London Council Saves IT Time with Infrastructure Optimisation Tool
London Borough of Camden delivers local authority services in central London and is rated excellent by the government.
It needed to improve controls over its desktop estate as part of a major IT transformation programme designed to save millions of pounds over five years. Part of the improvement programme included the implementation of Microsoft® Advanced Group Policy Management to increase employee productivity and save time— tasks that once took IT technicians a considerable time, now take just minutes.
Business Needs
Camden Council is rated a four-star local authority by the United Kingdom Audit Commission, recognising the excellence of its delivery of local government services to 227,000 people. Camden has approximately 4,850 employees who serve a borough where 110 languages are spoken in its schools. Although the borough accounts for 1 per cent of the United Kingdom gross domestic product, it is also the 15th most deprived borough in England.
The council’s information and communications technology (ICT) strategy includes a commitment to ensuring staff are “empowered by having the right tools to do their job effectively and reliably.” Since 2006, the council has engaged in a technology transformation programme aimed at taking £8–10 million (U.S.$12-15.1 million) out of ICT operating costs over five years. The reorganisation has involved merging three service desks and consolidating six technology teams into a single ICT service. The changes include the introduction of desktop management tools as well as server rationalisation, a migration to a storage area network, and network improvement. Whereas previously the council had eight domains, it now has only two.
Commenting on the desktop standardisation and rationalisation initiative, which is branded “OneDesk”, Simon Boxall, Active Directory Infrastructure Engineer, London Borough of Camden, says: “Prior to centralising the management of the ICT infrastructure, there were inconsistent approaches to controlling the desktop estate of around 6,000 computers. It was clear we needed to implement central management of the desktops. We also needed to limit the number of people and teams that could make changes to desktop policy settings and who could carry out software deployments. We lacked a consistent approach to the release of software updates, anti virus releases, and application installs. ”
Furthermore, deployment and error rectification were time consuming for IT technicians. Boxall says: “We could see the dates on which changes had been made to individual machines, but not what had been changed or the reasons why the changes were required. There were also risks of accidental or malicious edits , all of which reinforced the need for robust security policies.”
Solution
As part of its One Desk project, Camden Council created a dedicated “envisioning team” (3rd Line Project Delivery) known as the OneDesk team. It implemented Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management from the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack—a suite of six products available as an add-on licence to Software Assurance customers. The pack uses innovative technologies to help reduce the total cost of ownership of the Windows® desktop—by accelerating application management and enhancing IT responsiveness and user uptime.
Boxall says: “Advanced Group Policy Management is helping us to control the desktop, accelerate and simplify desktop deployment and management, and create a more dynamic infrastructure. We have increased control of Group Policy Objects (GPOs) and cut downtime previously linked to improperly configured GPOs.”
Advanced Group Policy Management helps organisations delegate authority over who can perform actions on GPOs to ensure better reliability and less downtime due to human error. Distinctions can be made between administrators who can alter GPOs and those who can actually deploy them.
Benefits
Camden Council is experiencing faster deployment, easier provisioning, and better and more reliable desktop management with the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, and, in particular, the Advanced Group Policy Management feature. Advanced Group Policy Management has allowed Camden to move to central management of the desktops by providing the tools needed to manage the systems effectively. The transformation is in line with the authority’s vision for its corporate ICT service to be a supportive team that underpins citizen-centric service delivery.
* Problem resolution cut from days to minutes. “Due to the enhanced workflow, the demand for engineer time is now minimal with Advanced Group Policy Management. What previously took a day to complete is now done in five to 10 minutes,” says Boxall.
* Desktop team control GPOs. The tighter management of GPOs has resulted in better control of the desktop estate.
* Standardisation will benefit future migrations. The work done to standardise GPOs for the desktop through the One Desk initiative will benefit the council in providing a robust environment for any future operating system migration.
* Rationalisation decreases administrative costs. Camden has reduced IT support costs. For example, error rectification is managed centrally with less need for engineers to carry out site visits.
* Audit trail for changes to desktops. Boxall says: “Advanced Group Policy Management also provides the auditing capacity to track changes and a rollback feature to undo changes that went wrong.”
* Improved reliability and security. The new tool optimises the use of GPOs and delivers the right security settings to each desktop.
* Reduced risk of widespread failures and downtime. The system for GPOs allows offline editing of policies, recovery of a deleted policy, and repair of live GPOs.
For More Information
For further information about Microsoft products and services, please visit
www.microsoft.com/uk
Topics: Britain, efficiency, England, Governance, ICT, infrastructure optimisation tool, London, Microsoft, public sector IT, technology, UK, United Kingdom
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