Case Study - Systems Management Services

1E Helps Atkins Patch 12,000 PCs In A Day

Atkins faced an IT enterprise management challenge. 1E helped the successful engineering firm to fast-track a new SMS 2003 system that makes software licensing, patching and distribution far easier and more efficient. The result for the business is an updated, secure and legislation-compliant infrastructure and, for the IT team, free time to concentrate on more interesting things.

Customer profile
With a turnover of 1.2 billion, Atkins is the UKs largest engineering consultancy and the worlds seventh largest design firm. The company plans, designs and enables complex capital projects in the public and private sectors.

Solutions Overview
Project Requirements
Atkins required an enterprise management system to keep its infrastructure updated, secure and legislationcompliant: Automated management of 12,000 machines across 90 branches Rapid application distribution Successful and faster patch management Minimize system downtime Save administration costs

The challenge
The Atkins IT team was doing an exceptional job maintaining its 12,000 computers. But aspects of the overall management of the estate were causing concern. Essentially, we had a big hole in the enterprise management arena, says Atkins Windows Architect, Brad Smith. Working with 1E, Atkins identified three main challenges: Software licensing In a company of Atkinss size, software costs run into millions. Its vital to be able to see that licenses are being fully utilized, and never breached. Software patching If you cannot apply critical software patches promptly, across multiple sites and teams, systems become non-secure. In the worst case scenario, that means sending staff home. Application distribution With no automatic distribution method, application distribution is another major headache for system managers. Manually copying applications around the network was eating man hours. With all these challenges, it was clear Atkins needed a new, more automated approach to enterprise management.

Solution Summary
Atkins chose SMS 2003 for software licensing compliance, patch management and application distribution, selecting 1E specifically for: Technology expertise Site design ability Development and implementation skills Solutions that reduce extra hardware requirements

Services delivered
Six-week project plan Full delivery - two days early Complete skills upgrade of internal Atkins staff Full project documentation for future reference

The solution
1E and Atkins identified SMS 2003 as the software best placed to answer these challenges. Deployed properly according to a tailored design, SMS would provide automated, transparent and time-saving answers to each of the problem areas identified. The consulting teams first step was to focus on developing a concise, high-level design, followed rapidly by a detailed plan. The team was then able to define business processes to make best use of SMS, and set up the system in compliance with Atkinss demanding internal standards.

Key Benefits
Guaranteed software license compliance Improved corporate asset management Decreased patch deployment effort from two weeks to a day Automated application distribution and deployment Substantial cost savings

Case Study - Systems Management Services The benefits

The benefits of the new system are already clear. System downtime greatly reduced. Patches and updates are now applied in a more timely fashion, allowing employees to work more of the time. Under our old system, we took around a week to develop the means to deploy a patch, then a further week to actually deploy it to all the client systems, says Brad. The new system allows us to develop patches in minutes, and deploy them within one day. More efficient application deployment. We used to manually copy applications around the network, and we had two or three people pretty much doing that full time. The system 1E put together distributes applications for us, freeing time for more interesting and useful tasks. Maintenance costs down. Our system maintenance costs have gone down significantly because we patch much more rapidly, weve automated application distribution, and the SMS reporting console has enabled a medium-sized team of around eight people to actually analyze the information rather than spending their entire time collecting the data.

Beyond the brief

While the initial brief was largely to do with the SMS installation, Brad feels Atkins has benefited just as much from 1Es expertise with MOM and general security issues. Having someone who can multitask in the way our 1E consultants have is great. Whats more, their overall expertise has made it easy for them to spot and solve problems that are common to different aspects of our IT system. Its the clear view from outside the organization. The general experience of the 1E consultants also proved a boon when the project definition changed midway through. Having built in flexibility from the start, the 1E team was able quickly to adapt the original design, without needing to make any major changes.

Why 1E was chosen

Atkins had worked with 1E on a previous project, creating goodwill between the companies. Add in a recommendation from Microsoft and 1Es SMS extended solution set for SMS, and 1E was the natural choice. The implementation of SMS 2003 by 1E has enabled Atkins to continue using its computer system as a secure, sustainable and managed framework. SMS has provided a great technical solution, and 1E has proved an excellent technical enabler, ensuring we make full and rational use of the facilities of SMS. The two together have given us an excellent solution. Brad Smith, Windows Architect, Atkins

1E Empowering Efficient IT
1E is the pioneer and global leader in Efficient IT solutions. 1Es mission is to identify unused IT, help remove it and optimize everything else. 1E Efficient IT solutions help reduce servers, network bandwidth constraints, software licenses and energy consumption. To date, our power management solutions have helped more than 1600 customers save in excess of $800m in energy costs alone, cutting their CO2 emissions by 6.4 million tons.

For more information:

USA/Canada Toll Free +1 866 592 4214 UK/Europe +44 208 326 3880 India +91 120 402 4000 France +33 1 5660 5235 Germany 0800 664 6702 info@1e.com www.1e.com

AL LI A N C E T O

SAVE ENERGY
Creating an Energ -Efficient World

Copyright 2012 1E. All rights reserved. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. 1E shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. 1E, the 1E logo, NightWatchman, Nomad Branch and Drowsy Server are registered trademarks of 1E. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. CSATK001/0112/US www.1e.com

Printed on recycled paper