Other Industries

SureShot Dispensing Systems®

Vista - Microsoft's Technology Adoption Program

Customer Profile

Since 1985, A.C. Dispensing Equipment Inc. and the SureShot Dispensing Systems® (SureShot) brand has grown to become regarded as the "industry standard" for portion controlled dispensing solutions for the Quick Serve Restaurant (QSR) and coffee beverage industry. The company, based in Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia, has long counted on innovation as a means to help fuel growth in a fiercely competitive industry. SureShot has previously enjoyed tremendous success with implementing products from Microsoft, including Exchange, SQL Server, VPN, ISA and IIS. As part of this continuing commitment, SureShot launched a review of its technology platform. The company wanted to be sure it was offering staff a reliable and manageable computing foundation that helped them to access information securely. Working with Nicom, SureShot implemented the Windows Vista operating system. As a result, SureShot is already realizing productivity and security gains and is helping its remote workforce stay in touch with the company's head office.

Business Situation

With equipment in every corner of North America, SureShot dispensers help serve over two billion consumers per year via some of the largest chains in the world. Sureshot manufactures a wide range of dispensing equipment for applications such as cream, sugar, concentrated flavours, oils and proprietary beverages. The company handles every aspect of the engineering, manufacturing and marketing process in-house. To help fuel that process and ensure that SureShot provides quality service to its business clients, the company invests considerably in research and development initiatives. This keeps SureShot on the cutting edge of new developments in the industry and ensures its people are constantly looking for new and better ways of doing things. As part of this mandate, SureShot decided to reassess the viability of its technology platform. The company operates in a competitive industry, where timing and ability to react is critical. SureShot employees need to quickly respond to customers and partners, and must make solid business decisions based on the most recent information. To address this, SureShot wanted to provide its mobile workforce a solution that would help them to work seamlessly and securely from any location. Employees also needed a platform that offered them the highest levels of reliability, ensuring they could be as productive as possible. With a limited technology budget, SureShot needed to do this without having to invest in a range of new applications. It is extremely important for SureShot to use their resources efficiently. By boosting their mobile capabilities, ensuring staff can collaborate online, and enhancing security, they would definitely be taking a step in the right direction.

Solution

To help evaluate its options, SureShot turned to Nicom. As a Microsoft® Certified Partner, Nicom's technology consulting and development expertise was the key to finding ways to make SureShot's computing environment even more efficient and cost-effective. Nicom recommended that the company implement the Windows Vista^TM operating system. Windows Vista offers SureShot a cutting-edge platform that's at the forefront of security and reliability. Nicom knew Windows Vista would immediately address its current business needs, but also grow with the company as its requirements became more demanding. It helps employees get more done by making it easier for them to find and use information. Windows Vista also addresses growing security threats, and helps protect data in and out of the office. Finally, Windows Vista provides the potential to make it easier for SureShot to deploy, manage, and support its corporate PCs by helping to optimize desktop infrastructure, subsequently helping SureShot achieve a lower total cost of ownership. SureShot was pleased with the smooth implementation process. As soon as they loaded Vista onto their workstations, they were able to print and run usual applications without needing to tweak any of the configurations or drivers on individual desktops.

Benefits

With Windows Vista, SureShot is realizing enhanced levels of data security, as well as major productivity and efficiency gains. SureShot is finding new features and functions every day, and it's something they will continue to explore. In the areas of manageability and security, they can see possibilities for a big impact on their organization. Since a sizeable portion of SureShot's workforce works away from the office, the company wanted Nicom to ensure that its computing platform offered optimal levels of security, so that sensitive data couldn't be easily leaked, lost or stolen. Thankfully, data protection features within Windows Vista, such as the BitLocker Drive Encryption ensures data residing in a laptop cannot be accessed in the event of theft. SureShot previously had no easy way to manage its desktops, or to control what was being downloaded onto them. By working closely with Nicom and taking advantage of features in Windows Vista, such as User Account Control, the company now has the means to rein in the cost and effort associated with desktop management. Nicom knew that Vista would make the process of managing SureShot's technology much easier. Now they can better control the software that enters their computing environment. They can also quickly and easily make changes to applications and add peripherals without requiring users to log off and delay their work. Nicom's assistance in this has helped them save much time and effort. In addition, with Windows Vista's new imaging technology, SureShot will be able to decrease deployment costs by using a single OS image for different types of computer hardware and machines with different language requirements, helping to reduce IT costs.

In conclusion, Nicom has enabled SureShot staff to become more productive, enabling them to quickly find critical data. With Nicom's expertise in managing software procurement, we anticipated that SureShot would be impressed with the revamped user interface of Windows Vista because of its intuitive, user-friendly design. Now they can locate the functions and tools they need and also use new shortcuts designed to help users get more done in less time. For example, by simply pressing the Start button and then typing a word such as 'Calculator' or 'Word', that program will start for you or find a specific file for you. This simple feature, by itself, is proving to provide a real gain in efficiency for SureShot.

« Back to Other Industries