Schüco International KG is a leading supplier of high-quality windows, doors, façades and sliding systems. Millions of Schüco products are installed in residential and commercial buildings all over the world, and meet the highest requirements of design, comfort, security and energy efficiency. Building on many years of experience in solving customer problems, Schüco is expanding its home automation offering to deliver intelligent control and integration solutions based on modern apps. Headquartered in Bielefeld, Germany, Schüco is active in more than 80 countries and employs 5,400 people.
Renowned for the quality and precision of its window and door systems, Schüco faces unprecedented demand for its products and services. To maintain its position as an industry leader, Schüco is constantly developing new products that support the latest market trends, such as home automation and the Internet of Things.
To create the next generation of products, designers and engineers need rapid, reliable access to computer-aided design (CAD) workstations, as well as custom planning and visualization software developed in-house. Employees rely on approximately 500 applications in total to keep business operations running smoothly.
Steffen Stelter, Project Leader at Schüco, explains: “The majority of employees depend on one or more IT solutions for their day-to-day work. We support around 4,000 laptops and desktops with 21 languages across 36 offices and plants.”
Managing this fleet of widely distributed – often mobile – endpoints, made up of 23 different hardware configurations, represented a significant challenge for Schüco’s IT team.
Schüco has been using Micro Focus ZENworks Configuration Management to centrally control the company’s desktops and laptops for more than a decade.
Steffen Stelter confirms: “We have relied on ZENworks Configuration Management for 13 years and our experience has always been outstanding. We routinely evaluate alternatives, including on-premises and managed service offerings, but ZENworks Configuration Management continues to meet our requirements so well that we see no reason to switch to another system. We are also impressed by continuous improvement of the solution.”
Recently, Schüco worked with Micro Focus Consulting to upgrade ZENworks Configuration Management to the latest release, integrate it with Microsoft Active Directory, and optimize the configuration of its environment of five primary servers and 35 satellite servers. The company also deployed Micro Focus ZENworks Patch Management to keep endpoints up to date with the latest security patches.
To ensure the smooth-running of critical business systems such as its SAP and CAD applications, meet new hardware requirements, and to stay on its vendors’ support path, Schüco and Micro Focus Consulting rolled out Microsoft Windows 10 to desktops and laptops using ZENworks Configuration Management.
Stephan Pacht, Project Leader and IT Administrator at Schüco, recalls: “With Micro Focus Consulting, we were able to complete the Windows 10 implementation within a very tight timeline. A high level of automation with ZENworks Configuration Management makes it quick and easy to install the new operating system across 36 locations in 21 languages, without long interruption to users’ work. The guidance we received from the Micro Focus team has been very valuable and we are currently in the process of migrating all the endpoints to Windows 10.”
With Micro Focus ZENworks Configuration Management, Schüco can deploy applications and software updates to endpoints all over the world fast. The IT team can package up applications and updates at short notice, as and when required by the business, and respond more quickly and cost-efficiently than would be possible with an outsourced service offering.
An application store, which is visually aligned with Schüco’s corporate design, allows selfservice for staff, enabling them to install all the applications they need with the click of a button.
Stephan Pacht notes: “Advanced automation allows us set up new hardware very fast, so it now takes just 30 minutes in the best-case scenario. This will help enormously during hardware refreshes, as we need to do lots of testing too before we release new laptops and desktops to staff.”
Steffen Stelter concludes: “Keeping business operations running smoothly is our top priority. Micro Focus ZENworks Configuration Management enables us to manage desktops and laptops centrally, so that we can provide the best experience for users.”
We have relied on ZENworks Configuration Management for 13 years and our experience has always been outstanding. We routinely evaluate alternatives, including on-premises and managed service offerings, but ZENworks Configuration Management continues to meet our requirements so well that we see no reason to switch to another system. We are also impressed by continuous improvement of the solution.
With Micro Focus Consulting, we were able to complete the Windows 10 implementation within a very tight timeline. A high level of automation with ZENworks Configuration Management made it quick and easy to install the new operating system across 36 locations in 21 languages, without long interruption to users’ work.
