The Quest for a Better User Experience
We recently sat down with IGEL Community member Sven Berg to learn about his pursuit of a better user experience through design and IGEL.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself, your role in IT, etc. and maybe something fun about you too? I know you are a very eclectic type of induvial.
My name is Sven Berg, I am 42 years old, and I am a senior consultant for K-iS Systemhaus located in Siegen, North Rhine Westphalia. My mission is to optimize IT environments from the end user’s view. But in my opinion, this re-thinking starts in the IT department. In fact, many of our customers are surprised because I start the IGEL rollouts inside IT. My passion is to shake up the IT people.
You talk a lot about user experience relating to design. Can you share your views around why design is important?
Well, from my point of view, most business processes in companies are supported by IT technology, but lots of IT departments lose the focus of end users. I bring end users and IT departments together and optimize this connection. One important point is the look and feel of the end user’s workplace, including their IGEL device and virtual desktop. The better this workplace looks, and the faster the apps start, the happier the end user is, and at the end of the day, the more productive the user is for the company.
I often change the login dialog in the IGEL desktop to a Windows 10 look and change the wallpapers of the logon screen on IGEL with great wallpapers. As a result, the end user does not see any difference from a well-known Windows 10 logon screen and after logging in the user lands into a Citrix desktop in seconds or faster.
You talk about seconds and faster, how are you doing this? What tips and tricks can you share?
In Citrix environments, many things have a direct or indirect impact on performance or logon time, for example, GPOs, printer mappings, and scripts. To speed up the connection of printers into the Citrix user session, for instance, we use steadyPRINT.
How does the end user react to this? Do they understand the effort and appreciate it?
The end users love it, and other people with fat clients would like to be migrated into the IGEL world, too. Other reasons our customers appreciate is that there is no more waiting for ugly windows updates or boot processes.
First, how long have you been working with IGEL's products and solutions?
I have been working with IGEL devices for 15 years. Oh man… I think I am getting old 😊
Fifteen years is a long time! How have you seen IGEL change over the years?
In the past, IGEL was more or less a boring, thin-client manufacturer. However, these days, IGEL is a fast-growing solution provider with a great IGEL OS as a heart. For me, the company today feels younger, and more flexible. I think the growing IGEL community and the direct communication between IGEL and its partners and customers are some of the main reasons.
How do you see IGEL solutions compare and contrast to your other experiences relating to design and capability to create the best design experience?
One of the biggest reasons for the success of the IGEL solution is the IGEL UMS management console. Together with our customers, we can create a great user experience in a very short time using the IGEL UMS. Working with other thin client manufacturers means you need to deal with complicated config files. That’s just not the way of doing IT stuff in 2020.
Besides design and speed improvements, what else can you recommend others to do to deliver that ‘great user experience’ you talk about?
In my coaching’s, I try to convey that IT departments listen to their end users. This is something that a lot of IT guys have forgotten in their daily business. The humans are the key – not only the machines.
Being you are an IGEL Community member, I would love to ask you, how does the IGEL Community change your way of using/learning IGEL products and solutions?
The IGEL Community is a place where we can interact very directly with IGEL technicians and place wishes or bug fixes in seconds. For us, as an IGEL Gold Partner, this is one of the essential points.
Are there differentiators between IGEL Community and other communities you joined / will join? If yes, what makes us unique or not?
I think that the IGEL Community is like a family of IGEL enthusiasts, making the IGEL OS better and better together.
If you had one wish for IGEL overall, what would it be?
Never lose contact with your customers and partners – they give you the input and solutions you never find on your own.
If someone would like to follow you, what can they do? Twitter, LinkedIn, do you have a blog or?
Sure, they can follow me at XING and on the IGEL Community for sure.
Special thanks to Sven Berg for taking the time for this interview. Truly appreciated!
