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Auckland Business School
CASE STUDIES: UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND (BS)
HIGHER EDUCATION
How University of Auckland (BS) transformed its business with Pulseway
They have been able to become more effective and efficient by working proactively to maintain uptime, while responding faster to any issues that require their attention.
TALK TO USThe best part is that Pulseway alerts us to issues before users even notice them. User satisfaction has gone up, our workload has gone down and the total price tag has been almost negligible.
Eugene Chan
Deputy Director Digital Services, University of Auckland (BS)
Objectives
- Utilise a smartphone-based monitoring and management tool
- Monitor and manage infrastructure on a 24 x 7 basis, regardless of location
- Implement a highly cost-effective monitoring solution
Challenge
- Provide maximum uptime and optimal performance for servers and virtual desktops
- Identify and rectify any issues immediately
Deployment
- Multiple virtual and physical servers
- Wide variety of smartphones - iOS, Android, Windows Phone/8
- Pulseway Enterprise Server
Steve Smith, Director of Technical Services at Chillisoft, resold and implemented Pulseway for the University of Auckland (BS) and said, “They wanted a solution that could work smart for them. We showed them how easy it was for us to look after our own infrastructure from our smartphones with Pulseway and how we could take care of most issues with a few clicks from the Pulseway dashboard. He was intrigued.”
Pings not enough
Ensuring the Business School’s server performance hasn’t been always that efficient. “We used to monitor server performance by ‘pinging’ using Spiceworks,” says Chan. “But sometimes the servers would send the right signals but the performance would be less than optimal. We would be alerted to the issue only when we received a call from a disgruntled user. We would then have to access the network to find out what was going on and take remedial action. If, for instance, the call came in at 8.30am, classes, research and operations would be inconvenienced until we fixed the problem.”
“We knew we needed to up our performance, but we couldn’t find the right solution,” he continues. “We looked at a variety of monitoring tools but they were either too complex, too expensive or just too difficult. Then, at an IT conference for tertiary institutions, I learned about Pulseway from Steve Smith at the Chillisoft booth.”
Chillisoft has been distributing Pulseway since early 2013. “Eugene is a typical Pulseway user,” says Smith. “At the IT Tertiary Conference he explained the challenges he and his team faced. They were mobile, managed a number of servers and users and had 7 x 24 responsibilities.”
No trial required
“As an IT manager himself, Steve understands what administrators need,” continues Chan. “Our requirements are technical so we needed to discuss things like agent footprints, reboot procedures and dashboard configurations. But, at the end of the day, we needed to be able to provide maximum uptime for users. And that’s the real benefit of Pulseway.”
“The cost was so reasonable that there was virtually no risk. It was an easy decision to make.”
Pulseway is perfect for IT support
Installation and initial configuration was a breeze. “We managed the install ourselves,” notes Chan. “It took very little time and we were up and running. Now we manage most of our everyday tasks from our smartphones. The best part is that Pulseway alerts us to any issues before users even notice any slow-downs. User satisfaction has gone up, our workload has gone down and the total price tag has been almost negligible.”
“Chillisoft offered us a 30-day trial license for Pulseway,” says Chan. “But we didn’t need a trial. We’d seen enough of what it could do so we just went ahead and purchased a 100-user license.”
Pulseway is perfect for IT support teams and it is being constantly and quickly improved. “The founder of Pulseway came to visit NZ recently,” concludes Chan. “We gave him a ‘wish-list’ of 17 enhancements. He programmed in a few of the features almost immediately and has been adding the rest…as well as new features… on a regular basis. In fact, there is even a feedback button in the app for suggestions! For IT managers and team, Pulseway is the ideal solution…fast, low cost, low footprint and it makes us look good to users. Plus we can use it anywhere…from the office, home, beach or even stuck in traffic. In short, it’s the ideal solution for a busy IT shop like ours.”
Founded in 1883, Auckland is the country’s largest university with over 40,000 students, nearly 10,000 of whom graduate annually.
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