IBM slashes IT support costs by 30 per cent

IBM's business partner in the UK, Axia, has implemented IBM ThinkVantage Technologies, such as Rapid Restore Ultra (RRPC), Access Connections and the Embedded Security SubSystem to provide a low cost and efficiently managed service to customers purchasing IBM ThinkPad notebooks and IBM ThinkCentre PCs.

"Mobile workers can now work hassle-free and without concerns about security, data backup or excessive dependence on their IT departments," said Sameh Farid, regional manager of personal computing division, IBM Middle East, Egypt and Pakistan. "This region's IT infrastructures need to be robust enough to cope with the demands of constant availability and high usage business applications, yet flexible enough to swiftly accommodate the latest developments for competitive advantage. By simplifying the management and maintenance of processes and using IBM ThinkVantage technologies, we are giving our customers the opportunity to achieve this whilst reducing support costs and improving response time for their own customers."

The IBM ThinkVantage technologies have enabled Axia to gain centralised control over the supported PCs and manage user location profiles essential for remote working, in addition to offering the very highest level security measures such as file protection and encryption. Axia has generated an extra 20 percent in customer sales over the past eighteen months, as a result of IBM's ThinkVantage technologies.

IBM Access Connections allows end user IT departments to configure individual location profiles remotely, enabling mobile workers to access the network infrastructure through wireless access points, from the office, home or through a Virtual Private Network (VPN). The mobile worker can then switch between locations without having to manually reconfigure settings. Rather than use different channels and configurations depending on where they are, users now use the same configuration regardless of location.

Rapid Restore Ultra also helps increase the productivity of mobile workers by reducing downtime and data loss. Axia is able to maintain a constant, protected back-up of data, operating system and applications on each notebook or PC. This image also allows mobile workers to restore the system at the touch of a single button if software or operating system corruption occurs and can be scheduled to back-up automatically as required, without any end user intervention once set up. Axia needed its mobile networks to be highly resilient, to ensure the security of the mobile worker's data and to enable mobile users to connect securely from anywhere in the world, at any time.

IBM's Embedded Security
IBM's Subsystem helps organisations provide file and folder protection with encryption, user authentication to control systems and Password Manager to replace multiple passwords with one pass phrase reducing the number of calls to the IT helpdesk for passwords to be reset.