2 page Case Study - Posted 5/1/2009
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Systems Integrator Delivers Information Access, Reduces Costs with Operating System
BRAIN FORCE offers its customers IT implementation, integrations, and management solutions, and has 100 employees at its office in the Netherlands. In order to prepare for customers who want to implement it, BRAIN FORCE decided to upgrade to the Windows® 7 operating system. It has already realized faster deployment times and an improved user experience. The company also expects to improve information access and reduce costs.
Business Needs
Founded in 1983, the BRAIN FORCE Group is a systems integrator and Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner based in Vienna, Austria. It has holdings in seven European countries and 1,200 employees across its 12 locations. In its Netherlands location, BRAIN FORCE has 100 employees. It offers customers IT services for business solutions, including implementation and integration of Microsoft Dynamics®, and infrastructure optimization solutions, including server and workstation management. Most of the customers served by the Netherlands BRAIN FORCE office are located in the Benelux region of Europe.
Employees at BRAIN FORCE are often away from the office working at customer locations. To support its mostly mobile workforce, more than 90 percent of BRAIN FORCE’s 100 client computers are laptop computers. The company runs the Windows Vista® operating system on all of its client computers. Its server environment is supported primarily by the Windows Server® 2008 operating system.
When Windows® 7 Beta became available, BRAIN FORCE knew that it wanted to immediately start upgrading to the operating system. As a strategic business decision, BRAIN FORCE decided to implement Windows 7 so that it could gain the hands-on experience it needs to meet customer demands for the operating system—demand that it is already seeing with the beta release. “We are satisfied with Windows Vista in our IT environment, but we need to be prepared as soon as possible to meet customer demand for Windows 7,” explains Albert Hooyer, Product Manager at BRAIN FORCE. “Our need to upgrade is because our business demands that we adopt the latest technology available so that we can, in turn, pass along our knowledge to customers and help them meet their needs.”
Solution
In order to gain the experience it wanted with Windows 7, BRAIN FORCE started with a soft roll out. First, it made the operating system available to the engineers who are dedicated to researching and documenting the latest technologies for implementation at customer locations. Using Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, it deployed the operating system only to those engineers who volunteered to upgrade.
All the applications in the company’s standard image were compatible with Windows 7—from applications in the 2007 Microsoft Office system and its antivirus software, to the enterprise resource planning applications that it runs on Terminal Services in Windows Server
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Giving employees easy, yet secure, access to information they need without any hassle for them is absolutely one of the biggest benefits of using Windows 7. |
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Albert Hooyer
Product Manager, BRAIN FORCE |
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2008.
The initial group of employees who installed Windows 7 Beta was impressed with its user interface and ease of use, particularly Windows Taskbar, prompting more employees to upgrade voluntarily. By April 2009, BRAIN FORCE had upgraded 30 percent of its computers to Windows 7. After it evaluates more features, BRAIN FORCE plans to formalize its deployment plans and roll out the operating system to the rest of its workforce. “We have a lot of end users who look forward to adopting new technology and we want to give them that freedom and let them learn as much as possible as early as possible,” explains Hooyer. “For our next phase, with the release candidate, we’ll standardize our deployment.”
During its soft rollout, BRAIN FORCE is evaluating several features that it plans to implement. It will use DirectAccess to help ease the complexity for employees who need to access the corporate network through a virtual private network (VPN) connection while away from the office. The company is also evaluating the use of Federated Search to help employees access information on their computers and in document libraries on Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007. For enhanced security, several users are taking advantage of BitLocker To Go™, a feature that BRAIN FORCE will extend to users during its companywide deployment.
Benefits
Early in its deployment, BRAIN FORCE already recognizes the business value of the upgrade. The company has realized faster deployment times and also looks forward to improved information access and cost savings.
- Faster deployment times. BRAIN FORCE deployed Windows 7 more quickly than it has deployed operating systems in the past. Due in part to its high-compatibility with Windows Vista, the company is able to prepare computers for deployment in less than 20 minutes—down from more than an hour with previous upgrades.
- Improved user experience. Employees who initially installed the operating system offered high praise for the intuitive, easy-to-navigate user interface. “Users are excited about the Windows Taskbar,” says Hooyer. “It’s a familiar interface, but with great improvements that allow users to see and quickly access what they’re working on without guesswork, and to customize where they want programs to appear.”
- Improved information access. For mobile employees, quick access to data on the corporate network can be challenging, requiring the extra step of setting up a VPN connection. Often, employees in the field who cannot connect need to call an employee in the office to ask them to send information in an e-mail—an added, time-consuming process. BRAIN FORCE plans to implement DirectAccess so that employees can connect to the corporate network without using a VPN connection.
“Giving employees easy, yet secure, access to information they need without any hassle for them is absolutely one of the biggest benefits of using Windows 7,” says Hooyer.
- Opportunity to reduce third-party costs. Using DirectAccess, BRAIN FORCE will gain the opportunity to reduce licensing costs associated with third-party VPN solutions. “We spend a lot of money on our current VPN solution,” Hooyer explains. “With DirectAccess, we’ll be able to eliminate that cost and save $16,000 annually.”
