SunGard Public Sector provides software and consulting solutions designed to meet the specialized needs of city and county governments, public safety and justice agencies, school districts, not-for-profit organizations, and state and central government. Its mission is to improve the quality of life by helping those who support, develop, and sustain the communities in which we live.
More than 100 million citizens in North America and 50 million citizens of the United Kingdom live in municipalities that rely on SunGard Public Sector products and services. SunGard Public Sector is a business unit of SunGard, one of the world's leading Local Government software and IT services companies.
SunGard Public Sector Local Government hosts hardware and software solutions for its clients throughout the U.S., helping them provide their communities with more effective government services. As its business grew, SunGard Public Sector needed an intuitive systems management software solution to:
- Support its growing customer base
- Increase the already high levels of technical and customer services offered
- Automate hardware and software management
- Optimize the use of scarce technical resources
- Monitor around the clock without the need for on-site staff
SunGard Public Sector had been using a solution by a well-known U.S. vendor for several years, but the technology was cumbersome and they were unable to use all of the technology’s features and functionality. In addition, they were disappointed with the lack of technical support.
Managing Alerts Across Platforms
A SunGard Public Sector channel partner recommended Halcyon’s multi-platform system management suites. After looking at a myriad of system management software solutions and testing the technology in-house, SunGard Public Sector selected Halcyon’s Operations Center Suite (Level 4); an enterprise console for IBM i centralized monitoring and management, and Network Server Suite; a fully integrated solution that manages all network servers (Windows, Linux, UNIX, AIX) and devices from a single console.
Halcyon’s Operations Center Suite enabled SunGard Public Sector to use an intuitive tool to automatically handle the vast majority of alerts arising from the monitoring solution, with business-critical alerts sent to a technician trained to immediately deal with systems issues.
Today, using Halcyon solutions, hundreds of alerts from IBM i and Windows are dealt with automatically. Advanced warning is now given on issues that could adversely affect the day-to-day performance and quality of services SunGard Public Sector provides.
Top-Notch Support
“We were in search of technologies that were easy to deploy, user-friendly, and platform agnostic," said Sue Dumas, Technical Project Manager at SunGard Public Sector. "We also wanted to work with a company that would in turn be our partner and help us deliver top-notch support. Once we saw the capabilities of the Halcyon technology, we knew immediately that this was the right solution to enable us to support our clients.”
Halcyon’s software was deployed very quickly and after three days of on-site training SunGard Public Sector’s system management software solution was up and running.
Halcyon’s software replicates human interaction and alerts system administrators to problems. SMS, paging, and email alerts were configured to monitor tasks and notify the SunGard Public Sector technical staff to critical issues that needed immediate attention.
Worry-Free Stability
“We specifically like Halcyon’s software because it’s intelligent and it emulates what a computer operator would do,” added Dumas. “We are now worry free about the stability of our clients’ hosted solutions because our systems are monitored 24/7 and we are notified immediately if there are any problems.”
SunGard Public Sector has increased its efficiency by 20 percent since implementing Halcyon’s technology. It allows SunGard Public Sector to tend to their clients more efficiently and reduces human error. Additionally, it reduces the amount of resources SunGard Public Sector needs to monitor its systems, which frees its staff to do other jobs and allows the company to take on new customers.
“We are very pleased with our system management software solutions—they quickly became critical components to our network infrastructure. The solutions work impeccably and we are receiving high quality support. In turn, we are also able to provide our customers with quick, accurate, and proactive service,” Dumas noted.
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