June 12, 2019

Public Service Agency

Microsoft Consulting Services positions Agency for success with automation

Company Overview:

The Agency provides a range of services to the community including the provision of medical facilities and healthy living campaigns for over five million Australians.

Challenge:

The Agency needed to update the devices that were in use across the organisation and were running both outdated and unsupported operating systems. In order to ensure security updates and technical support would be available when needed, the Agency needed to migrate over 70,000 desktop PCs, and more than 6,000 types of applications, from Windows XP to Windows 7. Given the numbers involved, it was vital that the Agency could minimise manual processes and simplify the overall management and deployment of the new solution.

Solution:

The new solution leveraged Data#3’s partnership with Microsoft Consulting Services, to build a central application SQL data warehouse to collect application information. SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reports were built to manage the migration progress. Data#3 assigned a SQL and BI specialist to work collaboratively with the Agency’s team to understand the current warehouse status and what was needed for the extract, transform, load (ETL) and reporting.

Furthermore, SQL Server optimisation and configuration, along with refinement of the ETL database functions, were undertaken. The data model was enhanced to improve performance, with potential improvements identified by the development of complex queries and reports. A number of additional measures, such as index creation and building a performance optimisation and backup plan, were included to ensure the desired outcome could be achieved.

Outcome:

A stable, well-supported SQL environment has been created, not only to support the immediate project, but to support future development, testing and production activities.

The automated ETL functions delivered by the Data#3 and Microsoft alliance enable fast, up-to-date reporting. Business intelligence reports have been developed to encourage collaboration and sharing between branches of the service, reducing duplication and increasing efficiency.

As a result, the migration rate has been increased from 1000 PCs per week to 9000, so the project will be completed far sooner, and users will be better protected by working on updated machines.

Technology:

  • SQL Server
  • SQL Server Integration Service
  • Data Warehousing
  • Windows 7 Migration

“Increasing the migration rate nine-fold was a great outcome for the customer, saving them a lot of time that can now be better used on other projects and servicing their customers.”
Scott Gosling, National Practice Manager – Microsoft, Data#3 Limited