We’re pleased to present this guest post by Håkan Andersson, Chief Executive officer, AceIQ Sweden – Citrix Partner and finalist for the 2018 Citrix Innovation Award for Partners.
At AceIQ, we have a passion for technology, but more than that, we have a passion for people. So for us, conversations about digital transformation come naturally. In fact, we feel like many of our customers are just catching up to what we’ve known in our own business for a long time: people are happiest and most productive when they can work where and how they choose.
It’s that human-centric view of technology that makes Citrix a perfect fit for the work we do. And I should know, I’ve been working with Citrix for more than 20 years. Back when we started in 1997, Citrix was all about getting people fast and efficient access to their company’s information. Today, Citrix takes on responsibility for much more of the network and business environment, but the focus is still the same: making sure that everything people need to do their job is right at their fingertips.
More of our clients these days, especially at the management level, understand why this is important. They come to us for help moving away from traditional client-server models, simplifying environments with too many different platforms and clients. They’re looking to make their business processes more adaptable to their people. And Citrix makes it easy for us to help them do it.
Simplifying Security
There are several attributes of Citrix solutions that make them ideal for digital transformation, but among the most important: the security benefits. As our customers become more mobile and distributed in how they work, the inherent advantages of the Citrix model become apparent. It’s much easier to protect your files and business information when they’re all in one place, instead of spread out across dozens or hundreds of workstations.
The same holds true for customers dealing with the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). When you have such strict mandates regulating how you handle personal information, you do not want to deal with having all sorts of data out there stored on individual PCs and laptops. When everything is stored centrally, you can retain much tighter control over your data.
Delivering Superior Experiences
The other major reason why our customers love Citrix: the user experience. When we have customers with large distributed or remote workforces, and we set up Citrix for them, it’s immediately obvious that the performance is much better than they had with traditional workstations.
Of course, there are several other companies these days trying to do what Citrix does. But Citrix has a few more years’ experience with this kind of technology, and it definitely shows in the user experience. The Citrix Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) protocol in particular is so lean, which is crucial when you’re running performance-intensive sessions remotely.
For evidence, you can look at one of our consumer products customers, who operates facilities across the United States, Sweden, Japan and India. They’re working with CAD files, graphics, critical delay-sensitive content. And every product they produce is designed and engineered over a Citrix solution.
Building Agile Businesses
At AceIQ, we’re also big fans of Citrix Podio. It may not get as much publicity as some other products in the Citrix portfolio, but it’s one of the best digitalization platforms out there to really help businesses grow.
Not long ago, I was brought into an emergency meeting for a prospective customer. The company’s leadership team sat across from me, telling me their ambitious plans for starting a brand new business in an Eastern European country where they hadn’t operated before. They wanted to build the entire environment from the ground up—all the business processes, workflows, applications and more. And they had just three months to do it.
I just smiled, and they asked me, “Håkan, why are you smiling?” I said, “Because I know exactly how to solve this problem.”
We built up a complete IT system to support the business—CRM, ERP, invoicing, everything—all with Citrix Podio. Eventually, we added Citrix Content Collaboration, Citrix ADC, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, and other elements of the portfolio. I can’t think of any other solution that could have solved these challenges in such a short timeframe. It would have been impossible. They literally wouldn’t have been able to launch their new business on time without Citrix.
This is an extreme example, but it’s far from the only one. And it demonstrates why we continue to rely on Citrix for digital transformation projects: When you start with technology that’s already designed to put human beings first, the rest comes easy.
Håkan Andersson is the CEO of AceIQ, a Citrix Platinum and Citrix Specialist partner in Sweden. He is one of the founders of the company, and has more than 20 years of background around bringing Citrix solutions to the market.
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