The pandemic and the swift move to remote working was a challenge for Iress’ workplace technology team as more endpoint devices were roaming outside of corporate-controlled networks.

Policy controls were becoming challenging to maintain. Staying up-to-date with security patches and grates was putting the company’s valuable data at risk.

Despite regular checks, the team was becoming less confident that they were remaining compliant and secure. They also wanted a solution with zero-touch provision, reducing the time spent on setting up new devices.

Iress identified what was needed for the new solution:
• Consolidation of the tools they use to manage different environments, such as Windows, Mobile and Macs
• Enhanced security
• Device compliance reporting
• Better employee onboarding experience

After a comprehensive review, Iress chose Dell Technologies and VMware to develop an end user modernisation plan aligning with its strategy.

For six months, the teams worked to deploy a centralised cloud platform solution, Workspace One. By implementing zero trust security, unified endpoint management and drop ship provisioning, the new environment is modern, secure and intelligent.

Iress says the migration to a cloud native platform improved operational efficiencies, simplified support, and reduced costs and maintenance.

Since upgrading the system, Iress’ Workplace Technology Team has seen:
• One hundred percent time savings as they no longer have to maintain and support servers in the data centre due to the platform being cloud native
• Workplace Technology Team can save up to three hours of time on the setup of a new device
• Ninety percent time reduction on restoring or re-deploying devices, which can now be done remotely through the platform
• User experience as employees receive their new devices without having to come into the office
• Visibility over devices allowing better management, compliancy and remediation
• Application access is consolidated into one single location portal, which is much easier for employees to locate and access what they need, providing a great end user experience
• Seventy percent time savings in reporting and pushing out Windows updates and security patches to Windows devices
• One hundred percent time savings in managing and maintaining driver updates, firmware and BIOS upgrades on Windows devices.

“With Workspace One, our visibility across the environment allows us to see the status of a device in real time. The team can quickly see devices, manage them, and remotely support a device, all from one place, and no matter where the device is. It’s changed the way we work with our employees by providing a truly seamless experience,” comments Iress service delivery lead Paul Stead.

“The Dell Technologies and VMware teams collaborated with Iress to define a modernisation roadmap to ensure a successful outcome for all parties. The team took into consideration of Iress’ need for zero-trust security, dropship provisioning from Dell’s factory, data loss prevention, increased cloud security and access to an ‘anywhere workspace’,” concludes Dell Technologies unified workspace manager Aarron Quach.