Vista Rollout Success: One IT Leader's Story
Midmarket company Norman's Nursery bypassed many of the Microsoft Windows Vista rollout complaints with a widescale PC upgrade.
CIO — Not everyone hates Vista.
In fact, for at least one early adopter—wholesale nursery company Norman's Nursery—the move to Vista has paid off, with fewer help desk calls and easier administration chores on the back end. While the San Gabriel, Cal.–based company's ability to do a widescale PC refresh along with the Vista rollout for 83 systems won't be realistic for larger companies, its experiences provide lessons for other IT leaders considering or preparing for a Vista upgrade.
The Move to Vista
In December 2006, Norman's Nursery had yet to move to Windows XP. The company's support agreement for Windows 2000 was running out, and since all operating systems would have to be replaced, they began discussing the Windows XP versus Vista question, says Martin Resnick, director of operations technology. At the same time, the company wanted to standardize its servers on Windows 2003 from a mix of Windows 2003 and Windows 2000. They also wanted to create standardization for easier administration on the back end. And they didn't want to have to go through another OS upgrade anytime soon.
With its additional group policy objects, Vista won out, says Resnick. "The idea of our upgrading was that any user can go to any desktop at any location and see their printer, their files and folders, their desktop backgrounds—everything would stay the same." Although most people at Norman's Nursery do have dedicated workstations, the standardized environment makes dealing with contract or traveling workers much easier, and simplifies IT work with computer problems, Resnick says.
As applications, Resnick chose Office 2007 and Sharepoint. He also brought in new desktops (65) and laptops (18) for almost every employee. All desktops are Intel DualCore-based, running at a minimum of 2.4GHZ. They also have 2GB of RAM in each box. Laptops are AMD 1.6GHz (DualCore mode) and 2GB RAM. "We had built our own machines in the past, but since our goal was to standardize everything (hardware and software) it was more time and cost-effective to bring in new systems," he says.
Surprises Along the Way
By January 2007, Resnick's team began the serious work of prepping for the Vista rollout. They completed a successful implementation by October, but it wasn't without its glitches. Just when they thought they were ready to complete the rollout, Resnick and team encountered a group policy problem related to imaging the machines (an automated installation kit that takes a blank desktop and pushes Vista and Office 2007 in one install).
