Re: active directory project

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance


"Ace Fekay [Microsoft Certified Trainer]" <firstnamelastname@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote in message news:%23iTgJVjkJHA.1288@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Quick story - I had an acquisition I had to take care of in December. My
15 seat customer bought another 15 seat company, but the company they
bought had no domain. They were in a workgroup, with an outsourced POP3
email solution, which all made it made it easier for the migration. In the
beginning I was able to sit down and speak to the compny owner of my
customer individually and together with the ex-owner of the company he was
acquiring as to what to expect, features, bennies, etc, and incorporating
them into the current infrastructure. I laid out the game plan on the
whiteboard with phases. At first there was alot of resistance on the other
company's end. To them it was culture shock. One of the kids working at
the old company was their goto "IT" guy. To simplify it, I told them not
to worry, expect additional features that will make your work easier, and
that I will mentor and support them through the transition. I told them to
expect to have new profiles on their machines. Things will be quite
different. Their domain name MX will be changed to the Exchange server of
the company acquiring them. Your profiles will be eliminated and you will
start fresh, but I will be around for the first week to insure a smooth
transition, making sure mapped drives work, their ERP worked, migrated
data from their ERP into the acquiring company's ERP, mergred their PSTs
into their new Exchange mailboxes, setup their iPhones, BB's and Windows
Mobile units, laptops to use Outlook Anwhere, VPN setup, GPO controlled MY
Doc Folder Redirection with Offline Folders, logon scripts and Windows
Firewall, automated WSUS and McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator, as well as
rename and assimilate their current two Windows 2003 servers (workgroup)
into the domain, etc. Once done, they were amazed at all the features that
were in place. They had no idea they could work from home just as if they
were in the office, especially with their My Doc files, as well as all the
features with Outlook, . It was a successful migration/acquisition.
However, the IT kid was kind of desponded that he was no more than a
Domain User now, but he kind of understood the new setup was over his
head, and kind of impressed the way things worked.

I would have had a hard time with the mobile devices and have never even
seen a living breathing Outlook Anywhere setup. Mobile devices send me
screeming down the street with my hands waving in the air. I even
intensionally stopped using my AT&T Tilt except for special occasions and
added a second Cell phone that is about the simpest cheapest flip-phone that
I could find and carry that all the time :-) But I haven't bought the dirt
floor unibomber shack in Montana yet.

I think I'd be fine doing all the other stuff but I don't have a cleanly
laid out plan to follow or template to adapt to the customer so I might be a
bit more haphazard. I'm sure it'd be different if I was actually a
"consultant" for a living. I'm just an IT Manager who's been working at the
same place with the same network for 10 years. Nothing changes unless I
change it.

--
Phillip Windell
www.wandtv.com

The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft,
or anyone else associated with me, including my cats.
-----------------------------------------------------


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