Before Applixure
- Scattered data, educated guesses. "Before, we had scattered data linked with educated guesses and hunches," says Ari Kaislaniemi from Murata Electronics. "As we did not see the big picture, we were not sure if we were taking the right actions to improve our environment as a whole."
- Software sprawl with no way to see it. With hundreds of workstations in different phases of their lifecycle, a wide variety of software versions had accumulated, no way to tell which applications were actually used and which were simply taking up disk space.
- Purely reactive support. Without the bigger picture, the team could only respond to support requests as they came in, rather than anticipating issues.
Why Murata Chose Applixure
Murata's initial goal was simple: get a comprehensive view of the company's 700 workstations. What they found was a tool that helped with far more than the big picture alone; it became part of daily support work and long-term planning alike.
What Changed
- 1,000 software applications or versions removed. Starting from 2,300 applications, the team identified and removed 1,000 through ongoing review, separating genuinely needed software from what was simply accumulating. "Right now, we can see which applications are actually being used and which are simply taking up disk space," Kaislaniemi says. "Without Applixure, it would be impossible to manage the software version chaos."
- Proactive maintenance instead of reactive support. When Applixure detects BitLocker protection turned off on a workstation, it automatically generates a ticket in ServiceNow. Laptop batteries get upgraded before users even notice they're failing.
- Every support touchpoint used to catch hidden issues. Every PC that comes in for support is thoroughly examined for other potential maintenance needs, fixing everything at once so the same workstation doesn't generate a new ticket again soon after.
- Weekly Service Desk meetings now run on Applixure data. The team reviews quality scores together and decides where to act, for instance, upgrading specific software to reduce the number of versions in use.
- Application usage monitoring improved how software performs. When an application crashes or hangs frequently, the appointed Key User for that application is notified. In one case, guiding end users toward proper use measurably improved how that application performed company-wide.
- SCCM is being phased out in favour of Applixure as the ServiceNow data source. Hardware, software, and usage data from Applixure will replace what ServiceNow currently pulls from SCCM. An end-user portal showing device details, leasing contracts, and warranties is also planned.
- Rollout extending to the production floor. Beyond office workstations, Applixure will soon be used for workstations in Murata's production environment as well.
In Their Own Words
"Now we can perform proactive maintenance instead of simply reacting to support requests. For example, when Applixure notes that BitLocker protection is turned off on a particular workstation, this automatically generates a ticket in ServiceNow. Our end users have been very happy when we have upgraded their laptop battery even before they notice it is failing."
— Ari Kaislaniemi, Murata Electronics
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