For more than 100 years, LIAG has been designing buildings that make people happy and add value to society. For LIAG, a building is only successful if it is a place where people feel at home and if it invites people to meet. A successful building shows respect for its users and at the same time challenges them to get the best out of themselves.

The team at LIAG traditionally works with Apple systems for designing buildings and calculating structures, combined with a server at its own location in The Hague. When it became clear a few years ago that Apple would stop server support, LIAG had to look for an alternative. In close collaboration with its external IT service provider Wizzbit, LIAG opted for a VDI environment (virtual desktop infrastructure) hosted by data center specialist Uniserver.

With a VDI, users work with a VPN connection via a laptop or desktop on a virtual desktop, where all resources are made available centrally in a data center. At LIAG, all software, including the specialized construction software Archicad, now runs in the Uniserver data center.

According to project leader Harmen Landman, the plans for a centralized VDI approach were already in place before the corona pandemic. “But corona did work as a catalyst, because working from home then became a more important issue. Nevertheless, we have taken the time to ensure that the transition to the new situation went smoothly. This turned out well, if we look at a survey among employees after the transition. They were mostly positive.”

One of the important aspects of the transition was working in a Windows environment with the existing Apple systems. LIAG employees, as in many other creative environments, traditionally work with Apple systems. That is precisely why the project team, together with Wizzbit, paid a lot of attention to support and the implementation took place in groups. Employees could ask their questions via Teams and an extensive FAQ could also be found here.

Looking at the advantages of the new working method, Landman first mentions the greatly increased flexibility. “We can now really work completely location-free with all functionalities within reach. This can of course be done at the office, on the train, but also at home, on a construction site or at a customer's home. Furthermore, we can quickly scale up and down. When we welcome a new colleague, you can immediately have a profile created and the new colleague will immediately have a complete digital workplace. Furthermore, the availability of the new system is very high and we no longer have to worry about all data management. That lies with Wizzbit and Uniserver.”

According to Peter Rog of Wizzbit, this availability and the peace of mind surrounding data management are important reasons for Wizzbit to have been working with Uniserver for years. “Technology today is mainly generic,” says Rog. “The people behind the technology ensure that everything works and that a problem is solved as soon as it occurs. It is the people at Uniserver who make the difference for us.”