Taming Core Applications
30th September

Intercept release new case study on using Citrix XenApp and Microsoft App-V application virtualisation to streamline applications for Knight Frank’s 1,600 distributed staff

“Thanks to Intercept, we now have the ability to roll out applications within minutes. Updates can be applied with a click of a mouse, which means no downtime for users or the business. We have an easy to manage system for keeping applications available and conflict free. Applications can be added quickly without the need to carry out extensive testing or integrate them with hardware.”
Dan Atkinson, IT Architect at Knight Frank

Key Highlights

Challenges

• IT team supports 63 UK offices serving 1,600 employees with 90 applications
• Troubleshooting was time consuming and costly to manage effectively
• Need to manage application lifecycle in an efficient top-down manner
• Concerns about security, maintenance and providing a consistent service

Solution

• Citrix XenApp chosen to centralise desktop applications delivery
• Microsoft App-V selected to virtualise applications to streamline testing, improve management and scalability
• Intercept chosen for proven technical ability and client knowledge transfer

Benefits

• Application sequencing and deployment now takes hours not days or weeks
• Huge reduction in management and deployment time as testing eliminated
• Improved disaster recovery as apps are available from multiple servers
• Consistent user experience in the office and at home

The Customer
Knight Frank LLP is a world-renowned global property consultancy with 207 offices in 43 countries across six continents. It employees over 6,300 experienced professionals handling £594 billion commercial, agricultural and residential real estate annually. It advises clients from individual owners and buyers to major developers, investors and corporate tenants. The company was founded in 1896 as a valuations, surveying and auctions business known as Knight Frank & Rutley. Its first sale was held later that year on 23rd April at Conduit Street in London and since then it has grown be the world’s largest privately owned global property firm. Knight Frank has a strong local presence among its worldwide markets, combining this with powerful central research and intelligence-sharing capabilities. This enables it to identify opportunities for clients to maximise value in every aspect of property dealings.

The Challenge
With such a large distributed workforce, Knight Frank’s IT department was feeling the strain, with 63 offices in the UK, over 1,600 employees and roughly 90 applications to administer. The IT team found that resolving software conflicts, troubleshooting hardware issues and application management was becoming too time consuming and costly to manage effectively. The process of application testing, rollout, updating and patching was simply no longer feasible. The IT team recognised that it had an urgent need to centralise and manage the application lifecycle process in a more efficient, top-down manner. The firm was also concerned about security, maintenance and providing a consistent service to the many end-users in disparate locations. Software applications were also hard to update, and often spread across multiple servers, and in systems with very limited cross-referencing capabilities.

The Solution
A strategic decision was made to centralise the delivery of applications to Knight Franks distributed users. Citrix XenApp was chosen to consolidate desktop applications to a central data centre, whilst Microsoft App-V was selected to virtualise these applications to streamline testing, delivery and improve management and scalability. After a review of three potential suppliers, Intercept was selected for its proven technical ability and commitment to knowledge transfer.

Intercept’s open methodology gave them the edge over competing firms who attempted to lock in customers with opaque agreements and without involving the client in every step of the project. It ensured that Knight Frank’s IT team were able to manage the solution seamlessly by the end of the implementation. Citrix XenApp (Presentation Server) was implemented to move applications from the users’ local desktop PC, back to the data centre. This phase of the project involved a 12 month multi-stage rollout due to the size of the task. This improved management and control for the Knight Frank team, but deployment of new applications and updates needed to be simplified to reduce application conflicts and end-user interruptions.

With 80 central Citrix servers delivering applications to such a large distributed workforce, the project was complex and left little room for error. The number of applications in use was steadily rising, and more applications were deemed essential. Knight Frank required an agile solution to manage these growing numbers. The second phase involved rolling out Microsoft Application Virtualisation (App-V) formerly Softricity. App-V was deployed to further ease the challenge of updating multiple applications in their Citrix environment, simplify deployment and seamlessly work with any other centrally delivered software applications.

The Benefits
Knight Frank has 80 Citrix servers and 90 applications that require updating every two months on average. Application virtualisation meant that coexistence and regression testing were eliminated, resulting in a huge reduction in management and deployment time. Application sequencing and deployment to the whole organisation now takes just a couple of hours from a single workstation rather than the days or weeks previously.

Knight Frank trusts Intercept to deliver excellent service as needed, an arrangement that has worked well for both parties. Since the original project, Knight Frank has now extended the Citrix rollout to its European and Middle East offices in Dublin, Florence, and Bahrain. Dan Atkinson, IT Architect at Knight Frank, explained the benefits of the solution Intercept implemented. “Thanks to Intercept, we now have the ability to roll out applications within minutes. Updates can be applied with a click of a mouse, which means no downtime for users or the business. We have an easy to manage system for keeping applications available and conflict free. Applications can be added quickly without the need to carry out extensive testing or integrate them with hardware.”

“Citrix XenApp and Microsoft App-V are a lifesaver for our company. It was previously very time consuming to update every server. Application virtualisation reduces the need for out of hours calls. Going back to the old way would require a lot of overtime for the two people managing Citrix and application changes.” Nigel Woods, Technical Director at Intercept agreed: “For an organisation of Knight Frank’s size and complexity, virtualisation offers many cost and time saving features to manage its IT resources effectively.”

About Intercept:
As award winning specialists, Intercept focuses on helping companies of all sizes reap the rewards of virtualised IT and cloud computing. From the desktop to the data centre, we will help you get the most out of your IT to reduce costs, improve the user experience and increase business agility.

The company has years of real world experience designing innovative solutions to fit client needs, all delivered with exceptional tailored support. Intercept has virtualised over 5,000 servers, over 100,000 desktops and more than 2,000 different applications in 30 languages, realising millions of pounds worth of savings to its customers. What’s more, some 60,000 users rely on Intercept’s managed and online services.

As specialists in delivering virtual IT infrastructure, Intercept consultants are different. Using the most resilient, scalable and high-performing technology available today, Intercept’s solutions empower client teams to get the very most out of their ICT investment.

For more information, please contact:
Luke Derbyshire
Spreckley Partners
T: + 44 (0) 20 7388 9988
F: +44 (0) 20 7388 8588
E: derbyshire@spreckley.co.uk