Windows 7Customer Solution Case Study

Unum Upgrades Operating System; Simplifies Management, Boosts Performance

OverviewCountry or Region: United StatesIndustry: Financial services—Insurance

Customer ProfileUnum is an employee benefits company headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It has approximately 10,000 employees worldwide.

Business SituationUnum wanted to replace its existing operating system quickly and with minimal IT effort, and address challenges around computer start times and image management.

SolutionUnum used Microsoft tools to enable automated, zero-touch deployment of the Windows 7 Enterprise operating system on 11,600 computers in 12 months.

Benefits Accelerated deployment by 200

percent, sped image installation Consolidated number of images,

simplified management Boosted performance, greater user

satisfaction

“Deploying a new operating system used to take about three years, but with System Center Configuration Manager and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, we rolled out Windows 7 in just 12 months.”

Blake Pease, Assistant Vice President of End User Computing, Unum

Unum provides employee benefits programs to more than 171,000 businesses. In early 2009, Unum learned that the Windows XP SP2 operating system would reach end of support in July 2010, and this situation, combined with IT challenges around image management and computer performance, made it clear that the company needed to update its operating system. Unum selected Windows 7 Enterprise for its 11,600 computers in the United States and initiated a comprehensive and largely automated zero-touch deployment process. As a result, Unum reduced deployment time from about three years to just 12 months and moved to a single operating system faster. IT vastly simplified image management, enabling one Windows 7 image for 20 computer models. Employee computers powered up to email 23 percent faster, quickly getting them to a productive state, and employees expressed great satisfaction with Windows 7.

Works the way you want

SituationUnum provides group disability, life, and long-term care insurance, and voluntary benefits programs to businesses in the United States and United Kingdom. The Fortune 500 company, headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee, realized approximately U.S.$10 billion in revenue in 2010.

In the United States, the company’s IT department supports about 11,600 desktop and portable computers. All of the devices were running the Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) operating system. While the company was generally pleased with the operating system’s functionality, it knew that Microsoft support for Windows XP SP2 would be ending in July 2010. Additionally, the IT staff had been encountering some challenges with image management and security, and computers took longer to start than employees would have liked.

Windows XP uses hardware abstraction layer (HAL) technology, which enables the operating system to communicate directly with the hardware. However, this means that different computer types require different images—and Unum has about 20 computer models. “On our hardware refresh cycle we get new computer models about every 18 months. We often had to update the images to support new models and that took about three to four weeks. We also had to update images for new drivers, specifically storage drivers. It was a constant effort,” says Eric Giroux, Senior Infrastructure Engineer at Unum.

It also took time for employees to start their computers and get to a productive

state. “Depending on the computer’s amount of RAM, it could take more than two minutes to power up to email. When time is so precious, every second counts—especially when it’s multiplied by 10,000 employees who are starting their computers every day,” says Giroux.

In June 2009, Unum embarked on an initiative to select a new operating system. “Whenever we do a major platform change—whether it’s a service pack upgrade or a new operating system—we first test all our applications to determine whether they will run and what issues, if any, need to be resolved prior to deployment. It didn’t make sense to do all that work on Windows XP SP3 when we would just have to repeat it again in a few years for another operating system. So we needed to decide whether to go with Windows 7 or Windows Vista,” says Blake Pease, Assistant Vice President of End User Computing at Unum.

SolutionUnum began testing all of the approximately 900 applications used by its U.S. employees on Windows Vista and the beta version of Windows 7 in July 2009. “We wanted to determine which operating system would run more of our applications without remediation. Using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010, we deployed dual-boot machines, installing Windows Vista normally and putting Windows 7 on virtual hard disk. That enabled us to do side-by-side comparisons using half the hardware that would normally be needed to assess two operating systems. It also made it easy for us to run every application on a clean operating system instance so

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“We saved at least four imaging hours per machine, which meant four less hours of downtime per employee. Given 10,000 employees, that’s 40,000 hours of downtime avoided.”

Blake Pease, Assistant Vice President of End User Computing, Unum

that we could get a true feel for its performance,” says Pease.

The project team contacted all Unum application owners and briefed them on how to test their applications in the dual environment. Each application was given a pass or fail grade based on how it ran in Windows 7 and Windows Vista, and the data was posted to a Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 site. By November 2009, Unum had completed the assessment. “Many more applications—at least 60 percent of the 900—ran in Windows 7 without any problem. Given the type of applications that we have and their compatibility history, that was a very acceptable outcome,” says Pease.

Unum chose to upgrade to Windows 7 Enterprise. In addition to being satisfied with the application assessment results, the IT team knew that it would be able to take advantage of enhanced performance in Windows 7. It also planned to use the Windows Internet Explorer 8 browser, and, in particular, its protected mode and the SmartScreen Filter feature that make it difficult for malware to be installed.

Preparations for Operating System UpgradeUnum assigned an IT team to work with employees on migration planning. The team reviewed the applications that each group of business users required, identified which applications—if any—needed remediation, and how to work with Unum developers to ensure readiness of all required applications. The planning team then developed a deployment schedule for

all business groups based on expected application readiness.

A second team focused on creating a streamlined, automated deployment process. Its first task, at the end of November 2009, was to upgrade from Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 to System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 SP2, which was required for deploying Windows 7. It then spent the next two months using System Center Configuration Manager to test deployment of Windows 7 and figuring out how to deploy it on mass scale to multiple locations in the United States.“In the past, we usually deployed new operating systems along with hardware refreshes. If problems arose, the technicians could address them right away because they were already working on the devices. But this time, we were primarily deploying to employees’ existing computers. We planned to do the deployment during business hours, so we had to do it in a way that did not affect employee productivity or network bandwidth during that peak production time,” says Pease.

To minimize the burden on the desk-side support team and speed overall deployment time, Unum wanted a zero-touch, unattended deployment process; Windows 7 would automatically install while employees were away from their desks participating in a training class about the operating system. “We employed best practices that Microsoft had established for zero-touch deployment, including using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit for preflight checks and log gathering,” says Giroux.

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“Moving to Internet Explorer 8 was important from a security standpoint. Between its protected mode and enhanced phishing filter, we’re able to provide a lot more protection.”

Eric Giroux, Senior Infrastructure Engineer, Unum

About eight weeks before a group of employees was scheduled to receive Windows 7, the team began the preflight process. “Because our technicians would not be with the machines during deployment, we wanted to make sure that everything would go smoothly, with no surprises. Using System Center Configuration Manager, we implemented an automated preflight process that checked to make sure the target computers met memory and hard drive capacity requirements, as well as several other qualifying criteria. That way, if any didn’t meet our criteria we had sufficient time to remedy the issues,” says Giroux.

The next step, a couple weeks before each deployment, was pre-caching all required software—including Windows 7 and business applications—on each computer. “By having everything on the local machine, we wouldn’t have to worry about infrastructure problems that could interrupt deployment if 100 users were simultaneously pulling a 4 gigabyte [GB] image over the network, and we could expedite deployment kick-off,” says Giroux.

Zero-Touch DeploymentIn April 2010, Unum began pilot deployments of Windows 7 and then moved to full-scale deployments in July 2010. Each deployment was triggered when an employee—having been notified that the machine was successfully pre-cached—logged on to a self-service portal and scheduled his or her participation in a training session. When the worker arrived at the training, the instructor sent a notification that initiated the deployment, which Unum had automated using the

operating system deployment feature in System Center Configuration Manager. When employees returned to their computers following the training, Windows 7 and all the applications were ready to use. “Not only was it zero-touch, but it was also just-in-time deployment,” notes Pease.

By June 2011, Unum had deployed Windows 7 on all 11,600 target computers in the United States. This included 10,100 existing computers as well as 1,500 new computers in about 40 field offices. “We created our deployment task sequence with condition-based logic so that it could easily handle different types of scenarios—including the primary scenario of replacing Windows XP with Windows 7 on existing computers, as well as installing Windows 7 on new hardware,” says Giroux.

Adds Giroux, “Having the right tools and practices in place for a wide-scale rollout of Windows 7 is incredibly important. Not only can it save you a tremendous amount of time, but also it can garner a lot of goodwill among employees.”

BenefitsAfter the end of support for Windows XP SP2 led Unum to Windows 7, the company used Microsoft tools to speed deployment and image installation of the operating system. By using Windows 7, Unum has drastically simplified image management and better protected its computers from malware. Plus, employees are benefitting from faster-performing computers.

Accelerated Deployment by 200 Percent, Sped Image Installation

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“Getting to a single platform in 12 months instead of 36 months enabled substantial savings in labor-related costs.”

Blake Pease, Assistant Vice President of End User Computing, Unum

“Moving to Internet Explorer 8 was important from a security standpoint. Between its protected mode and enhanced phishing filter, we're able to provide a lot more protection.”

Eric Giroux, Senior Infrastructure Engineer, Unum

Unum vastly accelerated its deployment schedule compared to previous upgrade projects. According to Pease, “Deploying a new operating system used to take about three years, but with System Center Configuration Manager and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, we rolled out Windows 7 in just 12 months—completing production deployment in one-third of the time. By enabling automated, zero-touch deployment, we also freed IT personnel from installation-specific tasks so that they could focus on anticipating and proactively resolving deployment-related issues that may have otherwise hampered the roll out.” Image installation for Windows 7 was also faster. “We saved at least four imaging hours per machine, which meant four less hours of downtime per employee. Given 10,000 employees, that’s 40,000 hours of downtime avoided,” says Pease.

Consolidated Number of Images, Simplified Management With Windows 7, Unum can install the same operating system image on different computer models. “We no longer have to deal with HAL-related deployment issues and we no longer have to update our image to support new hardware models. Driver management is greatly simplified, and we’ve reduced testing time associated with hardware changes. The same Windows 7 image can run on any hardware without manipulation. That makes deploying operating systems and supporting new hardware models much easier,” says Giroux.

By accelerating the rollout of Windows 7, Unum reduced the amount of time that the IT staff had to support two operating

systems. “Getting to a single platform in 12 months instead of 36 months enabled substantial savings in labor-related costs and reduced our overall testing efforts by 50 percent,” says Pease.

Now that Unum is using Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8, its computers are better protected from viruses and malware. “Moving to Internet Explorer 8 was important from a security standpoint. Between its protected mode and enhanced phishing filter, we’re able to provide a lot more protection,” says Giroux. Boosted Performance, Greater User SatisfactionPerformance is better with Windows 7. “Start times are faster on all our computers—whether desktop or portable, 2 GB or 4 GB of RAM. On average, Unum computers running Windows 7 power up to email 26 seconds—or 23 percent—faster. That’s a noticeable difference for employees,” says Giroux.

The company’s rollout of Windows 7 was met with praise from employees. As part of the deployment process, Unum set up a feedback mechanism so that it could gauge employee reaction and uncover any issues. “We received positive feedback about everything from the deployment process to the speed and enhanced functionality of Windows 7. People really like the Aero desktop experience. They can do more things faster while keeping the desktop organized,” says Giroux.

Verbatim responses that employees entered on the feedback site included, “The upgrade was very well orchestrated. I

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“On average, Unum computers running Windows 7 power up to email 26 seconds—or 23 percent—faster. That’s a noticeable difference for employees.”

Eric Giroux, Senior Infrastructure Engineer, Unum

couldn’t be more pleased with how easy it was for my team and for me”; “I really like the new desktop arrangement. It has already increased my efficiency”; “Windows 7 is a huge improvement over what we had previously”; and “I was pleasantly surprised with its enhanced options and overall speed.” A number of entries simply noted, “I love Windows 7.”Windows 7Works the way you want: Windows 7 will help your organization use information technology to gain a competitive advantage in today’s new world of work. Your people will be able to be more productive anywhere. You will be able to support your mobile workforce with better access to shared data and collaboration tools. And your IT staff will have better tools and technologies for enhanced corporate IT security and data protection, and more efficient deployment and management.

For more information about Windows 7, go to:www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7

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For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com

For more information about Unum products and services, call (423) 294-1011 or visit the website at: www.unum.com

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published July 2011

Software and Services Windows 7 Enterprise Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Microsoft System Center

Configuration Manager 2007 R2 Service Pack 2

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Technologies− Windows Internet Explorer 8

Hardware Dell Latitude portable computers Dell OptiPlex desktop computers