Blog (Insight Voices) Google Chrome Enterprise: Evolving the IT Approach to a Distributed Workforce
By Insight Editor / 29 Oct 2020 / Topics: Virtualization Windows 10 Workforce Hardware
By Insight Editor / 29 Oct 2020 / Topics: Virtualization Windows 10 Workforce Hardware
In 2020, the workforce has quickly evolved to where we imagined it would be five years from now. Remote working is the new normal, and although many businesses are looking for ways to bring employees back into the office, the reality is that a large percentage of organizations must permanently adapt to a distributed workforce.
Chrome Enterprise has long supported workforces with innovative business capabilities by combining the powerful features of a Chrome OS cloud-first approach with the end-user benefits of Chromebooks, enabling your IT to power your remote workforce securely and effectively from anywhere. Continuing in its mission to empower productivity, additional capabilities have been launched on Chrome OS specifically designed to support the distributed workforce approach.
An exciting new addition to Chrome Enterprise is the launch of Zero-Touch Enrollment. A recent ESG study found that the average PC takes an IT admin over 25 minutes to deploy, while Chrome OS devices take around six minutes, enabling a 76% efficiency gain on average. Zero-Touch Enrollment allows you to deploy Chrome OS even faster by eliminating the need for hands-on IT configuration, enabling devices to be drop shipped directly from a reseller to employees.
Insight’s Connected Workforce team and Chrome Enterprise have partnered to bring Zero-Touch Enrollment to Insight clients, allowing Chrome OS devices to be ready for use by employees within minutes.
And for those who want to take the next step to ensure a seamless employee experience for their Chrome OS deployment, Insight’s Chrome OS Enablement Program does just that. Our Connected Workforce experts leverage deep knowledge of the Chrome OS ecosystem to provide deployment and management of Chrome OS devices at scale for businesses of all sizes. The Chrome OS Enablement Program for Enterprise is a robust, holistic and scalable tiered-services offering that combines white glove pre-deployment with professional and managed services.
Our Chrome OS White Glove Configuration Services, offered in every tier, deliver a better user experience and time saved for IT, providing comprehensive device enrollment and configuration services to ensure that devices are 100% ready to use out of the box as well as fully enrolled in your domain and assigned to a designated Organizational Unit (OU) group. Additionally, each device is asset tagged and recorded in the Google Administration Console.
As clients transition workloads to the cloud, there are still a variety of legacy applications employees may need to access. Chrome OS addresses this with Parallels Desktop for Chromebook Enterprise, a solution that helps businesses easily transition to cloud-first devices.
Parallels Desktop for Chromebook Enterprise enables employees to be productive when working from home, in the field or in the office by providing access to legacy, proprietary and full-featured applications, including desktop versions of Microsoft Office, locally on a Chrome OS device. Applications leveraging Parallels Desktop can be accessed without an internet connection, enabling users to pick up quickly from where they left off. Additionally, for IT admins, controls in the Google Admin Console allow them to easily decide which users have access.
In addition to adding new features to Chrome OS to help existing customers, Google is also developing tools to make it easier for potential new customers to prepare to make the leap to a fully cloud-first endpoint solution.
The Chrome OS Readiness Tool will help businesses make informed IT decisions as they plan their move to Chrome OS. This free and user-friendly tool will allow businesses to evaluate application utilization, analyze and segment workforces, and identify cloud-ready devices, helping to drive the adoption of Chrome OS, whether they’re fully cloud-ready or ready to switch with the help of virtualization. This tool will be available in 2021.
For those wanting to start their journey now, Insight is offering a free Chrome OS Readiness Review, a $7,500 value. In this assessment, Insight experts work with your organization to identify business needs and determine criteria for the successful implementation and deployment of Chrome OS devices.
If your organization is interested in equipping your workforce with Chrome OS devices and tools without increasing the complexity of your IT environment or introducing potential security risks, it’s simple to leverage the expertise of Insight for Chrome Enterprise. By making the most of the built-in capabilities of Chrome OS, Insight delivers streamlined deployment, robust security and nonstop administrative support. This enables you to quickly and effectively power your cloud workforce across Chrome OS devices, software and solutions. Thanks to Insight’s partnership with Google, experience with third-party tools and extensive certifications, our experts are uniquely positioned to help your organization design a customized, end-to-end Chrome Enterprise solution, while keeping your end-user experience and security top of mind.
