To keep pace with fast business growth, Orby upgraded its operating environment to Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows Server 2008 R2. Now, the company can better connect its remote offices to the corporate network while streamlining IT management and strengthening security. The companywide move to Windows 7 has also improved the performance of client applications and employee productivity while reducing IT technical support requirements.


Business Needs
Orby is a prominent manufacturer and retailer of children's clothing and one of the fastest-growing businesses in the Kostroma region in Russia. The company’s growth is driven primarily by the expansion of its retail chain, which includes a large franchise partner network. Orby stores are now open in all major Russian cities.

The rapid business expansion of Orby in recent years resulted in several IT challenges. Workers at remote offices were not always able to reliably access the information they needed to operate effectively. The security of the company’s network and the data transmitted on it was a concern. Network speed and stability problems resulted in numerous complaints from workers, but IT technical support was often unable to respond promptly to incidents as they occurred. Orby also wanted a simple and reliable way to provision PC workstations and integrate them into the enterprise network.

To resolve these issues, Orby decided to reorganize its IT infrastructure, including using advanced operating system technology—all while keeping the cost of these improvements within a limited IT budget.

Solution
Orby decided to standardize its IT environment on the Windows 7 Enterprise operating system for the company’s client PCs and on the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system for its servers. Orby chose Windows 7 because it offers several technologies that better support the company’s remote offices and mobile workstations.

Deploying Windows 7 Enterprise at companies with a distributed IT infrastructure like ours makes the job of the IT department much easier. We’re reducing technical support spending while increasing security. Mikhail Kudashev IT Director, Orby

Among the most important of these features to Orby is DirectAccess because employees can use it to access files and applications on the corporate network from any location, without having to use a virtual private network. Also, BranchCache reduces the load and accelerates performance on the company’s wide area network by taking content from file and web servers and caching it on computers at local branch offices.

Along with Windows 7, Orby upgraded to the Windows Internet Explorer 8 web browser for its usability and security improvements, such as the SmartScreen filter feature that helps protect users from malicious software and identity theft risks while working online. The company did not require any special tools or development effort to migrate its applications from Internet Explorer 6.

To deploy its operating system solution, Orby worked with IT-PRO Group, a member of the Microsoft Partner Network, gradually installing Windows 7 on 250 of the company’s 275 PCs so far. Orby was pleased with what it considers to be a relatively painless implementation of a newer IT infrastructure that will better meet the needs of a modern, growing business.

Benefits
By adopting Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows Server 2008 R2, Orby was able to standardize and streamline its IT infrastructure within a short time frame and a limited budget. Now, the company can better connect to its remote offices, and employees are able to work more efficiently with fewer technical problems, resulting in lower IT costs.

Higher Productivity from Improved Performance and Usability
After deploying Windows 7, Orby saw a 15 percent increase in user productivity, which will lead to ongoing lower production costs. The company attributes this improvement to easier access to corporate information, higher stability of client applications running on Windows 7, faster performance of the corporate network, and the ease of use of Internet Explorer 8. "Real-time access to business data and reliable data security are the linchpin of successful growth of a modern business," says Denis Varlamov, Chief Executive Officer at Orby.

Strengthened Network Security
To address its security concerns, Orby takes advantage of a policy-based security model using Network Access Protection so that network resources can be accessed only by computers that meet the company’s security requirements. Combining group security policies, DirectAccess, and Windows Firewall results in a strong, reliable network safeguard against both internal and external risks.

Orby also uses Internet Explorer 8 as a way to provide tightened security by taking advantage of SmartScreen. And, as an integral part of the operating system, Internet Explorer 8 has enhanced security by design.

Streamlined IT Management, Lower IT Costs
Orby finds that the new IT environment is easier to manage, which, in turn, leads to decreased IT costs. In particular, the environment supports an efficient, feature-rich virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) that is easy for Orby to administer. VDI is a desktop delivery model that allows users to access desktops that are running on centrally managed servers. “The combined use of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 makes it possible to configure a reliable and modern IT infrastructure at minimum cost,” says Maxim Kuzmin, Deputy Director at IT-PRO Group.

Orby uses Windows 7 to further streamline IT management by reducing considerably the amount of time it takes to deploy new workstations and by decreasing the number of technical problems reported by users.

Mikhail Kudashev, IT Director at Orby, concludes, “Deploying Windows 7 Enterprise at companies with a distributed IT infrastructure like ours makes the job of the IT department much easier. We’re reducing technical support spending while increasing security.”

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