Petit Forestier chose Systancia for an agile and disruptive IT environment

As part of the virtualization project for its 2,000 workstations spread over 237 sites in France and Europe, the Petit Forestier group, specialized in the rental of refrigerated vehicles, furniture and containers, chose AppliDis Fusion from Systancia to replace the Citrix solution. The advantages provided include a live application deployment, any time of day or night, and the ability to identify problems before they occur. As for users, they can launch applications in a few seconds thanks to Artificial Intelligence and switch from one tool to another while keeping all their information.

Copyright: Petit Forestier 2018

Petit Forestier was looking for an alternative to the existing virtualization solution, which was considered too expensive and too complex to use. During a maintenance renewal, the company took the opportunity to find an alternative solution. The implementation of a new solution should allow for maximum benefit from a virtualized architecture, bring more flexibility to the system administration and benefit all the sites and employees, located in France and in Europe.

Petit Forestier chose AppliDis Fusion from Systancia, a virtualization solution that combines desktop and application virtualization. A single administration console, with an intuitive web interface, allows you to intelligently administer servers, applications, workstations and access rights, as well as create and manage virtual workplaces.

Time saving and reactivity for the administration of the IT system

One of the main constraints that Petit Forestier had to overcome was to upgrade the back office and infrastructure by keeping the same workstations, which included many old thin clients. “The challenge was to be able to recover old and new thin clients and make them work natively,” says Johan Barré, Infrastructure Manager, Petit Forestier.

About 70 applications are virtualized via AppliDis Fusion on 2,000 workstations with up to 1,000 simultaneous daily connections to the IS. Today, 70 servers are dedicated to the AppliDis environment.

Previously, all migrations had to take place during periods of low activity, at night or on weekends. “With AppliDis, the deployment of applications to employees is done in real time and without any impact on users or their productivity.”

But AppliDis has also brought benefits for the Support department. In terms of monitoring, the AppliDis unique interface allows a 360° view of the infrastructure, “which allows problems to be identified before they occur and to be more proactive in dealing with the difficulties faced by employees.”

Guarantee of efficiency and simplicity of use for employees

While the migration allowed to update the Office suite and provide users with the latest versions of the software, the 2,000 workstations also benefit from improved application opening and launch thanks to AppliDis Booster, a feature based on Artificial Intelligence: a unique innovation on the market. “The AppliDis sessions can now be opened, at full load, in just a few seconds and run much more smoothly thanks to Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence integrated into Systancia solutions.”

AppliDis provides session roaming features that promote user mobility within institutions. “The employees of Petit Forestier can be completely mobile in the network, from any device, and find all their information instantly. This allows the user to start working on one workstation, leave it and automatically resume work in progress on another workstation.”

Petit Forestier also integrates IPdiva Secure from Systancia to meet employee mobility and remote access issues. IPdiva Secure is the only solution qualified by the ANSSIAgence Nationale de la Sécurité des Systèmes d’Information. The National Cybersecurity Agency of France (ANSSI) is a French government organisation reporting to the Secretary General for Defence and National Security... More (definition pf ANSSI) for identification, authenticationPrimary or secondary authentication Authentication allows a user to guarantee his or her identity before accessing a resource or service. Primary authentication will give user access to the workstation (Windows... More and access control to the IS. It allows a controlled and selective access to data from outside the company – “the core of a sales representative work for example” – without any installation constraints for user workstations.

The printing processing on the 237 sites of the group was a major technical issue. Thanks to the universal printing module of AppliDis Fusion, Petit Forestier users can now easily manage their printing on the entire park.

By implementing AppliDis Fusion and IPdiva Secure, the Petit Forestier group benefits from a tailor-made infrastructure that allows it to develop its projects quickly, while keeping control of the tool. Already implemented on all its sites in France, the AppliDis migration will be extended to their Belgian and Italian sites by the end of the year. “The goal is now to maintain and develop the model, and to support the development of the Petit Forestier group, which continues to grow and establish itself in new countries,” concludes Eric Forestier, Executive Director of the Petit Forestier Office.

About Petit Forestier

Founded in 1907, PETIT FORESTIER is the European leader in the refrigeration rental market. As a specialist in refrigeration, the Full-Service offer provides complete management of the rental contract (maintenance, customization, 24-hour assistance, insurance, etc.) and is based on multi-products. With a fleet of more than 49,000 vehicles, 43,500 pieces of furniture and 1,800 containers, Petit Forestier serves 15,000 customers on a daily basis through more than 237 sites in France and abroad.