TransAlta
TransAlta addresses the needs of a mobile workforce with Microsoft® Active Directory and Windows XP
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Company Overview
TransAlta is among Canada's largest non-regulated power generation and wholesale marketing companies. With coal-fired, gas-fired, hydro and renewable generation assets in Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Australia, TransAlta is focused on ensuring the ability to efficiently operate assets to provide wholesale customers with a reliable, low-cost source of power.
The Alberta-based organization has a global workforce of 3,500 employees, many of whom are contractors and work in remote offices. Many of its employees also travel from office to office or work from home – these employees require reliable access to the company’s network to get the information they need to do their jobs effectively. Recognizing that its aging Microsoft Windows NT® infrastructure was no longer meeting the organization’s needs, particularly its growing remote and mobile workforce, TransAlta knew an IT overhaul was necessary.
Business Challenge
At the top of its list of requirements was the need to ensure that any investments in IT must be cost-effective and provide long-term returns. TransAlta does not traditionally participate in operational leasing of technology, preferring to invest in technology that is purchased and owned outright. As a result, the organization performs considerable due diligence prior to making large software and/or hardware investments.
TransAlta’s overall objective was to stabilize and better manage the organization’s IT systems while reducing costs.
“We are non-regulated, so essentially we have to be in direct competition with the rest of the other non-regulated power producers,” says Trevor Hurst, IT Infrastructure manager/architect, TransAlta. “Cost is very important to us. If we can deploy a technology, especially a strategic technology for less than our competitor can, it gives us the edge.”
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Solution
With these objectives in mind, TransAlta joined Microsoft’s Rapid Adoption Program (RAP), a program designed to support customers that are early adopters of Microsoft software technology. The RAP program provided TransAlta with the advantage of getting to know the Windows Server 2003 product and environment prior to mass implementation. Although TransAlta had considered other options including Linux, the organization selected Microsoft Windows Server 2003 based on the product’s scalability, reliability and cost-effectiveness. Further, the organization was able to leverage its internal skill-sets, as its IT team was familiar in working within a Microsoft environment.
“There’s a big Linux push right now in the industry but it is still very new. As long as Microsoft remains competitive with its licensing scheme and the products that it brings to the table, Linux does not really have much of a case,” says Hurst.
Working with the Experts
As part of the RAP program, TransAlta worked with Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard (HP) consultants on the IT strategy and deployment. The organization has relied on the services of HP to manage its infrastructure in the past. The HP team played a pivotal role in assisting TransAlta throughout the early adoption program.
HP’s C&I Practice and HP Managed Services are delivering comprehensive solutions in business-critical areas, such as infrastructure management, enterprise resource planning, server consolidation, application development, remote help desk and on-site technical assistance. HP C&I also led the deployment of Windows 2003, Windows XP and Active Directory.
With the resulting accurate network monitoring, data analysis and processing, and precise and timely reporting, HP is enabling TransAlta to examine and react quickly to energy production and transmission conditions to meet market requirements.
“In joining Microsoft’s Rapid Adoption Program, we were able to work with Microsoft and HP to replicate our production environment, right down to the physical hardware. We also developed a migration process that we implemented in test, which meant that when we went to production, we upgraded the domain in approximately two hours,” says Hurst. “You read that kind of thing in magazines sometimes but you never really think it’s feasible. Now, we know it is.”
Improving Manageability with Active Directory
The TransAlta IT strategy included a focus on improving network management capabilities. As a result, it deployed Microsoft’s Active Directory. The Active Directory service provides TransAlta with the means to manage the identities and relationships that make up network environments. The organization can now set up a central location for network administration and delegation of administrative authority. The tight integration with security eliminates costly tracking of accounts for authentication and authorization between TransAlta’s systems. A single user name and password combination can identify each network user, and this identity follows the user throughout the network.
“We had a large and complicated system policy that was very difficult to stay on top of and make the changes to. By deploying a distributed directory, we’ve simplified things and lowered our cost of managing that policy all at the same time,” says Hurst.
With the large number of remote and consultant-based workers, TransAlta has a kiosk area in its Calgary, Alberta headquarters which allows workers to “check-in” for a day. Deploying Active Directory has allowed TransAlta to push out policies to these workers, and provide employee access more securely and strategically.
“With these kiosks, employees can come in, provide their credentials and are then given a profile of their environment for e-mail,” says Hurst. “Ensuring that each account is securely managed is a definite concern of ours, and Active Directory allows us to provide this environment for our employees.”
Taking advantage of server consolidation
As part of its IT strategy and with the advice of HP and Microsoft, TransAlta consolidated three domain servers into one. Server consolidation is an ongoing process that incorporates servers, storage, applications and services, and ties all of them together with management best practices. The TransAlta consolidation aligned the organization’s IT resources to business goals, ensuring the needs of the business were met through the definition of standard platforms, appropriately sized resources, and operation management processes and tools.
“We were able to drive the complexity out of TransAlta’s infrastructure by aligning our resources to our goals. Through better management of resources and operations we have seen reduced pressure on our systems. In turn, this has resulted in reduced TCO for the organization,” says Gary Hall, solution architect, Enterprise Microsoft services, HP Canada.
Securing the Front Office and Back Office
With Windows XP, TransAlta employees are able to work more effectively. By standardizing on one operating system, TransAlta is able to have more uniformity within its systems, allowing for a more stable and reliable environment.
To ease the transition to the new operating system, the deployment team created the “Amazing XP Race” to promote the upgrade. This “competition” cleverly enticed employees to work in groups of four with the goal of publishing their portal questions related to Windows XP and the company. “The Amazing XP Race was truly amazing. The race generated excitement and a sense of camaraderie between us and them,” says Cindy Iverson, desktop services manager, HP.
With the Remote Desktop technology in Windows XP, TransAlta employees now have full access to their office computers and data even while away from the office. “Users have expressed extreme satisfaction with the Windows XP deployment in that they have experienced stability and ease of use with their systems,” says Hall. “This is allowing them to be more productive and efficient wherever they may be.”
On that front, IT administrators have also expressed satisfaction with the Windows XP upgrade. Group policies have been much easier to implement, and with the ease of use and stability of the systems, IT administrators can now focus on more pressing matters than supporting individual users.
Most importantly, the Windows XP deployment has streamlined support across the board. In using the self-repair features within Windows XP, the organization has noted a reduction in calls to the help desk. As a result, this has lowered costs associated with troubleshooting technical problems.
”What we were noticing is if a user in Canada has a similar problem to a user in Mexico and must access TransAlta support, the data will be drawn from a local server so the data is pulled from a local source,” says Hall. “Central administration can update a single source and head office will deploy that to all the remote locations to ensure consistency of that data. In turn, this saves a lot of time from an IT perspective.”
“As a true ‘plug and play’ technology, XP allows you to apply the same image to multiple hardware platforms. Windows XP is really intelligent about detecting new hardware which keeps things consistent and benefits our organization as a whole,” says Hall.
Business Benefits
Taking the integrated approach
TransAlta has taken the integrated approach to revamping its IT environment. From deploying Windows XP on all of its 2,200 desktops to consolidating its servers to taking full advantage of the Active Directory services, TransAlta has increased productivity, reduced operating costs and improved manageability across the board. Integrating Microsoft technology has helped TransAlta to improve business value while easing management and allowing its IT consultants to focus on increasing productivity within the organization.
Improved TCO
One of the primary goals for TransAlta is to improve its bottom line. The deployment of Microsoft technology along with the ability to leverage existing investments has helped TransAlta to achieve this goal.
The rollout of Active Directory and Windows XP is saving TransAlta approximately 500 help desk calls a month. With each call costing roughly $35 per call, this represents a total savings of $17,500 each month.
“Our goals aren't too different from a lot of other companies. Obviously we want to have secure platforms. We want them to be stable and we want them to have the best TCO possible. A lot of our systems rely on Microsoft technology, so those systems have to be available, they have to be manageable from an IT perspective, and all of that relates back to cost,” says Hurst.
On-going stability
The stability of the TransAlta infrastructure has helped ensure that remote workers can easily and securely access information wherever and whenever. In turn, this has resulted in increased productivity.
“We have also recognized a substantial employee productivity increase by extending business data and applications to the home site. Some of our employees have lengthy commutes and it is a lot more effective for them to be able to extend their office to their home,” says Hurst.
The TransAlta systems are now more secure and stable, and each user now has the capability of taking control of their own system.
“Right now, every user in the company can install software, make printer setting changes and various other things, which makes them a lot more productive. This has reduced many calls to our help desk and has taken a huge strain off of our IT department. At the end of the day, the user can get to their system, make modifications and ultimately be more effective,” says Hurst. “Microsoft and HP have definitely helped improve operating costs, and increased both manageability and stability in our organization.
Microsoft Windows Server System
Microsoft® Windows Server System is a comprehensive, integrated, and interoperable server infrastructure that helps reduce the complexity and costs of building, deploying, connecting, and operating agile business solutions. Windows Server System helps customers create new value for their business through the strategic use of their IT assets. With the Windows Server operating system as its foundation, Windows Server System delivers dependable infrastructure for data management and analysis; enterprise integration; customer, partner, and employee portals; business process automation; communications and collaboration; and core IT operations including security, deployment, and systems management.
For more information about Windows Server System, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com
For more information about Hewlett-Packard products and services, call 905-206-4725 or visit the Web site at: http://www.hp.com/country/ca/en/welcome.html
For more information about TransAlta products and services, call 403-267-7110 or visit the Web site at: www.transalta.com
