Faronics Deep Freeze and PhoneBase Research, Inc.

History

In business since 1994, PhoneBase Research, Inc. serves as a data collection and public opinion polling entity to the market research industry. They have conducted literally millions of telephone interviews involving research into virtually every U.S. industry. PhoneBase Research, Inc.’s unique IT infrastructure, combined with their need for automated telephony solutions at multiple locations spanning three states, requires that a keen awareness be maintained with regard to new software implementation. That awareness is what led them to Faronics and Deep Freeze.

Situation

In one of their premier call center facilities, PhoneBase Research, Inc. has approximately 60 workstations being served locally by a single server. The server operates on Novell NetWare 6.0, the supervisory nodes operate on Windows XP, and the agent stations utilize DOS.

Problem

A call center is a unique work environment with its own unique challenges. Included among them are staffing issues, cost control, project dynamics, quality control issues, and hardware and software issues.

PhoneBase Research Inc. purchased 20 WindowsXP machines, 18 of which were to replace some of the older DOS agent nodes and facilitate a new interviewing methodology. The company quickly found that running Windows in a multi-user environment was a far cry from day-to-day use at the office. Each agent station needed to be used by a minimum of two people every day, and the Information Systems (IS) Department anticipated that every user would be making changes to the operating system. Tracking those changes would have been impossible, and continually resetting or reinstalling the systems to maintain a standardized environment would have required an immense amount of time and effort from the IS department.

Solution

The IS Manager at PhoneBase Research saw that preventative measures were needed, or his department was going to be swamped. He remembered coming across a computer in his late high school years with what he believed was an early version of Deep Freeze for Windows 95. He found Faronics and the links to the Deep Freeze download information. He decided to try Deep Freeze Standard and downloaded the evaluation on a test station. He spent the next 30 minutes trying to break it, and then rebooted the station. “Like magic it came back up, restored to the point when I had installed Deep Freeze,” he said. The test proved to him that anyone taking a high-level approach for defeating Deep Freeze would be thwarted.

Evaluation

Deep Freeze now allows PhoneBase Research, Inc.’s employees to change the system settings, but a simple reboot resets the machines to their original configuration. Deep Freeze has reduced the company’s average weekly IS maintenance to zero hours! As the company plans to increase the number of Windows agent nodes, the IS Department plans to rely on Deep Freeze to keep the call center operation relatively maintenance free.