How Kiwi businesses can embrace a mobile workforce

Suncorp New Zealand announced it is using technology to create a more flexible and collaborative working environment for its global workforce.

This includes leveraging Nutanix Enterprise Cloud OS software to support Suncorp's Citrix virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) delivering 700 virtual desktops, enabling staff to work remotely in any space.

Part of the Suncorp Group, Suncorp NZ is one of the country's largest general insurance, banking, life insurance and pension payment organisations. It aims to create more personalized and relevant choices for New Zealanders to look after their financial wellbeing.

In response to the growing demand for flexible working options by existing and potential staff, Suncorp renovated its Auckland offices to transform its way of working and bring its flexible working strategy to life.

It selected Nutanix as its technology partner to help ensure the technological resources to enable staff to work remotely were available at all times.

"One of the top questions asked by our potential employees is – do you offer flexible working options?" said Terry Gaze, Executive General Manager for Technology, Data and Labs.

"We're meeting this desire with an easy-to-use IT environment and offices that encourage staff to work in a collaborative way from anywhere. We're now looking at how else we can use the Nutanix operating system to further support our flexible working strategy.

The new environment has proven particularly beneficial to new parents in the company, who often require varying levels of flexibility to balance their working lives and family commitments.

The Childcare in New Zealand Survey, released by Stats New Zealand this year, highlights flexible employers and technology as key elements to helping parents manage their care arrangements alongside work commitments.

Supported by trusted Nutanix and Suncorp's IT partner Deptive, the new IT environment not only improved workspace access but also improved desktop resilience and availability across Suncorp's end-user environment, while improving employee productivity.

This is an important consideration for the company now that more staff are working remotely, and also given the amount of data and multitude of workloads it holds and manages.

As an early adopter of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Suncorp uses the public cloud to manage many applications and services central to its business.

However, the company chose to host its VDI services on-premises as they require more control over data and security and needed to minimise the risk of downtime. The combination of Citrix with Nutanix offered a true best-of-breed on-premises solution.