Continuing the Revolution

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Found in: Case Studies

The ocean of computers supporting operations at the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD), which serves 55 offices across the fifth largest state in the country, is maintained by a tiny five-technician team.

The job is easier now that the department standardized its desktops, said Damien Aragon, chief technology officer of the CYFD. When Aragon first arrived at the CYFD, he convinced government executives to cease filling offices with a patchwork of different computer brands, which he said tied desktop maintenance into knots.

Now at procurement time, Aragon said he finds the best brand and model he can, and buys masses of them for all CYFD offices. The practice allows his technicians to specialize their maintenance knowledge on one model, slashing repair time and fueling productivity.

In 2005, Aragon continued his standardization revolution by acquiring more than 1,600 new Gateway desktops.

"Our old equipment was running out of life cycle, so we did an evaluation of the latest, greatest desktops out there and selected Gateway," Aragon said. "Based on the budget we had, we were able to upgrade all of our PCs in the field, and the performance of the machines has been really good."

He said Gateway's combination of high performance, reasonable prices and service tailor-made for IT professionals made the company the ideal choice.

Golden Image
Aragon said his Gateway representative keeps close watch on his agency's needs and demonstrates detailed knowledge of the agency's work environment.

"It was fairly seamless working and negotiating with him -- not having to explain how state government works or what our needs were," Aragon said. Aragon said Gateway was instrumental in helping his team create a standard image they called the "golden image" for all desktops deployed. Gateway loaded them with all of the agency's software before shipping them to the CYFD. The process saved Aragon's installation crew from traveling to 55 field offices to individually load several applications into more than 1,600 PCs.

"They drop-ship the machines around the state for us, saving us time and expense, and that really streamlined the installation process," Aragon said.

And Gateway simplified the geographically sprawling deployment by tracking each desktop by serial number so technicians could see where the machine went and who used it.

Downtime Disappearing
Gateway certified Aragon's staff to diagnose hardware problems and order hardware replacements without any red tape. Aragon said his technicians like the clearance Gateway gave them to bypass elementary technical phone support, enabling them to skip troubleshooting designed for amateur PC users.

He said in the past his team got frustrated by technical support plans that wasted their limited time with tedious questions before shipping a part.

"We're a professional IT shop, and our regional support staff knows to make sure the machine's plugged in," he said.

Gateway designed a plan to keep Aragon's staff from constantly traveling to field offices for maintenance by coordinating with one of its partners to provide on-site service to field offices.

As soon as Aragon's team places an order, Gateway assigns an on-site technician to make the repair the following day. If a hard drive crashed, Gateway would load the agency's image onto it before sending it to the on-site technician. The on-site technician merely has to pop it into the desktop, reducing downtime, said Aragon. Previous vendors sent the hard drive to Aragon's central IT office first for technicians to load the image before sending it out to the appropriate field office.

The CYFD refreshes PCs every four years. Aragon said he makes his five desktop technicians' lives easier by purchasing an extra year on top of Gateway's traditional three-year service support warranty. The extra year saves his staff from additional repairs and upgrades they don't have time to perform.

"We're centrally located as an IT shop, so that saves us time, not having to travel to these locations," Aragon said.

When Gateway's partner technicians need to get into a machine, Aragon said Gateway desktops are surprisingly easy to open, which reduces downtime further.

"There are no screws to the back of them. They're easy to pop open," Aragon said.

Frequent downtimes and excessive repairs are not an option for Aragon's staff. Gateway's service and performance means Aragon's staff deals with desktop maintenance issues as rarely as possible.

Satisfied Customer
Aragon also purchased Gateway M460 notebooks, freeing field workers from their desks and allowing them to stay productive out of the office. Furthermore, the CYFD purchased Gateway tablets, which Aragon said helps his evaluation staff comfortably take notes and draw as needed in meetings.

He said refreshing his agency with high performance Gateway machines reduces problems with rolling out new, cutting-edge applications for end-users.

"We have more uptime on the machines -- less failures. The machines are faster for the employees," Aragon said. "The processor speed is faster. There's more memory -- more bang for your buck."

Aragon said he received numerous e-mails from end-users who are thrilled with their machines. "There was that natural euphoric feeling from these people that they were getting the equipment that they needed to do their jobs."