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OVERVIEW
- Full deployment across ships and land sites in under three weeks
- Single view of devices, warranties, and software across 1,700 units
- Proactive compliance readiness: from uncertain to reliable, overnight
- Application utilization data enabling smarter license renewal decisions
- IT team freed from tool maintenance to focus on the work that matters
THE CUSTOMER
Viking Line
Viking Line is one of the Baltic Sea’s leading ferry operators, running five vessels between Finland, the Åland Islands, Sweden, and Estonia. With around 2,600 employees and more than five million passengers annually, the company manages a complex, distributed IT environment spanning ships, ports, and offices across multiple countries.
2,600
Number of employees
5
Vessels in operation
1,700
Managed units with Xensam
THE Challenge
Summarize:
ChatGPT
Perplexity AIMaintaining the tool, not using it
Snow on-prem had served Viking Line well. But keeping it there demanded something valuable: time. Regular updates, security patches, version maintenance. All of it fell to a team whose core job was managing IT infrastructure, not running a software platform.
As Viking Line’s IT environment evolved toward the cloud, Snow’s on-prem model became harder to justify. When Snow’s roadmap reached end-of-life following a vendor acquisition, the team didn’t just look for an upgrade. They asked a bigger question: should managing this system even be their job?
There was no audit incident, no data disaster that forced the issue. This was a proactive decision by a team thinking ahead. “We have to be prepared when audit comes,” Alexander says. “Not be reactive.”
Added to this was a maritime constraint. Any new solution would need to pass Viking Line’s internal checklist for ship deployment. Vessels run on metered, pay-as-you-go connectivity. A high data-consuming agent would be a non-starter.
“If you have a system on-prem, you need to regularly update it. If you don’t, you miss the value of the data in there. You might also cause inaccurate data. In this type of platform, accurate data is the key value.”
– Alexander Östergård, Head of IT Infrastructure and Security, Viking Line
Viking Line evaluated several alternatives, including updated versions of Snow and other established players. Xensam stood out for two reasons: a more modern interface, and the philosophical fit with where the team wanted to go.
Xensam’s SaaS-native model answered that directly. No servers to maintain, no update cycles to manage. The platform handles the infrastructure; Viking Line works with the insights.
Xensam’s lightweight agent also cleared the maritime checklist. The data it sends back to the platform is small enough to run across Viking Line’s ship-to-shore connectivity without adding meaningful cost. No on-prem collector needed. No special configuration for the fleet.
On the question of European data sovereignty: not the deciding factor when Viking Line switched, but something that has only grown in relevance since. “It’s something we have had in our minds for some time,” Alexander says. “After time, it’s maybe more right as well now.”
“Is maintaining this system our core business? Or should we partner with someone who handles that, so we can focus on working with the data?”
– Alexander Östergård, Head of IT Infrastructure and Security, Viking Line
Viking Line deployed Xensam over the Christmas holiday period. The portal was set up quickly, SSO configured, connectors established. Agents were packaged and distributed via GPO across servers and through endpoint tooling for desktops and laptops, including across the fleet.
When the team returned in January, the system had populated. They came back to data.
“The setup of the portal itself was very smooth, very fast,” Alexander recalls. “When we came back after the holiday, it was a solution we could work with.” Total time from setup to working platform: around three weeks, with no dedicated implementation project.
A daily tool for technicians
Xensam is now part of every support case. When a ticket comes in, it’s the first place technicians look: device warranty status, installed software, connected peripherals, usage patterns, all in one view. No switching between systems. No copying service tags into vendor portals.
Warranty data for Dell and Lenovo surfaces automatically. Is this device still covered? Should we repair or replace? The answer is there before the technician has finished reading the ticket. It shapes the decision that follows.
License utilization and cost control
In a world of subscription-based software, usage visibility matters. Xensam’s utilization data lets Viking Line question renewals before approving them. “If someone is using a license only once in a while,” Alexander explains, “maybe that doesn’t justify having it. Maybe they could share with a colleague, or we can reallocate.”
That same data goes upward. “When you have visibility into data,” Alexander says, “you can convert that to discussions about money.” For a team presenting IT spend to C-level, that is a meaningful shift.
SaaS discovery and shadow IT
SaaS discovery now runs more reliably than Viking Line’s previous browser extension approach. Xensam captures data at the agent level, not tied to any specific browser, so nothing slips through. Shadow IT becomes visible. The team can surface it to the right people before it becomes a risk.
Upgrade planning across ships and sites
Before presenting a hardware refresh to business owners, the team can now show actual usage data. That makes the case for investment credible. Or, equally, makes the case for deferring it. The conversation moves from opinion to evidence.
“The compliance part is the trigger: feeling safe that when someone’s knocking on the door, you can rely on what you have there and know that you are compliant.”
Viking Line
THE RESULT
Eighteen months in, Viking Line’s IT team is no longer maintaining a SAM tool. They’re using one.
The primary value, Alexander is clear, is compliance confidence. The team can prove their license position when it matters. Not just claim it.
Day-to-day, the team gets answers faster across support cases, license decisions, and planning conversations. Viking Line is now expanding Xensam’s use into their data center environment, a sign that the platform has become the foundation for broader IT governance.
And the verdict after 18 months?
“If we would do a check-in about changing products again, Xensam would still be a very good solution. It hasn’t changed our mind since using it for 1,5 years.”
– Alexander Östergård, Head of IT Infrastructure and Security, Viking Line
