Claiming to be first to offer this technology locally, in partnership with Intel, GijimaAst says that it is responsible for the management and support of some 500 000 outsourced desktops and peripherals on behalf of 500 customers.
 
Highly competitive market conditions have made the management and support of customers IT environments and the related costs more challenging than ever. With so many outsourced service providers, customers are able to demand higher service level agreements for lower prices. Four years ago it would have been acceptable to have a four-day turnaround on PC downtime, today it is less than a day, explains Johan Vorster, group infrastructure solutions architect at GijimaAst.
 
According to GijimaAst, it tested Intel vPro technology and its built-in manageability capabilities using Intel Active Management Technology (Intel AMT). The solution consisted of a single server running Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 and desktop PCs featuring Intel vPro technology. The benefit of Intel vPro technology was evaluated in three main areas: inventory management; problem diagnosis and resolution and software deployment.

The company reviewed the role that Intel vPro technology could play in addressing the following key challenges:
* Reduce total cost of ownership whilst further improving the level of customer service;
* Streamline asset management by reducing manual audits and improving inventory accuracy;
* Simplify the complex task of supporting 500 000 PCs for over 500 customers each with an average of 10 sites;
* Increase helpdesk productivity by resolving more IT problems remotely and reducing the number of time-consuming and expensive desk-side visits;
* Decrease time taken to deploy software updates for its customers, ultimately resulting in more robust and secure IT environments.
 
We evaluated the ways in which technology could increase the remote management capabilities of GijimaAsts help desk as well as increasing the efficiency of desktop management and support. GijimaAst employs more than 3300 people of whom 1000 are dedicated to supporting outsourced environments. Many SLAs state that GijimaAst carry out a hardware and software audit on behalf of its customers every six months. This is important, as customers then use this information to direct them on legally binding processes such as software licence purchasing. Currently this is a labour-intensive process that requires much manual intervention. Another demand on GijimaAsts IT support staff is the deployment of critical security patches and software upgrades.
 
This type of action normally requires that customers employees leave their PCs on overnight a process that consumes large amounts of power. Naturally, some people forget to do this, whilst others are on vacation or away sick, leaving IT staff to catch those PCs when they are switched on again. GijimaAst ensures that its customers IT environments are as secure as possible, but not being able to switch on PCs to run upgrades makes this task extremely time-consuming for the outsourcer, potentially leaving the customers IT environment more vulnerable to attack, explains Vorster.