As one of the leading printing agencies in Central Europe, the Goldmann Druck AG assists clients all over Europe with its four production facilities in Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Among the clientele you will find renowned publishers, international retail brands and mail order firms as well as tour operators and advertising agencies. Among the factors of success of the company are a high quality and reliability – also in the IT-department.

Automatized client management for maximum reliability
The starting point at Goldmann Druck is well known to many other businesses: Software- and patch updates are only partially automatized – all other updates and maintenance tasks have to be done manually by “marathon administration”. A very time consuming issue which not only prevents many updates from being done on time but also leads to postponed and eventually forgotten updates. A circumstance that Martin Pichler, supervisor of the IT-department at Goldmann Druck and responsible for the IT of the group in Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic, could no longer tolerate. “Some of our hardware clients are important to the printing production and need to function at all times. Whether it's a newspaper, brochure or magazine: the time frame for producing print media is calculated within a narrow margin and we have to meticulously stick to our delivery dates,” the IT-expert explains.

X-tech experts find solution
Enough reason for the IT-supervisor of Goldmann Druck to start looking for an adequate solution for a centralized, automatized client management system. Supervisor Pichler approached the system retailer X-tech with the problem, having had worked with them on IT-solutions for the Goldmann Druck AG for years. After analysis and extensive consulting through the X-tech experts, two options remained in the running: the Altiris option from Symantec as well as another product. After testing both candidates, Symantec won the vote eventually. “The Altiris solution offers the best integration of several single packages based on a CMBD database in which everything runs together. This is why we opted for Symantec,” Pichler elaborates.

Software, managed centrally, for easy and on-time updates
It took about two weeks to implement the Altiris system in all three locations. X-tech assisted with valuable aid as Pichler confirms: “We're using X-tech's concept site-specifically. That is why we adapted the software into the respective language.” Regardless of the exact location of the client, at Goldmann Druck you will find clients for three different tasks when it comes to software configuration: the client for the office- and administrative department, the mobile client and the client found in production. “The high speed of first time set up of a client in the operative area is especially important to us. Within 35 minutes we can set up a completely new machine – and exchange a broken one,” he adds.

Altiris-supported helpdesk for a reliable IT-support
To not only provide a reliably functioning management of the clients, but also to offer quick help to inquiries, a helpdesk based on Altiris at all Goldmann Druck facilities was arranged. “With this we make sure, that all requests can be reacted to as quickly as possible and won't be stuck in the inbox of an administrator just because he's on a business or on vacation,” Pichler says. Thanks to Altiris, all requests are collected centrally and dealt via an issue tracking system. Each user receives status updates and should a request not be dealt within a certain handling time, the case is escalated to a higher importance. The outcome: All users profit from a fast and reliable IT-support.

Central hardware database as a background for cost allocation
Pichler and his teams are not only having software attribution and the helpdesk under control. Also when it comes to hardware inventory, Goldmann Druck possesses a model organization thanks to Altiris – record keeping is accurate and always up to date. This continuous overview over every piece of hardware from purchase to withdrawal from service is made possible by the Altiris asset management system. The Altiris barcode solution allows for every piece of hardware to be quickly recorded and inventoried.

Better user administration without increasing the team size
At Goldmann Druck Tulln Backup Exec 12, the leading data back-up solution for Windows, is being used – it makes the back-up of physical as well virtual servers possible. This back-up dual solution was especially important in Tulln where the exchange server runs on a virtual Vmware-machine. Pichler is pleased with the outcome: “We are now able to play back through individual emails.” The speed, too, convinced him: “We're backing up 3.5 gigabyte of data per minute,” he explains. “That's why we do a full back-up of the email system every day – that's 35 gigabytes! - and are done within  ten minutes.”

• Case Study Goldmann Druck AG (german) (Typ: PDF, Größe: 1,4 MB)