Overcoming Challanges As a Team - Migrating to Google Apps

Google Enterprise reached out to us regarding a University that was looking to move to Google Apps from Domino.  We met with our client and gathered the scope of the of the project which included moving approximately 15,000 students and faculty.  It also included some Single Sign-On (SSO) technology that needed to work with existing student systems.  SSO solutions are commonly used at the intranet level, but extending these solutions beyond the intranet and into the cloud has been problematic and has led to the proliferation of non-interoperable proprietary technologies.  Therefore, one of the challenges in creating Single Sign-On system for our client was using their existing student credentials for signing on without having to manage user-names and passwords within Google.

 

Our solution was to synchronize users from active client's directory into Google Apps using a LDAP sync and then implementing Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) to pass credentials.  SAML served as a standard for exchanging authentication and authorization between security domains; that is, between an identity provider, Google, and a service provider, our client. 

 

Using our client's existing web pages, we had to pass the credentials to Google and create the custom code in the background to take a user name and password from our client's website and pass it to Google to allow accreditation to occur.  We worked with their team to implement SAML and developed custom code in order for SAML to work with their existing student portals.

 

Our solution helped our client's end users to be able to access all services provided with the same user-name and password being able to log-in and access Google.  Our team, in collaboration with our client managed to successfully migrate directory services to Google without causing end user confusion.

 

Strategic Services Make us Part of the Team

Our client found us by reading about advantages of Managed Services for IT operations.  It also helped that through word of mouth they heard good things about us.  They reached out to us asking about helping them develop the next-generation technological platform and strategic planning to handle the next phases of growth and prevent business disruption as they scale.

 

Our strategic consultants stepped in and created an IT Steering Committee which analyzed our client's organization as a whole.  We created a Roadmap which itemized what our client had in place and what needed to be improved.  We associated each one of those strategic initiatives with their associated costs to deliver.  We then worked with our client to prioritize them as taking into consideration factors such as dependencies, risks and overall cost.  After reviewing our client's business strategy and assessing their environment, we developed a technology strategy to serve our client's immediate needs.  Our team assisted in building a five year IT budget that took into consideration the items that we had mapped out.  Clearly mapping these initiatives out enabled our team to have visibility over what had been accomplished, our client's budget, and where there was overspending so we could adjust quicly.  We also developed an IT Steering Committee composed of key members of our client's team. Under our leadership, this project management team oversaw the development of our plan that aligned with their strategic objectives.

 

During our initial engagement, our Strategic Services team created a technology strategy for low-maintenance, and cost-effective IT operations.  Using this strategy, we wanted to start by simplifying our clients messaging platform.  We helped them move from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps without a hitch.  Google Apps was immediately embraced by our client's employees and franchisees who were able to collaborate with each other no matter where they were.  Taking the same strategic approach, we also consolidated the technology infrastructure in other areas to reduce costs in much the same way.  Leveraging SaaS lowered our clients maintenance costs by over 80 percent by reducing the hardware footprint and its associated maintenance.  As our client grows, they do not need to make additional capital investments in infrastructure.  Using SaaS as a strategy, allows small and mid-size companies to have access to new technologies without blowing their IT budget.

 

Our ultimate goal for our client was to help them implement an solid infrastructure, to lay the foundation for growth.  We help our clients simplify IT operations so they would focus on what they do best.  As a result of our initial engagement, we have gained our client's confidence and respect in our ability to help them proactively meet their growth objectives using technology.  We have become their trusted advisor and technology leader and are proud to be a part of their team.

Moving from a Legacy Disconnect to Netsuite and the Cloud

Our client faced the problem of currently not having a customer support system and their Peachtree Accounting Software interconnected and talking to each other.  A solution to this problem was to leverage SaaS so access to this data would be easy from anywhere.  As a result, our client found Netsuite, an CRM/ERP application in the cloud.  Netsuite reached out to us for our implementation expertise, this is how we connected with this client. Once we engaged with the customer, we realized the importance of taking time to understand our customer’s business needs and processes first.  We interviewed their management team to understand the ways they serve their customers.  This enabled us to design a implementation strategy for improving our client’s business.

Our team first brought in a CFO for hire that helped architect accounting system and create the chart of accounts.  During the fact finding process we also realized the importance of revenue recognition. Therefore, we implemented Netsuite Module that allowed for this accounting functionality.  Our team set up and trained our client on how to use the Netsuite.  The net result was a hosted ERP/CRM application in the cloud, which overcame the challenge of not having customer and financial programs connected. Robust features enabled managing customers more effectively and displaying customer related information, including past orders and recent payments.  This exceptional functionality has given our client’s employees the ability to work faster and smarter to serve their customers better.  For example, if our client is providing customer support, their team can take a look at financials of their customer at the same time. 

Netsuite also improved payroll processing.  One of the challenges we encountered was that employees had their own way of doing expense reports that was very traditional and set in the company culture.  Employees are often resistant to change, thus the transition from the old to new system might be a challenge.  What we learned from our experience is that in order to bridge the gap between the old business processes and the actual implementation of new platform, it that it is not necessary to change the ways things are done; we just need to make sure that existing strategies work within the new platform.  By taking this approach we improved our client’s payroll processing time, and overcame the resistance of change of our client’s employees.