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Jun

142022

Kingston and Sutton Councils Enable Secure Remote Work with Citrix®

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - June 14, 2022 – Work used to be a place people went. Today, it happens everywhere. The London councils of Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and London Borough of Sutton understand this, and are leveraging virtual desktops from Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS) to create a simple experience that empowers employees to perform at their best and deliver for the more than 400,000 constituents they serve.

“We believe that work is what you do, not where you go and the whole strategy behind our infrastructure has been to enable our people to access all of their services from any device, anywhere,” explained David Grasty, Corporate Head of Digital Strategy & Portfolio for the two councils’ Digital and IT service. 

Transforming the Employee Experience

Using Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops delivered via Citrix Cloud, Grasty and his team deliver council and shared service applications to more than 5,000 employees so that they can access the resources they need to get work done, wherever it needs to be done.

“Most of our processes use line of business apps like case management tools and all of that is delivered using Citrix technology,” Grasty said. “The combination of Citrix and Google has enabled people to work seamlessly from wherever they need to be, without the need for the workarounds that some other councils have had to create.”

Expanding the Talent Pool

It has also given the councils a leg up in recruiting talent in what remains a tight and highly competitive labor market.

“We’re using technology to be more flexible, and one of the key outcomes is that we’re able to reach more candidates and from a wider area, which is important for a public service based in London,” Grasty said. “We have proved that our staff can do a great job, be it at home, in the office or collaborating onsite with one of our partners – and we have the right tech and support to enable them to do it.”

Delivering Results

Faced with the challenges of the pandemic, Grasty noted, “Our previous investments in remote work and the technology to support it paid off. People went home and were able to concentrate on delivering their service to citizens without worrying about the technology that’s supporting them”.

And according to Kingston and Sutton Contact Centre Manager Alex Marston, they’re delivering.

“For the residents and the businesses of our boroughs, access to support didn’t change,” he said. “In fact, it got better. And that was vital because we were dealing with residents who suffered food-insecurity as well as physical and mental health conditions which needed prompt attention and action. At no time was our Contact Centre unable to take calls. We were available 24/7.”

Modernizing and Simplifying IT

The shared services IT team at Kingston and Sutton councils have benefitted from the move to Citrix Cloud as well.

“We haven’t changed our infrastructure in any big way to support nearly everyone working flexibly,” Grasty said. “That’s been the biggest result for us – we haven’t had to do anything differently - the combination of Citrix and Google simply works.”

Citrix and Google have been helping organizations make work more accessible, flexible and secure for more than a decade. To learn more about their partnership, click here.

Media Contact:

David Rodriguez
Cloud Software Group
David.rodriguez1@cloud.com

About Citrix

Citrix, a business unit of Cloud Software Group, provides a secure app and desktop delivery platform that companies of all sizes can use to enable secure flexible work. With Citrix, employees can work where and how they prefer, and IT can be confident their information and devices remain safe. Click here to learn more about Citrix solutions and the value they can provide.

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Citrix, NetScaler, and the Citrix logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cloud Software Group, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. All other product and company names and marks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned for identification.