Garanti Technology

Operating System Upgrade Helps Lower Costs and Enhances Security for Technology Leader

Garanti Technology is an industry leader in banking and financial services. It maintains a competitive edge by adopting the latest technology and building creative solutions to meet its customers’ needs. Following that mission, Garanti Technology is testing an upgrade to Windows Vista® using a Zero Touch Installation approach.

 

Business Needs

Garanti Technology, a subsidiary of Doguş Group, provides banking and financial services to Garanti Bank from its headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey. It also provides software development, Internet applications, security and project management, as well as technology infrastructure solutions and system administration to other companies held by the Doguş Group, including companies in the banking, automotive, and construction sectors. Garanti Technology also supports entertainment, media, and retail companies through consulting services and comprehensive information strategies.

From the corporate data center in Istanbul, Garanti Technology provides services to clients and customers, in more than 600 remote locations, with uninterrupted service, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Garanti Technology maintains its competitive advantage by maintaining the latest hardware and software, including more than 1,200 servers running the Windows Server® and Windows® operating systems. Tufan Alatan, Assistant General Manager for the Systems and Operations Management department at Garanti Technology explains, “We maintain our position in this sector by being a company of firsts.”

Garanti Technology provides service to approximately 18,000 desktop computers throughout its entire network of Garanti Bank branches and operation centers. It insists on maintaining this competitive edge, without sacrificing 24-hour service, incurring a large cost, or compromising security. “Our quality of service, infrastructure security, and continuous transaction competence is maintained by keeping the latest Windows technology up-to-date throughout our IT department,” says Alatan. Trusted with the infrastructure of Garanti Bank, one of the largest banks in Turkey, the IT department is continuously searching for, and implementing, the latest security enhancements to tighten its system against security threats. 

Solution

As part of its vision to remain a technology leader in the banking industry, Garanti Technology is exploring an upgrade to the Windows Vista® operating system. It is currently performing tests in the project lab environment and has plans to first deploy a pilot in sample locations. Then, it will evaluate deploying to a larger scale including headquarters, operation and call centers, and 583 branches throughout Turkey.

We see Windows Vista as a platform to deliver a next-generation user experience for our employees and customers. Tufan Alatan Assistant General Manager, Systems and Operations Management, Garanti Technology

The IT department at Garanti Technology prepared for the transition by upgrading from Microsoft® Systems Management Server 2003 to Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007. This phase readied the infrastructure for an entirely unique upgrade experience using Zero Touch Installation of Windows Vista across all desktop computers in the network. This architecture is also used for the company’s existing Windows XP desktop computers.

Microsoft Services provided project management and architectural guidance for the implementation and application compatibility testing. As part of the design, the IT department decided to enable User Account Control in no prompt mode, enabling standard users to perform common tasks without interruption but with a higher level of security.

Benefits

Garanti Technology’s vision is that Windows Vista will help elevate the company to the next level in security and help it maintain its position as a leader in technology infrastructure. Even in the earlier stages of deployment, Garanti Technology expects to see significant benefits from using Windows Vista, including continuing its efforts to develop rich user experiences while reducing support costs.

Reduced IT costs. Using System Center Configuration Manager 2007 helped the IT staff prepare the current infrastructure for the upgrade, retaining user preferences and files. In addition, the team can use Zero Touch Installation to centrally deploy the operating system, allowing remote updates without the cost of sending IT personnel into the field. With this level of automation, Garanti Technology expects fewer support call incidents during and after the process, further reducing the support cost.

Enhanced security.  Using Group Policy settings in Windows Vista, administrators will be able to configure, deploy, and manage greater numbers of operating system and application settings while freeing desktop users from performing regular security tasks.

Revised application inventory. Garanti Technology produced an accurate inventory of all enterprise desktop applications during the project. The team tested all of its applications for Windows Vista compatibility and planned upgrades wherever required. As a result of the upgrade preparation project, the company took this opportunity to review its enterprise application inventory, and revise it for accuracy.

Enhanced user experience. With productivity features such as Instant Search, users will quickly find and access the information they need to get the job done, without having to search and browse through files and folders. Instead of scanning potentially irrelevant file names, users simply enter keywords for the information they need and retrieve relevant documents and other stored files.

Key to Garanti Technology’s mission, Windows Vista provides a platform for delivering next-generation applications. Garanti’s vision for its upgrade project is to have a platform with the Microsoft Silverlight™ browser plug-in and Windows Presentation Foundation ready to deliver new rich user experience applications.

“We see Windows Vista as a platform to deliver a next-generation user experience for our employees and customers,” sums Alatan.