Hollingsworth & Vose turns to Akibia to implement new Microsoft Infrastructure

Hollingsworth & Vose called on its trusted advisor, and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Akibia, to design and implement a Microsoft technologies-based infrastructure, including Active Directory, Exchange 2003, and Systems Management Server (SMS).

Hollingsworth & Vose (H&V), a large manufacturer of industrial, specialty and technical papers and non-wovens with offices across the Globe, grew quickly as a result of several mergers and acquisitions. As is often the case with growth of this kind the combined companies were running different IT systems. After the mergers the company’s messaging and directory platforms were still operating on a number of different platforms, including Microsoft, Lotus and Sendmail, among others. This made it difficult for employees to effectively and efficiently collaborate with each other.

In addition, a number of the platforms were outdated, making it more difficult for employees to work from remote locations and even from other offices within the H&V family. Email systems lived on each individual employee’s desktop, making accessing email from a remote location impossible. Users had to log into and manage multiple passwords to access various business-critical applications, and IT had to perform all provisioning and software updates manually, at each employee’s desktop.

Akibia’s Microsoft Consulting Team Delivers the Solution

H&V asked Akibia to analyze its current environment and suggest the best approach to improve collaboration and employee efficiency. Akibia leveraged its proven methodology - Assess, Architect, Design and Implement – to deliver a solution.

• Windows 2003/Active Directory - Akibia consolidated and migrated the company’s directory services based on various platforms including Novell and Windows NT to a common Windows 2003 based Active Directory. This was a global effort as the company’s offices are spread across the world. Akibia implemented a “Single Forest and Domain Model” that would allow much easier administration and create a set of service administrators with authority in each of the separate regions.
• Microsoft Exchange Implementation - Microsoft Exchange was needed to achieve collaboration and remote access. Exchange provides a common global address list, and a “free-busy” system which allows employees to view each others' calendars for scheduling purposes. By implementing a centralized messaging system, H&V experienced reduced administrative costs and improved security.
• Systems Management Server (SMS) - Microsoft SMS allows the IT team to deploy updates remotely and in a timely fashion. In addition, H&V is now able to better manage its assets, maintain an up-to-date inventory of software and hardware and assist end users remotely, greatly reducing the burden on the help desk.

“Because we had worked with Akibia in the past, we trusted their ability to deliver the perfect solution to solve our specific challenges,” said John Etzel at Hollingsworth & Vose. “Their careful approach to analyzing our environment, evaluating design options and ultimately making the right recommendations and then implementing the solution exemplifies their diligence, expertise and commitment to customer satisfaction.”

H&V Well Positioned for Future Growth

With the Microsoft Active Directory and Exchange platform, H&V is now able to more effectively collaborate and work more efficiently across all of its offices. In addition, the new system is designed to scale to support H&V’s anticipated growth.

“With our new infrastructure we have been able to mitigate the barriers that can exist with a matrix organization in a geographically distributed company. We are more efficient, more agile and now have the tools in place to be more collaborative. Akibia has helped us not only improve our IT efficiency, but also improve our overall business productivity,” said Etzel.