Case: International Law Firm Taylor Vinters Improves Employees' IT Experience with Applixure
Executive Summary
Steve Sumner, Director of IT at International law firm Taylor Vinters, was looking for a SaaS solution to track computer and software performance and to improve the IT experience of their 220 employees. Applixure fitted the bill. Steve and his team use Applixure to quickly and easily identify which computers need attention, to assist helpdesk in solving issues more quickly, and to proactively improve laptop and software performance.
Goal: Track laptop performance to improve digital employee experience
Taylor Vinters was in the process of migrating their 220 employees from desktops to laptops when the worldwide covid pandemic happened and everyone shifted to remote work. Steve wanted visibility into how the laptops and software were performing: to know whether there were performance issues, who was having them and what was causing them. He also wanted to understand whether the things that IT was doing – like updating software – were improving performance.
“We aspire to see our employees having no computer or software-related interruption in their working day at all.” Steve explains, “but by nature, all software has some bugs and shortcomings, so knowing about them can be very useful. When you know about them, you can find remedies or be able to inform employees, or report to a vendor to get them fixed.”
Wanted a SaaS solution that enabled tracking user experience
Taylor Vinters’ IT strategy included moving to the cloud – away from on-premise servers and storage. Therefore, they were looking for a SaaS solution to enable them to do some measurement and analysis to improve laptop performance. They wanted to be able to track the user experience for an individual, and also to understand how things were going on a firm-wide level.
They had been looking into log analysis, but that is very time intensive, and difficult to wade through more than one at a time. When Steve was introduced to Applixure, he was immediately interested.
Some performance metrics Taylor Vinters tracks with Applixure:
- Computer start-up times
- Crashes
- Hang
- High memory usage
- User log-on time
- Driver & component issues on machines
Easy implementation with little training required
Taylor Vinters has a clear process for phased roll-out of new software: They first trial it with the IT team, then expand to one or two teams of lawyers, and then to the whole firm. “Implementation was really simple and easy. We have centralized deployment for pushing out software to the Laptops” explains Steve. “Once the agents were installed, we waited a few days for the data collection to happen and then were able to start using Applixure.”
Steve found Applixure very easy to take into use: “You don’t need a lot, if any, training. The layout is nice and clear. There is a single figure score for each machine, and it is even color coded (green-yellow-red) so it is easy to see which computers have issues. Click on that and see, for example, if it is having crashes, whether service packs or security is out-of-date, or whether the latest security update is not installed.”
Scoring feature enables quick detection of computers needing attention
One of the features that Steve uses most in Applixure is the scoring feature. Applixure scores each computer on a scale of 1-5 with red-yellow-green color-coding to enable IT to see where things are good, and quickly spot which computers need their time and attention.
When Steve or his IT Manager notices a computer with a low score, they simply click to dig into the details of what is going wrong with that computer or its software – for example, that it has high memory usage. They can also see trends. For example, whether there are more hangs or crashes than before, or whether the situation is improving.
“When you have a lot of machines to look after, being able to really quicky see which ones you need to focus on and understand is invaluable.“
Solving Helpdesk issues, and proactively finding others with same issue
One of the challenges IT teams face is understanding why certain user issues are happening, another is that sometimes issues remain unreported by users. Applixure has been able to help Taylor Vinters with both.
Steve explains: “For example, the situation where someone reports that their computer is crashing: before Applixure, you needed to go through event logs on the machine, you might watch them try to re-create what happened etc. But with Applixure, you can get some insight into what issues there might be on that machine, is there a particular application which is crashing. Also, if one person has that issue, you look into who else has had the same thing happening but may not be telling us about it, and fix that too.”
“When someone reported an issue, we wanted to be able to see who else has had the same problem but perhaps left it unreported. Sometimes people can just continue working. We like to be pro-active and give a service to improve things for them.”
Anecdote: battery degradation
Steve shared an anecdote. His team noticed that some of their laptops were showing higher battery degradation than expected. Digging into the details using Applixure, they discovered this was happening with a particular laptop model. Armed with this data, Steve was able to react to the issue by contacting the manufacturer.
Steve's advice: Put Applixure on every machine
Steve has been very happy with how Applixure has enabled him to easily see the state of Taylor Vinters’ computers and software, and to delve into the details to solve issues. He does point out that it is not a silver bullet. It is a time saver because it provides a helicopter view of what is going on in your environment, and you can zoom in on particular things. It points to where you should delve deeper. Steve’s advice to others who are considering Applixure: “Applixure will work for anyone who is looking after a range of machines. To get the most value out of it, put it on every computer.”
Learn more about improving your Digital Employee Experience >>
Steve Sumner
Director of IT
Taylor Vinters
Taylor Vinters is a global legal and advisory practice, supporting innovation ecosystems and the businesses that drive them across the UK, US and Asia. Our clients range from Fortune 500 technology multinationals through fast growth, venture-backed and owner-managed businesses, to individuals driven by great ideas and defined by a passion and resilience. Put simply, it is our mission to work with innovative and entrepreneurial clients to help them shape a better world. Our people find real meaning in what they do by working with clients to create positive impact, today and tomorrow.
Applixure is a B2B SaaS solution that provides IT with always up-to-date visibility of how computers and software are serving employees. It pulls the relevant data into intuitive dashboards and clearly indicates high-impact yet easy-to-fix issues - enabling your IT to be more proactive. Set-up is quick, so you can start reaping the benefits almost overnight. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Finland, Applixure is trusted by over 1000 companies and managed service providers (MSPs). Give your IT the visibility it needs to improve your digital employee experience with Applixure.
Schedule a complimentary DEX Assessment
See what Applixure Analytics reveals about the state of your computer & software environment. Schedule a free DEX Assessment with one of our DEX Improvement Masters.
The Assessment requires about 3 hours of your time spread out over 3 weeks:
- Kick-off meeting (45 mins): deploy Applixure agents - data collection begins immediately
- Review preliminary results (1hr): 1-2 weeks after kick-off, share & discuss preliminary findings
- Final results (1hr): 1-2 weeks after preliminary review, go through the final results & recommendations.
👇Fill out the form to get started! 👇
What IT leaders have said about their assessments:
"After it had been running a few days, we could already see useful data: 'Look Otto, your computer is out of memory' and 'look Antti, your warranty ran out two years ago.'"
- Tommi Saarela, Senior IT Manager, Moonhill
"It's been an eye-opener. Applixure provides more information on our devices than we've ever really had before.'"
- Lee Walker, Head of Technology & Security, JTL.