Leading UK manufacturers and retailers choose UCI Logistics, Ltd., for their solid track record in providing responsive supply-chain operations in a wide range of of markets. The company operates from 15 UK locations with 600+ employees, 900,000 square feet of warehousing, and more than 450 trucks and trailers.

In mid-1999, UCI Logistics embarked on a project to implement a Citrix MetaFrame solution using ZENworks for Desktops for distributing and supporting applications across the server farm. "The first task was to identify a partner who had proven experience in delivering this technology," said Simon Salloway, PC Support Manager for UCI Logistics. "After an extensive review, UCI selected Centralis as the strategic partner. As a Novell Solutions Partner and Citrix Consulting Service Provider, Centralis had extensive experience in implementing business solutions, and with Novell's NetWare platform, eDirectory, ZENworks for Desktops and Citrix MetaFrame—all of which are critical elements of the UCI infrastructure."

Early in the pilot phase of the project, it became apparent that UCI administrators would benefit from a faster to way to create ZENworks application objects in order to deploy all the applications that would be needed by users of the thin-client system.

Centralis AXE extends the functionality of ZENworks for Desktops to help UCI administrators overcome problems associated with deploying applications to PC and MetaFrame/Terminal Server environments. In thin-client installations, applications need to have unnecessary entries and settings removed, and the remaining entries "split" into separate objects for the user and workstation files and registry settings before they can be deployed. Creating a workstation portion allows the pre-install of the application for multiple users, while creating a user portion enables faster deployment and verification. However, manually inserting variables, file names, directory paths and settings in Windows* applications such as MS Office 2000 and IE5.5 makes creating user and workstation application objects both tedious and time intensive for administrators.

"Centralis AXE does this and more, which saves UCI hours of work in creating new application objects," says Salloway. "Centralis AXE rules split ZENworks snAppShots into separate user and workstation objects, allowing administrators to install 95% of the application once to be shared by the users. Centralis AXE allows UCI administrators to create, edit and store rules to automate manual changes, including those to separate an application snapshot into workstation, and user portions."

ZENworks for Desktops administrators have unique knowledge of the environments in which they work. Centralis AXE provides a means of automating, applying, and sharing that knowledge. For example, UCI administrators benefit from Centralis AXE because they are able to use a single tool to configure and manage the desktop and working environment for their users, independent of how and where the users are accessing those resources.

"For UCI administrators, the Centralis product's rules-based editing features mean faster, more accurate script creation that minimizes the snapshot size by reliably eliminating unnecessary registry entries and files," said Salloway. "For example, Centralis AXE contains rules to identify which files and settings are user specific and automatically set as Track Distribution per User. Centralis AXE can automatically insert variables and other settings into a variety of client environment settings, including drive letters and application directories.

"Centralis AXE speeds up and simplifies the process, saving hours of work in creating new applications," adds Salloway. "Centralis AXE addresses a much needed requirement for our MetaFrame implementation which is not part of Novell ZENworks for Desktops and its snAppShot tools. Centralis identified a need and delivered a working solution, which I am sure many companies and administrators will find invaluable when implementing Novell-managed Citrix MetaFrame solutions."

Following a 2-month pilot, UCI rolled out Citrix MetaFrame across the business. UCI eliminated five regional LANs, centralized management, and greatly lowered total cost of network ownership. As a result, UCI users can now log on to MetaFrame servers through NDS eDirectory and access network resources with a single password and user ID, anytime and anywhere.

The last word on the project goes to Tony Doran, IT Director at UCI Logistics, who adds, "Centralis has brought together these two technologies to create a first-class solution. When we moved our users from Office 95 to Office 97 we had to visit every PC," says Doran. "Now we are moving to Office 2000 by deploying a ZENworks snapshot to the MetaFrame server farm—that's the big difference. We really have improved our capacity to manage the network and improve the service we deliver to our users."

"The driver for Centralis to create software product is always to simplify complex processes, and overcome the problems our consultants and customers encounter in the field. Centralis AXE is a great example of a simple, practical solution, but there are plenty of other areas we plan to tackle," says Ewen Anderson, Business Development Manager for Centralis. "The next logical step for Centralis AXE would be to manipulate objects directly in the NDS, rather than importing and exporting .AXT files. When APIs for ZENworks are offered by Novell, I'm sure Centralis AXE will be among the first Novell partner products to leverage them. In the meantime," concludes Anderson, "we are enhancing and porting our NWAdmin Thin Client Server snap-in to be ConsoleOne-ready in time for BrainShare 2001."

*All other third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.