Ensynch has begun deploying Windows Vista® Business and Windows Vista Enterprise as part of a new standard IT environment. Now, with Instant Search and metadata tagging, employees find documents quickly. And with Windows® Meeting Space and other simplified connectivity features, they collaborate more effectively. New security features better protect data assets, and hardware-independent imaging streamlines IT management, reducing costs.

Business Needs

Ensynch provides a full range of cost-effective technology solutions in the areas of identity and access management, unified communications, systems management and portals, and collaboration.

For years, Ensynch has been a satisfied user of the Windows® XP Professional operating system and appreciated the software’s support for an easy-to-manage IT environment. However, Ensynch continually evaluates new operating system advancements that will give the company a competitive edge. “As an IT consulting firm, we believe in adopting the latest technologies, especially those that strengthen security, promote mobility, and help us do our jobs better,” says Sean Stecker, Solutions Director at Ensynch. “It’s what we talk to our customers about every day: using technology to enhance business operations.” To achieve that goal, the company often tests and provides feedback on Microsoft® software as soon as it becomes available.

Solution

In early 2006, Ensynch evaluated a beta version of the Windows Vista® operating system. The company was particularly impressed with the software’s security, mobility, and productivity features, as well as its high performance. For this reason, Ensynch deployed Windows Vista in October 2006 in a limited pilot project. Pleased with the pilot’s results, Ensynch expanded deployment to 30 of the company’s 190 client computers after the official Windows Vista release. The positive experience with Windows Vista prompted Ensynch to make the operating system part of its computer hardware refresh cycles.

We believe that Windows Vista is the most secure operating system on the market and that there’s a mad dash for a distant second place among all the others.   Sean Stecker Solutions Director Ensynch

On the client side, the company’s standard IT environment now includes one of the 2007 Microsoft Office suites running on Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Enterprise with Service Pack 1 (SP1). “We’ve been amazed by the operating system’s speedy performance since the release of Windows Vista SP1,” notes Stecker. And on the server side, the environment includes Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007, and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 running on the Windows Server® 2008 operating system. About 50 percent of the company’s client computers now run Windows Vista. Ensynch plans to migrate the rest of them to the new standard environment over time.

Benefits

By deploying Windows Vista, Ensynch is better protecting its information assets. Employees now have tools to locate documents faster and to communicate and collaborate more effectively—especially on the road. And fewer help-desk calls and a more streamlined disk-imaging process save time and reduce costs.

Stronger IT Security

Ensynch sees Windows Vista as a key element in providing stronger overall IT security. Stecker says, “We believe that Windows Vista is the most secure operating system on the market and that there’s a mad dash for a distant second place among all the others. For example, design improvements in handling buffer overflows have reduced the potential targets for attack by so much that we now see third-party applications as a larger security vulnerability than the operating system itself.”

For portable computers in particular, Stecker cites several security improvements, including Windows BitLocker™ Drive Encryption. “For years, portable computers were difficult to secure because they could be taken outside the organization,” he says. “Now, with Windows Vista and its support for Network Access Protection, enhanced Group Policy objects, and Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption, we can better protect both the data on portable computers and the networks they connect to.”

Higher Employee Productivity

Ensynch is taking advantage of search and peripheral-configuration features to simplify employees’ daily tasks. Stecker says, “With the advanced Instant Search index engine in Windows Vista, our employees can find critical documents on their computers quickly. Some employees also tag their documents and save personal searches to help them later retrieve data even when they’re not sure where it’s stored.”

He adds, “Simple features like automatically detecting monitor and display settings between home, the office, and customers’ conference rooms save time and effort. And let’s face it, if we visit a customer and have trouble running their projector, we won’t look like a very smart consulting firm.”

Faster, Easier Mobile Connectivity

Windows Meeting Space in Windows Vista supports face-to-face collaboration among small groups of Ensynch workers over wired, wireless, and ad hoc (PC-to-PC) networks. “We’ve used Windows Meeting Space to collaborate on documents from remote locations,” says Stecker. “This has been a big timesaver and has reduced phone bills considerably.”

As another example of simplified network connectivity, he adds, “For on-site visits, the customer is paying to get our consultants’ expertise, not to watch them fumble around with network settings as they try to check e mail or retrieve a file. Windows Vista configures most network connections automatically, and switching between wireless and wired networks is easy. Given that a consultant may visit three or four customers in one day, these enhanced networking features are saving each person several hours every week.”

More Efficient Use of IT Staff

Flexible disk-imaging capabilities in Windows Vista help Ensynch reduce the overhead of maintaining a large image library. This is especially helpful for patch management. Stecker says, “In the past, processing one security update might take 3 hours for each of about 10 images—or 30 hours total. With Windows Vista and hardware-independent imaging, deploying an update for any number of hardware configurations is a simple drag-and-drop task. This one feature saves about 180 hours a year, which is 1 percent of our entire IT budget.”

The overall stability and performance of Windows Vista also help improve the company’s bottom line. Stecker says, “Since deploying Windows Vista, we’ve seen about a 20 percent drop in help-desk calls for things such as system lock ups and slow response. Because we use the same staff for internal and external technical support, the drop in support calls means we can devote more time to our paying customers, increase our billable hours, and build customer satisfaction and loyalty.”

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Document published June 2008