References
"baramundi offers a complete solution that has exceeded our expectations."
Mack & Schühle AG
References
Founded in 1939, Mack & Schühle AG (www.mus.de) is one of Europe’s leading distributors of wine and spirits. Headquartered in the town of Owen outside of Stuttgart in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, the family-owned company provides high-quality products and comprehensive services to its customers in Germany, the USA and South Africa. Mack & Schühle is also a leading producer of wine and sparkling wine in Italy.
Distributed operations
For operations and logistics, the company uses around 200 Windows notebooks at its headquarters and at its 50,000 m2 (54,000 ft2) warehouse about 400 km (240 miles) to the northeast in Erfurt. In addition, around 70 sales representatives visit customer sites throughout Germany.
Manuel Stehle, Director of IT, and his team of seven are responsible for managing both the internal IT infrastructure and mobile devices. „Our hardware mainly consists of notebooks and USB-C docking stations that can be used flexibly at the office, in home offices and on the road. We can manage any of those with minimal effort. Our software includes Office 365 and a range of industry-specific applications. We also use various tools for inventory and sales management to make our business processes efficient and transparent.“
A new solution was needed
„Before introducing the baramundi Management Suite, we worked with a competitor‘s solution in collaboration with our main IT service provider. That had a couple of disadvantages.
First, a large part of the management know-how was external. Second, our devices had to be physically brought to our provider for set-up and reconfiguration. Managing a constantly growing number of mobile devices used at different locations was also a big challenge. We also had to ensure that all devices were always up to date with the latest security standards. It became very impractical
and inefficient over time.
„Ultimately, a planned migration from Windows 10 to Windows 11 was the deciding factor in our search for a new solution. We considered a whole range of solutions, including Microsoft Intune. baramundi won us over with its greater flexibility and ease of use, especially for configuring our devices automatically and managing them remotely.
„Another big plus was baramundi‘s Managed Software module with fully tested, pre-packaged, deployment-ready patches and updates for common software. That has helped us enormously. Finally, being able to work with a highly responsive vendor attuned to the needs of SMEs was a major factor. In our experience, that makes it much easier and faster to find effective solutions and get uncomplicated answers to our questions.„
Exceptionally fast implementation
„Once we made the decision, installation and set-up of the baramundi Management Suite went very quickly. We combined my own extensive experience at an IT service provider and the knowledge of a newer member of our team who had recently graduated from college after completing his final IT project at baramundi. We had the system fully operational within two weeks and have been using it successfully every day since August 2023.“
Enormous time savings
„Thanks to PXE boot, baramundi enables us to carry out a complete OS reinstallation with all tools and updates fully automatically in less than an hour. That’s an enormous time savings compared to the previous situation. We also have greater flexibility for dealing with software deployments efficiently. The modules for patch management, OS installations and Managed Software have enabled us to manage all devices centrally. We also really like the Automation Studio, which allows us to easily automate routine tasks.
„We were surprised at how comprehensive and powerful baramundi is. During the migration from Windows 10 to Windows 11, we were able to do a complete reinstallation with all tools and updates, distribute software updates, and update our endpoint inventory in a very short time -- fully automatically and without admin intervention. Another noteworthy aspect is the ability to read configuration data directly from end devices, sort it according to defined criteria, and then automatically assign specific jobs to selected clients. That enables us to distribute tasks in a targeted manner, optimize workflows and significantly simplify system management. We can ensure that the right resources are always used efficiently.“
Conclusion
„baramundi offers a complete solution that has exceeded our expectations. It has noticeably improved efficiency. Previously manual routine tasks such as software updates, patch management and inventory now run automatically. We estimate that we have achieved a doubledigit percentage savings in both working time and costs as a result of automation. The IT team can now focus on strategic tasks, which has significantly increased our productivity.
„I would also like to mention the excellent support provided by both our baramundi account manager and consultant. Their expertise and commitment throughout the entire process contributed significantly to the success of the implementation."
"All the promises made in advance were kept in full.”
Manuel Stehle, Director of IT
