The NSB Group – a Nordic transportation group

Norges Statsbaner AS (NSB) was founded on July 1 2002 when NSB became a nationalized limited company. The NSB Group is a Nordic transportation group and a public limited company that runs and controls all train transportation in Norway, similar to SJ in Sweden, and they also own the biggest bus company in Scandinavia, Nettbuss. The NSB Group’s main goal is to create value for the owners and the community, by providing effective, accessible, safe and environmentally friendly transportations of people and goods.

An update of the endpoint park

Henrik Dahl, senior adviser at NSB Fellestjenester IT, says that in their Citrix environment; XenApp 6.5, consisting of about 30% endpoints and 70% PC, NSB Fellestjenester IT required stable and secure endpoints in the operating area for their staff at the NSB Group. “We use IGEL within many areas. Everything from the train workshops to general office use. We also have some monitors out at the stations, which run on IGEL”, Henrik says.

Since they had previous experience of endpoints, of a different manufacture, they knew that a endpoint implementation works better than PC within these areas, especially when it comes to administration. After witnessing a technical demonstration of IGEL’s endpoints, the team for the Citrix solutions at NSB suggested that they should introduce these for their employees. “We chose IGEL mostly because of their management tool”, Henrik explains, and they felt that IGEL’s management works better than the management of their previous manufacturer. “Also, IGEL’s delivery time was shorter and the products seemed to be very good”, Henrik continues. The reactions they’ve received from their staff have been nothing but positive since they started using IGEL.

Easily manageable and stable administration

NSB Fellestjenester IT was in charge of the project to introduce the new endpoints, and they experienced no major problems or excessive adjustments that had to be made during the transition. What impressed them mostly about the technical functions with IGEL’s endpoints was how they can be used to build profiles and how easy and smooth it is to manage them administratively. Easily maintained and easy to use!

NSB Fellestjenester IT ran the project to introduce IGEL within the IT environment for the NSB Group during a six-month perspective, first in a pilot phase as a test and afterwards they could simply roll out IGEL’s endpoints to the employees, which was done without any major problems. “Vi still have a mixed environment with both Pc and endpoints. But those who are using IGEL are very satisfied. Low operating costs and stable clients are the main profits”, Henrik explains. “Nettbuss, which is run only on XenApp desktops, is our biggest user of IGEL. A big advantage is the fact that we pre-configure the client before we send it to the users, and then they’re up and running in 1,2,3. We are very satisfied.”

IGEL’s endpoints have made a good impression on the NSB Group – they are effective, secure and stable clients with few problems and low maintenance. Since they started using IGEL they have received nothing but positive feedback from their employees and system administrators. ”The positive feedback comes mainly from the various IT departments, but also from pleased users”, Henrik says. The IGEL model which is being used most frequently for now is the UD-5 Linux, but the goal is to increase the use of endpoints within the NSB Group in the future. “The increase will probably be mainly for general offi ce users”, Henrik concludes.