Asset Management Firm Uses Cloud Hosted Virtual Desktop Solution to Reduce IT Budget by 47%

National Asset Direct, Inc.'s Business Needs 

Extreme volatility in the real-estate market has sparked heavy demand for proprietary debt management services and tools that National Asset Direct, Inc. (NAD) provides. To shield against future turmoil in the real-estate and financial sectors, NAD executives are continuously searching for ways to trim operating costs.

John Madrid, Chief Technology Officer at National Asset Direct, Inc., has applied this approach to the company’s IT function. “We’re always looking for ways to drive down infrastructure costs, and still provide our people with the tools they need to stay productive,” says Madrid. 

For several years, NAD worked with a private hosting services provider that supported the company’s thin-client operating environment. This solution enabled NAD employees to easily access their virtual desktops from any thin-client system at any office location.

However, remote access was a challenge. Employees could access email from outside the office via Microsoft Outlook Web Access. But internal system access to productivity tools, network file shares, and specialized business applications, such as Microsoft Dynamics GP for accounting and FICS Mortgage Servicer, was limited. 

Executives had long recognized the enormous potential of using a virtualized environment and hosted desktop approach to reduce hardware costs, support workforce flexibility, and bolster business continuity.

However, based largely on their previous experience, they wanted to revisit their existing implementation.
As the company began growing, system performance and scalability issues increased, which would often disrupt business operations. In the event of service interruptions, or on days when weather conditions prevented travel to the office, employees attempted to work from home, but in vain.

“We used a terminal services configuration to enable staff to remotely connect to our network,” says Madrid. “But we often ran into performance and capacity issues that made it difficult for people to get work done from outside of the office.”