.png)
Before Applixure
- No way to monitor devices, no way to forecast issues. "We didn't really have a way of monitoring the devices, so we were a very reactive department," says Lee Walker, Head of Technology and Security at JTL. "People would come to us after a problem had happened. We had no way of forecasting any particular issues that may happen. We had no live status updates or anything like that."
- Frustrating for a team that wanted to do better. "You feel that you've let the user down because you were not able to prevent issues that were going to happen."
- Root causes were hard to find, so the default was to wipe and reinstall. When the team couldn't figure out what was wrong with a device, the common response was to replace the machine, wipe it, and reinstall, creating significant extra work.
Why JTL Chose Applixure
As a charity, JTL needed to evaluate options carefully and ensure value for money. What set Applixure apart, in Lee's words: "The effortlessness and convenience of being able to identify issues, clear and understandable results, and the easy-to-use software made us feel that Applixure is a step above the other solutions."
The free trial made the case quickly. The dashboard highlighted machines with issues and gave clear performance scores, both per device and for the whole estate, making it obvious why a particular machine was underperforming. "It wasn't just a lot of numbers. It was very easy to understand," Lee says.
What Changed
- Easy-to-fix issues became visible immediately. "Straight away I was able to see these are easy fixes, these are things that we can do right away. And the user doesn't even know." A number of devices needed battery replacement, and the team could now replace them before the user ever experienced a dying battery.
- Root cause investigation got far easier. Using Rewind to History, which shows a full year of a computer's history, the team can check whether a recent software install is what dragged a performance score down, rather than guessing.
- Reactive became proactive. "Rather than being a reactive department, we can be a proactive one," Lee says. "The moment I saw all the information it gave, such as battery life and disk space, I realised that these were easy fixes. We could fix problems before they got so bad that the user would suffer the consequences."
- Remote fixes replaced shipping laptops back and forth. Problems that used to require sending a laptop from a training centre to the IT department and back can now often be resolved remotely. "It has definitely saved time and money now that we can sort out issues remotely and proactively."
- Workflow turned monitoring into an automatic action. Alerts for battery life, disk space usage, and BitLocker status now automatically create a ticket in JTL's help desk system the moment a threshold is crossed, letting agents pick it up and reach out to users directly. "We use Analytics for more in-depth analysis, but using Workflow gives us automated notifications for pre-defined issues we want to be sure to take care of."
A Short-Term Trade-Off, Worth Making
Lee is candid about the adjustment: seeing everything that needs fixing increased the team's workload in the short term. But the expectation is that proactive fixing now means less firefighting later, as issues get resolved before they escalate into bigger problems. "It's a service that we've not got any regrets in getting. It's definitely going to help the team and the business as a whole."
In Their Own Words
"We didn't really have a way of monitoring the devices, so we were a very reactive department... We had no way of forecasting any particular issues that may happen. The moment I saw all the information it gave, such as battery life and disk space, I realised that these were easy fixes. We could fix problems before they got so bad that the user would suffer the consequences."
— Lee Walker, Head of Technology and Security, JTL
Managing devices across multiple sites and still sending laptops in for repairs? Start a free 30-day trial or book a demo — Applixure deploys in 15 minutes.
