JEO Consulting Group Inc.

Overview

JEO Consulting Group, Inc. brought in Riverbed ^® Steelhead ^® appliances to help them effectively collaborate over their existing WAN. The result was better collaboration across their entire organization.

For over 70 years, JEO Consulting Group, Inc. has been focused on delivering viable engineering solutions to customers across the Midwest. It is a full-service firm, offering engineering, architecture, surveying, and planning to hundreds of clients. JEO has a number of successful practices, including transportation, utilities, land development, environmental design, and topographic surveys. With 8 locations across Nebraska and Iowa, JEO serves the needs of a broad range of customers.

Solution

• Riverbed Steelhead appliances deployed at eight locations
• Steelhead Mobile was deployed to over 60 users

Challenge: Enabling Collaboration Across the Distributed Enterprise

According to Travis Klasna, IT manager for JEO, “Given that we have engineers, planners, and architects spread across two states, we depend on our wide area network (WAN) infrastructure to link them all together.”

JEO was having challenges in collaborating and sharing information over the WAN, and its workforce was also becoming more mobile. Klasna explained, “Planners could be at a customer site or on a project, executives are always on the road, and many engineers want to work from home. But trying to remotely download a set of project files and CAD drawings could take an engineer 60 minutes or more.” JEO wanted to find a solution that could enable LAN-like application access and file sharing, no matter where employees happened to be located.

Solution: Steelhead Appliances and Steelhead Mobile Enable Remote Collaboration

JEO deployed Steelhead® appliances from Riverbed Technology in the headquarters and in seven branch offices. The company immediately realized performance advantages in its offices, and then became one of the initial users of Steelhead Mobile and deployed 30 Steelhead Mobile clients to employees that travel frequently or work from home. Klasna stated, “For us, the solution for the mobile worker started as a nice-to-have. Shortly thereafter we realized it was a must-have to enable our employees to work from everywhere.”

Benefits: Real-Time Collaboration Everywhere

Riverbed® Steelhead appliances and Steelhead Mobile have enabled JEO’s consultants to focus on  delivering the best possible work to their clients. Klasna commented, “The results were pretty amazing. Basically, our employees in all our branch offices can share data now as if they were in the same place. In the past, downloading a 110-megabyte project folder from home on a DSL connection could take about 60 minutes.

With Steelhead Mobile, I can complete that transfer in about a minute and a half. Not only that, some of our users are seeing as much as 75% less data going over their Internet connection. That really makes it possible to work productively over a home DSL line or a hotel Wi-Fi connection.”

Klasna concluded, “Riverbed provides great customer support and continues to add software enhancements that deliver functionality we continue to embrace. Riverbed engineers listen to our enhancement requests and continue to evolve the products to address market requirements. Overall, Riverbed has managed to deliver both the need to offer LAN-like performance to my users, no matter where they are, while making it easy for me to manage the whole system. That’s a winning combination.”

Summary

JEO Consulting Group, Inc. was looking for a solution that would allow their distributed workforce to have LAN-like access to files and data no matter where users happened to be. They needed a solution that would work for branch offices as well as employees on the road, at customer sites, or working from home.

After considering alternative approaches, JEO chose Riverbed for improving application performance over the WAN. The combined solution of Steelhead appliances for branch offices and Steelhead Mobile for users out of the office provides the complete solution that they needed.

With Steelhead appliances and Steelhead Mobile, JEO’s engineers, planners, architects, and executives have accelerated access to the freshest data, regardless of their location or whether they’re using Windows or Macintosh platforms. Employees can work more collaboratively, ensuring that their projects are completed on time and with the best information available.

“We were having a lot of challenges in collaborating and sharing information over the WAN.”

“For us, a solution for the mobile worker wasn’t a nice-to-have. We needed to have it to enable our employees to work from everywhere.”

For us, the solution for the mobile worker started as a nice-to-have. Shortly thereafter we realized it was a must-have to enable our employees to work from everywhere.

Travis Klasna, IT manager

JEO

Riverbed provides great customer support and continues to add software enhancements that deliver functionality we continue to embrace. Riverbed engineers listen to our enhancement requests and continue to evolve the products to address market requirements. Overall, Riverbed has managed to deliver both the need to offer LAN-like performance to my users, no matter where they are, while making it easy for me to manage the whole system. That’s a winning combination.

Travis Klasna, IT manager

JEO