Accord PLC (Access Solutions)
Background
Accord is a public services provider, primarily working in partnership with British local authorities and delivering a diverse range of environmental, highways, housing and business services. With a workforce approaching 4,000, Accord has 50 offices throughout the UK.
Accord's business model has always valued "localism". Hence, on winning any new partnership contract, Accord would form a local business unit and give the local management considerable autonomy to forge a strong partnership with the client, improve the service and grow the local business. By 2001, 16 of these business units existed each tailoring its approach to locally-specific customer requirements. However, because each unit's IT arrangements were similarly autonomous, hardware and applications throughout Accord had become outdated and poorly co-ordinated. Assorted email platforms - including Microsoft Exchange, Sun Cobalt Qube and web-based POP - hindered collaboration; a variety of software systems and file formats meant employees had difficulty accessing important and often sensitive e-mail attachments.
Requirement
As Accord continued to grow, it needed to consolidate and hence grouped the business units within four divisions which could share good practice and ensure consistent high standards. Equally, it needed dramatically to streamline its approach to IT. Haphazard and incompatible applications had to be integrated into a single system, allowing secure, remote access for staff and government clients on every device.
Solution
Accord evaluated two application deployment solutions: a traditional client/server model, where each operating company would host its own servers linked to a central server 'farm'; and the chosen option: a WAN link to a central farm using Citrix Presentation Server, which would eliminate the need for local servers. To centrally host and manage corporate applications for deployment to all 16 business units, ISC Networks was appointed.
Solution architecture
ISC is one of the UK's leading IT solution providers with specialised divisions that focus on providing our customers with IT consultation, design, implementation and support services. The Access Solutions division with its team of consultants are acknowledged as experts in the field of secure remote access with Citrix being a key part of the solution. ISC are a long established Gold Citrix Solution Advisor with over 9 years of expertise.
For Accord, ISC built a datacentre and deployed Citrix Presentation Server to 21 rack-mounted HP ProLiant DL360 servers running MS Windows 2000 Server. Accord's Citrix server farm was further supported by four more servers running SCO UNIX, acting as Citrix servers for the Citrix farm.
Although local servers are no more, Accord intends to provide all employees with access to core system applications - financial, health & safety, HR, etc - via a combination within each office of HP T5500 thin-client devices, HP DC7100 desktops and HP NC4200 and HP NC6220 laptops. Selected executives will also be able to access via HP iPaq PDAs. Citrix web enablement and secure gateway allows secure, encrypted access to all applications over the internet. The solution also integrates RSA two factor authentication to verify identities when accessing the infrastructure.
Benefits
ISC's Citrix solution has several distinct advantages over client/server architecture. Most crucially, it meets the need for security in an area in which government clients insist upon.
Delivery of data confidentiality is a decisive property of the ISC solution. "Accord can now secure assets throughout the enterprise, with application data retained on the central server instead of distributed to local devices," explains Andy Nabbs, ISC's Access Solutions Development Manager. "So IT staff can control access by employees according to their distinct duties, leading to greater control. Centralisation also means staff no longer need travel to separate locations in order to support and upgrade. In cutting the number of datacentre servers by half, there are significant cost reductions."
For Dave Price, Accord's Director of IT Operations, e-mail standardisation and deployment to different divisions has been the biggest success. "We have been able to deploy a centralised Microsoft Exchange solution across the whole business and consolidate our efforts," he says. "Despite being in separate locations, our employees can use public folders, collaborate on bids and projects, and share crucial information electronically. Citrix helps us to centrally manage our environment, which helped us reduce the number of applications we manage. Citrix also makes application deployment simple, so our employees are running a uniform environment. Today, anyone in the organisation can open an e-mail attachment, no matter the file format, because they can easily implement the relevant application."
The future
The ISC solution has also enabled Accord to improve home-based and mobile working for over 500 employees. Using the granular control and access of Citrix Presentation Server, individuals can access the system via various home PCs, laptops and PDAs. So quickly have staff taken to home working that the implementation has been judged a resounding success. Accord plans to have all users on this scheme by 2006.
"We have introduced a new philosophy within the IT department, which is to give people access to their information at any time, at any place and on any device," observes Dave Price. "By standardising on Citrix technology, we have been able to achieve this."
Dave sees ISC's Citrix solution as revolutionising the way Accord's employees work. "We have helped them balance their work and home lives. People don't work late in the office any more. This has improved conditions for our employees, so we've been able to retain highly skilled staff. If we stopped using Citrix, we'd struggle. Citrix is core to what we do and the way we deliver services, both to our internal users and our external clients."
"With ISC and Citrix, Accord has introduced a new philosophy, which is to give people access to their information at any time, at any place and on any device." - Dave Price, Director of Operations, Accord plc
