Case Studies AppSense helps Auto Trader make the most of infrastructure upgrade

Edit This Case Study Record

	AppSense helps Auto Trader make the most of infrastructure upgrade

AppSense helps Auto Trader make the most of infrastructure upgrade

Technology Category	Cybersecurity & Privacy - Security Compliance Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP) Functional Applications - Remote Monitoring & Control Systems
Applicable Industries	Automotive Software
Applicable Functions	Business Operation Quality Assurance
Use Cases	Predictive Maintenance Regulatory Compliance Monitoring Remote Asset Management
Services	System Integration Training
Challenge	Auto Trader faced several challenges when transitioning to a purely digital business model and consolidating its offices. The IT team needed to support a major infrastructure change, simplify desktop estate management, improve user experience, and achieve PCI compliance. Responding to change requests was time-consuming, with group policy changes taking weeks to test and simple system changes taking days. The complexity of the existing environment, with nearly 1,000 group policies and 2,500 lines of logon scripts, made deployment and testing difficult. Additionally, the IT team wanted to improve logon performance and simplify desktop configuration and application settings management. Read More
About Customer	Auto Trader, a well-known name in the automotive industry, transitioned from a print magazine to a fully digital enterprise in 2013. The company offers a range of trade services related to buying, selling, marketing, and managing automotive stock. With over 300 in-house experts, Auto Trader plays a significant role in the UK automotive market, with 65% of used car transactions involving the company. The company consolidated its operations into two main offices in Manchester and London, with IT operations centralized in Manchester. This move provided an opportunity to redesign its end user computing infrastructure to support future business growth. Read More
Solution	Auto Trader deployed AppSense DesktopNow to centralize desktop configuration and simplify management. This solution allowed the IT team to manage settings and deployments quickly and efficiently, eliminating the need for complex group policies and logon scripts. With AppSense, Auto Trader reduced logon times significantly, improving user experience and security. The company also used AppSense to manage PCI compliance by blocking access to its internal billing application for users of Chrome and Firefox, ensuring that credit card information was not recorded during calls. Additionally, Auto Trader tested AppSense Performance Manager to address performance issues related to large file transfers. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Cybersecurity & Privacy - Security Compliance

Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)

Functional Applications - Remote Monitoring & Control Systems

Applicable Industries

Automotive

Software

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Predictive Maintenance

Regulatory Compliance Monitoring

Remote Asset Management

Services

System Integration

Training

Challenge

Auto Trader faced several challenges when transitioning to a purely digital business model and consolidating its offices. The IT team needed to support a major infrastructure change, simplify desktop estate management, improve user experience, and achieve PCI compliance. Responding to change requests was time-consuming, with group policy changes taking weeks to test and simple system changes taking days. The complexity of the existing environment, with nearly 1,000 group policies and 2,500 lines of logon scripts, made deployment and testing difficult. Additionally, the IT team wanted to improve logon performance and simplify desktop configuration and application settings management.

About Customer

Auto Trader, a well-known name in the automotive industry, transitioned from a print magazine to a fully digital enterprise in 2013. The company offers a range of trade services related to buying, selling, marketing, and managing automotive stock. With over 300 in-house experts, Auto Trader plays a significant role in the UK automotive market, with 65% of used car transactions involving the company. The company consolidated its operations into two main offices in Manchester and London, with IT operations centralized in Manchester. This move provided an opportunity to redesign its end user computing infrastructure to support future business growth.

Solution

Auto Trader deployed AppSense DesktopNow to centralize desktop configuration and simplify management. This solution allowed the IT team to manage settings and deployments quickly and efficiently, eliminating the need for complex group policies and logon scripts. With AppSense, Auto Trader reduced logon times significantly, improving user experience and security. The company also used AppSense to manage PCI compliance by blocking access to its internal billing application for users of Chrome and Firefox, ensuring that credit card information was not recorded during calls. Additionally, Auto Trader tested AppSense Performance Manager to address performance issues related to large file transfers.

Impact #1	Auto Trader significantly improved logon times, reducing them from several minutes to about 35 seconds, enhancing user experience and security.
Impact #2	The company eliminated the reliance on group policies and logon scripts, simplifying desktop configuration and management.
Impact #3	AppSense enabled quick and efficient deployment of settings and changes, reducing the time required from days or weeks to seconds.

Impact #1

Auto Trader significantly improved logon times, reducing them from several minutes to about 35 seconds, enhancing user experience and security.

Impact #2

The company eliminated the reliance on group policies and logon scripts, simplifying desktop configuration and management.

Impact #3

AppSense enabled quick and efficient deployment of settings and changes, reducing the time required from days or weeks to seconds.

Benefit #1	Logon times reduced from 5-8 minutes to 35 seconds.
Benefit #2	User downtime reduced from a full day to 30 seconds in case of desktop failure.

Benefit #1

Logon times reduced from 5-8 minutes to 35 seconds.

Benefit #2

User downtime reduced from a full day to 30 seconds in case of desktop failure.

Download PDF Version

Overview

AppSense helps Auto Trader make the most of infrastructure upgrade

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit