40% Call Center Efficiency Boost: VDI Transformation for a Public Sector Retirement Agency

Client Profile

A state educational retirement board in the U.S. is responsible for managing pension benefits for thousands of school employees. Their call center, staffed by around 100 agents, plays a vital role in supporting members. They were looking for a more reliable, secure, and scalable virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) to improve operations and prepare for potential expansion to support up to 3,000 users across other public agencies.

Challenges

• The organization was running a basic VDI pilot that came with several risks. The major concern was lack of high availability, with only one connection server and a single access gateway, there were no backups in place — meaning any failure could bring down critical services for thousands of members.
• Furthermore, call center agents experienced persistent issues with unreliable Microsoft Teams integration within their virtual desktops. This led to frustrating audio and video problems during member consultations, directly impacting service quality and member satisfaction.
• The organization also faced a challenge with limited internal expertise to manage the intricate transition from a POC to a full production environment. They required comprehensive white-glove support to ensure VDI user issues were addressed promptly, and optimal system performance was maintained.
• Finally, they contended with complex licensing requirements across multiple VMware products. The ideal solution needed to be highly scalable, capable of accommodating future growth from 100 to potentially 3,000 users across various agencies without demanding a complete infrastructure redesign.

Anunta’s Solution 

Anunta delivered a complete VDI transformation in just 16 weeks, broken down into 4 clear phases — all with zero disruption to day-to-day operations:

• Assessment & Infrastructure Planning:

Thorough evaluations of existing systems and user requirements were conducted. This involved establishing parallel testing environments and creating detailed migration timelines that included comprehensive rollback procedures.

• Foundation Setup:

We replaced the single-server setup with a high-availability architecture by adding multiple connection servers and implementing load balancing to eliminate single points of failure. Horizon 24.0.6 was deployed on AWS Workspace Core, creating a hybrid environment that offers both flexibility and reliable performance.

• Application Migration & Optimization:

Successfully migrated 52 business-critical applications, including legacy pension calculation systems, modern web-based member portals, O365 suite with Teams optimization, financial reporting tools, document management systems, compliance monitoring applications, and third-party integration tools. Additionally, customized master images were developed and deployed for dynamic and one-to-one workspace pools. Automated pool provisioning was also implemented using the latest standard operating procedures to reduce management overhead.

• User Migration & Support:

The migration started with 11 IT administrators for initial validation, followed by phased rollout to the remaining users in small groups to avoid disruption. A dedicated support structure was set up through CustomerConnect, and Microsoft Teams was fully optimized within the virtual desktops to support smooth call center operations.

Seamless Microsoft Teams functionality was also ensured within the virtual desktop environment, crucial for critical call center operations.

Key Benefits 

• Faster Call Handling: A 40% improvement in resolution times helped agents serve members more efficiently.
• Stronger System Reliability: The new high-availability setup delivered 99.99% uptime, eliminating service disruptions.
• Quicker Provisioning: Desktop setup time was reduced by 65%, saving IT time and improving the user experience.
• Better Collaboration: Teams integration now works seamlessly, with no more audio/video glitches.
• Future-Ready Platform: The setup is built to scale up to 3,000 users without needing major changes.
• Secure and Compliant: Sensitive member data is protected, and the environment meets all compliance requirements.
• Low Ongoing Effort: With automation and a stable platform, the IT team can now focus on strategic projects instead of firefighting.