THE FEASIBILITY COMMITTEE

Once the proof-of-concept pilot program has proved that the necessary applications run together acceptably within Terminal Server, it is time to determine whether an enterprise deployment of Citrix Presentation Server makes sense for the organization. The decision process of whether to implement an access platform should include an evaluation of the proposed project's impact on the organization from operational, financial, cultural, and political perspectives.

A feasibility committee made up of IT personnel and employees from other appropriate departments should assess the merits of migrating to a Citrix access platform. The first task of the feasibility committee will be to broadly define the project's scope along with its benefits. The committee must then evaluate the strategic fit of an on-demand enterprise model within the organization. The next steps include finding an executive sponsor and preparing a financial justification for the project. The committee's resulting report can then be utilized to help guide the planning team's work should the Citrix project move forward.

Project Scope

Citrix Access Suite might be limited to deployment of a single application, or it may encompass the entire desktop. It might be utilized only in certain departments or regions , or it may be implemented as the new corporate standard. In general, the more extensively an organization implements Citrix, the more money it will save compared with using client-centric computing. (In Chapter 1, we covered the composition of these savings as well as many other benefits of an on-demand enterprise.) The feasibility committee must determine whether a complete enterprise rollout is practical, or a scaled-back implementation is more appropriate.

Corporate Culture Considerations

The economies achieved from implementing an access platform inevitably make it much less expensive than decentralized PC-based computing. A hidden potential cost, though, is the turmoil that may result from introducing such huge changes into the computing environment without identifying the problem areas and properly preparing the organization for the changes.

Centralized Standards

The nature of client-centric computing makes it difficult for organizations to enforce IT standards. Typically, corporate IT is unaware of many applications that users run locally or departmentally. Although Presentation Server offers IT the flexibility to allow users to run local applications, it also makes it easy to lock down desktops. Since greater lock-down equates to less administration, IT will tend to exploit this advantage. Even if IT decides to host only a few critical corporate applications, these particular programs now will be outside the direct control of users.

In many organizations, greater IT control is taken for granted as an advantage. Banks, for instance, typically have a tradition of mainframe hosting and readily embrace computing standards for PC users. A software development firm, on the other hand, may decide that the creative benefits of unbridled individual computing outweigh the lower costs obtained from enforcing centralized standards.

The feasibility committee needs to evaluate whether standardization is an acceptable condition within their organizational environment.

Understanding User Perceptions of the Network Infrastructure and IT

The distribution of economic and IT resources mandated by distributed processing often results in a network infrastructure that is plagued with performance and reliability problems. In these environments, users will be reluctant to give up control of their desktops to IT.

Note 

The feasibility committee must call attention to a networking infrastructure that suffers from performance or reliability problems, but this does not mean that the Citrix project should be abandoned . On the contrary. As long as IT can fix the existing problems, an uncompromising first review presents an opportunity to drive rapid project acceptance. IT should initially implement smaller Terminal Server beta projects that deliver better reliability and performance to thin-client or hybrid users than to their fat-client peers. This strategy can quickly build enthusiasm for the new technology and, in turn , help enable IT to plan an enterprise-wide implementation of Citrix Access Suite.

Political Considerations

In many organizations, the disparate nature of distributed processing has led to control of IT budgets by different departments or divisions. Creating an on-demand enterprise is a costly endeavor that affects users throughout the organization. The feasibility committee needs to determine whether the organization will be able to marshal the resources to implement such an encompassing project.

Reduced IT Staff

Gartner Group reported that the staffing required to support a fat-client environment is five times greater than the staffing required to support a thin-client environment. An on-demand enterprise utilizing Citrix Access Suite can eliminate the need for remote office IT personnel or even for entire regional IT departments. It is the job of the feasibility committee to evaluate whether the corporate culture will permit elimination of unnecessary network administration, help desk personnel, and PC technician positions .

IT Staff Salaries

Since the majority of organizational processing under Citrix takes place at central data centers, the network administrators must be quite skilled. They may require higher salaries than their peers in many distributed processing environments, perhaps even higher than their managers. The feasibility committee must assess whether these types of administrators are already on staff and, if not, whether the organization's salary structure will allow for hiring them.

Tip 

An access platform is too encompassing, and too vital to efficiency (and eventual savings), to allow for skimping on anything in the data centerincluding the people who run it. If higher wages for a select network administrator would wreak havoc on the IT department's existing salary structure, consider alternative solutions, such as outsourcing the position.

Finding an Executive Sponsor

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Gaining an executive sponsor and executive support is, without question, the single most important thing I did for this project. The challenges that followed during the next nine months would have been difficult, if not impossible , to overcome without the complete backing of the most senior folks in our company.

Anthony Lackey, Vice President of MIS, Chief Technology Officer, ABM Industries

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Many people simply resist change, particularly if they feel they are giving something up. An on-demand access paradigm is very different from traditional client-centric computing and is bound to cause some disharmony. Executive sponsorship is essential for successfully transforming into an on-demand enterprise. Upper management must make it absolutely clear that the on-demand access initiative is something that will happen and that everyone is expected to make work. Ideally, the CIO and other selected executives should switch from PCs to Windows terminals in order to show their complete support for the project.

Justifying Citrix Financially

As the feasibility committee members discuss the scope and organizational ramifications of building an on-demand enterprise, they are likely to become more aware of the enormous savings and compelling benefits it will provide. In order for the project to move forward, they need to convey this information to management. Most corporate decision makers will require an in-depth financial analysis of the specific impacts of migrating to a Citrix access platform. They will primarily be interested in the estimated cost of the project and the return on the required investment. A reasonable time frame over which to calculate these figures usually ranges from three to five years .

Although it may seem both very difficult and impractical to estimate project costs without first doing a detailed infrastructure assessment and in-depth planning, this is not the case. The components of a Citrix access platform are not difficult to estimate on a "big picture" basis. And since the resulting savings over client-centric computing are likely to be very high, broad estimates are all that is required for a revealing financial analysis.

We recommend taking a four-pronged approach to building a financial analysis, and we give examples in Appendix B. First, present the hard cost savings. This can be done by comparing the estimated costs of staying with client-centric computing over a period of three to five years versus the estimated costs of implementing Citrix. Hard costs include easily identified expenditures such as hardware purchases and help desk personnel salaries. In most cases, the hard savings alone will more than justify the entire project. This will isolate the feasibility committee from detractors who might try to take shots at the financial analysis.

Next, present the estimated soft cost savings. These are real savings, but their quantification may be harder to agree upon. For instance, how much does it really cost the organization when users suffer downtime as their PCs are upgraded? The model presented in Appendix B shows how these types of savings can be estimated. Presenting them as part of the financial analysis gives management a better idea of the ultimate economic impact of migrating to an on-demand enterprise.

The third component is a list of the expected benefits from Citrix. These benefits can sometimes be quantified , but often have just as big an impact if they are listed without specific numbers . As described in Chapter 1, the business benefits of building an on-demand enterprise often have more strategic importance to the organization than the hard and soft savings combined.

The last element is a qualitative high-level description of the specific benefits an on-demand enterprise can provide in terms of enhanced security and the much greater disaster/recovery and business continuity potential. This can also include the ability to more easily comply with regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA while lowering the cost of discovery and the risk of litigation.

Tip 

When preparing an ROI analysis for an access platform, try to involve the finance folks at an early stage. They may be able to provide valuable input as to the format they would like to see. Even more important, be sure to get their agreement to review the ROI analysis. Their validation of the results will be instrumental in building a case for on-demand access to senior management.



Citrix Access Suite 4 for Windows Server 2003. The Official Guide
Citrix Access Suite 4 for Windows Server 2003: The Official Guide, Third Edition
ISBN: 0072262893
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 137

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