2 page Case Study - Posted 6/12/2008
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Dutch Municipality Modernizes IT Environment with New Desktop Software
When the Dutch municipality of Heumen decided to modernize its IT infrastructure, it became the first government organization in the Netherlands to migrate directly to the Windows Vista® operating system. The benefits of the upgrade were evident immediately; the new desktop infrastructure is robust and user-friendly, and is helping Heumen prepare for the future.
Business Needs
The Municipality of Heumen in the Netherlands lies south of the city of Nijmegen and includes the rural towns of Heumen, Malden, Overasselt and Nederasselt. 16,000 people live in the municipality. The IT department of the municipal government maintains 125 computer workstations for municipality employees.
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For us, moving directly to Windows Vista was the best choice. Within a few years, all computers will be running the Windows Vista operating system. |
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William van den Bogaard
IT Director, Municipality of Heumen |
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“The Municipality’s IT department has a policy of not being ‘early adopters,’ but to always maintain current technology assets,” says William van den Bogaard, IT Director for the Municipality of Heumen. As the municipality’s computers had become outdated, the IT staff began to investigate options for upgrading its systems. After a short search, the staff focused rapidly on adopting the Windows Vista® operating system across the organization.
“Windows Vista had been in the market for a year when we began considering an upgrade,” says van den Bogaard. “We decided against migrating to the Windows XP operating system, because our systems would become obsolete within two or three years. With Windows Vista we do not run behind the technology curve, but slightly ahead. For us, moving directly to Windows Vista was the best choice. Within a few years, all computers will be running the Windows Vista operating system.”
Thus the municipality chose to upgrade to a unified Microsoft platform in a single migration. It deployed Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft® Office system on all 125 computers, and a server environment that includes Windows® Server 2003, Exchange Server 2007, and Microsoft System Center Essentials® 2007. Says van den Bogaard, “The choice was easy. Microsoft is the market leader, it provides reliable products, and if new people join the organization, they are already familiar with Microsoft software.”
By upgrading to the Microsoft technology platform, the Municipality will be able to take advantage of new solutions for collaboration and digital information exchange. An additional reason for the migration was to be able to utilize Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 for collaboration in the future.
Solution
Before beginning the IT migration, the Municipality needed to choose a technology partner to assist. Three companies with experience in providing IT solutions for government organizations made proposals to the Municipality of Heumen. After evaluating all the proposals, the Municipality chose Wortell, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, to assist with the migration. “Wortell was clearly the best choice for us,” says van den Bogaard. “Their vision for the new technology platform was similar to ours, and they are very experienced with Microsoft products and migration projects.”
Wortell and the Municipality decided to first test Windows Vista on five computers, so that IT staff could become comfortable with the new operating system. The IT department examined all of the new features, and tested how the operating system integrated with the IT network and with existing software applications. “All the testing was smooth, without any problems,” says van den Bogaard. “We tested for three months and then created a standardized desktop image based on Windows Vista that we could deploy to all our workstations.”
Application testing on the new operating system showed that 90 percent of the Municipality’s software applications were compatible with Windows Vista. “From time to time we had to search for a new installation CD for an application with compatibility issues, but that process was smooth as well.”
In mid-2007 the organization migrated its email servers from Novell GroupWise to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. In the three weeks following the server migration, the municipality deployed Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system to all 125 workstations. It became the first government organization in the Netherlands to migrate directly to Windows Vista
Explains van den Bogaard, “We deployed the new operating system on a new floor of our building each week. Those employees with a new computer could immediately access their email and calendars on Office Outlook 2007. While others were waiting for their new computers, they used the new version of Outlook Web Access, which is very easy to use.”
Benefits
The Municipality of Heumen is now fully deployed on its new Microsoft platform, including Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system. Willam van den Bogaard summarizes the benefits as follows:
“We see have seen enormous improvements in our employees’ ease of use for e-mail and calendar items with Office Outlook 2007. They are very satisfied with the way they are able to manage their e-mails and share appointments with each other.”
“Our IT infrastructure has become more robust, which is an advantage of having the latest software versions deployed. We recently had a power outage and it caused no problems at all. We were up and running right away when power was restored.”
“The new platform makes it much easier for our employees to work remotely. In addition to new computers, we have also supplied personal digital assistants (PDA’s) that easily synch with the email system using Exchange Server 2007. People who use the PDAs are very enthusiastic about how well they work.”
“We can protect our systems better with all kinds of new security features. With Microsoft Forefront Client Security we have an in-house solution that helps us optimize our security environment in a flexible way. Moreover we have established group policies so that we can control access to documents and network locations based on roles within the organization. Furthermore we are still busy with encryption of the hard disks.”
“We can digitize and archive files more easily with Windows Vista. We are using a new system from Océ, based on Microsoft technology, for digitalization, processing and storage of files and documents. These tools allow us to store far more files than we ever could with a paper system, and to access them much more quickly.”
“While our IT policy requires us to be followers when it comes to new technology, sometimes we run a little bit ahead."
For More Information
For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit: www.microsoft.com/casestudies
