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application management
Masters of the universal
Established in 1923, Belgium-based
Sonoco-Alcore S.a.r.l. is a wholly
owned subsidiary of Sonoco USA, a
multi-billion dollar global provider
of consumer packaging, industrial
products, protective packaging and
packaging supply chain services. The
company operates six paper mills, 32
converting plants, a recycling division,
and is the largest producer of tubes,
cores and core boards in Europe.
Sonoco-Alcore’s main European data
centre is located at its headquarters in
Brussels, Belgium. The company deploys
the Microsoft Navision ERP platform with
Citrix to centralize the management and
distribution of applications to thousands of
users in offices and production plants across
Europe.
The Challenge
A decade of growth and acquisitions across
Europe created a highly complex and hard-
to-manage IT environment that included
multiple isolated data farms and disparate
systems. In order to standardise the systems,
Sonoco-Alcore deploys Microsoft’s Navision
ERP platform with Citrix to centralise the
management and distribution of applications
to its workforce.
Although the company was successful
with its system consolidation, it quickly
found that there were critical printing issues.
While Citrix provided an integrated universal
printing driver for enterprise environments,
its compatibility with Sonoco-Alcore’s
underlying ERP platform was limited. Its
auto creation of printer drivers for hundreds
of different printer makes and models
across the company’s network caused
incompatibility issues and impacted the
network’s bandwidth consumption. Print
spoolers crashed constantly and resulted in
a time consuming and frustrating process
of system reboots which increased help
desk calls. Printer availability became
unpredictable and erratic and the network
suffered performance degradation.
“We needed to consolidate the
disparate systems we had inherited from
our acquisitions,” explained Marc De
Schryer, Manager of Computer Services
and Infrastructure at Sonoco-Alcore.
“This necessitated a specialised printing
solution capable of universally supporting
our complex IT environment and providing
seamless printing to our workforce in highly
dispersed locations.”
The Solution
After evaluating multiple printing solutions,
Sonoco-Alcore chose UniPrint because of
its simplicity and reliability in solving printer
driver issues within the company’s Citrix
environment. The company deployed UniPrint
Gateway Edition, which negates the need to
install multiple manufacturer printer drivers
on the application server. UniPrint’s universal
printer driver simplifies printer management
and eliminates incompatibility issues and
other challenges, enabling the IT department
to spend more time on other mission-critical
issues. The UniPrint solution integrated easily
with the company’s existing infrastructure
and the initial implementation took less than
30 minutes.
UniPrint also enables Sonoco-Alcore’s
remote and onsite employees across the
continent using PCs, thin-client or mobile
devices to print quickly and seamlessly to
any printer. The German offices, for example,
used different kinds of printer drivers which
caused print spooler crashes and generated
frequent help desk calls. Once these printer
drivers were replaced by UniPrint, the
number of printer-related help desk calls
decreased by 90%.
“From the start, UniPrint was exactly
the solution we had been searching for.
The set-up was uncomplicated and fast,
and the product is an extension of our
existing system, making its integration
effortless. UniPrint Gateway is exactly
how we had envisioned our printing
system,” noted De Schryer.
Specifically designed for Citrix/Terminal
Server environments, the UniPrint solution
created a reliable, trouble-free printing
environment for Sonoco-Alcore almost
immediately. By introducing UniPrint’s
patented universal printer driver, printer
administration issues were dramatically
reduced. Now Sonoco-Alcore’s diverse
worker base was able to be more productive
without having to waste time on printing
problems. Furthermore, the UniPrint scalable
solution will accommodate Sonoco-Alcore’s
growth strategy as it continues to expand
across Europe.
De Schryer concluded: “The UniPrint
solution fits in perfectly with our existing
systems and did not disrupt the user
environment. Printing is mission critical
whether the user is based in one of our
offices, a sales person working from home,
a frequent traveller or a thin-client user.
UniPrint supports all of them and provides
a seamless user environment. That’s how
it should be, a quick solution that helps
you, and that’s exactly what Sonoco-Alcore
received from UniPrint.”
Benefits of UniPrint Gateway Terminal
Server Edition
Sonoco-Alcore has deployed the UniPrint
Gateway Edition to simplify printer
management and reduce support costs,
provide users with anywhere, anytime, any
device printing, and enable accurate and
stable printing from centralised applications.
Key benefits include:
n
Supports thin and fat, local and remote
clients connecting to Citrix/Terminal
Server
n
Solves all printer driver incompatibility
issues with one universal printer driver
n
Simplifies printer management issues,
enabling reduced support costs
n
Enables fast, and reliable printing for all
clients from any application to any printer
n
Enhanced user experience, including
access to multi-function printer features
and PDF email and archive functionality
Visit
www.uniprint.net
for a FREE 30-day
product trial. For further information, e-mail
sales@uniprint.net
How Uniprint helped Sonoco-Alcore
overcome printer driver issues within its
Citrix environment
Sonoco-Alcore
deploys
Microsoft‘s
Navision ERP
platform
with Citrix to
centralise the
management
and
distribution of
applications...