June 28, 2011

RES Dynamic Desktop Studio provides long-term benefits around desktop performance and management

Frimley, UK – 28th June 2011 – RES Software, the proven leader in dynamic desktop solutions, today announced that Stephenson Harwood, a full service international law firm headquartered in the UK, has chosen RES Software Dynamic Desktop Studio to manage and control desktop settings and personalization for its entire user base. RES Software will help provide a consistent desktop experience for users, while also enabling improved performance and reducing costs for support.

This implementation was part of the law firm’s office move, which was completed in April 2011. RES Dynamic Desktop Studio was deployed in a “sampling” mode before the move to gather information on the applications that were on each PC, as well as collecting user personalization and configuration data. A standard desktop core image was created in parallel to this process. The image was deployed to the firms PC’s on the eve of the move to the new offices. As each user logged in on “day one” following the move, RES Dynamic Desktop Studio was used to apply user personalization and user specific software packages, this process was independent of the desktop platform that the users were utilizing.

Chris Petrie, IT director at Stephenson Harwood said, “Dynamic Desktop Studio provided us with an effective way to manage how the firms PCs and software were moved into the new office, ensuring no significant impact to the firms end-users and clients. With RES, we were able to complete an ambitious move and PC/Laptop upgrade program, deploying a completely refreshed core desktop software image, to be followed at login by a just in time deployment of any applications and settings that a user might require to work effectively.”

In the longer term, Stephenson Harwood’s IT team will benefit from reduced costs for support as tasks around user settings can be automated.

“For the future, we have built a more consistent approach to desktop management that improves the user experience around performance, and consistent delivery and also provides the IT team with a more effective way to manage the desktops that are in place or future technologies, whether these are physical PCs, virtual desktops or accessed via other devices. We have already achieved a return on our investment with RES Software, as otherwise we would have been unable to complete the office migration as cost effectively,” continued Petrie.

Chris Hammans, Regional Director UK for RES Software commented, “Desktop management is a huge requirement for IT, it effects everyone within a modern organization. Problem with quality and consistency, and the well known issues with Group Policies, leads to unnecessary management costs and frustrated users. It’s increasingly common for companies to leverage one-off projects like an office move or Windows 7 migration to re-evaluate how they handle their desktops, and then apply Dynamic Desktop Studio to improve endpoint management and control for longer term value.”

Stephenson Harwood worked with Virtual Engine, an experienced virtualization consultancy specializing in delivering desktop solutions and support. Virtual Engine provided consulting services around the use of RES solutions, as well as ensuring that the implementation was completed satisfactorily. “Iain Brighton and the team at Virtual Engine were key to the success of the project, their advice and support ensured that we avoided unnecessary delay and that the whole project ran smoothly,” commented Petrie.

RES Dynamic Desktop Studio provides a complete solution for managing a user’s settings, personalization and configuration from a central point. Users’ personal settings, applications and access rights can all be delivered automatically to any desktop or device, regardless of delivery platform, providing a better user experience and greater control for the IT team. Made up of RES Workspace Manager and RES Automation Manager, Dynamic Desktop Studio provides organizations with fully flexible and agile desktops for whatever platform they have in place and however this changes over time depending on company requirements and user needs.