Microsoft Customer SolutionCustomer Solution Case Study

Rama First Nation delivers standardized PC experience with Windows® 7 Enterprise

OverviewCountry or Region: CanadaIndustry: Government

Customer ProfileLocated 90 minutes north of Toronto, the Chippewas of Rama First Nation is a proud and progressive First Nation community and is home to Casino Rama, a major tourism destination, which attracts more than 11,000 visitors daily to the region.

Business SituationRama First Nation wanted to standardize its operation system image in an effort to make PC management more efficient.

SolutionRama First Nation upgraded to the Windows 7 Enterprise operating system across its entire government organization.

Benefits Enhanced IT security Simplified IT management Improved staff productivity

“Based on staff feedback, Windows 7 Enterprise has been faster and more responsive compared to the previous environment. A few minutes saved on start-up definitely add up over time and staff are now able to utilize applications faster than before.”

Bill Craig, Rama’s Information Systems Manager

The Chippewas of Rama First Nation is a proud and progressive First Nation community. Rama First Nation has a history in the area which dates back to the 1830’s. The community operates a number of businesses including the Ojibway Bay Marina, Rama Country Market and Shell Gas Station, and is home to Casino Rama, a major tourism destination which attracts more than 11,000 visitors per day to the region.The Rama First Nation government offices feature more than 400 department employees who are responsible for community programs and basic services such as police, fire department, schools and public works and maintenance. In an effort to optimize its client computing environment, the government decided to standardize its operating system. In 2010, Rama upgraded to the Windows 7 Enterprise operating system. The IT benefits now include enhanced security and simplified maintenance. Today, the new environment has resulted in improved employee productivity; Rama estimates it is saving between 25 to 35 per cent as a result.

SituationLocated 90 minutes north of Toronto, the Chippewas of Rama First Nation is a proud and progressive First Nation community. Throughout its history, the Chippewas community has been known as “the gathering place,” where travellers rested before continuing on their journey and where great meetings were held and important agreements signed. Today, Rama First Nation is a thriving 1,600 member community, which operates a number of business enterprises including the Ojibway Bay Marina and Rama Country Market and Shell Gas Station, and is home to Casino Rama, which attracts more than 11,000 visitors to the region daily.

The Rama First Nation government consists of an elected Chief and six Councillors . The government offices feature more than 400 department employees who are responsible for community programs and basic services such as police, fire department, schools, public works and maintenance. The Rama Government has been able to develop and execute a vision that focuses on empowering the Chippewas people through education, cultural programs and strong community management.

Rama’s IT department is responsible for maintaining the technology infrastructure and productivity tools employees require to fulfill the day-to-day tasks for running the government organization. According to Bill Craig, Rama’s information systems manager, Rama First Nation was undergoing a desktop and notebook hardware refresh and wanted to standardize its operating system environment as a way to simplify PC

management and increase IT help-desk efficiency.

The First Nation Government employees had previously used the Windows® XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) operating system. Over time, new computing hardware was introduced and the software environment grew to one with not only multiple images of the same operating system, but multiple versions of the Windows operating system to support. This created a complicated and time consuming environment for the IT team to manage. The IT team also found that it was spending considerable time and energy supporting older OEM software and device drivers for Windows XP as it refreshed its PC hardware.

“We were looking to improve employee productivity and PC security with a new operating system, one that could help staff to be more efficient in their day-to-day duties and ensure a more secure and consistent computing experience,” says Craig.

SolutionIn late 2010, Rama’s IT team deployed the Windows 7 Enterprise operating system across their environment of 200+ PCs. Rama also implemented Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V), which is part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP). The government organization plans to use App-V to help resolve any potential application compatibility issues in the future. For instance, they are considering upgrading from Microsoft® Office 2007 Enterprise to Office Professional Plus 2010 and plan to use App-V to stream the 2007 version of

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the productivity software to employees during the upgrade process, in an effort to alleviate any issues that might impact productivity. The government organization also has plans to migrate its server operating systems to Windows Server® 2008 R2.

Windows 7 Enterprise features DirectAccess, which improves how Rama’s mobile and remote employees connect to the network. Users can now be connected to the network and securely access corporate data anytime they access an Internet connection; this also helps ensure that company computers receive critical software updates, virus definitions, and Group Policy updates even when they are not connected to the VPN.

The IT team is planning to implement BitLocker for full-volume drive encryption on its portable computers, helping to safeguard confidential business data in the event of a lost or stolen computer. In addition, Rama First Nations is evaluating BitLocker To Go for enhanced security on its removable storage devices. Rama is also taking advantage Windows Troubleshooting, a feature in Windows 7 Enterprise that uses built-in troubleshooting scripts to automatically pinpoint and fix common hardware, network and Internet problems. The printing troubleshooting script, for example, helps staff quickly resolve problems with local and networked printers, such as removing a job that’s stuck in the print queue. In addition, the power efficiency troubleshooter helps the IT team quickly test to determine the storage capacity on PC batteries, which helps the

organization be proactive in replacing a battery that’s near the end of its useful life.

BenefitsRama First Nation is benefiting from a reliable PC environment as a result of deploying Windows 7 Enterprise as its standard operating system. Using Windows 7 Enterprise helps the government organization simplify IT management, reduce costs and improve employee productivity.

Rama First Nation estimates it has cut its PC management costs by 25 to 45 per cent as a result of standardizing the PC environment on Windows 7 Enterprise.

Improved staff productivityThe federated search capability of Windows 7 Enterprise helps employees quickly find the work documents and information they need. Staff can rely on a single federated search to quickly find pertinent information – whether it is on an individual’s PC or on a corporate file share. Using the new search capabilities and features of Windows 7 Enterprise is helping Rama First Nation be more productive, providing faster and more relevant search results.

“The biggest benefits to us have been the overall improvement in usability and reliability, and the ability to easily resolve our application compatibility issues. Today, employees are more productive because PCs now all work the same way, and deliver consistently better performance than the old environment,” says Craig.

Enhanced IT security

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Rama First Nation is using several features of Windows 7 Enterprise to help enhance security. Previously, Rama First Nation had been using Group Policy to implement software restriction policies in Windows XP. By upgrading to Windows 7 Enterprise and implementing AppLocker, the government organization has maintained control over the applications it allows into its network environment.

By using the AppLocker feature in Windows 7 Enterprise, the IT team can easily specify what software is allowed to run on client computers through centrally managed, flexible Group Policy settings. This helps to reduce the need for time-consuming rule management tasks, notes Craig.

“Using Windows 7 Enterprise helps us have tighter control over any unwanted and unauthorized software being installed on our network. Ensuring better application control helps us be more proactive with our software management policies,” says Craig.

Simplified IT managementBy standardizing its operation system with a single image of Windows 7 Enterprise, Rama First Nation has been able to simplify IT management and reduce the average help-desk support time.

“Since implementing Windows 7 Enterprise, our IT department has seen a real reduction in system-related calls ,” says Craig, adding that staff now use the self-service functionality to handle issues themselves without contacting the IT helpdesk.

Enhanced PC speed and performance

The PC environment at Rama First Nations is also seeing an appreciable increase in computing performance. The improved PC performance is contributing to increased user productivity and satisfaction, notes Craig. The power management technologies built into Windows 7 Enterprise, such as performance optimization and idle-resource utilization, also help Rama First Nation improve its energy efficiency and reduce power consumption associated with running client computers.

Employees are no longer waiting one to two minutes before they can access desired applications, nor do they wait as long for applications to start. For programs that require Windows XP, staff can easily switch to the Windows XP Mode, a virtual Windows XP environment that allows staff to run these older applications right from their Windows 7 Enterprise desktop.

“Based on staff feedback, Windows 7 Enterprise has been faster and more responsive compared to the previous environment. A few minutes saved on start-up definitely add up over time and staff are now able to utilize applications faster than before,” says Craig.

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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 Chippewas of Rama First Nation products and services, visit the website at: http://www.ramafirstnation.ca/

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

Document published April 2011

Software and Services Windows 7 Enterprise