Customer Solution Case Study
/ / Charter Bus Company Expands Messaging Capabilities and Reduces Costs
Overview
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Transportation and logistics
Customer Profile
Dallas, Texas–based CUSA LLC (operating under the CoachUSA brand name) is one of the nation’s leading providers of motor coach services. It has locations in nine states in the western and south central United States.
Business Situation
As part of the process of becoming autonomous from its predecessor company, CUSA needed to update its networking infrastructure and messaging systems to reduce administration costs and expand functionality.
Solution
CUSA migrated its network to Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 with Active Directory® and switched from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.
Benefits
n Minimal need for training
n Increased collaboration among offices
n Broad support for mobile devices
n Reduced administration time / “The easy-to-set-up and easy-to-use collaboration through shared calendars and centralized management through Active Directory gave us the quickest return on our Exchange Server investment.”
Brad Harslem, CIO, CUSA
When CUSA, a charter bus and group tour company serving the western and south central United States, was formed with the purchase of certain assets from CoachUSA, it wanted to streamline its IT systems and increase capabilities. As part of that process, CUSA decided to migrate from Lotus Notes to Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 to take advantage of the familiar user interface, mobile computing support, and ease of administration. The company moved 550 mailboxes in 35 offices to Exchange Server in approximately three months. As a result, the familiar interface minimized employee training; shared calendars and directories increased collaboration among workers in different offices; mobile computing support enabled executives to more easily remotely access e-mail, calendars, contacts, and task lists; and centralized management helped to reduce administration time by 30 percent.
Situation
CoachUSA (CUSA), LLC, with operations in 35 major markets in the west and south central United States, is the largest U.S. charter and tour bus company. The company offers charter bus, group tour, contract shuttle, andcasino services tailored to specific groups’ requirements as well as sightseeing tours and airport shuttle services. In 2003, CUSA was formed as a new company to buy the assets of certain operations from CoachUSA, a subsidiary of Stagecoach Holdings PLC. As part of the purchase, CUSA retained the right to use the CoachUSA name in its operating territories.
The key to profitability in an industry that is subject to spikes in fuel prices is to carefully manage the more predictable costs. One areathat CUSA management identified as having potential for reducing costs was the ITdepartment.
The new CUSA included 35 locations, each of which had its own domain running on the Microsoft® Windows NT® Server 4.0 operating system and its own file server running either on Windows NT Server 4.0 or Novell NetWare. The company was quickly moving away from 35 separate domains to a more robust IT infrastructure—based on the Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 operating system with the Active Directory® service—that offered increased security and centralized management. CUSA also wanted to update its Lotus Notes 5.0 messaging system to support easier collaboration and to provide broader support for mobile devices so that its executive teams could access their e-mail and calendars from anywhere on a variety ofdevices.
On the messaging side, CUSA had planned to upgrade to the next version of Lotus Notes. However, as the company developed its list of requirements—which included not only expanded collaboration and broad mobile support, but also ease of use for employees and ease of management for administrators—it found that Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 aligned closely with its requirements. And as part of Microsoft Windows Server System™ integrated server software, Exchange Server 2003 offered the additional advantage of easy integration with Windows Server 2003, the foundation of Windows Server System, which would further simplify management.
Solution
The company engaged The Harding Group, aMicrosoft Gold Certified Partner based inArlington, Texas, to help it migrate the network infrastructure, deploy Active Directory, and update the messaging system. Initially CUSA had some concerns about migrating to Exchange Server because its IT staff would have to learn to administer a new messaging system as well as the new networking infrastructure.
“We went in and discussed the Notes applications they were using and the future capabilities they were looking for,” says Jeff Holsinger, Senior Engineer with The Harding Group. “When we showed them how they could meet their requirements more easily and with less cost with Exchange Server, they decided to switch.”
The CUSA Dallas, Texas, headquarters houses the company’s central data center. Thirty-five CUSA locations around the country connect to that data center, using either frame relay or virtual private network connections. Each office had a separate Windows NT Server domain, and the Houston, Texas, office had a domain that was used for a Citrix farm. Because virtually all employees had a logon ID in that Citrix farm domain, the implementation team decided to use it as the new Active Directory domain.
Using the Active Directory Migration Tool, The Harding Group moved all the authentication data from Windows NT to new servers running Windows Server 2003 and then rejoined the Citrix servers into the new Windows Server 2003 domain. That process was repeated for each of the 35 locations until allthe servers were consolidated into 54 servers running Windows Server 2003 in the Dallas data center.
In December 2004, The Harding Group set up the Exchange Server 2003 infrastructure, which consists of one front-end server for Microsoft Office Outlook® Web Access (OWA) and two back-end servers in the Dallas data center. The Harding Group installed the Microsoft Connector for Lotus Notes and synchronized directories between Notes andExchange Server so that users could exchange mail between the two systems until the migration was complete.
At that point, The Harding Group worked with the CUSA IT staff in Dallas to set up a pilot of four users in the Dallas office. They migrated those users’ data from Lotus Notes mailboxes to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 mailboxes using Quest Notes Migrator for Exchange (formerly Wingra Notes Migrator for Exchange). The Notes Migrator for Exchange converted users’ mail, calendars, tasks, and personal address books to new mailboxes in Exchange Server 2003.
Meanwhile, the CUSA IT staff deployed the Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 messaging and collaboration client to several desktops in Dallas and Houston. For desktop computers that had Microsoft Windows® operating systems older than Windows XP and that were too old to be upgraded, users were given the ability to access Outlook Web Access through their Web browser. Employees in offices that connect to headquarters over frame relay also use OWA to access e-mail and calendars.
After the initial pilot group tested the new system for two weeks, The Harding Group moved the additional 50 mailboxes in the Dallas office as well as a few IT staff in the Houston office. That process, in which about 5 gigabytes of data was moved, took less than 24 hours; it started on a Friday night and finished by early afternoon the next day.
“All the mailbox data, including attachments, came across without issue,” says Holsinger.
After the migration of the Dallas office was complete, The Harding Group provided remote assistance to the CUSA staff as they moved the Houston office. In the interim, employees in the Dallas office could continue to exchange e-mail with employees in other locations who were still on Notes.
“There were only two minor issues during the coexistence period,” says Holsinger. “The Connector for Lotus Notes didn’t support HTML messages, so messages came across as plain text. Also, we applied a fix on the Notes side to ensure that if someone replied to a Notes address after that person had been moved to Exchange Server, the reply would be routed automatically to the new Exchange Server address.”
After the Houston office mailboxes were moved to Exchange Server, the CUSA staff handled the rest of the offices. The company sent out technicians to convert the mailboxes, contacts, and calendars to Exchange Server and to install the Outlook client on each desktop and update other software if necessary. Those technicians also provided on-site training on Exchange Server and Outlook for the employees, and left behind detailed instructions.
CUSA completed the conversion of the remaining 500 mailboxes to Exchange Server by May 2005. Because CUSA had only been using a few Lotus Notes applications and all of those were in the parent company’s database, it didn’t move any applications from Notes to Exchange Server: It just stopped using those applications in anticipation of developing new ones using the Microsoft .NET Framework. The .NET Framework is an integral component of the Windows operating system that provides a programming model and runtime for Web services, Web applications, and smart client applications.
Benefits
The migration tools provided by Microsoft and third-party software developers provided CUSA with a smooth transition from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. Users are benefiting from the familiar interface, easy-to-use collaboration tools, and increased support for mobile devices. Tight integration with Windows Server 2003 and Active Directory is expected to reduce messaging system administration time by 30percent.
Little Need for Training
Because CUSA already used Microsoft Office 2003 Editions, the users were able to easily transition to the Outlook client. The migration technicians provided brief handson training as needed when they converted each office from Notes to Exchange Server and then provided a reference sheet of detailed instructions. No other training has been necessary.
Increased Collaboration
Among Offices
Although each CUSA business unit operates as an autonomous organization, each is part of the same corporation and has to meet certain deadlines related to the corporate accounting calendar. In addition, some markets, such as Los Angeles, California, have several CUSA offices that need to work together. Employees used the previous messaging system strictly for e-mail and to send files. They did not take advantage of group calendaring or workflow applications because they found them difficult to use. Instead, employees searched through files created in the Microsoft Office Excel® spreadsheet software to locate corporate deadlines or contact lists for other offices. Now employees can go to a centralized location to access shared calendars and contact directories. As a result, employees in any office can quickly find out when certain tasks are due and find and work with their counterparts in other offices without having to call headquarters.
“The easy-to-set-up and easy-to-use collaboration through shared calendars and centralized management through Active Directory gave us the quickest return on our Exchange Server investment,” says Brad Harslem, CIO, CUSA. “Those tools are helping us work more efficiently and are improving the cohesiveness of the corporation as a whole.”
Broad Support for Mobile Devices
In addition to easy collaboration, Exchange Server also provides CUSA with support for a broad range of mobile devices, including Microsoft Windows Mobile®–based Pocket PCs and Microsoft Windows Mobile–based Smartphones. This mobile support goes beyond just e-mail: Exchange Server also enables CUSA executives to synchronize their calendars, contacts, and task lists so that they can stay on schedule even when they’re out of the office.
Easy Migration, 30 Percent Reduction in Administration Time
The Quest Notes Migrator for Exchange minimized disruption from the migration by enabling technicians to convert users’ mail, calendars, tasks, and personal address books from Lotus Notes to Exchange Server 2003 without losing data. Also, the Connector for Lotus Notes supported coexistence between users on both systems until all mailboxes were migrated to Exchange Server.
CUSA projects that consolidating all of its offices into a single, centrally managed domain will reduce administration time by 30 percent. The tight integration between Windows Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2003 and the ability to configure both through Active Directory also are reducing management time. “The ability to manage Exchange Server through Active Directory is really saving administration time,” says Gus Goncalves, Manager, Corporate Data Center. “Instead of having 35 autonomous offices, each with its own file server and domain, we now have only a single domain to manage, and any changes we make apply to all offices simultaneously.”
Microsoft Windows Server System
Microsoft Windows Server System is a line ofintegrated and manageable server software designed to reduce the complexity and cost of IT. Windows Server System enables you to spend less time and budget on managing your systems so that you can focus your resources on other priorities for you and your business.
For more information about Windows Server System, go to:
www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem