Application Mapping – Reinstallation during a Windows OS Migration for 12,000 PCs

Application Mapping automates and accelerates software reinstallation during Windows 7 migrations to deliver a better experience at reduced cost.
With the deadline of end of Microsoft Windows XP extended support approaching (April 2014), one 1E client realized it needed a robust solution to deliver its Windows 7 migration. At the same time it wanted to rationalize and standardize versions of all applications used across its 12,000-seat estate in 70 locations as well as remove any software that was not being used.
Using 1E solutions combined with Services from 1E consultants, the company was able to successfully migrate its entire estate to Microsoft Windows 7 in a few months. Users automatically got back only the applications they needed (based on their individual usage) in rationalized and updated versions resulting in satisfied users and reduced license costs.
“Using a combination of Shopping and AppClarity has resolved the issue where we had a significant number of software licenses being unused across the company. During the OS migration process, users have been left satisfied by the speedy migration process, delivered by Nomad, as they are left with all the applications that they expect to see, the data they use, as well as the personality of their machines, all without the normal hassle in upgrading computers.” – Manager of Engineering at 1E client

Standardizing versions for all software licenses across the enterprise

The timescales were beginning to matter especially as the company wanted to take advantage of the Operating System deployment opportunity to rationalize the number of software licenses as well as standardize application versions for users.
“For example, we had more than 12 different versions of Microsoft Office including 2003, Standard, Enterprise, Home and Student – in fact, every version of Office you can imagine,” explains the Manager of Engineering. “We do not have strict policies around who gets which applications. When we looked at it, taking two similar departments in different locations as an example, they do the same job, but each with different tools. People in similar roles have different applications installed. We needed a way to reimage them and give them back their applications without having a defined list of what they should have. Coming out of this on the other side, we wanted everybody to have the right applications that they need to be productive in their job. We based this on what they already had and used, but during the Operating System Deployment (OSD) they would get standardized (in many instances, upgraded) and supported versions of the software.”
With 12,000 users across 70 locations the company needed an automated zero-touch solution that could handle the OSD and ensure users have the new Windows 7 image and the applications they need as well as remove those that they are not using.
“1E came to us with an Application Mapping solution which leveraged AppClarity and Shopping along with some customization for our environment to complete the task.”

Automated rationalization

The ability for the company to be able to systematically rationalize applications using AppClarity was very important. AppClarity sits next to ConfigMgr which has a very rich data collection in relation to software, including software inventory, add/ remove programs, asset intelligence, software metering and similar data. It is a complex and laborious process to manually try to reconcile all that data into actionable information, even for a small subset of software. AppClarity’s automated analysis and its extensive software catalogue normalize ConfigMgr’s data, so administrators can easily see what software is installed as well as how it is categorized according to usage. This way all the application migration activities can focus on the applications that are most important to the organization.
“Our goal was to give users the newest version of an application and focus on the software that they actually use for their role,” says the Manager of Engineering. An Operating System (OS) migration is a golden opportunity to do aggressive rationalization and reclaim. Users expect to see a significant amount of change and a new user experience with the change in OS. And, adding usage to the mapping criteria means the organization can take advantage of this opportunity to reclaim unused software in order to save money.

Mapping the right apps across

“What we ended up with as core applications are the unlicensed apps like free Adobe Suite tools and the Office viewers. It was the licensed applications which were primarily the mapped applications that are not on every desktop.
“We used a method subjecting to analysis any software that was present on 50 machines or more. So we were able to narrow down the list of supported applications very quickly, and understand what the workload would be to package these applications and get them ready for deployment as part of the migration,” explains the Manager of Engineering.
All this automation around the application side marries the automation that Nomad has enabled for zero-touch deployment of Windows 7. The company has been able to roll out an average of 300/ 400 deployments per week with the BAU team.
“We have found that it’s between 80/ 100 deployments per site with a 1-2% bypass rate where we need to deploy specific hardware that we can’t find Windows 7 support for. We completed the migration for our entire estate in a matter of months. Without Nomad, AppClarity, Shopping, the Application Rationalization and Mapping functionality we would be nowhere near finishing the project.”