Customer Solution Case Study
/ / British Waterways IT Refresh Reduces Annual Maintenance Costs
Overview
Country or Region: United Kingdom
Industry: Environment, Management
Customer Profile
British Waterways is responsible for maintaining more than 2,000 miles (3,220km) of inland rivers and canals in England, Scotland, and Wales.
Business Situation
Historically, IT systems were supported by a Novell network installed in 1995. This could no longer support the organisation’s business needs and was becoming expensive to manage.
Solution
A new outsourced IT infrastructure built on Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003, part of Microsoft Windows Server System™ integrated server software. It also uses Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 communication and collaboration server, and Microsoft Windows® XP Professional desktop operating system.
Benefits
n Significant annual cost savings
n High availability for critical applications
n Seamless migration to Microsoft technology
n Fully-integrated system supports seamless communication
n New focus on core business / “A Microsoft operating environment is offering us significant cost savings through system consolidation, standardisation, and management.”
Marc Dodge, Technical Architect, British Waterways
British Waterways is the public corporation responsible for managing over 2000 miles of rivers and canals in the United Kingdom. It previously worked with a Novell networking infrastructure to support a range of critical IT applications, including SAP and e-mail. This infrastructure was no longer sufficiently responsive or flexible and was becoming expensive to manage. As a result, British Waterways engaged Fujitsu to deploy and manage a new IT architecture based on Microsoft® technology and services. With the help of tools from Quest Software, the Microsoft 2004 ISV Partner of the Year, the solution was rolled out in less than four months with business carrying on as usual at British Waterways. Because the solution is fully integrated, it supports seamless communication and collaboration across the organisation. It is also consolidated, standardised, and easy to manage, delivering significant annual IT cost savings.
Situation
British Waterways is the public corporation responsible for managing over 2,000 miles of rivers and canals in the United Kingdom. It previously worked with a Novell networking infrastructure to support a range of critical IT applications, including SAP and email. This infrastructure was no longer sufficiently responsive or flexible and was becoming expensive to manage.
As a result, British Waterways engaged Fujitsu to deploy and manage a new IT architecture based on Microsoft® technology and services. With the help of tools from Quest Software, the Microsoft 2004 ISV Partner of the Year, the solution was rolled out in less than four months with business carrying on as usual at British Waterways. Because the solution is fully integrated, it supports seamless communication and collaboration across the organisation. It is also consolidated, standardised, and easy to manage, delivering significant annual IT cost savings. The infrastructure is fully outsourced to Fujitsu and subject to a highly-flexible financing agreement.
British Waterways operates a network of 134 branches. To ensure effective management, these offices require access to corporate IT systems, including SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, and email.
Historically, these critical systems and applications were supported by a Novell networking infrastructure that was deployed in 1995. Over time, this had become outdated, no longer meeting requirements in terms of features, performance, or compatibility with the server platform.
To address these issues, British Waterways initiated a comprehensive plan to modernise its IT systems. Marc Dodge, Technical Architect at British Waterways, says: “We needed a new, fully-integrated infrastructure incorporating our server side, software, and desktop environments.
“As well as top-class technologies, we wanted a trusted technology partner to manage our entire IT infrastructure based on an outsourcing model. We also needed an innovative way to pay for the new system without contravening public sector regulations on finance leasing.”
Solution
British Waterways began the search for appropriate technologies and partners during an extensive OJEC evaluation. After careful consideration, Fujitsu was awarded a five-year contract to manage a new infrastructure built on the latest Microsoft technology. An array of helpdesk and enterprise-management services were included in the outsourcing agreement.
Dodge says: “We chose to work with Fujitsu because of its technical knowledge and skills, pricing, financing, and its ability to complete the project within aggressive timescales. We also had confidence in the capabilities of the Microsoft technologies Fujitsu planned to deploy.”
During the project, the British Waterways Novell Netware operating environment was migrated to Windows Server™ 2003, part of Microsoft Windows Server System integrated server software. This offers a host of centralised IT management features that reduce routine maintenance and administration costs. It also offers industry-leading performance and availability for British Waterways’ critical applications.
More than 1,500 desktop computers have been successfully upgraded to the Microsoft Windows® XP Professional operating system. This ensures full integration with the server environment.
Fujitsu was also under pressure to perform the migration on an aggressive schedule, as stipulated by its contract with British Waterways. User expectation of downtime had been set to one day at each location, for both data and email migration and new desktop deployment.
To support the successful migration, Fujitsu decided to employ Quest Software's NDS Migrator, a solution which it had used successfully in the past.
Quest NDS Migrator is a comprehensive solution that accelerates and simplifies migration from Novell NDS and Bindery environments to Active Directory® and Microsoft Windows Server 2003. NDS Migrator provides access to all options, both pre- and post-migration, as well as the ability to schedule migrations to occur at a later time. The migration solution also provides a native view of both the NDS and Active Directory trees for better planning.
Several areas of functionality within NDS Migrator particularly attracted Fujitsu. The rollback capability reduces the risk of an unsuccessful migration by assisting full and thorough testing prior to migration. However, this safety net was never required. The project-based model allocates the migration jobs into discrete units, making the whole migration process more manageable. Native tools do not allow this approach. Also, keeping all the migration transactions in Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 in a central repository and referenced by a number of migration consoles, was a useful management tool for such a large-scale migration.
Neil McNaught, Solutions Architect at Fujitsu says: “Quest NDS Migrator was our first choice to manage the migration of British Waterways’ systems. It provides everything you need to accelerate and simplify migrations from a Novell to Microsoft environment, which significantly reduces the associated costs and risks.”
Dodge says: “The deployment was completed on time with the minimum of disruption to our normal activities. This was achieved with good project management and excellent teamwork between all partners. The use of Quest NDS Migrator and Microsoft migration tools was also critical.”
The existing GroupWise email system was also securely and reliably replaced by the Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 communication and collaboration server, using the Quest GroupWise Migrator for Exchange solution. This offers secure, seamless communications across the enterprise. It can also be fully-integrated with a range of mobile devices, giving mobile workers access to the British Waterways network.
Additionally, Fujitsu consolidated British Waterways’ 90 distributed Novell servers into its own data centre to ensure secure and effective management.
Benefits
Significant Annual IT Maintenance Savings
Savings are being realised through simplified IT management, reduced staffing overheads, and reduced training needs. System consolidation and favourable licensing agreements are also bringing efficiencies.
Dodge says: “Fujitsu is offering us significant benefits through system consolidation, standardisation, and management. We are able to redeploy the money we’ve saved on IT to our core business of taking care of Britain’s waterways.”
Richard Walsh, Head of ICT at British Waterways, says: “We have undoubtedly received a cost-effective solution. Because we worked with a respected industry partner, we never had to worry about the technology.
“The contract with Fujitsu has delivered a complete refresh for our PC and non-SAP server estate alongside a predictable financing model. We now have a commoditised IT service that just works.”
High Availability and Reduced Downtime
The new centralised IT infrastructure, in tandem with a range of helpdesk services, ensures 24x7 availability for access to British Waterways’ critical applications such as SAP.
Dodge says: “80 per cent of our IT issues are addressed immediately, while more complex problems are referred to specialist technicians. Windows Server 2003 offers a range of centralised management tools, ensuring that issues can be resolved quickly and easily without costly on-site visits. As a result, we are working more effectively and experiencing less unplanned downtime than ever before.”
Standardised Environment Reduces Training Costs
Employees at British Waterways already have significant experience of working with Microsoft technologies. As a result, the new standardised infrastructure reduces staff training requirements.
Dodge says, “We had a number of reasons to standardise our infrastructure on Microsoft technologies. Fujitsu was convinced that Novell technologies were just not as strong as the Microsoft alternatives. It was also clear that Microsoft technologies would be easy to implement, saving us time and money.
“What’s more, employees were already using the Microsoft Office System of desktop productivity applications. By standardising the infrastructure across the board, we have maximised the benefit of existing skills within the organisation.”
Fast, Seamless Deployment in Just Four Months
In just under four months, Fujitsu successfully created the new infrastructure and migrated the British Waterways applications with the help of Quest NDS Migrator.
Dodge says: “Rapid deployment has minimised the impact of this project on our day-to-day activities. In addition, the seamless migration, supported by Quest technology, ensured that employees could continue working normally. As a result, our staff have been able to focus on their core tasks throughout.”
McNaught says: “We were all expecting to have to undertake a lot of re-permissioning work on the target infrastructure, and in fact very little was required, which was a most pleasant, time-saving surprise. Having now worked closely with Quest Software on a number of migrations, we feel that we have gained sizeable experience, which has further strengthened our relationship for future projects.”
Fully-Integrated Technologies Improve Communication
Every technology in the new Microsoft environment is designed to work together. As a result, employees can communicate and exchange information seamlessly across the organisation and work more effectively than ever before.
Microsoft Windows Server 2003
The Microsoft Windows Server 2003 family helps organizations do more with less. Now you can: Run your IT infrastructure more efficiently; Build better applications faster; Deliver the best infrastructure for enhancing user productivity. And you can do all this faster, more securely, and at lower cost. For more information about Windows Server 2003, please visit:
www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003