Scottish Environment Protection Agency divorces the desktop for a mobile workstyle

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is deploying Citrix technology to empower its employees to work from anywhere, on any device. By transitioning to a mobile workstyles environment, SEPA aims to significantly reduce unnecessary travel, reduce carbon and energy costs and enable staff to be more productive and work more collaboratively.

SEPA is responsible to the Scottish Parliament for protecting and improving the country’s unique environment. With 1,200 staff, 25 offices and a remit that can potentially generate a great deal of travel, SEPA wanted to take steps to reduce the environmental impact of its activities. The agency is working with Citrix Gold Solution Advisor I-KONIC to implement a solution comprising Citrix XenDesktop®, Citrix NetScaler®, Citrix Receiver™ and Citrix CloudBridge™.

By adopting Citrix technology, SEPA is empowering its staff with a more mobile workstyle, to enable them to work wherever and whenever they like, regardless of the device available. Desktop virtualisation technology is being used to centralise data and applications, delivering them out to users as a service.
In June 2013, SEPA moved into a new building designed specifically with mobile workstyles in mind. The Angus Smith Building has seven hot-desks for every ten staff. This, combined with the move to thin-client devices and Citrix technology, has reduced desktop PC energy costs by 90 per cent.

Other benefits of this project include:
• Business travel associated with IT support and the need to travel between offices has been much reduced
• Staff can access their SEPA desktop wherever they are, on whatever device is available: a desktop PC, a home PC or a personal tablet device
• The thin-client / hot-desk approach utilised in the new Angus Smith Building has become the model for future SEPA offices and will be adopted for existing offices as they are re-fitted
• SEPA’s scientists now use a virtual desktop solution, allowing them to access processing power via their chosen device at any time. Models can be started during the day and accessed from home in the evening – rather than relying on costly workstations on which to run complex models

Jav Yaqub, IT Services Manager, SEPA said: “We wanted this project to embody the core ethos of the agency, creating an efficient and environmentally-conscious IT infrastructure. We also wanted to offer people their desktop, wherever they went, but we were obviously concerned about potential data loss. The idea of having a centralised virtual desktop and using low power thin-client devices was very attractive. Our employees love the new environment. They are able to do more things from more places.”

“Desktop virtualisation is a technology that provides much more than vital cost efficiencies in a time of economic pressure,” said Jason Tooley, UK Country Manager at Citrix. “SEPA can now provide its employees with the tools they need to get the job done, wherever they are. The flexibility, mobility and productivity experience offered via a mobile workstyles solution means the agency can run a slicker, streamlined, more environmentally-friendly operation others can follow.”

One quarter of SEPA’s 1,200 staff currently benefit from the virtual desktop solution. SEPA will roll the model out across the whole organisation over the next two years.