Customer Solution Case Study
/ Council Improves Efficiency of IT Staff and Delivers a Better User Experience
“Since the health check was completed, we’ve cut time spent managing permissions and policies by up to 50 per cent. We’ve also reduced backup time by 30 per cent and user logon times are up to 40 per cent faster.”
Ben Naylor, Infrastructure Team Leader, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council wanted to boost efficiency by upgrading its IT. By engaging a Microsoft Premier Field Engineer to perform a Group Policy Health Check, the council has increased the speed of logon times by up to 40 per cent, especially for Windows 7 client machines. This has also reduced maintenance time by 50 per cent, and cut overall IT systems management overheads.
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.Document published April 2012
Business Needs
Like all United Kingdom councils, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council always looks to ensure the best value, performance, and system availability for its customers and borough residents. In line with its aim, the council’s IT strategy is to implement technologies that are cost-effective and enhance employee productivity.
As part of this ongoing commitment, the IT team plans to upgrade employees’ desktop software and introduce tools that reduce infrastructure maintenance and administration. Ben Naylor, Infrastructure Team Leader, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, says: “The council supports flexible working for employees, which means we need to provide network access to documents and the email system 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We plan to deploy the Microsoft System Center suite of management tools to support delivering these services, while gaining greater control over the network. But before we can upgrade, it’s crucial that we make sure our core technology is agile and can support strategic change.”
The council took part in a three-day Group Policy Health Check engagement with Microsoft Premier Support Services, which highlighted the need for improvements. “We hadn’t updated our Group Policy settings for a number of years and weren’t making the best use of them to support the Active Directory service. We had various process issues and spent a lot of time trying to keep our settings, such as the Domain Name System (DNS), up to date, and working out how to connect settings to different IT services. As a result, our management overheads were high,” says Naylor.
Solution
Having previously completed an Active Directory Risk Assessment Programme on the recommendation of its Technical Account Manager (TAM), the council understood the value of working with a Premier Field Engineer. The first step was a consultation with its designated Microsoft Premier Services TAM to discuss how Microsoft could assist with its issues. It was then advised that a three-day Group Policy Health Check could improve the council’s ability to configure, optimise, and manage its Group Policy settings and resolve related operational issues.
Naylor says: “We talked about our challenges to our TAM and the Premier Field Engineer, who is a specialist in Active Directory and Group Policy. It became clear that our Group Policy design had not been updated since its implementation. This meant our settings and policies weren’t aligned to our current needs. Our Premier Field Engineer took an inventory of the existing configurations and settings, and came back to us with a plan. It included tasks to optimise settings, remove duplication, and reduce replication overheads.”
The Premier Field Engineer worked closely with Ian Rampton, Infrastructure Support Engineer at Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to transfer knowledge. He offered his in-depth domain expertise—which he gained from his work with Group Policy across many customer sites—as well as his experience with engineering and product development groups at Microsoft U.K.
The Premier Field Engineer and Rampton updated the Group Policy central store, so policies are now stored in a central location rather than residing on different machines. “Our Premier Field Engineer discovered that the domain controller—where logon scripts are generated—was full of redundant items, so we removed replication and updated Active Directory functional level to Windows Server 2008 mode. At the same time, we streamlined and updated our Group Policy templates, so it’s easier to rollout changes,” says Rampton.
The joint working and knowledge sharing between the Premier Field Engineer and Rampton proved to be a huge success. “Our Premier Field Engineer taught me best practices for the creation and delegation of administrative tasks and directed me to excellent resources where I can find information in the future,” says Rampton.
Benefits
Within three months of creating the remediation plan, approximately 50 per cent of the work had been done. Naylor says: “Since the health check was completed, we’ve cut time spent managing permissions and policies by up to 50 per cent. We’ve also reduced backup time by 30 per cent and user logon times are up to 40 per cent faster than before.”
- Backup time reduced by up to 30 per cent. The Active Directory team used to spend hours checking DNS services and ensuring replication was performed properly. “Now that the replication between domain controllers is performing well, I’ve freed around 30 per cent of my time, which I can spend on higher-value work,” says Rampton.
- Permissions management time cut by up to 50 per cent. “It takes minutes rather than days to test and implement changes to Group Policy. I also spend up to 50 per cent less time on modifying user permissions,” says Rampton.
- Complex projects managed in-house. Knowledge sharing is a key part of the engagement and it’s through this that Rampton and his colleagues gained the skills and confidence to manage future policy implementations. “The Premier Field Engineer wasn’t just a consultant. From the start, he acted as a mentor and adviser to our team,” says Naylor. Rampton’s new skills and expertise will be put to good use with the council’s planned deployment of the Microsoft System Center suite of management tools and current deployment of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.
- User experience enhanced and compliance supported. Employee logon times are now around 40 per cent faster than they were before. And with all changes automatically updated in the central repository, there’s a comprehensive audit trail for changes to user permissions and policies.
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published April 2012