Be prepared – The key for Migration to Windows 7

Recently I was doing some research for a Windows 7 Migration Project. (The Migration will occur from Windows XP) and found a great Gartner research article titled: Prepare for Windows 7 in 3 phases.

The article key findings are as follows:

• Most Organizations will require between 12 to 18 months to achieve optimal preparation for a Windows 7 migration.
• Organizations that have tested or prepared for Vista could complete the preparation process in 12 months.

The Chart below shows the 3 different stages of the Migration according to Gartner

It is important, on the SMB space that companies that are still on the XP Platform to start looking into their migration strategies, Microsoft will end support of the XP platform by April of 2004, and most of the application vendors may also end application support to their applications even earlier than that.
Make sure that you keep the following key issues in perspective

• Create a Committee to outline the Project and the project timelines , and select a user base for your pilots that would represent different business areas, level of knowledge, geographies, etc . This will guarantee a smooth implementation phase.
• Create a detailed Inventory of your assets: hardware, software and processes.
• Make sure that your IT staff is properly trained on the new system capabilities and features and also on the new management capabilities that Windows brings to the table. Check the Microsoft springboard series at www.microsoft.com/springboard , there is a wealth of information and tools on different Windows 7 migrations key issues like:
• Deployment and Automation
• Application Compatibility
• Pilots
• Application virtualization and much more.
• Establish a Testing program
• Go over your licensing schemas not only for the OS but also for the Applications.
• Make sure that you have buy-in from your user base, instead of pushing down the update.
• Keep communication at all times with your users during the pilot phase

Adjusting Gartner’s Migration procedures to your own environments will help you better strategize and plan your Windows 7 migration.

Looking inside the IT help desk

It is well known that to have a healthy IT Organization, one of the most important aspects or at least one of the most visible ones is the IT Help Desk. The IT Help Desk is the windows to the outside world and your Organization will be measured in a larger fashion by the way your IT Help Desk performs.

The proper functioning of the IT Help Desk function is very well explained under frameworks such as ITIL and MOF. On this post I will mention some of the leading indicators that can be maintained to shed some light into the daily functioning of the Help Desk. (For more information visit the KPI Library).

• First Call resolution rate
  
• Percentage of first-tier resolution of help desk requests
  
• Average number of calls/help desk request per technician
  
• Percentage of closed request
  
• Percentage of overdue requests
  
• Percentage of escalated requests
  
• Percentage of reopened requests
  
• And many more
  

Note: A given time period is needed to measure these KPIs

By monitoring these indicators closely you will be able to better manage your help desk and be in a position to fix any issues that you might have, have an effective Help Desk and keep your customers satisfied.

Also, surveys are much recommended to get the user perspective as to what is the level of service that you are providing, and whether your level of support matches the expected level.
You can measure the Service Level Effectiveness as recommended by Gartner Business Value Model BVM as follows:

Service-Level Effectiveness = Surveyed users with >=90% satisfaction/Total No of surveyed users.

Your goal is to keep this indicator closest to a 100%.

Remember, it doesn't matter how well your Back end infrastructure and systems is running if you have problems with your Help Desk. The perception will always be that IT is not doing a good job. By measuring the above indicators, you will have a day-to-day view of the help desk operations and will be able to adjust accordingly instead of waiting until you perform a Survey to realize that something is not working as intended.

The role of the IT assessment

Often times technology organizations are out of sync with their business counterparts; in fact numerous studies have shown that the perception on IT has a different meaning according to the angle that it's viewed:
From the IT point of view, we always hear that they work really hard and are not being appreciated enough, not enough funds to invest in the right technologies, etc.
From the business point of view, the conversation is always around the fact there is a lot of money being spent, but the return on investment is not really clear.

To eliminate that perception, business goals and objectives have to be aligned with underlying technology solutions. IT real value is to provide solutions that will help the organization reach those goals and objectives. It is important for IT Managers to understand that to be effective the focus must be on business and not in technology.

There are a lot of mechanisms like IT governance or steering committees, architecture frameworks, etc. that work really well for large companies to provide that business-IT alignment, smaller companies with lesser resources can also perform the same tasks by conducting IT assessments.

Conducting an IT assessment focus on two very important issues:

• Identify business needs
  
• Determine whether or not IT in its presence state can deliver those business goals
  

By carrying out these assessments, you will have an idea of what your issues are and will be able to formulate strategies to address your critical and more strategic needs.