Unisys Corporation has introduced Unisys End-User Productivity Services, a suite of services designed to provide organizations with the ability to support an increasingly mobile workforce that values integration of consumer technologies into the workplace. The new Unisys services will enable CIOs to reduce end-user costs by providing support for devices, desktops, applications and mobility through a flexible mixture of traditional, virtualized and secure cloud-based service delivery models.
The services are designed to meet the requirements of a workforce that is not only increasingly mobile but also multi-generational with differing expectations about where and how they work, the best IT resources to use and the type of IT support they need to maximize productivity in their preferred work environment.
Unisys End-User Productivity Services delivers a common framework that supports multiple work styles, Sam Gross, vice president of information technology, Outsourcing Solutions, Unisys, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
"The reality is that we have the baby boomers, we have the Gen Xers, and then we have the Millenias all in the workforce today. Each one of those generations has grown up and interacts with technology in very different ways," Gross explains.
As a result, he says, IT departments are responding to the evolving requirements of the workplace in multiple ways. At some companies, alternatives to traditional approaches are not supported at all, and at others the introduction of consumerized technologies into the workplace is allowed but not supported. And the third way organizations are responding, he says, is by creating a large, complex, one-off infrastructure to support technologies such as BlackBerrys, Macs, and Apples. "What Unisys End-User Productivity Services is about is breaking all of this down into composite pieces and within each of those, delivering a framework that understands in a common way how to work across all of the technologies, from conventional technologies to the virtualized technologies, all the way ultimately to what we call the ‘managed digital allowance' or BYO PC models."
Unisys End-User Productivity Services cover a range of traditional desktop solutions, such as device management and application management services, with plug-and-play service desk support and on-site support for multi-vendor devices. Key services include End-User Experience Monitoring and Management for real-time monitoring of desktop applications for response time and faults; and Mobility Support for remote management of Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices.
Those desktop solutions are combined with hosting and virtualization services that use the web and the Unisys Secure Cloud Solution for service delivery to provide end users with an individualized experience. Among these are Virtual Office as a Service (VOaaS) for access to standard office suites via subscription through the Unisys Secure Cloud Solution; and Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) for delivery, through Unisys Secure Cloud Solution, of Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Microsoft Office Communicator applications in a multi-tenant environment.
The End-User Productivity Services bring an extra dimension to use of Intel vPro technology and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager, according to Unisys. Those technologies are critical to automating the provisioning and management of end-user devices and application software across physical, virtual, distributed and mobile environments.
Unisys also plans to provide portal-based delivery for "managed digital allowances" to provide employees with a mechanism to purchase the devices they want to use for work.
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