Microsoft Infrastructure OptimizationCustomer Solution Case Study

Healthcare System Saves $300,000 on Licensing, Boosts Client Management Efficiency

OverviewCountry or Region: United StatesIndustry: Healthcare

Customer ProfileFounded in 1994, Partners HealthCare offers integrated healthcare services through its network of physicians, care facilities, and academic medical centers. The organization has 54,000 employees.

Business SituationTo reduce the cost and complexity of its desktop management infrastructure and increase IT efficiency, Partners HealthCare decided to replace its existing client management software.

SolutionPartners deployed Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 to take advantage of well-documented hierarchy capabilities and built-in agents that help to simplify administrator tasks.

Benefits Saves U.S.$300,000 on licensing Boosts IT agility Simplifies client management

“When we examined all the factors, it became clear that System Center Configuration Manager is the right fit for our environment and offers the best overall value in terms of total cost of ownership.”

Rick Aherne, Project Manager, Partners HealthCare

Partners HealthCare wanted to replace its client systems management software with a solution that enabled more efficient updates, image deployment, and software delivery. Executives evaluated whether to upgrade the organization’s existing software, or to move to an alternative solution. After participating in a Proof-of-Concept workshop at the Microsoft Technology Center in Boston, Massachusetts, Partners HealthCare opted to deploy Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2. By transitioning to the Microsoft solution, Partners HealthCare saved U.S.$300,000 in licensing costs. Now, the organization uses interoperability between built-in client agent components and the Windows operating system to help administrators save time on routine tasks while enhancing the management of its desktop environment.

SituationFounded in 1994, Partners HealthCare is a nonprofit integrated healthcare system. It includes a network of primary and specialty care physicians and community clinics and hospitals located in and around Boston, Massachusetts. The organization also oversees two prestigious academic medical centers and is a major teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School.

Members of the IT client infrastructure management team at Partners HealthCare are responsible for supporting approximately 42,000 computers and devices distributed across more than 20 different locations. “Our main mission is to ensure a highly secure, well-managed environment across a range of different user scenarios and work settings—from doctor’s offices to hospital emergency rooms,” says Rick Burrows, Team Lead for the Client Infrastructure Design Group at Partners HealthCare.

For the past several years, the team relied on Altiris Notification Server (NS) to handle such critical functions as software distribution, updates, and remote troubleshooting. As Partners HealthCare prepared to replace the majority of its aging desktop and portable computers, executives began considering several options, including upgrading to the latest version of Altiris NS, or replacing it with an alternative solution.

The IT team was largely satisfied with its use of Altiris NS 6.0. But they recognized opportunities to enhance network security through a new management solution. For example, the team typically experienced delays in receiving security updates from

Altiris, which exposed potential vulnerabilities against viruses and other threats. “Because they had to process the feed from Microsoft and then apply their own rules to that feed, it could take anywhere from 24 to 36 hours before we received the update packages,” says Burrows. “There was a gap between when the updates were first released and when we could actually deploy them and test to see if they were applied correctly across our systems.” In addition, the Altiris solution did not incorporate a service for monitoring the health of the management agent that resides on each computer. “We had limited visibility into whether or not agents were working the way they should, which made it more difficult to take a proactive approach to systems management,” says Burrows. IT leaders were also eager to boost the efficiency of core client management activities. “Altiris NS 6.0 is nonhierarchical,” explains Rick Aherne, a Project Manager at Partners HealthCare, who oversaw the implementation of that technology and coordinated the process of searching for a new solution. “This meant that fundamental tasks—like pushing software updates—needed to be performed multiple times across different servers to reach all of the intended targets. This cut into the time that we could focus on other priorities.”

Although the 7.0 version of Altiris NS provides hierarchy capabilities, which enables the centralized management of notification servers, IT leaders were concerned about the costs associated with upgrading the solution. “To move up to the latest version of Altiris, we would need to relicense the software at a substantial cost,”

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says Manuela Stoyanov, Corporate Manager for the Client Infrastructure Group at Partners HealthCare. In addition, IT leaders noted the challenge of redesigning the organization’s desktop environment to align with the new architecture requirements. “We’d first need to learn how hierarchy works in Altiris and then completely rebuild our infrastructure before moving all of the computers to the new solution,” adds Burrows. “And since hierarchy is new in the latest release, we weren’t sure how well documented or supported the technology would be.”

To reduce infrastructure complexity and simplify tasks, lower IT costs, and strengthen network security, Partners HealthCare searched for an alternative to its existing systems management software.

SolutionDuring its evaluation process, which the organization initiated at the end of 2009, executives from Partners HealthCare conducted a broad-based comparison of Altiris NS 7.0 and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2. The search team weighed the relative strengths of each solution in a number of areas, including licensing and deployment costs, hierarchy capabilities, and software distribution and update management features.

Seized a Unique Testing and Training OpportunityIn November 2009, Partners HealthCare took advantage of an offer to attend a Proof-of-Concept workshop at the Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) in Boston, Massachusetts. Microsoft Technology Centers provide a collaborative

lab environment that offers IT professionals an opportunity to test Microsoft solutions in close consultation with experts, who can assist with best practices guidance and product roadmap information. The infrastructure design team spent a week working with MTC architects and Specialist Team Unit (STU) professionals to map features in System Center Configuration Manager to comparable tools in the organization’s Altiris solution. “The Proof-of-Concept workshop gave us a chance to learn from the experts about how different features work and how we could best apply the solution in our environment to handle tasks like image deployment,” says Burrows. “For the week we spent onsite at the MTC, we saved at least two weeks of training time.”

Extended the Value of Existing Technology InvestmentsThroughout the evaluation period, executives emphasized the importance of capitalizing on existing infrastructure investments to shorten the length of the deployment and hold down acquisition costs. For several years, the server management team at Partners HealthCare had relied on System Center Configuration Manager to centralize such functions as capacity planning, server application distribution, and service-level compliance management in its data center environment. “Partners HealthCare had already acquired the licenses for System Center Configuration Manager, which represented a significant savings over what we would need to pay to upgrade our Altiris solution,” says Stoyanov.

Installed the Client Software

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In the spring of 2010, Partners HealthCare engaged with Microsoft Services to plan the rollout of the client components for System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2. Experts from Microsoft teamed with the organization’s client infrastructure design team to architect the sites and hierarchy structure for the deployment. They then set up a lab environment onsite at Partners HealthCare to test a scaled-down version of the hierarchy model. “We needed to see how hierarchy worked using our clients and devices on our network, so we could pinpoint any potential complications before a production rollout,” says Burrows. “Because of our work at the MTC, we were able to optimize the time we spent with the Microsoft Services team. Instead of spending time testing out features, we could focus entirely on getting the mechanics of the deployment down.”

In September 2010, the organization began the process of deploying the client and agent components of the solution to all 42,000 of its computers and devices. At the same time, the IT team initiated the removal of Altiris NS 6.0 from the organization’s desktop environment. “The cutover to System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 was amazingly smooth,” says Burrows. “We completed the whole process in about eight weeks and most users were completely unaware that we’d gone through the process.”

Streamlined Systems Management Partners HealthCare is taking advantage of several features of System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 to simplify its client monitoring infrastructure, which helps desktop administrators save time on daily tasks. “System Center Configuration

Manager integrates seamlessly with the operating system components on our Windows clients, so we don’t have to push out additional software to handle some of the more routine updates,” says Burrows. “And, we get all of our Windows updates directly from Microsoft on patch Tuesday, which means there’s no delay in testing to see if they applied correctly on all of our computers.”

In addition, because the solution incorporates a health monitoring service, Burrows and his team gain insight into the performance of the management agent installed on each computer. The team also uses hierarchy in the solution to simplify software distribution and other tasks. “Now, instead of replicating operations across three different servers, we perform operations once and they flow through the hierarchy,” says Burrows.

The organization is currently evaluating whether to upgrade to Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3. The client infrastructure design team is eager to access such functionality as built-in power management and the ability to create a collection of compliant or noncompliant computers using Desired Configuration Management from within the administrator console.

BenefitsBy implementing Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2, Partners Healthcare achieved substantial savings through cost avoidance related to licensing, as well as the training that its IT staff received at the MTC. The client infrastructure design team now uses built-in components in the solution to save time

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on management tasks and gain enhanced management over the organization’s desktop environment.

Partners HealthCare also benefits from greater agility by consolidating on a single platform to manage all its IT assets. “When we examined all the factors, it became clear that System Center Configuration Manager is the right fit for our environment and offers the best overall value in terms of total cost of ownership,” says Aherne.

Saves $325,000 on Licensing and Training CostsPartners HealthCare would have needed to purchase additional licenses to upgrade its Altiris client solution. The organization avoided U.S.$300,000 in direct costs for 2010 by moving to the Microsoft solution. And, as it evaluates upgrading to System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3 to access built-in power management functionality, Partners HealthCare estimates additional savings by retiring the Verdiem power management software it currently uses.

In addition, Partners HealthCare had already been using System Center Configuration Manager to handle server management. Today, they can take advantage of existing expertise by using the same tools to manage both servers and desktops. And, Aherne estimates that the IT team saved approximately U.S.$25,000 through the customized training it received at the MTC, “We easily saved 80 hours of training time, which translates into a significant cost savings, not to mention the value of the knowledge transfer we received from working closely with the

product experts for a full week,” Aherne says.

Simplifies Management of PCsThe IT team saves time by using hierarchy capabilities in the solution, along with the tight interoperability between the client management software and the Windows operating system that runs on the majority of the organization’s computers. “With System Center Configuration Manager, more operations are handled through the operating system, which means we have fewer agents running on our clients,” says Burrows. “We spend less time on system maintenance because we don’t have to manage as many agents per client.” Partners HealthCare also takes advantage of faster distribution of update packages, and uses the built-in health monitoring agent to proactively assess the performance of client management components.

Boosts Agility of IT Operations Beyond cost and time savings benefits, the organization’s move to System Center Configuration Manager gives it greater agility in moving forward with important IT initiatives, such as remote imaging and application virtualization. “System Center Configuration Manager is the foundation for our desktop management strategy,” says Aherne. “For example, we’re looking into the possibility of using the solution to realize a no-touch remote image, which would save us about 5,000 hours a year. We’re just scratching the surface in terms of what we’ll be able to do and we’re excited about all of the flexibility that we have with System Center Configuration Manager going forward.”

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“For the week we spent onsite at the MTC, we saved at least two weeks of training.”

Rick Burrows, Team Lead, Client Infrastructure Design Group,

Partners HealthCare

Microsoft Infrastructure OptimizationWith infrastructure optimization, you can build a secure, well-managed, and dynamic core IT infrastructure that can reduce overall IT costs, make better use of resources, and become a strategic asset for the business. The Infrastructure Optimization model—with basic, standardized, rationalized, and dynamic levels—was developed by Microsoft using industry best practices and Microsoft’s own experiences with enterprise customers. The Infrastructure Optimization model provides a maturity framework that is flexible and easily used as a benchmark for technical capability and business value.

For more information about Microsoft infrastructure optimization, go to:www.microsoft.com/io

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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 Partners Healthcare products and services, call (617) 726-2142 or visit the website at: www.partners.org

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

Document published March 2011

Software and Services Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Microsoft System Center

Configuration Manager R2

Services− Microsoft Technology Centers