Ridgehill Housing Association

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Ridgehill Housing Association

As part of its ongoing relationship with RHA, Fujitsu proposed that the organisation migrate its infrastructure onto the Windows Server 2003 platform, with Microsoft Exchange 2003 for both internal and Internet e-mail.

Customer's Challenge

Ridgehill Housing Association (RHA), a founder member of the William Sutton Group, was formed in 1994 to take over the housing stock of Hertsmere Borough Council. Based in Borehamwood, RHA manages 5,500 homes for rent, shared ownership and right to buy leaseholders in South East Hertfordshire and employs over 180 staff.

RHA relies heavily on its IT systems to help pursue its number one goal of delivering excellent customer service. However, its existing Microsoft based platforms did not have sufficient functionality to support the future development of the organisation's business applications. So, RHA wanted to bring its infrastructure up to date with the latest technologies and products, while also protecting itself against the impending removal of support by Microsoft for the Windows NT 4 operating system.

Nick Hoare, IT Team Leader, RHA, explains, “Our systems were working well, but we hadn't upgraded our domain for nearly seven years. So we were keen to benefit from the latest advances in the Microsoft product set, like Active Directory, in order to manage our business more efficiently and provide the necessary tools to support future business development.”

Fujitsu's Solution

As part of its ongoing relationship with RHA, Fujitsu proposed that the organisation migrate its infrastructure onto the Windows Server 2003 platform, with Microsoft Exchange 2003 for both internal and Internet e-mail.

Nick Hoare comments, “We had already been looking at Windows Server 2003, but Fujitsu has always done us proud on any consultancy or technical advice, so when they advised us that the move was the right step to make and could be achieved seamlessly it was very reassuring.”

In order to ensure a smooth transition to the new platform, while also fully exploiting its extra functionality, Fujitsu adopted a four stage migration methodology covering the evaluation, design, testing and implementation of the Windows Server 2003 system.

The initial high level design was based on a review of RHA's existing infrastructure, including the Windows NT4 network, Windows Exchange 5.5 e-mail system, Citrix MetaFrame XP 'thin client' desktop platform, CheckPoint Firewall-1 software, and e-mail and content filtering systems, and the agreement of functional requirements, such as security levels and user management policies.

“Fujitsu's scoping study outlined everything that we needed to consider,” says Nick Hoare, “with recommendations on the hardware and software and possible approaches that we could take to the implementation. Not only did it give us some valuable new ideas that we had not thought of, but Fujitsu's design for the Windows Server 2003 infrastructure was also much more secure that we had originally envisaged.”

Once RHA had approved the high level design, Fujitsu then developed the detailed design, before rolling out the solution across RHA's headquarters and nine satellite offices and migrating its applications, data and e-mail systems onto the new platform.

“This was a major transition for us,” continues Nick Hoare, “because we had the whole company relying on us to deliver a service. However, the roll-out took just three weeks to complete and we continued to operate throughout as our systems were never down at any stage. Thanks to Fujitsu's excellent pre-planning and design we knew exactly what was due to happen, so the whole transition to Windows Server 2003 was painless for us and almost invisible to our users. And because Fujitsu listened to our needs and took on board our expectations, not only did we feel valued as a customer, but we got the solution that we wanted - plus some!

“With Fujitsu you are guaranteed to get professional consultants who know what they are doing, can achieve it with the minimum of fuss, and who care about how the project is left. We would always consider Fujitsu first for a new project before anyone else and I would have no qualms in recommending Fujitsu to another organisation that wanted to migrate to Windows Server 2003.”

Benefits to our Customer

With its new Windows Exchange 2003 and Windows Server 2003 infrastructure, hardware firewall and e-mail and content filtering applications, RHA is benefiting from:

• Future-proofed technology, allowing use of the latest applications and avoiding the need to upgrade systems in the near future
• Improved reliability, availability and scalability using the new Fujitsu Siemens Primergy TX300 platform as domain controllers and Exchange servers
• Reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), including simplified support and administration
• Tighter security and control with more sophisticated management of user identities, e-mail content and Internet usage
• Streamlined operation of the server infrastructure, with up to 30% greater efficiency
• Greater efficiency using Active Directory's centralised management of information and users and ISA Server's Internet caching
• Increased productivity with the advanced facilities for mobile working and file and print sharing
• Enhanced system performance of up to 450% compared to Windows NT4
• Faster information access by enabling rapid collaboration and access to the right applications.

Fujitsu's involvement in the planning, design and implementation of the migration has also enabled RHA to:

• Minimise impact on users by shortening migration timescales with effective project requirements analysis and planning
• Manage risk effectively by using proven project methodologies and exploiting Fujitsu's expertise and strategic relationship with Microsoft
• Minimise business disruption with effective phasing, system testing and seamless user migration
• Cost-effectively implement the new infrastructure using proven system build and migration tools
• Improve productivity by fully exploiting the advanced features of the systems.

Our Approach

One of RHA's major concerns was the need to avoid extended periods of interruption to services during the move to the new systems. However, Fujitsu's detailed planning and three phase implementation strategy, including the parallel running of the old and new operating systems during the initial transition phase, ensured that the migration went extremely smoothly and users were unaware of the complex changes that were being made to the infrastructure behind the scenes.

“Risk was a big factor for us,” explains Nick Hoare. “It was extremely important that the migration was smooth and rapid as we needed to ensure that our systems were up and running at all times. And that's exactly what did happen. But then that's why we employed Fujitsu, because we knew the risk would be properly managed - even if it meant providing us with advice on issues that were strictly outside of the agreed design.”

Our Expertise

Fujitsu has over 30 years experience in providing consultancy and project services to help organisations design, deploy and exploit advanced IT infrastructures and gain maximum benefit from the latest technologies. Fujitsu is also a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for both Enterprise Systems and Support, providing clients with the advantages of early and close involvement with Microsoft on new initiatives and products.

“Fujitsu's service may be more expensive than some companies, but you get what you pay for,” says Nick Hoare. “It's a real safety belt when you employ Fujitsu as I know that they will fix any problems that occur, even if it means working through the night. The people we dealt with on this project were absolutely superb, both in terms of their technical knowledge and personal skills, which enabled us to build a rapport very quickly. Their willingness to share their knowledge was also top notch as they were very forthcoming about what they were doing and why, and what we would need to do when they left, explaining things in a way that was easy to understand.”