Preparing to Deploy Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System at Microsoft

Technical Solution Brief

Published: December 1, 2006

Microsoft Information Technology (Microsoft IT) had to prepare for the deployment of Windows Vista™ and the 2007 Microsoft® Office system to more than 90,000 desktop computers worldwide. To manage the deployment process, Microsoft IT created a collaborative plan that reflected its previous deployment experiences and ever-maturing deployment methodology.

The release of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system delivers major improvements in user productivity; important new capabilities for software developers; and significant advances in collaboration, security, deployment, and reliability.

Microsoft, like any organization planning to deploy both a new operating system and a new suite of productivity applications, faced a few challenges. Microsoft had to ensure that the deployment process caused only minimal disruption and returned maximum efficiency, that corporate applications were able to interoperate smoothly with Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system, and that end users were trained to use the features and functionality.

This solution brief describes some of the collaborative programs and processes that Microsoft IT used to deploy Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system at Microsoft. This paper can serve as a model for planning an organization's upgrade to Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system. It is intended for chief information officers, IT directors, solution architects, and technical decision makers who plan to deploy Windows Vista on their organizations' desktop computers.

Situation

Microsoft IT provides global IT services to more than 400 locations in more than 80 countries and regions. These services include server and network operations, end-user technical support, and software deployment. On average, each Microsoft user employs three desktop computers in various roles ranging from daily operations (e-mail and Microsoft Office applications) to code development and product testing.

Microsoft IT needed to deploy Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system to more than 90,000 Microsoft desktop computers worldwide and needed to create a strategic deployment plan that would minimize the costs and risks associated with a major deployment effort.

Solution

Microsoft IT established a collaborative deployment program to coordinate the activities of the various teams working on the deployment. Microsoft IT first examined all of the potential impacts of deployment. It then identified key areas in which it could create programs and processes that would help minimize the disruption to normal business workflow by:

• Testing corporate applications and hardware standards to ensure that the computing environment was ready for deployment.

• Preparing the support teams to support the new products.

• Educating end users about the deployment process and new features and functionalities that promote productivity.

The program identified the following focus areas for the deployment plan:

• Program management

• Application compatibility

• Hardware readiness

• Deployment process

• Support

• User education

• Communications

The sections that follow describe how the program managed these areas.

Program Management

Microsoft IT needed a program management team to plan, implement, and manage the deployment processes. It identified the groups at Microsoft required to handle each of the program's components, set the deployment goals of each group, and managed the coordination of the groups' activities.

The program management team spent several months planning the deployment. The team looked deep into the organization and infrastructure to identify and address every possible issue. This preparation enabled the team to anticipate risks and create a comprehensive and successful deployment plan.

The program management team consisted of both project managers and technical experts. The technical experts were important to ensure that the deployment was efficient. They had a technical understanding of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system and were able to guide decisions and anticipate potential issues. More specifically, infrastructure experts were put in charge of defining and addressing infrastructure issues, and security experts were put in charge of defining and addressing security issues.

To realize the full benefit of improved features in the new products, the program management team needed to adapt elements of the IT environment. The technical experts determined the effect that new and improved features would have on the Microsoft IT environment, planned the needed modifications, and put the modifications in place before the deployment started.

Application Compatibility

Line-of-business (LOB) applications are computer applications that are vital to running the enterprise, such as accounting, expense reporting, procurement, and supply-chain management. A desktop operating system, like Windows Vista, interacts with virtually all of the LOB applications. To deploy Windows Vista, Microsoft IT had to take the following actions to ensure that its LOB applications could interoperate smoothly with the new desktop operating system:

• Identify critical LOB applications.

• Test key user scenarios and functionality.

• Report compatibility issues as early as possible.

To design, implement, and manage application compatibility testing, Microsoft IT set up the Windows Vista LOB Application Compatibility Testing Program. Under the program, each LOB application was tested with Windows Vista under real-world conditions. This testing revealed any compatibility problems, which were then addressed by the IT organization that owned the LOB application.

The high-level steps that Microsoft IT took to set up the Windows Vista LOB Application Compatibility Testing Program were:

1. Establish goals and objectives.

2. Develop the program management plan.

3. Select the LOB applications to be tested.

4. Prioritize the LOB applications to be tested.

5. Establish communications channels.

6. Create a reporting tool.

7. Build the real-world testing environment.

8. Execute the testing program.

Note: For a more complete description of the testing program, see the Microsoft IT Showcase technical case study "Application Compatibility Testing for Windows Vista".

Hardware Readiness

As with all new operating systems, the hardware requirements for Window Vista differ from those of its predecessor. However, different versions of Windows Vista have different hardware requirements. Microsoft IT had to ensure that each end user's desktop system met the requirements for whichever version of Windows Vista that user would install.

Microsoft IT developed four hardware specifications for computers running Windows Vista. In descending order of power, the specifications are: Workstation, Performance, Mainstream, and Value. Each specification has a baseline system description, consisting of processor, number of processors, number of cores, video card, memory configuration, hard disk drive configuration, and optical drive configuration. Optional configuration items are listed for type of processor, memory upgrades, video upgrades, optical drive types, and hard disk drive upgrades.

Hardware vendors can offer computers with a Windows Vista-ready logo in two performance categories. The Windows Vista Capable logo identifies hardware that meets or exceeds the requirements to deliver the Windows Vista core experiences, such as the new features in security, reliability, and organizing and finding information. All Windows Vista Capable computers can run these core experiences, at a minimum. Some premium features may require advanced or additional hardware. The Windows Vista Premium Ready logo identifies hardware that can deliver premium experiences, such as Windows® Aero™, which provides visual effects such as glasslike interface elements.

Note: For detailed hardware requirements for Windows Vista, see Windows Vista Hardware Guidance at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/evaluate/hardware/default.mspx.

Deployment Process

Although Microsoft IT manages its computers to a very tight security baseline, the complex network environment includes both managed and unmanaged workstations. Because many users need the flexibility to install a variety of Windows operating system versions and applications to develop and test Microsoft products, Microsoft IT allows many users to have full administrative rights on their computers. However, Microsoft IT retains control over the configurations and settings that provide security or manage general productivity improvements.

Although teams within Microsoft IT migrated managed systems to Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system in a controlled fashion, Microsoft IT provided users of unmanaged systems a self-host process to install at a time that is most convenient for them. Microsoft IT provided users with clear and accurate upgrade and new installation instructions to aid them in their selection of installation method and to walk them through the process.

Microsoft IT also provided users of unmanaged systems with the ability to install or upgrade to Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system together or separately.

Note: For information about the features in Windows Vista that can help streamline deployment, including Image-Based Setup through the new Windows Imaging (WIM) file format (which provides a consistent setup experience regardless of the deployment mechanism), Windows Deployment Services, and Multilingual User Interface Pack (MUI) support (which enables many language support packages to be associated with a single image), visit the Microsoft TechNet Desktop Deployment Center at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopdeployment/default.mspx.

Support

Proper deployment planning and implementation, and the provision of intuitive self-help tools, should reduce the need for technical support. However, deploying new software within any organization will surely generate some need for technical support. Before deployment of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Microsoft IT developed a support plan that included an escalation plan to deal with expected support calls and a training plan to ensure that support personnel were trained to handle users' questions.

Escalation Plan

As part of the escalation plan that Microsoft IT developed, the target for Tier 1 support was to resolve 85 percent of the support requests and to escalate unresolved requests to Tier 2 within 60 minutes. Tier 2 support, which handles the more complex issues like software or infrastructure problems, had resolution targets based on the priority of the support request—from four hours to five business days. The next two tiers of support at Microsoft involve software bugs and the product development team. At a customer site, these are issues that are referred to Microsoft customer support.

Training for Support Personnel

Microsoft IT carefully planned and scheduled training for support personnel. The plan identified the most common issues that the Helpdesk would handle and set up a standard course of training for the support technicians. The training was scheduled to be completed just prior to the rollout of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

Microsoft IT created a list of support articles and training materials that described the issues and features that the technicians needed to understand. Those materials were used to create training presentations that subject matter experts used to train support trainers. Those trainers then returned to the support teams to train support personnel on each feature and issue.

After the initial training, while the deployment was in progress, support personnel received updates in the form of:

• Email communications regarding functional or deployment differences between IT supported Vista versions.

• New primus articles for any support issues (sometimes accompanied by an email communication, depending on the severity or frequency of occurrence).

Frequent meetings of designated support personnel (representing desk-side support, tier 1 call center, and tier 2) and deployment managers ensured that proper troubleshooting and escalation steps were defined and followed. Resolutions to issues were published in support articles, which could be searched and retrieved by support technicians.

User Education

The more users are educated about Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system before deployment, the fewer support requests will be generated and the less time users will need to familiarize themselves with the products. To minimize disruption during and after deployment, Microsoft IT developed and implemented a comprehensive plan for providing users with clear and comprehensive installation instructions and how-to instructions. To maximize productivity after deployment, Microsoft IT provided several methods of guidance to help users use the new features and functionality in Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system. In addition to targeted e-mail that Microsoft IT and company executives sent to users at Microsoft, the delivery methods described in the following sections informed and educated users.

Internal Web Sites

Microsoft IT created and continues to maintain internal Web sites to provide targeted information to users who install Window Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system. The Web sites include product information, links to resources and support, frequently asked questions, known issues with technical workarounds, results of application compatibility tests, and pre-installation and post-installation information. The internal sites prominently feature information about hardware requirements, migrating files and settings, and installation instructions.

Feedback

Microsoft IT created a feedback Web site to outline key deployment scenarios and experiences. Users can browse to this site to both rate the experience and provide anecdotal comments. The feedback improves the installation instructions and the customized installation image, and it adds to or clarifies educational content.

Online Self-Help

Microsoft IT created an internal resource that employees can use to research help articles to fix their problems. This Web site includes links to Windows Vista Help and Support Center and specific articles that solve typical problems.

Newsletter

After the initial e-mail from company executives, Microsoft IT sent a newsletter in e-mail every three weeks. This newsletter included links to information that helped employees stay connected, ensure that their needs were met, and resolve any issues. The newsletter outlined any actions that users needed to take, along with deployment status, tips, and links to the same information that the product Web site contains.

Enterprise Learning Framework

The Enterprise Learning Framework (ELF) tool is a Web-based tool that helps organizations develop a training and communication plan for employees during the deployment of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system. The ELF identifies the most relevant learning topics in Windows Online Help and Support and Office Online for the different stages of deployment and different types of users.

Through previous experience and research, Microsoft has learned that effective education and training must be tailored to a wide range of user needs. The training must be focused on educating users about Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system and helping them evaluate the features that are most likely improve their individual productivity. Some users require learning content with a lot of guidance, designed around the early stages of knowledge adoption. However, more users these days are more experienced and require learning content delivered in shorter pieces and on an as-needed basis.

The ELF provides the content in very short topics that take only a few minutes each. The Windows content comes primarily from Windows Online Help and Support. From several thousand Windows Online Help and Support topics, the ELF organizes the 150 topics of special interest to enterprise information workers and places them on a timeline. The ELF also includes content for the 2007 Microsoft Office system, primarily from Office Online. The ELF is freely available and does not require users to log on.

Note: The ELF is part of the Microsoft Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD), which is available on the TechNet Desktop Deployment Center. For more information about the ELF, refer to http://www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopdeployment/bdd/elf/welcome.aspx.

In addition, Microsoft provides a huge breadth and depth of externally available learning content for information workers: e-learning from the Microsoft Learning division, extensive Help systems, books, and training courses delivered by Microsoft partners. Some of the learning tools for Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system are:

• Completely redesigned Help systems

• Windows Online Help and Support

• Tips & Tricks for Windows Vista

• Everyday Productivity Education (EPE) reference guides

All of these new resources are available to customers at no cost. The sections that follow describe these resources.

Windows Vista Redesigned Help System

For Windows Vista, all previous Help topics were literally discarded, and Help was rewritten with a non-technical, approachable tone, augmented with graphics. The new Help topics focus on areas that, proven by statistical research, have received the most user inquiries, and on important learning areas for new features. The search system for Help has also been greatly improved. The dramatic overall improvements in Help make the topics suitable for use as learning and training content.

Windows Online Help and Support

New for Windows Vista, Windows Online Help and Support includes all of the Help topics that are delivered with Windows Vista, plus some additional articles and access to community resources. Windows Online Help and Support provides the most up-to-date content, including new topics that the Windows writing team produces in response to customer needs.

Tips & Tricks for Windows Vista

The Tips & Tricks for Windows Vista Web site includes a freely available scripted demo session, which runs 45-60 minutes. It demonstrates the most important new features for information workers and is ideal for a lunch-and-learn format.

Note: Tips & Tricks for Windows Vista is available at http://www.windowsvistatnt.com.

EPE Reference Guides

The Microsoft EPE team produced reference guides for Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system. The EPE team published the reference guides internally and then made them available to users to provide guidance on best practices and features.

Note: EPE reference guides are available at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itshowcase/epe.mspx.

Communications

Through previous experience, Microsoft IT learned that effective communication is essential in large deployment projects. Microsoft IT decided to employ a multifaceted communications approach to ensure that program participants, stakeholders, and end users received the information and training that they needed.

Program Communications

The program communications team kept all team members up to date on the project details. Project managers brought information back to the team from higher-level meetings to ensure that the decisions that they made aligned with others across the departments. Regular e-mail provided information to participants, and project Web sites contained the latest project information.

In addition to the usual program documentation and meetings, the program communications team used targeted user e-mail and ITWeb, the Microsoft IT self-help support portal, to facilitate communications with program participants and stakeholders regarding goals, priorities, timelines, and objectives of the Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system deployments. The ITWeb site was especially useful to communicate project status.

End User Communications

For a deployment of the scale required for Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system, the deployment teams must first build awareness and excitement about the upcoming deployment among all participating personnel. The deployment team must then set the expectations with end users about what is required from each of them for the deployment.

Microsoft IT's end users are in diverse job roles that include developers, testers, analysts, engineers, support groups, and administrative groups. An important focus of early program communications was to educate users on where their job roles fit in to the deployment program.

The program communications group used both "push" and "pull" methods. Email messages and newsletters "pushed" new information to end users. The e-mail messages referred participants to pages on ITWeb, where they could "pull" installation instructions, educational materials, and project news.

After the initial email communication introducing the Windows Vista deployment program, the end users began receiving a regular newsletter about the program. The newsletter contained:

• Product information, including what was new and what had changed.

• Links to training resources.

• Pre-installation information, including hardware compatibility checks and how to migrate files and settings.

• Installation instructions based on which operating system a user's computer was currently running.

• Post-installation configuration information to help users minimize downtime.

• Customer support resources and instructions for reporting issues about the product.

Best Practices

After planning and implementing internal deployments of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Microsoft IT has identified a number of best practices that may be valuable to other organizations.

Program Management

The best practices for program management include:

• Dedicate the time and resources required to develop a detailed and comprehensive deployment plan. The work invested at the planning stage pays back in reduced costs and reduced disruption.

• Extensively document deployment planning and the execution of the plan. If employees change positions or leave the organization, replacements will be able to learn quickly. This documentation also provides a historical record for future system upgrades.

• Perform the deployment based on the plan. Going outside the parameters of the plan can easily cause increased costs and disruption.

• When planning deployments around LOB applications, be sure to construct a schedule with enough flexibility to handle unexpected results from the LOB application compatibility testing.

• Identify a person for each program component to serve as a point of contact for all communication and coordination regarding that component.

Hardware

The best practices for hardware include:

• Be aware of Windows Vista minimum hardware requirements and make them the corporate standard for new desktop computers. This action helps ensure that workstations have enough disk space to install Windows Vista and that new features, such as Microsoft BitLocker™ drive encryption, can be used to their full advantage.

• For gradual migrations, align deployment cycles with hardware provisioning ones to save both time and effort.

Deployment

The best practices for deployment include:

• Make the end-user experience of Windows Vista installation as simple as possible. This strategy will require careful technical preparation, but it will pay back in reduced support requests and reduced deployment disruption.

• If the deployment will be gradual, plan for the coexistence of Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista, taking care not to break the existing infrastructure.

• If the 2007 Microsoft Office system and Windows Vista will be deployed together, plan the coordination of the installation images for the different languages.

• Deploy a Key Management server to implement volume licensing. This technique creates a better user experience by eliminating the need to acquire a product key prior to installation and reduces license management expense.

Helpdesk Training

If an organization is planning a gradual migration to Windows Vista, it should plan to provide support for all operating systems that will be in use during the migration cycle.

Communications

Deployment teams should establish regular communication methods, and they must be able to communicate quickly when problems arise. To accomplish this, Microsoft IT recommends using the following communication methods:

• Project Web site. The deployment team at Microsoft created a team site that contained all of the project details and documentation. The site included deployment schedules, meeting minutes, status updates, problem resolution processes, and other information related to the deployment.

• Regular status reports. The deployment team at Microsoft sent regular status reports to all stakeholders. These e-mail messages discussed project issues, action items, and metrics related to the deployment, and provided a link to project plans.

• Weekly meetings. The deployment team at Microsoft had meetings each week to monitor the deployment across all teams. A representative attended from each team that was involved in the deployment.

• Quarterly reviews. The deployment team at Microsoft held quarterly reviews with stakeholders and executives to communicate deployment progress and make key decisions.

• Targeted e-mail communication. E-mail communications are most effective when they are relevant to the end user.

Benefits

The benefits of the preparing for the deployment of Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system helped Microsoft IT achieve its three major goals:

• Minimize the costs of deployment.

  Using self-host installation methods eliminated the need for IT personnel to visit each computer being upgraded. Comprehensive pre-deployment planning and executing the deployment according to the plan ensured maximum efficiency. Pre-deployment communications and training minimized the need for support.

• Minimize the disruption to normal business workflow caused by deployment.

  User-driven installation methods enabled end users to schedule the upgrade or installation during a time that would least disrupt normal workflow. Comprehensive communications and readily available installation information and instructions made the end-user installation process quick and easy. Pre-deployment training minimized the time required for end users to become productive on Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system.

• Maximize the end users' productivity gains through new features and functions.

  Comprehensive end-user training, facilitated by numerous, freely available Microsoft training tools, helped end users to realize the productivity gains enabled by the new features and functions available in Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

Conclusion

Microsoft IT pre-planned all phases of it's collaborative effort for the deployment of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system to the tens of thousands of unmanaged workstations in the Microsoft organization. Careful planning, training the deployment teams, educating end users, and using the latest deployment technologies helped Microsoft IT to achieve all the goals of the deployment program.

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products or services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada information Centre at (800) 563-9048. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information via the World Wide Web, go to:

http://www.microsoft.com

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itshowcase