers. The acmp suite fulfills all of the company's current requirements for a ticket management system. This includes "embedded pictures", i.e. the integration of pictures into the body text of a ticket. This is because many users use images to describe errors. "In particular, acmp Helpdesk can map processes in a lean way and requires minimal effort compared to other helpdesk solutions," explains Butkiewicz. "Writing a ticket is therefore done quickly." The system was also set up and went live within a few days.
The reason: many queries are already predefined and can be used immediately. User-specific requirements can be implemented with just a few clicks. Eight support colleagues operate the system at Boltze every day.
Fast and self-explanatory client management implementation
The short and extremely simple implementation was also one of the most striking features for Boltze when it came to client management. In terms of IT, the wholesaler relies entirely on Microsoft. There are around 450 Windows clients - 200 of which are mobile workstations - spread across the company headquarters in Braak, three German sites and one Chinese site. There is no standard client at Boltze; each PC / notebook is configured differently depending on the department (sales, purchasing, warehouse...). The software products in use are an industry ERP (from SOG), a warehouse management system (Inconso), the ELO archive, the complete MS Office range, Flash Player, Java and Adobe Photoshop. In addition, there are some individual developments such as a sales catalog and a statistics tool for the sales force.
Complete control over inventory and equipment
"When we rolled out the acmp client, we were amazed at what we were using," recalls Daniel Butkiewicz. For him and his eight colleagues in IT, client management today means complete control over the number and equipment of all workstations at all locations. Regular administration tasks are defined in the software via so-called client commands and then run automatically. With the software, a client rollout only takes 1.5 hours without any further intervention; the colleague on site only has to ensure that the computer is connected to the network. Without client management, the team used to need a good two to three days before even one Java update was carried out on all clients.
Less manual work, more quality management
Today, Boltze can update software and upgrade operating systems at all locations at the touch of a button, without the need for on-site IT support. The IT team completed the migration from Windows XP to 7 and from MS Office 2003 to 2010 entirely with acmp OS Deployment. This will also be the case for the upcoming upgrades to Windows 10 and Office 2016. The processes run automatically in the background - even with the location in China, where at most bandwidth problems sometimes make fast synchronization difficult. The tasks of central IT are thus shifting away from manual installation and towards quality management and reporting.
For network specialist Butkiewicz, China is a good example of the quality of aagon's support. "In general, the software is self-explanatory and you hardly need any support," he says. "Asset management was set up within three days with all the individual fields that are required. With a little technical understanding, it's very easy to get the aagon products up and running." When support is needed, Butkiewicz would like to see the same level of commitment from other software manufacturers that he has experienced with aagon. "When I was at our Chinese site recently, the colleagues in Germany even came into the office early so that we had enough time to make phone calls. The service here is simply very unbureaucratic and immediate, without long response times. That is exemplary."
The IT administrators cite the push queue as one of the biggest advantages of the client management system. This feature of the acmp suite allows software distribution to be controlled by timing, without a separate container. Updates are not pulled from the main location, but from the queue, the distributed file repository, of the defined location. This pays off for Boltze, especially at the Chinese branch office, where bandwidth bottlenecks can be avoided and synchronization can be started at night. External clients can also start client commands independently and retrieve the software defined for them.
Conclusion
"Embedded Picture" at the helpdesk and the Package Wizard in Client Management have become further favorite functions. The wizard relieves administrators of a lot of work when packaging software. The mass import via interfaces such as CSV helps with asset management - "especially for assets that are not just a PC, where we already have the information in the acmp client", as Daniel Butkiewicz explains.
And finally, the active relationship work performed by Client Management - having an overview of the relationship between clients, assets and tickets at all times - towers above everything else.
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Briefly noted:
With the acmp Suite, wholesaler Boltze manages its clients and assets, controls operating system updates and distributes software automatically across all company locations, even as far away as China. At the same time, an integrated helpdesk system establishes the connection to support tickets. The result is an integrated solution that provides the IT team with an overview of the relationships within the company's IT.
Connected workstations:
450
Products used:
Asset Management, Desktop Automation, acmp Inventory, acmp Helpdesk, OS Deployment, Security Detektive, Software Detektive, Contract and License Management (in development)
Benefits:
Greater efficiency in software distribution, automatic migration to new operating system versions, simple packaging of standard applications via wizard, linking of tickets with assets and clients.
About Boltze Ideen Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG
Boltze Ideen Deutschland GmbH & Co KG was founded in 1964 in a small living room in Hamburg by Male and Werner Boltze. Today, Boltze is family-run in the second generation. With around 250 employees, a worldwide sales network and 8,000 customers, Boltze is the largest German wholesale company for home accessories and gift items. The managing directors are Adrian Boltze, Male Boltze and Andreas Floth.
Further information: https://www.boltze.com/ueber-uns
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