VMWARE CASE STUDY

Virgin Trains bolsters its customer service productivity by 300 hours per day with VMware Mirage

INDUSTRY Virgin Trains desktop IT estate was dramatically impacting UK Rail Operator sta productivity - the result of slow boot up, shutdown and resume times, and was creating signifi cant user dissatisfaction CHALLENGE in the process. Working with VMware Enterprise Solutions • Make timely desktop migration to Windows XP Partner, Spherica, VMware Mirage was chosen to help Virgin • Boost productivity Trains safely migrate to a new operating system (OS) and • Speed up delivery and changes enjoy greater IT agility, simplifi ed management, more resilience to apps, operating system and and reclaim signifi cant lost productivity. data • Introduce better Disaster Virgin Trains is the most experienced long-distance rail operator in the UK. Responsible Recovery tolerance and data for the West Coast Main Line, the route serves more than 32m passenger journeys annually. Virgin Trains has travelled over 145 million miles in the UK and currently holds security 89% of the UK air and rail market between London and Manchester. The cornerstone • Centralise and enhance desktop of Virgin Trains’ business is their commitment to providing a safe, high quality service. management Making IT services available and putting important business information in the hands of sta is imperative to deliver upon this vision. SOLUTION VMware Mirage was used to create Business Challenges quickly in the eventuality of system a centralised base image for all issues was critical to keeping them Delays caused by the rail franchising productive whilst on the go, delivering desktops including Windows 7. process had postponed a planned an outstanding customer experience. Patching, application updates and desktop refresh. And with end of support Without their machines, access to data backup was then undertaken looming for the operating system, the essential data and services is not possible silently with zero impact on client refresh was now critical. and providing a mobile user with a fully performance to enable greater Virgin Trains faced several other rebuilt machine following hardware control and management over the challenges driving the need for a new failure could take up to fi ve days. This desktop estate. solution: was an unacceptable turnaround that was impacting customer service deliverability. RESULTS System response times • Breakthrough to boosting User dissatisfaction was running high Application management 300+ man hours daily because of slow performing machines Delivering a new application was a and lengthy boot up, shut down and gruelling process that would typically • Boost given to customer service resume times caused by software take up to six weeks. Limited visibility due to better performing backing up local data and patching. On surrounding the number of applications desktop IT average each worker was subject to a 30 also added to the challenges surrounding • Failed machines rebuilt or minute daily delay which was having a publishing anything new. As such, only restored in as little as two hours direct impact on customer service. “The applications considered a priority were as opposed to several days ageing IT equipment was holding us back. ever deployed. We needed to give users something that Outside of any functional changes, the IT • New applications deployed to 5 would enable them to deliver the great department was determined to be more day SLA instead of 6 weeks customer experience we strive for, not agile as a result of the solution, and keep • Centralised management and hinder it,” explains Stuart Mackcracken, IT in step with business demands through Project Manager at Virgin Trains. control whilst silent to users innovation with technology. Maintaining customer service 400 of Virgin Train’s 1000 workers are mobile laptop users. The need to respond VMWARE CASE STUDY

Transformation Roadmap Desk-to-desk data transfer enabled all “VMware Mirage has helped Virgin Trains needed to migrate from local data to be copied from users’ old us boost our productivity XP to Windows 7 ahead of the end of machines to ensure no data was lost by 300 hours a day, the support deadline. This compelling event during migration. result of a faster performing, therefore drove the defi ning timeline. The “The great thing about the VMware better managed desktop objectives for the refresh project were Mirage solution was that there were no environment.” clear: issues surrounding user acceptance. Stuart Mackcracken, IT Project Manager, • improve desktop performance - a three Besides getting used to Windows 7, and Virgin Trains minute boot up time was mandated enjoying improved boot up and shut down times, their experience stayed the • centralise and enhance desktop same. All of the other IT functionality management for IT we delivered was completely invisible and didn’t a ect system performance,” • make application changes, patching enthused Mackcracken. and data backup unobtrusive to the users Business Benefi ts • speed up response to desktop failure Virgin Trains successfully made the • accelerate delivery time of new migration from to Windows 7 ahead of applications within the environment. time thanks to Spherica and VMware Mirage. Every machine now boots up Various solutions were evaluated within three minutes, thanks to a thinner including; Citrix XenApp, Microsoft SCCM desktop image, bolstering the business and VMware View. However, with such a with over 300 hours of productivity every large number of mobile workers requiring day, which means more time available for o ine working, Virgin Trains felt VMware Virgin Trains’ sta to deliver exceptional Mirage would be the best solution. “We customer service. really liked the way that we could create a centralised based ‘gold standard’ Likewise, local data, applications, settings desktop image for everyone and that and preferences on machines are backed the patching, application updates and up hourly, and can be restored in as data backup would take place silently in little as two hours in the event of failure, the background without the user even something that would have taken several knowing,” continues Mackcracken. days previously. New applications can be delivered in a fraction of the time too. The Transformation Process SLA for getting new applications into the environment is now fi ve days whereas Virgin Trains worked on the project once it would take four to six weeks. A with long-term partner and VMware critical improvement that is allowing Enterprise Solutions Partner, Spherica, Virgin Trains to trial new applications who identifi ed the solution and were and meet compelling demands of the responsible for its implementation. business at short notice. The project started with a discovery exercise which revealed 200 live Next Steps applications. Through careful At the heart of Virgin Trains’ IT strategy examination these were rationalised to is a desire to be agile and innovative in 130 business-critical applications. supporting business demands. The fact Having also identifi ed which applications that VMware Mirage has transformed how were required for each of the user groups, its IT team is able to run and manage its “VMware Mirage ensures Spherica was able to work with Virgin end-user computing environment means we have a really good user Trains to create the base image for the the IT team now has the capacity to experience so they can focus environment, built around Windows 7. evaluate how else they can deliver value on delivering the outstanding Applications were packaged and tested for Virgin Trains. for delivery through VMware Mirage and customer experience we pride “We see VMware as pivotal in our each image was then personalised based ourselves on.” businesses drive to become more agile in on the user’s machine. Stuart Mackcracken, IT Project Manager, the future,” concludes Mackcracken. Virgin Trains

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