Collaboration with CoreTech team key in
successful migration to standard desktop

Technology migrations are among the most labor- and time-intensive operational initiatives a company can undertake. Many organizations have been burned by excessive disruption and mass confusion in the end-user community after a migration has been performed at their sites.

In late 1997, a major pharmaceutical company in the western suburbs of Philadelphia found itself behind schedule with the deployment of its new desktop as it underwent a move from a Windows 3.1 environment to a Windows 95 32-bit operating system. The project was massive, involving the standardization of nearly 2,000 distinct applications across workstations in the United States and Puerto Rico. There was also tremendous pressure from end users who had critical applications that required a 32-bit operating system.

To get back on schedule quickly, the Company opted to seek the help of an expert IT consulting firm that had extensive experience performing large-scale migrations.

Proven Methodology, Flexible Application
CoreTech Consulting Group was already actively involved in networking projects at the Company’s site. The Company was impressed with CoreTech’s work to date and was well aware of CoreTech’s reputation for excellence. This prompted the Company to expand on its existing relationship with CoreTech and enlist the consulting firm’s assistance on the migration to a standard desktop.

The cornerstone of the CoreTech migration methodology is the belief that corporations must recognize migrations as a business event, not merely as a technology upgrade. The firm has developed a systematic, consistently successful approach that eliminates surprises, reduces costs and preserves functionality.

"One of the key elements of this migration project was to form a collaborative team that included personnel from both the Company and CoreTech," said Susan Frey, Director of Migration Services for CoreTech Consulting Group. "This level of interaction ensured that goals were being met satisfactorily and that communication paths were kept open at all times so no issues went overlooked." 

Because this project was already running behind its deadline, CoreTech adopted an intense schedule to get things back on track and the team relied upon its proven migration methodology to accomplish a successful full deployment. One of the first things CoreTech did was to take a hardware and software inventory to certify that the technology could be supported on the new platform. With that completed, CoreTech’s consultants could develop a deployment plan and perform the application assessment and certification process.

The Company’s migration was particularly challenging because everything had to be done on a "just in time" basis. This meant that CoreTech had to schedule its deployment very carefully so as not to impact important organizational activities or disturb the end-user community. For example, it would have been unacceptable to deploy the new desktop to workstations in the payroll department during a critical point in the accounting cycle. The CoreTech staff had to familiarize themselves with the Company’s established processes and procedures and plan its data gathering and deployment activities accordingly.

CoreTech’s consultants automatically consider the Technical, Organizational, Process and People implications of every technology initiative they contract to perform. This approach, known at CoreTech as the TOPP Discipline SM, ensures that there are no hidden "gotcha’s" along the way to project completion.

"In a technology migration, the TOPP Discipline proves especially valuable since the event has such a far-reaching impact for the company going through it," said Frey. For this Company — as with every client engagement — CoreTech took care to address the effects the migration would have on not just the company’s IT environment but also the entire organization, its processes and its end-user community.

Putting the Client’s Interests First
To accommodate the Company’s culture and routine, the CoreTech team conducted the bulk of its work on weekends and after regular business hours. This is not uncommon for CoreTech since one of its primary objectives in every client engagement is to deliver maximum benefit while minimizing disruption. It also fits in with CoreTech’s "client-centric" approach, which dictates that CoreTech consultants keep the customer’s best interests as their top priority all the time, no matter what.

This same dedication to exceptional client satisfaction means that CoreTech responds effectively and positively to unforeseen events during any client engagement. At the pharmaceutical company, this included a token ring-to-Ethernet conversion project occurring at the same time as the desktop migration. CoreTech’s team assumed responsibility for coordinating these efforts and moving forward on both projects in a mutually beneficial fashion.

During one weekend, a power outage occurred in one of the buildings that housed a deployment server. Rather than let its progress stall, however, the CoreTeam team found a creative solution. The CoreTech consultants loaded the deployment server into a car and drove it to a different building so they could continue the scheduled deployment.

Another way CoreTech differentiates itself from other vendors and their approach to technology migrations is its handling of the end-user community. When a third-party is involved, it is not uncommon for employees at a company that has just undergone a migration to come into work one morning and find a completely unfamiliar workstation and receive no explanation from management. This doesn’t happen when CoreTech is involved.

CoreTech recognized that failure to communicate the message of IT change will slow – and possibly doom – adoption and acceptance. To overcome this risk, CoreTech took great pains to ensure that users at the Company would encounter no surprises or downtime as a result of deployment. The consultants devised a comprehensive communications plan that kept users abreast of the migration project’s status from the very beginning. CoreTech also supplied "coaches" to help users adjust to their new workstation environment as well as complete help desk and support services.

The Benefits of CoreTech Expertise
CoreTech led the effort in turning around a negative situation for the Company. From what was once a behind-schedule project, CoreTech actually delivered results well in advance of the Company’s year-end deadline for the total deployment. In addition, CoreTech successfully reduced the number of supported applications from 2,000 to a mere 800.

In addition, at the completion of the Company’s migration, CoreTech left behind Standard Operating Procedures and conducted a thorough knowledge transfer process with the client.

The Company was also pleased with the way CoreTech collaborated with its own technical staff in true team spirit, avoiding the finger-pointing and friction that can result when a third-party works with in-house personnel. The lack of disruption in the workplace and the absence of user downtime also contributed to the Company’s complete satisfaction with CoreTech’s performance.

Once direct result of the success has been an expansion of the relationship between the Company and CoreTech. CoreTech consultants are currently supplement staff on its help desk; they are performing a Y2K inventory and software assessment; and they are involved in the Company’s networking activities. The Company has complete assurance that CoreTech will continue to perform at the same levels of quality it’s come to expect from this world-class IT consulting firm.

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© 1999 CoreTech Consulting Group, Inc. All rights reserved.