Client Story
Accelerated Productivity and Improved Security
Shoppers Drug Mart needed a more comprehensive way to manage the installation of security patches across its environment. By standardizing on state-of-the art system console tools, the power to streamline and fast-track their Security Update Process is well under control.
About Shoppers Drug Mart
Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation (Shoppers) is one of the most recognized and trusted names in Canadian retailing. The Toronto- based company is the licensor of over 900 full-service retail drug stores operating under the name Shoppers Drug Mart, or Pharmaprix in Quebec. Shoppers also owns and operates 49 Shoppers Home Health Care stores, making it the largest Canadian retailer of home health care products and services.
Shoppers Drug Mart’s Challenges
Shoppers needed a more comprehensive way to manage the installation of security patches across its Microsoft® Windows® environment, especially to the 350 laptops used by its mobile workers. The company was using Active Directory to push applications and security updates out to its 1,400 desktops and laptops, a process that was highly manual and labour intensive.
The Solution
The Shoppers IT team installed a System Manager console to help streamline software update deployment. With SMS, the Shoppers IT team can deploy crucial updates immediately and consistently across its 1,400 desktops and laptops. By automating this process, Shoppers is now able to pilot and deploy updates in two or three days, whereas before, it took over a week.
The Rewards
Microsoft® Systems Management Server is helping Shoppers reduce the time its IT team spends repackaging and testing software updates before deployment, allowing them to focus on other needs of the business and spend time on more strategic projects.
“The whole idea was to migrate from using the distributed file system in Active Directory to publish applications, to using SMS to set up a distributed repository for those applications.”
David MacMillan, manager, office network services, Shoppers Drug Mart
