Karin Esslinger has worked at Mondi Bad Rappenau for 19 years and has been using the Deskcenter Management Suite since 2013. At five locations the suite provides the complete management of the IT infrastructure, user administration and budgeting. Karin Esslinger reports on her work with the suite and the benefits for the IT department:
“Before using Deskcenter we only worked with Excel spreadsheets that showed the current status on a day-to-day basis. Now we do everything with Deskcenter Management Suite from creating an inventory of the software and hardware via asset management, licence management, patch management and software distribution. I saw the software and said ‘I need that’. The functions were a perfect match and it was also good value for money.”
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Preparations for an audit only take 5 minutes as everything is properly documented and all of the licences can be called up immediately. So when an audit comes around I feel much better and more relaxed about it because I’m using Deskcenter.
Karin Esslinger
IT-Administrator, Mondi Bad Rappenau
Challenge
- Bundling of the individual solutions Inventory, Software Deployment, Asset-, Lincense- and Patch Management
- Too many manual steps costing too much time
Solution
- Summarizing all modules and creation of individual dashboards
- Relief in daily business trough overview and central control over all systems
- Reporting for audit preparation and internal purposes
Inventory and data maintenance at Mondi Bad Rappenau
“At first we had to do a complete inventory of the IT landscape. Once all of the existing systems were entered into Deskcenter it was really easy to maintain them and add new systems. I am informed about which hardware and software are on a PC, when the inventory was last created and the patch status that it has. For each system, documents, such as invoices and maintenance, are stored as well as all the licences and software contracts. If there is a corresponding mobile policy for a user, we can also store it. I can clearly see all of this information in an interface and all of the parameters are immediately available for any system. The solution is very structured and self-explanatory. I can really see everything I want to see. It’s like my ‘Bible’.”
Flexibility and functionality
“I love being able to create various dashboards, e.g. seeing an overview of which systems are tight on C-drive memory space. So I can intervene ahead of time before things get critical. We also distribute software with Deskcenter and equip new PCs with software and updates. We no longer distribute patches using the Wsus server but rather with Deskcenter. So a defective patch can be removed quickly and centrally and you do not need to do it on 100 computers. It reduces the amount of daily work and replaces the manual work steps.”
Transparency and secure planning at Mondi Group
“We also use the reporting for internal purposes. Cost centers are stored for all of the systems and we have a unique assignment for book-keeping queries. Management does not have to wait so long for certain information and it is prepared in a well-structured way. So, for example, I use the stored installation date of the computers for budget planning to see the new hardware that has to be purchased over the next year.”
Transparency and planning security thanks to Deskcenter
“Preparations for an audit only take 5 minutes as everything is properly documented and all of the licences can be called up immediately. So when an audit comes around I feel much better and am more relaxed about it because I’m using Deskcenter. We used to have to transfer licence queries to the head office in Vienna manually by email, but now we do it at the press of a button using configured reports.”
“Deskcenter saves us a lot of time through automation and central processes. So I can use Deskcenter for example to shut down production computers automatically as scheduled, install patches and restart them. Since we have a three-shift operation, that used to take place at the weekend. In general it saves me a lot of trips to individual computers and all of the information is available at the press of a button. And it’s great that the users are not disturbed or adversely affected when they are working.”