Customer Solution Case Study
/ Worldwide Retailer Simplifies IT Management, Improves Support with Operating System
Overview
Country or Region: China
Industry: Retail
Customer Profile
Giordano Group is one of Asia’s most well-known clothing retailers. It employs over 8,000 people in more than 1,900 stores in worldwide and aims to be the world’s best and largest retail clothing brand.
Business Situation
Giordano used multiple operating systems, creating an IT management burden. Giordano wanted to standardize on a single operating system in order to improve manageability and employee support.
Solution
Giordano began a pilot deployment of Windows 7 at its headquarters and found that it was compatible with existing hardware and offered features to streamline IT management and technical support.
Benefits
· Simplified management, increased efficiency
· Easier troubleshooting
· Enhanced security
· Compatibility with existing hardware and applications / “Windows 7 lets us create deployment images that are abstracted from computer hardware, so we can create a single image for all our computers, which simplifies large-scale deployment.”
Hou Tong, Chief Information Officer, Giordano Group
Clothing retailer Giordano Group has more than 1,900 stores in 30 countries around the world. The IT staff at the company’s Guangzhou, China, headquarters needs to manage the technology infrastructure at the main office and at the retail stores. With such a widely distributed computer fleet, it was very difficult to support and manage all the company’s 7,000 PCs, particularly because they ran several different operating systems. In order to simplify IT management and improve business continuity, the company began testing the Windows 7 operating system. With Windows 7, Giordano has simplified IT management, enhanced security, and seen an increase in employee productivity. Giordano plans to roll it out to all the computers in its headquarters and hopes to upgrade all franchise stores as well.
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Situation
Giordano Group, based in Guangzhou (Canton), China, was founded in 1981, and now has more than 1,900 stores in 30 countries worldwide. The group’s clothing lines include Giordano, Giordano Ladies, Giordano Junior, Giordano for Men, Giordano Concepts, Giordano for Girls, and Bluestar. The company is driven by a mission to become the best and largest retail clothing brand in the world.
Giordano has more than 8,000 employees, and more than 80 percent of them use computers on the job. Because of this, Giordano places rigorous demands on its IT group to handle the operation and management of a complex technology infrastructure. With offices throughout the world, it is important for the company to be able to standardize its technology as much as possible in order to simplify hardware configuration, application compatibility, security, and the deployment of new software and system upgrades.
Giordano has almost 7,000 computers, 6,000 of which are in the retail stores throughout the world. The remaining computers are used by knowledge workers and company managers at the head office in Guangzhou. IT staff must ensure that all computers are available and functional for daily operations, and that the 6,000 computers in retail stores are able to maintain contact with the head office. The company aims for the highest possible level of business continuity for the lowest cost. As a result, Giordano is constantly looking for ways to simplify computer management.
Solution
Giordano has used the Windows operating system since 2000 and feels comfortable with Microsoft products, so it felt that the Windows 7 operating system would be a good choice for a standardized operating system. In April 2009, the company began a test deployment using a release candidate version of Windows 7 Enterprise in its IT department and select retail stores. IT staff noticed immediate improvements. “Overall, there are significant increases in the performance and functionality of Windows 7 compared to Windows Vista,” says Junwei Li, Manager of IT Operations and Maintenance for Giordano. “Booting up is faster, and mobility is superior. The User Account Control in Windows 7 has gotten much better, and it enhances account security while increasing convenience. What’s even more important is that the migration from Windows XP to Windows 7 has been a smooth transition.”
During the test deployment, Giordano found that Windows 7 worked well on its existing computers. “Windows 7 doesn’t place a high demand on hardware, and it has extremely good compatibility with our existing systems, so we feel that it will help us bring consistency to our infrastructure,” says Li. “With Windows 7, we can provide a foundation on which we can build an IT environment that is easy to manage, more effective, and less costly to support.”
The computers in the Giordano IT department are very diverse, and the PCs in the head office are used by knowledge workers for complex finance, purchasing, and logistics applications. For this reason, the continuity of the company’s internal operations was critical to the success of the operating system deployment. It was also very important that the IT help desk could provide adequate support to ensure that employees, partners, suppliers, and retailers received prompt and effective support to keep the business running smoothly. The company found useful tools to meet these requirements in Windows 7, including the Problem Steps Recorder, Operation Center, and Windows Troubleshooting platform.
With Windows 7, centralized IT staff has found it easier to provide support to the company’s worldwide offices. “We need to provide support to different countries and regions around the globe, so the multiple language versions in Windows 7 Enterprise are extremely significant for us,” notes Li. “Even during our pilot deployment, we have found these multi-language capabilities to be of great value.”
Another important task during the pilot deployment was to test the compatibility of the company’s key business applications with Windows 7. “We are currently testing key business application platforms, because if we conduct a large-scale deployment in the future, we need to do an assessment as early as possible. This will make the coming deployment quite easy. Microsoft has given us technical, product, and personnel support for business application compatibility.”
The wide range of brands and models of computers used in Giordano offices and stores make any operating system migration and deployment more complicated. The company has found that Windows 7 offers features that help simplify this complex process. “Windows 7 lets us create deployment images that are abstracted from computer hardware, so we can create a single image for all our computers, which simplifies a large-scale deployment,” says Hou Tong, Chief Information Officer for Giordano. “In addition, the Volume Activation in Windows 7 is simpler. The Key Management Server and Multiple Activation Keys are very convenient, and provide us with greater control over the process.”
Giordano expects to use other Windows 7 features to further strengthen and streamline its IT infrastructure. “During our initial testing, we have seen that features such as AppLocker and BitLocker Drive Encryption will be very useful for our corporate environment,” says Tong. “We have also been looking closely at the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack. It includes Microsoft Application Virtualization [App-V], which will be very useful for us because with it we can centrally manage application and software updates for our 1,900 retail stores.”
Once testing is complete, Giordano will begin deploying Windows 7 to the rest of its head office computers and to its franchise stores. The company expects to complete the rollout during the second half of 2010.
Benefits
Giordano has been able to address its need for a more manageable, standardized infrastructure with Windows 7. The company has streamlined the management of its technology resources, improved employee efficiency, and enhanced the security of its computers and network. Using Windows 7, the company has been able to do this without purchasing new hardware.
Simplified IT Management, Increased Efficiency
Giordano has experienced significant performance improvements with Windows 7. IT staff has been able to use its features to more easily manage and support the company’s computers. “From the point of view of both employees and IT managers, Windows 7 adds tremendous value for us,” explains Li. “Not only can IT staff better manage, service, and support employees’ computers, but the employees using Windows 7 during our pilot deployment saw a marked increase in their work efficiency.”
Giordano expects to improve application management with App-V by centralizing and streamlining the delivery of applications. In addition, with the multi-language capabilities of Windows 7, IT staff can easily customize systems for employees in all the company’s worldwide offices. Using hardware-independent installation images, they will be able to easily deploy the operating system to the company’s diverse fleet of computers.
Easier Troubleshooting
Giordano will use features in Windows 7 to simplify the process of troubleshooting employees’ computer issues. “The Windows Troubleshooting platform, Operation Center, and Problems Steps Recorder all greatly aid us in reducing IT support costs, because any employee can use them to resolve common computer problems,” says Li.
For example, with the Problem Steps Recorder feature in Windows 7, employees can reproduce the technical issue, with each step recorded as a screen capture along with accompanying logs to be sent to the IT staff. Instead of taking time to reproduce the issue, the IT staff can quickly troubleshoot and resolve the problem.
Enhanced Security
Giordano is able to enhance the security of its network and systems using features in Windows 7. IT staff can use the improvements in User Account Control to better control access to system resources, and use BitLocker and AppLocker to configure and manage application and data security.
IT staff will use the BitLocker feature to help protect data on PC hard disks and external USB storage devices. It can use AppLocker to ensure application compliance. AppLocker gives Giordano the ability to block certain software applications from being downloaded by employees.
Compatibility with Existing Hardware and Applications
The testing that Giordano conducted for its business applications system migration showed excellent compatibility for Windows 7, giving it great expectations for the entire deployment. Windows 7 has also shown to be compatible with the company’s existing hardware, eliminating the need to purchase new computers.
Windows 7
Works the way you want: Windows 7 will help your organization use information technology to gain a competitive advantage in today’s new world of work. Your people will be able to be more productive anywhere. You will be able to support your mobile workforce with better access to shared data and collaboration tools. And your IT staff will have better tools and technologies for enhanced corporate IT security and data protection, and more efficient deployment and management
For more information about Windows 7, go to:
www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7
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