Amerisure Makes PCs Disappear by Implementing Business Virtualization with Wyse Virtual Clients

Strategic Virtualization Initiative Nets Financial Services Company $8.5 Million Savings

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Wyse Technology, the global leader in thin computing and client virtualization, today announced another success story at Amerisure Mutual Insurance Company. As a result of their data center and desktop virtualization efforts, Amerisure projects a total savings of slightly more than $8.5 million over a five-year period.

Headquartered in Farmington Hills, Michigan, Amerisure provides businesses with workers-compensation insurance through a network of independent agencies in very close partnership with approximately 800 employees in nine regional offices throughout the Midwest and Southern United States.

Every three years Amerisure faced the disruptive and expensive task of a PC refresh, requiring the writing of a $2 million check as part of its standard PC replacement policy. In 2009, Amerisure didn't write that check. The reason was because of Amerisure's decision to virtualize not only the technology infrastructure at Amerisure, but to look at virtualization as a strategic business advantage.

According to Jack Wilson, Enterprise Architect at Amerisure: "In more than thirty years in IT, this is the first time the actual solution was better than I originally imagined. Our implementation of Citrix XenApp and virtualization hardware and software from Wyse Technology has made us a flexible, efficient, reliable and secure organization."

Amerisure is benefitting throughout the company from their virtualization strategy. Wilson saw four components to the success of the initiative.

• Think Strategically
• No Half Measures
• Quantify, Quantify, Quantify
• The PC Nemesis

"Amerisure is a great example of the benefits that a business can accrue when they look at client virtualization not only as an IT function, but as a strategic business objective," according to Maryam Alexandrian, Senior Vice President Worldwide Sales and Channels at Wyse. "They have created an agile computing infrastructure that is a model for virtualization deployments today, and Wyse is proud to have played such a significant role in helping Jack Wilson and his team achieve their vision."

“Amerisure has been able to fully realize the promise that on-demand application delivery from XenApp has given to our customers. By taking a highly strategic approach to their XenApp implementation, Amerisure has created a flexible, scalable, and adaptable infrastructure while significantly lowering the cost of application and desktop management,” said Alicia Rey, director of product marketing, XenApp product group at Citrix. “It’s exciting to see the results they have achieved by fully leveraging virtualization in their environment.”

Think Strategically

The undertaking was as much about business strategy as it was about technology. The end goal was an agile infrastructure, ubiquitous access to systems and data from anywhere, at any time and on any device. This was in line with business goals to reduce cost while increasing functionality. "We realized this project would impact every department, every employee in the company, so it was vital that we get as much of the company on board as quickly as possible," added Wilson. "In order to promote a seamless transition, our executives needed to understand the financial implications of the decision, end users needed to know the implications to their personal computing systems. Finally, everyone needed to understand the strategic importance of an agile infrastructure with respect to Amerisure's ability to compete in the market."

No Half Measures

Wilson's team also decided to hold nothing back in their implementation, opting to update the entire company in a series of sweeping moves. "I realize that many companies try to be cautious about massive IT projects such as this one, but many of the benefits we envisioned with a completely virtualized environment would be undermined if we didn't virtualize the entire organization," said Wilson. "Keeping one location or one department on PCs, for example, would just isolate the existing problems we had with PCs, it wouldn't solve them. Supporting a heterogeneous environment is the problem we were looking to get away from, not continue. In our opinion it was absolutely critical that this initiative was deployed across the entire organization."

Quantify, Quantify, Quantify

"I like to compare large IT projects to a Space Shuttle launch," added Wilson. "Ninety percent of the shuttle's energy is expended in simply getting off the launch pad and traveling those first few miles. To overcome that amount of inertia requires a clear, measurable goal. Because of the strategic important to this virtualization initiative, we identified a number of quantifiable objectives that spanned different groups within the company."

The simplest ROI was the hardware. On the desktop front, Amerisure saved $1.9 million in 2009 alone having Wyse virtual clients installed instead of PCs. This is not including the hours required to swap out old PCs with new ones, which was an ongoing process at Amerisure prior to this initiative. Amerisure also saved $750,000 in 2009 alone because of server consolidation.

Energy savings were also factored into the deployment and quantified when possible. Amerisure expects to save $391,500 over five years in electricity savings. Help desk calls dropped significantly because of improvements in security and sign-on procedures, resulting in the reduction of the help desk team from six individuals down to one.

"We simply don't get viruses anymore," added Wilson. "And there are no more compatibility challenges because everyone in the organization is on the same version of the same software. Furthermore, it can take as little as 10 minutes to update a piece of software across the entire organization because we only have to do so once."

The PC Nemesis

Amerisure wanted their computing device to be as simple and reliable as a telephone handset so the IT department can better manage the desktop experience. "The PC," according to Wilson, "is the opposite of simple. Over the years, in fact, I've come to consider them my nemesis. Despite flying in the face of tradition, we decided to move away from PCs and toward virtual clients. Amerisure decided on Wyse virtual clients; simple devices that connect to the server to download their configuration and process applications."

"The three main benefits," continued Wilson, "are cost, reliability and security. The cost savings are astronomical and impact the entire organization. With respect to reliability, comparing a Wyse virtual client to the reliability of a PC is like comparing a Cadillac to an Edsel. On the security front, if you have a PC then you have a C-drive. No matter how many policies you set, people will store things on their C-drive and that's simply not safe. With PCs in place at any organization, it's inevitable that eventually no two PCs will look alike. It's an administration nightmare."

Amerisure uses a combination of virtual clients from Wyse. The majority of desktops are using Wyse 5150SE and S50 devices. For users with specific dual-monitor requirements, the Wyse V10L is in place. Even mobile devices are deployed in the field, primarily the Wyse X90 and X90L.

"In our environment today, the only distinction between the Wyse virtual clients we now have in place versus the PCs we have replaced is that the Wyse units are reliable, last significantly longer, are more secure, and enabled us to get out of a vicious cycle of PC replacement," added Wilson. "With respect to the end user experience, there's virtually no difference between a PC and a virtual client."

When Wilson and his team undertook this transformation in 2006, none of them foresaw the economic difficulties looming in 2009, but the forethought of their initiative continues to pay dividends even in an economy where belt-tightening is no longer a consideration, but now a mandate.

"Our virtualization implementation was critical for us to lower costs while improving service," concluded Wilson. "Amerisure IT now runs like a utility, particularly in the way that our computing infrastructure is now part of the business fabric, like heat or electricity. I know I've done my job right when our people don't think about thetechnical infrastructure. It's just always there, and it always works. I had an idea our virtualization plans would be good, but I had no idea it would be this good."

About Wyse Technology

Wyse Technology is the global leader in thin computing-based virtualization software and hardware solutions. Wyse and its strategic partners, including, Citrix, CSC, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, Novell, VMware and others deliver the most innovative hardware, software, and services that optimize the benefits of cloud computing, virtualization and green IT. These thin computing solutions allow consumers, SMEs and large public and private enterprises to access high definition voice, data and video content they need, with optimized security, manageability, and user experience at a much lower total cost of ownership than other traditional end user devices, including PCs. Wyse has the largest global distribution network in the thin computing market through its partners and offices worldwide. Wyse was founded in 1981, and it is headquartered in San Jose, California, USA.

For more information, visit the Wyse Web site at http://www.wyse.com or call 1-800-GET-WYSE

* All brands and names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective holders. Citrix® and XenApp™ are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc.

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Source: Wyse Technology