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Terminal Services Log
Canal Insurance Case Study
Page 1 of 6
Case Study by Canal Insurance
InnInnInsuranceInsurance
www.terminalserviceslog.com
Canal Insurance: Terminal Services
Log is the best tool for Citrix
server monitoring
Canal Insurance choose Terminal Services Log as monitoring
solutions for their Citrix environment and remote users
THE COMPANY
About Canal Insurance
Canal Insurance is insurance company specialized in the commercial
trucking insurance and specialty transportation operations. It was
founded in 1939 and has over 75 year long history in providing the
comprehensive insurance products and services. Its products are
distributed nationwide through select professional general agents. It’s
located in South Carolina, USA and was rated A- by A. M. Best, rating
agency focused on the insurance industry.
THE CHALLENGE
Monitoring Citrix environment and user activity
Canal Insurance has a number of systems to monitor. Citrix servers,
SharePoint, General Ledger, and financial software are just some of
them.
Currently, there are eight Citrix servers in the company, running on
XenApp 6.5 Advanced edition. These servers are mostly utilized by the
company’s independent agents to access the company’s policy issues,
and also by internal users when working remotely.
Citrix is often used for remote work, especially when there’s a power
outage or severe weather that prevent employees from coming in to
work.
Faye Jasman,
Senior IT Applications Analyst,
Canal Insurance Company
Canal Insurance Company
is a top-rated insurance
company that specializes in
commercial trucking
insurance.
OVERVIEW:
o Eight Citrix XenApp 6.5
servers
o Users working remotely
o Poor information on
inactive user sessions
Page 2 of 6
Case Study by Canal Insurance
InnInnInsuranceInsurance
www.terminalserviceslog.com
“Our biggest problem with remote working was
monitoring user activity. It’s hard to track when
people are logging in and logging out, and with the
basic edition of XenApp, additional reporting
possibilities are pretty poor.”
–Faye Jasman, Senior IT Applications Analyst, Canal Insurance Company
“When the cat’s away, the mouse will play” turned out to be the truth
in this case. Management noticed the increase of user inactivity when
users were working remotely. There was an intense need for detailed
reporting on user activity while using XenApp. The management was
determined to find out who was actually working and who was taking
his lunch break a little too seriously. And so began the search for a
tool that could provide more insight into user activity.
THE SOLUTION
Terminal Services Log – powerful server monitoring
Faye’s first encounter with Terminal Services Log was a few years ago
when she was looking for a good way to track and report on users
logging on and off. She soon found out about Terminal Services Log
and was impressed from the start.
“I wanted Terminal Services Log for a long time but it
was never a good time. So when the opportunity
presented itself, I immediately knew where to look.
Terminal Services Log reports were pretty convincing
so there was no need for long persuading of the
management.”
–Faye Jasman, Senior IT Applications Analyst, Canal Insurance Company
After the download, she was convinced it was the best tool for the job.
“It’s very intuitive, you
have got to love it.”
–Faye Jasman, Senior IT
Applications Analyst, Canal
Insurance Company
“I was zeroed in from
the start that it was the
right tool for me.”
–Faye Jasman, Senior IT
Applications Analyst, Canal
Insurance Company
Page 3 of 6
Case Study by Canal Insurance
InnInnInsuranceInsurance
www.terminalserviceslog.com
The most useful reports were Session Summary Reports. Faye started
the Session Log Summary Report and refined the filter to a specific
department, group, or individual user. The collected data were very
helpful in providing the supervisors with a complete insight into the
user session. They could easily see the first-time user logged in, the
duration of the session, whether the user was active or idle during the
session, and of course the log-off time.
Reports are easy to understand
Because the first results impressed the bosses, they decided to
incorporate the Terminal Services Log Reports into corporate control
and decision making. For instance, the claims department’s chief
claim officer and the company’s assistant vice-president receive
weekly reports on the department’s employees. Network traffic
reports are also used as an additional way of monitoring the users.
They are simple to generate and the information is presented in an
understandable way so the management can immediately detect
potential problems.
“You don’t need a computer science degree to
understand it.”
–Faye Jasman, Senior IT Applications Analyst, Canal Insurance Company
There are other areas in which the Terminal Services Log proved
effective. Besides monitoring user activity on Citrix servers, the tool
was used to determine whether infrastructure improvements were
needed. If there is a spike in server activity, perhaps it is time to
increase the farm load and improve the end user’s experience.
Simple tool implementation
When asked if there were any difficulties with the installation and
configuration of the tool, Faye said it was a piece of cake.
BENEFITS:
o Detailed user activity
overview
o Cost effectiveness
o Simple
implementation
o Accurate and easy-
to-understand
reports
“It was love at first
sight!”
–Faye Jasman, Senior IT
Applications Analyst, Canal
Insurance Company
Page 4 of 6
Case Study by Canal Insurance
InnInnInsuranceInsurance
www.terminalserviceslog.com
“It was one of the easiest tools to install. Integration
was there right from the start. You install the
software, point to the SQL server, and it works like a
charm.”
–Faye Jasman, Senior IT Applications Analyst, Canal Insurance
Company
As a result of acquiring Terminal Services Log there was a significant
decrease in users’ inactivity. Employees are more dedicated to their
work when they know they are being observed, and management
gained a quality support system for corporate control.
The main benefit is simply the ability to gather all kinds of valuable
data on users and system infrastructure. This kind of data just couldn’t
be collected before.
We conclude with a quote:
“If you need to monitor Citrix or RDS environments,
Terminal Services Log is the best and one of the most
cost-effective ways to do that.”
–Faye Jasman, Senior IT Applications Analyst, Canal Insurance Company
Page 5 of 6
Case Study by Canal Insurance
InnInnInsuranceInsurance
www.terminalserviceslog.com
TERMINAL SERVICES LOG
Powerful Server Monitoring Solution
Terminal Services Log is a powerful monitoring solution that provides a
clear understanding of your server environments based on the Citrix
XenApp and Microsoft Windows Remote Desktop Services.
Track user activities and monitor application usage and overall system
performance in real time or generate historical reports on the most
important performance counters such as CPU, Memory, Disk, and
Network utilization, etc.
Manage licenses and find out which software is over or under licensed to
save valuable resources. Audit failed user logons or audit files and folders
in the file system. The possibilities are endless: to find out more go to
www.terminalserviceslog.com.
If you are interested in trying out Terminal Services Log yourself, you can
download a free trial at www.terminalserviceslog.com.
FEATURES:
o Real-time RDS or Citrix
server monitoring
o Historic reports on every
performance counter
o User activity tracking
o Application usage
overview
o License management
o File and folder system
and failed logon
auditing
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