The ability to perform critical systems management functions on workstations which are distributed nationally is a critical requirement of Canada Post (CPC). Innovapost and our partners provide 2nd and 3rd level support for over 5,500 Canada Post retail locations across the country. We also support a testing lab environment consisting of over 50 workstations. We require the ability to gather system information, methodically deploy software, and apply patches and updates across our entire fleet.
Our distributed network of retail point of sale devices is physically distributed from sea-to-sea-to-sea in almost every community across Canada. Our systems operate within a private network leveraging a variety of connectivity options ranging from very high-speed stable links to low-bandwidth/high-latency connections. Our support teams are generally centralized in the National Capital region but can, and do, work remotely from locations across the country.
We prefer to have our technical support teams focussed on handling issues and enhancements to our business applications. We are seeking client management tools that will simplify and minimize the time and effort spend on maintaining hardware, operating system, patching and software releases. We are seeking intelligent client management tools that will leverage and encourage automation and reduce the overall time and effort spent on management and maintenance of the core systems.
Fundamentally, in order to properly manage our systems we require accurate and up to date hardware and software inventory and the ability to ‘push’ software, packages, scripts and various updates to systems in a controlled manner. Of particular concern is our ability to manage systems with low bandwidth network connections, poor latency, and frequent network disruptions. Our ideal scenario is one where we can release a package to all of our fleet and the client management tools will be able to manage the deployment taking into consideration potential network saturation, bottlenecks, and maintenance windows. It is essential that our client management tools do not interrupt business activities or cause system performance issues at the local workstation or on the network and we want to spend less time manually verifying that a deployment activity is not going to impede business activities.
Patch management is also an essential activity for the client management tools. We require the ability to provide inventory, assessment and reports of which patches and updates are required (most importantly, Microsoft OS patching). We require the ability to granularly and methodically release updates in a staged manner, ensuring that all updates are thoroughly tested, soaked and approved before general release. Any general release of patches or updates will take the same network bandwidth and maintenance windows limitations and restrictions into consideration that are being employed for software distribution. We are seeking a client management tool that will reduce the complexity, effort, and risk that is currently associated with handing system patching.
