Challenge

Over the years, Ortner has worked with many clients to make apartment blocks, hotels, schools and hospitals habitable. Ortner works to ensure that the plumbing is properly and safely fitted, and that there is adequate ventilation – amongst other things – so as to meet strict building regulations and safety standards.

To provide these services efficiently and reliably, employees need rapid access to the relevant information and tools.

Christian Knoll, IT Manager at Ortner Ges.m.b.H., remarks: “About 400 of our employees rely on IT for their day-to-day jobs – be that engineering work, sales or customer service. Most of our staff work in offices, but others are often required to travel to building sites and work remotely. Regardless of location, employees need reliable desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone devices with access to their emails, calendar and documents, as well as the ability to share files and work together on projects easily.”

Solution

Ortner has relied on Micro Focus Open Workgroup Suite to support communication and collaboration as well as to manage its IT environment for many years.

“We first started using Micro Focus solutions when we established an internal network way back around 1990,” recalls Christian Knoll. “Since then, we have implemented almost the entire Micro Focus Open Workgroup Suite, which now forms the foundation of our IT services. We’ve always been highly satisfied with the Micro Focus solutions, which is why we have continued to expand our portfolio.”

Today, Ortner uses Open Enterprise Server to deliver file services, Micro Focus iPrint to manage printing across locations and devices, GroupWise® for email and calendaring, and Filr for simple, secure file sharing.

The company also deployed ZENworks Configuration Management and ZENworks Patch Management to centrally manage all devices, keeping employee desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones up to date with the latest applications and security patches.

Christian Knoll comments: “When we upgraded our workstations from XP to Windows 7, ZENworks Configuration Management helped us to migrate very quickly, minimizing business disruption. We are confident that the migration to Windows 10 will be just as smooth in a few months.

“We are now also using Micro Focus Desktop Containers to virtualize and package up specialized Windows apps as self-contained executables that we distribute with ZENworks, ensuring that all employees have access to all relevant applications.”

Ortner continues to work closely with Micro Focus and its trusted, long-time implementation partner inno-COM. “Support from inno-COM and Micro Focus has always been excellent,” says Christian Knoll. “We’ve been especially impressed with the commitment from inno-COM over the years. They have helped us with every implementation and upgrade, and keep us informed about new features and solutions that would benefit us.”

Results

With Micro Focus Open Workgroup Suite, Ortner can provide staff with all mission-critical tools and services.

“Quick, effortless access to emails and files is absolutely essential to the smooth running of our business,” says Christian Knoll. “With Micro Focus Open Workgroup Suite, employees have everything they need at their fingertips.

“We have about 150 highly qualified engineers who develop complex heating and air conditioning solutions. Many component suppliers provide us with their specific tools to get the sizing and configuration right. In the past, some of our engineers installed these tools, and some didn’t. And because these little tools vary in quality, sometimes installing them would cause instabilities on the powerful workstations primarily used for Computer-Aided Design (CAD). Thanks to Micro Focus Desktop Containers, we can package up these specialized tools from our suppliers and safely deploy them to all CAD workstations – for some staff, having now access to these tools boosted their productivity by 20 percent. At the same time, the standardized and risk-free deployment reduces the workload for the IT team by 10 to 20 percent.”

Christian Knoll concludes: “We’ve been using Micro Focus Open Workgroup Suite for more than 25 years, and have never had any reason to look elsewhere. The cost-efficient solutions help us increase productivity and focus on our core business.”