Danfoss uses NetOp to solve problems faster

Changing to NetOp Remote Control is helping industry-leader Danfoss increase efficiency by speeding up IT support.

Danfoss is the world leader within refrigeration and air conditioning, heating and water, and motion controls and with an annual sales turnover in 2001 of €1,930 million and about 16,600 employees it is also Denmark's largest industrial group.

While Europe is the focus for a large part of the company’s activities, Danfoss is a global enterprise with factories in 21 different countries. Based in Denmark, the company’s central IT division is responsible for servicing a large part of the company’s IT infrastructure, including close to 4,000 workstations. The service desk, for example, has a staff of 8 full-time employees who handle an average of more than 350 calls every day.

Until recently, Danfoss used Microsoft’s System Management Server (SMS) solution for virtually all of its remote control needs, including hardware and software maintenance, inventory and data transferals. “SMS has its good points, but performance isn’t one of them,” explains Niels Jørn Jensen, the System Engineer at Danfoss responsible for the company’s remote control needs. “It is simply too slow for the amount of work we need to get done.”

Tasked with finding a better and faster solution, Jørn Jensen studied the market and selected four products for testing: Windows NetMeeting, VNC, Windows XP and Danware’s NetOp Remote Control. “In addition to faster performance, we were looking for a number of specific features,” he recalls. “For example, before being allowed to take over an active screen, permission had to be requested from the remote user who should also have the option of terminating the session if necessary. This was important for protecting the privacy of our employees.”

Other features high on Jørn Jensen’s wish list included a remote boot function, the flexibility to operate via both a browser or a viewer, and the ability to disable the PC’s wallpaper.

The evaluation program set up by Jørn Jensen and his team produced clear-cut results. “The difference was remarkable,” he said. “NetOp was much faster. It also included all the other features we were looking for – and a few more besides. It was the only solution we considered that wasn’t free, but we had no hesitation in choosing it because it delivered what we needed.”

Having selected the new solution, the next phase involved deploying NetOp at numerous different sites on PCs running everything from Windows 95 to Windows XP. “We’ve already made good progress, and so far there have been no problems worth mentioning. NetOp is simple to install and use.”

According to Jørn Jensen, NetOp is already making a positive impact on the services offered by Danfoss’ IT department. “NetOp has really improved our ability to solve problems efficiently. Instead of a user trying to explain what they think the problem is, it’s faster and easier for us to find and fix it ourselves,” says Jørn Jensen.

He estimates that more than half of the calls received by the service department are now being resolved using NetOp. “Being able to quickly identify and fix so many problems means the people we support can get on with their work faster, plus it allows us to be more productive,” concludes Niels Jørn Jensen.

For more information about Danfoss, please visit www.danfoss.com