Roxell and RealDolmen together implement a smooth migration to Windows 7 and Office 2010

Roxell was looking for a simple way of migrating all its desktops and laptops within a month to the new operating system Windows 7 and Office 2010. Roxell teamed
tel. +32 (0)28 01 55 55 info@realdolmen.com

up with RealDolmen, which installed Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007. With this, you can make an inventory of all the software on a device and

country: Belgium sector: production and industry

install new software quickly and remotely. This makes the work of the internal IT staff at Roxell a lot easier: there is complete control over all the applications and software on each device. Thanks to the simplification of the migration, the proposed timeline for the conversion of the 80 PCs was met successfully. Every user received a new device with new software. To help familiarise the users with the new operating system and Office 2010, RealDolmen organised a short but practical training session.

profile
Roxell provides innovative feeding and drinking systems for the intensive rearing of poultry and pigs. The company, based in Maldegem, has 250 staff and more than 150 distributors worldwide. Roxell is part of the multinational group CTB and has a turnover of over 80 million euros.

challenge
Roxell wanted to provide all its users with a new desktop or laptop and migrate all the devices to Windows 7 and Office 2010 within a month. The company has a small internal IT team and wanted to call in a partner for the migration.

Windows 7 & Office 2010

Despite having an IT department of only four staff mem-

solution
RealDolmen installed Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007. This was used to make an inventory of the existing software and it allowed the smooth installation of the new operating system and new office software.

bers, Roxell can still centrally manage about 80 desktops and laptops and provide new software and updates. The company chose Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (SCCM) so that it could migrate all the computers quickly and in a controlled way to the operating system Windows 7 as well as the software Office 2010. We are an organisation that takes a project-based approach to everything relating to IT, says Jan Mille, Supply Chain Manager at Roxell. Murphys Law is very strong in IT. If a problem crops up somewhere, you can be sure that others will follow. We are careful and work in a preventative way by not just replacing our devices one by one as they stop working. At the start of this project our laptops were four years old, the desktops five. Windows 7 appeared on the market fairly recently and had good reviews, so we turned it into a big migration project in terms of both hardware and software. The benefit of this kind of migration is that everyone is always working on the same new type of device. Roxell wanted to give all 80 users a new device with the

benefits
Time-saving Smooth migration and short transition period Central management of software and hardware Simple to make an inventory of existing software

Within budget and timeline Good training for staff Satisfied end users Minimal maintenance

software&services
Servers

Developer Tools

new operating system within just six weeks. To do this, it called in the help of IT partner RealDolmen. If you have a limited internal IT department you have to call in a partner for this type of project, explains Jan Mille. They have already carried out projects for us in the past and the collaborations always went very well. RealDolmen took care of the ordering and installation of the new devices and coordinated the preliminary work for the migration with the internal IT department. They installed Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 and provided a short customised short training session for Windows 7 and Office 2010.

Windows
Windows 7 Office 2010

Desktop Applications Business Solutions

Online Services

Microsoft Services

Microsoft Technologies
System Center Configuration Manager 2007

Central management
Roxell used to work with Microsoft System Management Server 2003 for the central management, but support for this product was discontinued. Koen Booghmans, Business Development Manager Front-end Solutions at RealDolmen, explains: Changing to Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 was a logical choice. Microsoft SCCM 2007 controls all the changes to the PCs centrally. Making an inventory of the existing software is now much faster. Installing a new operating system is very simple and when it comes to installing new software or software updates, we now also do that centrally.

Microsoft Security

Jan Mille, Supply Chain Manager at Roxell: The up and running time of the organisation is significantly better if you have Microsoft SCCM.

Well prepared
A fast migration requires thorough planning. Roxell and RealDolmen started the necessary preparations a year in advance. Roxell made an inventory of the existing software, created customised software packages together with RealDolmen and carried out the necessary tests to check that all the software applications could run on the new operating system. We divided the staff into logical groups and also asked them to actively work with us, says Jan Mille. So everyone had to ensure they had their own backup of data that were stored locally, Outlook files and Internet favourites. We placed all the data in a directory from where they were later transferred to a personal disk. RealDolmen had drawn up a plan for our company we knew a week in advance which devices had to be prepared for replacement. So we did everything to keep to the proposed timeline, emphasises Jan Mille. RealDolmen was very flexible and worked in a solution-focused way. There has to be mutual trust, otherwise this type of project wont succeed. It was easy to schedule changes both during the preparations and during the implementation of the project. The collaboration went well and any bottlenecks in the migration were detected in time. RealDolmen understands that the

project also has to be manageable afterwards for our own IT staff.

Change management
During the installation of the new device, the end users had four hours of training to become familiar with the new functions of Windows 7 and Office 2010. Its all about change management, emphasises Jan Mille. By offering people training you get them more involved in the project. They became, in a way, mentally prepared for the new device and the new operating system that they started working with straight after the training. Because of this positive experience there are far fewer complaints later from the users and the IT department is not inundated with minor queries.

Encouraging evolution
The staff at Roxell now work with an Office suite that offers numerous new features. Their day-to-day work is simplified by task follow-up and creating todo lists in Outlook, something that the users could not do before. Jan Mille says: We are still discovering new things. Our advanced Excel users are very enthusiastic about the new features for pivot tables. Filtering is a lot easier and the search function allows us to work faster on our order portfolio.

Roxell wants to encourage its staff to evolve in their use of Windows 7 and Office 2010 and it does this by organising events such as tips & tricks sessions. We see our staff often using minor new features that they discovered by accident and that greatly simplify the day-to-day use of Windows 7 and Office 2010. For instance, I saw an older colleague click on Start and then on Tab, which allowed her to browse through all recent documents like index cards in a box. These are all tricks that are integrated into our operations through word of mouth. We want to collect these kinds of tips and share them with everyone in the company at the new learning sessions.

Jan Mille

Successful project
Jan Mille reflects on the successful project. If you look at the total cost, you cant talk about a financial saving, but

We are still discovering new things. Our advanced Excel users are very enthusiastic about the new features for pivot tables.

as far as IT costs are concerned we are definitely profiting from Microsoft SCCM. The up and running time of the organisation is significantly better if you have this application. We can get to the heart of a problem faster and solve problems efficiently. We also let the end users play an active part in the migration and everyone feels very involved. Now everyone is in tune with the company. The migration not only ensures greater efficiency but it has also had an effect on customer relations: Migrating to the latest software has an impact on our image. Our slogan is Leadership through innovation. Nowadays we work with the latest software and so we send documents with the .docx extension. This small detail lets the outside world know that we also live by our slogan. Windows 7 and Office 2010 help us to present an innovative image to our customers.

for more information

For more information about the Microsoft products and services described, call +32 (0)2 503 31 13 or visit www.microsoft.be/cases. There you will find other companies that use similar applications. For more information about RealDolmen, call +32 (0)28 01 55 55 or visit www.realdolmen.com For more information about Roxell, visit

www.roxell.com