Customer Solution Case Study
/ Credit Union Efficiently Handles Acquisition and Licensing Renewal with SAM Assist
“The SAM Assist experience was a perfect solution following the Clearstar acquisition, and it helped my team meet the challenges.”
Barry Favorite, Manager of IT/Telecom, United Federal Credit Union
In a short time, United Federal Credit Union lost two key IT staffers and was acquiring another credit union. With its annual Microsoft True-Up reconciliation and Enterprise Agreement renewal coming up, the credit union needed help. By participating in a Software Asset Management (SAM) Assist engagement, the credit union saved time, freed IT staff to focuson other priorities, handled IT asset growth, and gained confidence in license compliance.
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.Document published July 2010
Business Needs
United Federal Credit Union (UFCU) has served members since 1949, offering traditional deposit and loan products, financial planning services, and investment products. Membership in the credit union is available to employees of participating employer groups as well as other qualifying groups and individuals who reside within a number of regions throughout the United States.
In mid-2009, UFCU was in the third year of its Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, part of the Microsoft Volume Licensing program, andthe IT team needed to prepare for itsupcoming True-Up reconciliation and license renewal. To assist with software discovery and management, the IT team had begun to implement Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 across the organization when two IT staffers who were working on the project departed the company, leaving the implementation unfinished. “The System Center Configuration Manager implementation project was delayed, so we did not have a standard, automated system to assist us with tracking our inventory,” says Mike May, Operations Supervisor/Systems Engineer at United Federal Credit Union.
While the IT team was dealing with the reduction in IT staff and the adoption of new technology, leadership at the credit union announced the acquisition of Clearstar Financial Credit Union, based in Reno, Nevada. With four locations in the state, Clearstar had assets of U.S.$141 million and 16,000 members. With no existing presence in the state, the IT team atUFCU immediately shifted its focus to the acquisition.
“As a part of our True-Up and Enterprise Agreement renewal, we now needed to include every one of the Clearstar workstations and servers,” says Barry Favorite, Manager of IT/Telecom at United Federal Credit Union. “That required a thorough discovery process, and we lacked an automated system to do that.”
Solution
United Federal Credit Union reached out toits Microsoft account representative, explaining the IT inventory challenge that the credit union was facing. The account representative introduced UFCU to the Software Asset Management (SAM) Assist program. “We really needed help and Microsoft gave it to us by offering the SAM Assist,” says Favorite.
Microsoft put the credit union in touch with Universal Management Solutions (UMS), a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. UMS proceeded with the SAM Assist engagement as a two-part process: completing the inventory discovery and reconciliation at UFCU, and then turning attention to the new acquisition.
As a first step, UFCU completed a questionnaire about its IT environment. After reviewing the completed questionnaire, UMS consultant Steve Lohr installed the solution provider’s inventory tool, called licenseITall, remotely on a UFCU server. “We enjoyed a great working relationship with UMS, specifically Steve Lohr,” says Favorite. “His expertise and communication skills were very good, and he was very responsive to our needs.”
UMS completed the UFCU discovery phase within a month and compared data from the inventory tool with the credit union’s Microsoft License Statement (MLS). The MLS is a summary of the organization’s Microsoft Volume Licensing agreements and product licenses. UMS then created a licensing reconciliation report for UFCU, which identified instances of licensing gaps for the credit union to rectify through its True-Up. “The reconciliation report is a great report not just from the standpoint of identifying lack of compliance, but also to identify areas of overlicensing to prevent needless overspending,” says Steve Lohr, Consultant at UMS.
Once that process was complete, UMS ran a similar inventory for the Clearstar network of approximately 85 machines. In this case, there was no Microsoft License Statement available for comparison, because Clearstar had gotten its software licenses through original equipment manufacturer and full-package product acquisitions. “The report provided all the relevant licensing information that we needed,” says Favorite.
Benefits
United Federal Credit Union enjoyed a number of benefits from its participation ina SAM Assist engagement, including:
· Time savings. “We have 350 desktop computers and more than 100 file servers,” says Favorite. “If we had needed to manually touch every workstation and every server, it would have taken us 80 or 90 hours to complete the inventory. That’s the time that UMS saved us.” In addition, without the SAM Assist, the credit union would likely have needed to manually inventory all of the Clearstar assets.
· Ability to prioritize IT projects. The SAM Assist freed IT team members to focus on strategic functions. “After our loss of two key resources, UMS stepped in at the right time and gave us help where we needed it,” says Favorite. “UMS augmented my team to allow us to focus on other priorities.“
· Ability to manage growth. “UFCU relies on mergers and acquisitions as one way to accomplish our growth objectives,” says Favorite. “The SAM Assist experience was a perfect solution following the Clearstar acquisition, and it helped my team meet the challenges.”
· Confidence in compliance. “Because we didn’t complete the System Center Configuration Manager implementation, the inventory would have been a manual process for us and probably would have yielded some inaccurate results,“ says Favorite. “I am sure we would not have been as accurate as we are today.”
· Access to a valuable SAM resource. Given all the challenges facing the UFCU technology team, it was a relief to turn SAM processes over to an experienced SAM professional. Not only did the SAM Assist engagement provide support for the credit union’s current acquisition, but it also provided information that enabled management to make informed decisions about the upcoming licensing renewal.
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.Document published July 2010