Pella Corporation

Manufacturer Expects Optimized IT Management, Cost Savings with New Operating System

Pella uses the latest technologies to craft beautiful, energy-efficient windows and doors. To support this work, the company’s IT Operations and Infrastructure team became an early adopter of the Windows® 7 operating system. After the pilot program is complete, Pella expects to benefit from the improved IT management, faster deployment, enhanced security, greater efficiency, and increased energy savings that the company is already seeing in the pilot phase.

 

Situation

Founded in 1925 as the Rolscreen Company, Pella has grown from a small, family-owned business to an industry leader in the production of quality residential and commercial windows and doors. Headquartered in Pella, Iowa, the company is committed to incorporating new technologies, increasing productivity, and practicing environmental stewardship.

In the past, updating an image … could take up to three hours. With Windows 7 and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010, we can complete that same task in less than an hour. Rich Coulter Project Manager and Deployment Lead, Pella

To accomplish these objectives, Pella relies on a team of IT specialists who manage an infrastructure that includes approximately 4,500 desktops running the Windows® XP operating system. “We maintain a very lean infrastructure,” says Rich Coulter, Project Manager and Deployment Lead at Pella. “Therefore, it’s imperative that we put in place technology solutions that help us focus our resources on strategic projects—ones that promote business growth—rather than on managing our IT environment.”

Despite an uncertain economy, Pella maintains its competitive advantage by judiciously investing in the latest technology. “We are a well-managed organization that can adapt to all manner of economic conditions,” says Jim Thomas, Director of IT Operations and Infrastructure at Pella. “We’ve been around for 85 years and have experienced many economic downturns and upswings. So even though, as an industry, we’re going through some challenging times right now, we continue to invest for the future.”

To lay the foundation for future growth, Pella needed a solution that would improve IT management, enhance security, optimize user experience, and support the company’s commitment to environmental responsibility.

Solution

In November 2008, Pella learned about an opportunity to become an early adopter of the Windows 7 operating system. The company was eager to test the BitLocker™ and BitLocker To Go™ drive encryption features, the enhanced Windows Recovery Environment, and improvements to the Windows PowerShell™ command line interface.

In February 2009, Pella launched a 50-seat test pilot with users from the IT Operations and Infrastructure team. Pella also decided to upgrade from the Windows Server® 2003 operating system to Windows Server 2008 R2 in preparation for an enterprisewide deployment of Windows 7. “We opted to roll out Windows Server 2008 in tandem with Windows 7 because there are synergies that we gain by deploying the two products together,” explains John McConeghey, IT Manager at Pella. “For example, Windows 7 includes some additional Group Policy objects that are much easier to manage with Windows Server 2008. By upgrading our domain to Windows Server 2008, we can take advantage of Group Policy settings in Windows 7 that are related to power management, which helps us make more intelligent energy-saving decisions.”

Pella used Microsoft® Assessment and Planning Toolkit 5.5 to determine which devices were already compatible with Windows 7, and which ones were not. “One of the first steps in the deployment process is to assess the environment,” says Coulter. “With Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit, we were able to perform a companywide hardware inventory in less than 30 minutes. The tool is very simple and easy to use.”

Pella also uses Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 as part of the test pilot. “With Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010, we can take advantage of the Windows 7 architecture in ways that we were not able to before,” Coulter says. “For example, we can inject software updates into the image offline. This means we can build an image from beginning to end with the click of a mouse.”

We opted to roll out Windows Server 2008 in tandem with Windows 7 because there are synergies that we gain by deploying the two products together. John McConeghey IT Manager, Pella

Testers also report an enhanced user experience thanks to new features, such as Jump Lists—which automatically populate recently or regularly used documents on the Start menu and Windows taskbar—and the Aero® desktop experience. “The Jump Lists feature is terrific—very intuitive and easy to use,” says Coulter. “Users really like the clean look and feel of the Windows 7 user interface.”

Pella plans to deploy 1,000 seats of Windows 7 Enterprise by the middle of 2010. The company will also continue to install the operating system on all hardware upgrades and refreshes until the software is deployed across the enterprise; it will be fully deployed by the end of 2011.

Benefits

Based on the success of the test pilot, Pella expects that deploying Windows 7 will help the company to improve IT management, enhance security, simplify everyday tasks, and support the company’s commitment to environmental responsibility.

Improve IT Management

With Windows 7, the IT team can build and maintain system images more quickly. “In the past, updating an image was a fairly manual process,” Coulter says. “Depending on the scenario, it could take up to three hours. With Windows 7 and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010, we can complete that same task in less than an hour.”

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 also includes the new User State Migration Tool, which can be used for migration of settings from Windows XP to Windows 7. “To test ease of migration, we used the ScanState command-line with the hard-link option,” explains Coulter. “The hard-link keeps data intact and in the same place on the disk, which makes migration much faster. In fact, during our test, we migrated 30 gigabytes of data in approximately six and a half minutes. Normally, this would have taken more than an hour.”

Enhance Security

Pella plans to use the Group Policy improvements in Windows 7 to better configure and maintain security settings. “With Windows 7, we can customize security settings for individual users,” Thomas says. “For example, with our previous operating system, a user had to be a local administrator in order to add a printer. Now, we can give users a little more authority—but not more than they actually need—which reduces the amount of time we spend on simple IT requests.”

With BitLocker and BitLocker To Go, Pella expects to enhance protection of sensitive data stored on hard drives and removable storage devices. Also, because BitLocker technology is included with Windows 7, Pella can eliminate a third-party security application. “Our existing solution costs $100 for each license, plus $20 a year for maintenance,” Thomas says. “By using BitLocker, we expect to save at least $30,000 a year.”

Simplify Everyday Tasks

Users report that the Aero desktop experience feels more organized and easy to navigate. “When you talk about getting people to ‘buy in’ or adopt a new technology, you have to find a benefit that matters to them,” says McConeghey. “With Windows 7, for example, I love that I have the ability to change the order of my icons in the Windows taskbar. I like to know where my applications are, what files are open, and what programs are running. This may sound insignificant, but it matters to me because it makes my everyday tasks faster and easier.”

Support “Green” Initiatives

Pella has received several state and federal awards for its commitment to environmental stewardship. As part of this initiative, the company has put several solutions in place to help manage power consumption within its data centers. “Now with Windows 7, we have the ability to manage additional energy resources outside of the data centers,” says McConeghey. “We expect to see incremental savings across the enterprise by combining this software strategy with our recycling efforts, responsible procurement practices, and environmentally-friendly manufacturing processes.”

Thomas concludes, “We are committed to cost management, but not at the expense of future value. That’s why we continue to invest in upgrades to our operating systems. Microsoft products are the core components of our infrastructure, and we expect to continue building on the robust foundation of Windows 7 for years to come."

 

Windows 7
Faster and more reliable: Windows 7 will help your organization use information technology to gain a competitive advantage in today’s new world of work. Your people will be able to be more productive anywhere. You will be able to support your mobile workforce with better access to shared data and collaboration tools. And your IT staff will have better tools and technologies to enhance corporate IT security, data protection, and more efficient deployment and management.

For more information about Windows 7, go to:
www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7

 

For More Information

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www.microsoft.com

For more information about Pella products and services, call (800) 374-4758 or visit the Web site at:
www.pella.com