Microsoft Consulting Services and partner BT INS help Methodist migrate 6,500 workstations to Active Directory without a hitch.

REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft Corp. today announced that Memphis, Tenn.-based Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare has completed its migration to Microsoft’s technology platform — including Windows Server 2003 Active Directory and Systems Management Server 2003 — helping the third-largest privately held hospital system in the United States simplify its IT infrastructure and save money.

Methodist is an integrated healthcare delivery system employing more than 10,000 associates and admitting over 63,000 patients per year. Previously, the healthcare system had operated in a Novell-based environment. It migrated to Microsoft’s platform to help lower its IT costs and decrease complexity in its environment. By putting Microsoft software in place, Methodist can better manage its core infrastructure capabilities — such as administering groups, deploying desktops and managing permissions — as well as lower its overall IT costs.

As part of the project, Methodist deployed Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003, System Center Operations Manager 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. It also converted all its file and print servers to Windows-based technologies. The migration work was jointly performed by Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) and BT INS Inc., a leading provider of IT consulting and software solutions.

“This project was one of the most smoothly run and error-free IT projects that we have ever experienced,” said Andrew Fowler, senior vice president and chief information officer of Methodist Healthcare. “It’s a rare pleasure when you can roll out a project of this magnitude on time and on budget. This migration impacted nearly all of our associates, yet I didn’t hear a single negative comment or complaint from anyone in the organization.”

Project highlights include the following:

Utilizing Microsoft Active Directory to improve operational and configuration issues in Methodist’s existing environment, and moving to the Windows Server 2003 technology set

Deploying SMS clients to 95 percent of the known systems in the environment

Migrating private and Novell GroupWise archive data while establishing a repeatable process to complete the remainder of the migration

Completely migrating and removing Novell dependencies on 6,500 workstations

Migrating 100 percent of the printers to a new, highly available, Windows-based print cluster

“By migrating to Microsoft software, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare will benefit from using a familiar, easy-to-use and widely supported platform that can grow with its business and maintain flexibility to address changing customer needs,” said Steve Aylward, general manager, U.S. Health and Life Sciences Group, at Microsoft.