Fast mobile deployment in a modern workspace
Summary
In these uncertain times, it’s important to be able to think outside the square, and quickly, to mobile a workforce and get resources to where they are needed.
And that is exactly what Computer One has done for one of our clients – an Australian Health insurer – in the last forty-eight hours.
The Brief:
To get fifty-plus laptops into the field within two days, ready to go right out of the box for staff to logon and start working, from home or wherever they may be.
The Challenge:
In traditional deployment models, deploying 50 computers inside a week, even if you have staff readily available to manage the process is a steep challenge – even if you have an automated deployment platform in place.
Normally the devices need to be deployed from inside the network first, before they reach the end users – which adds to the required steps and time delay before users can start work.
Un-boxing the device, setting it up to be imaged, casting the image, boxing it up again, arranging freight, and sending it to the user all add hours and days of delay.
And, for many deployments, the first time a user logs on it typically needs to be inside the corporate network to be successful.
So, our challenge was to come up with a scenario where:
- ideally, we didn’t have to touch the devices,
- we could simply have the laptops shipped, and
- the end users could simply open them and start working, following a few easy steps.
All the way through, it was essential to maintain our client’s security posture and minimise the impact on the already-busy local IT team.
The Solution
Our approach to modern workplace management across a number of systems over the last twelve months gave us the flexibility to be agile and quickly adapt to our changing task.
In this case, we levered off Microsoft 365 and Intune to give us the tools we needed for a Light Touch Deployment.
As part of the solution, we achieved:
- A simple and effective procurement, with hardware shipped straight from the distributor to the remote workforce
- Easy deployment with simple step-by-step instructions for self-deployment
- Pre-packaged Applications delivered via cloud automatically and seamlessly to maintain our security posture
- Industry-leading device management and end-point security using Microsoft Enterprise Mobility and Security
- Maintenance of our security posture with VPN enrolment and Hybrid Domain-Joined devices
- Zero technical debt – this will be the deployment strategy into the future
The speed and security benefit of this platform is obvious particularly in times like those we are facing with COVID-19. And while this client was prepared because they had already adopted some modern IT Management platforms, the ability to build similar platforms in new environments from the ground up is not difficult – it just takes a bit of know-how.
