Getronics enjoys higher productivity and increased mobility with Windows 8

In order to learn about Microsoft’s latest operating sys-

tem, ICT services provider Getronics joined the Micro-

soft Technology Adoption Program (TAP). This involved

them in deploying the beta releases of Windows 8 and

Windows Server 2012 in its production environment.

Today Getronics has 350 users working day-to-day with

Windows 8 spread over several devices such as laptops,

desktops and tablets.

Getronics is convinced that the new technology will

enable the company and its customers to deliver cost

savings, improve productivity and open the way to

adopting new trends such as Bring Your Own Device,

Choose Your Own Device and the New World of Work

in a secure way. The new improved features give users

more mobility and flexibility.

Getronics is now ready to deploy Windows 8 through-

out the company. The company is also using its first-

hand experience of Windows 8 experience to roll out

the first projects for external customers.

country: Belgium

sector: ICT services

profile

Getronics is an ICT services group consisting of the

Getronics and Connectis brands and is owned by

the AURELIUS Group, a holding company head-

quartered in Munich, Germany. Getronics has ap-

proximately 4,000 employees in 13 countries across

Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America, and has a

complete portfolio of integrated ICT services for the

large enterprise and public sector markets.

challenge

As a provider of ICT services and a Microsoft Gold

Partner, Getronics always aims to build up practical

experience of each technology before offering it to

its customers.

Windows 8

info.be@getronics.com

tel. +32 2 229 91 11

solution

Getronics joined the Microsoft Technology Adop-

tion Program, which involved deploying the beta

releases of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 in

its production environment. Some 350 laptops,

desktop PCs and tablet computers of Getronics’

employees, spread across nine different countries,

were migrated to Windows 8.

benefits

Û Optimizes the way employees work

Û Higher efficiency and productivity

Û Lower costs

Û Easier device management

Û Work with more mobility and flexibility

software&services

Servers

Windows Server 2012

Developer Tools

Windows

Windows 8

Desktop Applications

Business Solutions

Online Services

Microsoft Services

Microsoft Technologies

Microsoft Security

ICT services provider Getronics switched 350 of its

employees’ devices to the new operating system Windows

8. The devices included laptops, desktop PCs and tablet

computers, which are used across nine different countries.

Now Getronics is ready for all 4,000 employees worldwide

to change to Windows 8. In addition, the company can use

the technical expertise it has built up to support customers

in their switch to Windows 8.

“Windows 8 marks an exciting time for Getronics and our

customers, delivering cost savings, improving productivity

and enabling organizations to embrace new trends such as

Bring Your Own Device, Choose Your Own Device and the

New World of Work in a secure way,” says Nico Sienaert,

Sr. Infrastructure Consultant at Getronics. “With our exten-

sive knowledge and experience of working with Microsoft

technologies, Getronics can guide our customers on this

journey.”

Getronics’ philosophy is to test technology in its own envi-

ronment before advising its customers to deploy it. That’s

why Getronics, a Microsoft Gold Partner, first wanted to

learn about Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 before

the official launch on the market. The ICT services provider

joined the Microsoft Technology Adoption Program, which

involved them in deploying the beta releases of Windows

8 and Windows Server 2012 in its production environment.

Embracing new trends

While working with Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012,

Getronics noticed that the new Microsoft technologies

enable organizations to embrace new ICT trends more

easily.

“Mobile technologies will become more and more of a

commodity,” says Nico Sienaert. “It’s really about the ap-

plication, no matter where the user is located on the

globe. That’s why Getronics has intensively tested Win-

dows 8 and Windows Server 2012 features like Branch-

Cache, BitLocker and Remote Access. With Windows 7 we

could already see that the features showed a lot of

promise for the future. Now with the improvements that

Microsoft has made, these features have become even

easier to implement, and the threshold is lower.”

Getronics, together with Microsoft, is one of the pioneers

of the New World of Work. “While many companies have

it on their radar, we have implemented this way of

working for more than two years now,” says Nico

Sienaert. “Besides the change in culture and mental-

ity, technology is key to making such a project a

success. Getronics believes that Windows 8 and its

features will bring many organizations a step closer

to a full New World of Work environment.”

Another trend that is fast gaining ground is Bring

Your Own Device. “This is a complex area, for exam-

ple due to network security concerns, but with Win-

dows 8 our customers will be able to better prepare

themselves,” according to Nico Sienaert. “Windows 8

provides the opportunity for companies to offer its

employees leading devices with the operating sys-

tem that they are familiar with. Getronics recognizes

that customers may change their strategy from

Bring Your Own Device to Choose Your Own Device,

which will have a positive impact on cost and risk.”

It’s not only about Windows, it’s about apps

Getronics noticed during the Technology Adoption

Program that the new Windows 8 operating system

is very user-friendly, being very similar to Windows

7. However, users will need to adapt to the new

Windows 8 style user interface. “The new style is de-

signed for touch screen technology, which is impor-

tant for tablets,” explains Nico Sienaert. “We believe

that there are huge opportunities for our customers

with mobile workers and task workers. That’s why we

started to build Windows 8 apps in-house, including

an Internal Social Media tool, Engineer Application

and Meeting Room Reservation.”

In addition to the improved features in Windows 8

and Windows Server 2012, Getronics also tested a

number of new features such as Windows To Go,

Data Deduplication and Dynamic Access Control.

Windows To Go is a new feature of Windows 8 that

allows companies to provide an environment that

will boot from a USB drive. This is useful for people

such as external staff, who can then run Windows 8

from the USB stick on their own laptop. This means

it is no longer necessary for the organisation to pro-

vide them with a hardware device. New features at

the server level include Data Deduplication and Dy-

namic Access Control. Data Deduplication enables

organizations to save on disk space, while Dynamic

Access Control allows a more classification-based

approach of access rights. Refining the set-up of

users’ access rights, based on their profile, makes

security more efficient and easier to manage.

Device management

Getronics also provides managed services for large

organisations and so it is well aware of the com-

plexities of device management. “As Getronics

Nico Sienaert, Sr. Infrastructure Consultant at Getronics: “Getronics believes that Windows 8 and its

features will bring many organizations a step closer to a full New World of Work environment.”

manages more than 300,000 devices in Belgium and

Luxembourg, it is important that we keep improving the

way we manage all these devices,” says Nico Sienaert. “As

part of our extensive experience with Windows Vista and

Windows 7 roll-outs, we invested in tools to make the mi-

gration to a new operating system less painful for our

customers. We are continuing this practice with

Windows 8, with tools built on Microsoft System Center

Configuration Manager and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit.

By focusing on minimizing user downtime, retaining set-

tings and applications, and keeping risk low, we can

guarantee our customers smoother OS migration projects.”

First Windows 8 projects for external customers

In the meantime, Getronics is already carrying out the first

Windows 8 projects for external customers. For example, it

is helping a large university hospital in the Netherlands to

equip the nursing staff with a Windows 8 tablet PC. This

allows users to search for, share and update information

on patients very efficiently. Ultimately, this approach

should replace the paper-based patient records.

for more information

For more information about the Microsoft products

and services described, call +32 2 503 31 13 or visit

www.microsoft.be/cases for other businesses that

use similar applications.

For more information about Getronics, call

+32 2 229 91 11 or visit www.getronics.com

“Getronics believes that there are huge op-

portunities for its customers with mobile

workers and task workers. That’s why we

started to build Windows 8 apps in-house,

including an Internal Social Media tool,

Engineer Application and Meeting Room

Reservation.”