Barnardo's opts for Citrix in remote working drive

Barnardos has deployed Citrix's Workspace apps as it rolls out remote working functionality for its 8,000 staff.

The charity's employees are able to take advantage of XenApp, XenDesktop and XenMobile to access their data and applications while away from their office-based computers, with Citrix ShareFile replacing the charity's secure file transfer protocol service for sharing and collaborating on files.

Handling children's information makes data security especially important inside and outside the Barnardo's office, the charity said, and it needed to ensure secure storage of all files and applications, preventing criminals from accessing confidential information. Data is shared outside the network via a time-limited URL, which means only those who need access to the data are able to view it within a certain time.

"In Barnardo's we want to maximise the money spent directly on service delivery and children, so any spend on technology has to clearly demonstrate its worth," Michael Fleet, the charity's head of end-user computing, said.

"We've definitely seen the benefit of using the Citrix technology stack to save our staff time, and enable them to be more productive when working away from the office. From talking to other charities, we know we can provide secure access to our information in ways that they are not able to. With Citrix, we've been able to support more children, more effectively."

The next step in Barnado's Citrix implementation is trialling Citrix Custom Workflows, giving workers the ability to type up notes from home visits while still away from the office, for example, with those notes then uploaded to the relevant application via Citrix Sharefile.

"The future of work is mobile and secure workers can access vital data and applications on any device, anywhere. This is never more important than in organisations with large field workforces," Darren Fields, regional director of UK & Ireland at Citrix added.

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