Questions with "David Whiting of Liquidware"
In my interactions with clients and their IT departments, the focus during discussions about the digital user experience and DEX scores often narrows to conventional monitoring solutions, associating user experience directly with the performance of platforms, services, applications, and client devices. However, I believe the digital experience is shaped not only by performance but also by how applications and services are configured and delivered.
Liquidware offers four solutions - Stratusphere UX, ProfileUnity, FlexApp, and CommandCTRL - that together provide comprehensive capabilities for monitoring, remediating configuring, and delivering .
Recently, I got in touch with David Whiting regarding a customer's need related to ProfileUnity and FlexApp, leading to a series of product meetings and demonstrations.
Throughout this engagement, I was able to observe first-hand how both products can enhance the user experience. I reached out to David during the week and asked if he would be interested in taking part in a five-question interview and getting his thoughts on how ProfileUnity and FlexApp can improve and enhance the user experience.
"Given the complex nature of the digital user experience, how do ProfileUnity and FlexApp uniquely contribute to enhancing the digital user experience, and could you share specific examples where their implementation has led to measurable improvements in user satisfaction?"
ProfileUnity and FlexApp aim to enhance the digital user experience by providing more efficient user environment management and application delivery.
ProfileUnity started life as a user environment management solution that centralizes and streamlines the management of user profiles, settings, and data across physical, virtual, and cloud-based environments. These days we see an increase in customer demand for ProfileUnity to complement their Unified Endpoint Management solution.
Where Unified Endpoint Management solutions tend to focus on the device's security and maintenance ProfileUnity ensures a consistent and personalized user experience regardless of the device or platform being used. Benefits include the likes of faster login times, seamless migrations, and a consistent user experience across multiple devices and platforms.
FlexApp is an application layering solution that enables the delivery of applications to users on-demand, without the need for complex installation or configuration processes. This simplifies application management, reduces the time it takes for users to access the tools they need, and provides rapid application delivery!
ProfileUnity manages digital user experience efficiently with a superior full-featured user environment and application management, while FlexApp delivers digital user experience with seamless dynamically attached apps. Implementing these solutions has led to measurable improvements in user satisfaction, including faster login times, seamless migrations, and rapid application delivery.
"With App-V scheduled to reach the end of life in 2026, many organizations are considering alternatives for application virtualization and delivery. How is FlexApp positioned as a successor to App-V in terms of features, capabilities, and ease of migration? Could you outline the steps and considerations for customers looking to transition from App-V to FlexApp to ensure a smooth and efficient migration process?"
As Microsoft App-V reaches its end of life in 2026, organizations are indeed exploring alternatives for application virtualization and delivery. FlexApp is well-positioned as a successor to App-V due to its features, capabilities, and ease of migration. FlexApp provides on-demand application delivery and provisioning, allowing users to access the applications they need quickly and efficiently. Its multi-platform support includes physical, virtual, and cloud-based environments, providing greater flexibility than App-V.
FlexApp integrates with ProfileUnity enabling administrators to manage user profiles, settings, and applications from a single console and it can also coexist with App-V, allowing organizations to gradually transition to the new solution without disrupting their existing environment.
FlexApp is well-positioned as a successor to App-V due to its features, capabilities, and ease of migration. By following a structured migration process that includes assessing your application inventory, planning your migration strategy, creating FlexApp layers, testing, and deploying, organizations can ensure a smooth and efficient transition from App-V to FlexApp.
"Integrating new solutions into existing IT ecosystems can present challenges. Can you discuss how ProfileUnity and FlexApp can be seamlessly integrated with current systems? Additionally, what are some common compatibility issues you've encountered, and how have they been addressed?"
ProfileUnity and FlexApp are designed to be easily integrated with existing IT ecosystems, offering compatibility with various platforms and technologies. Common issues, such as application compatibility, Group Policy conflicts, and profile size, can be addressed using the solutions' built-in features and tools and best practices for deployment and management.
"How do ProfileUnity and FlexApp allow IT departments to tailor the user experience according to individual needs or departmental requirements?"
The solutions can help create a personalized and customized environment for users in the following ways:
Context-aware filtering: ProfileUnity allows administrators to create context-aware filters that apply specific settings, policies, and configurations based on various factors, such as user role, department, location, or device type. This ensures that users receive a personalized experience tailored to their unique needs.
Granular policy management: ProfileUnity enables administrators to create and manage granular policies for various aspects of the user environment, such as folder redirection, printer mapping, and drive mapping. This allows IT departments to fine-tune the user experience according to specific departmental or individual requirements.
On-demand application delivery: FlexApp enables IT departments to deliver applications to users on-demand, based on their specific needs or roles. This ensures that users have access to the tools they require without having to install or manage applications manually.
Application layering: FlexApp's application layering technology allows IT departments to create and manage application layers that can be easily assigned to users or groups. This simplifies application management and enables administrators to tailor the application set for individual users or departments
"Looking ahead, what are some of the upcoming features or innovations for ProfileUnity and FlexApp that you believe will further revolutionize the digital user experience? How do these developments align with the evolving needs of businesses and their IT infrastructures?
We are continuously working on enhancing and expanding the capabilities of ProfileUnity and FlexApp. We continue to develop our own "Infrastructure as Code" solution to make it easier to integrate the management and packaging process. For instance, we already offer automated packaging of FlexApp allowing our customers to develop to for instance connect online repositories to our packaging engine.
But this also opens the door for partnerships such as the recently announced integration with Rimo3. https://www.rimo3.com/liquidware or App Readiness (Partners | Readiness (applicationreadiness.com). Since we value partnerships we intend to release integrations with several other vendors in 2024 to expand the capabilities of our solutions.
