[ Manufacturing, Network Infrastructure
Services – Technology Deployment ]
TEKSYSTEMS GLOBAL SERVICES
CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORIES
Client Profile
Industry: Packaging manufacturing
Revenue: Over $9 billion
Employees: Approximately 26,000
Geographic Presence: Headquartered
in the southern United States, with
offices throughout North America, South
America and Asia
Migrating User Accounts and Servers to a New Active
Directory Domain for a Packaging Manufacturer
QUICK FACTS
Objectives Implementation Highlights
• Consolidate a newly acquired company’s Active • Identified and disabled approximately 1,500 legacy
Directory with the client’s user accounts that didn’t need to migrate to the
• Design and execute user account migration new domain
schedules around the constraints of 130 individual • Held weekly status calls with client leadership to
plants and mills provide project management and migration reports
• Onboard, train and deploy skilled project and metrics
management and Active Directory teams • Performed consolidation at 130 sites with user
downtime averaging under one hour
Challenges
• Minimize business disruptions by coordinating Results
with all plant and mill site leaders to migrate user • Migrated approximately 9,000 user accounts and
accounts associated with their machines 500 servers to the client’s Active Directory domain
• Adapt the site migration schedule to accommodate over a 12-month period with no significant business
other company business and IT projects interruptions
• Test all applications used in the acquired company’s • Defined account and server migration processes for
domain to ensure applications will work properly future acquisitions
when users are migrated to the client domain • Completed user account migrations at an average
rate of five sites per week
Technologies Supported
• Microsoft Active Directory Migration Tool
• Microsoft Server 2003 and 2008
• Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager
2012
Migrating User Accounts and Servers to a New Active Directory Domain for a Packaging Manufacturer
EXECUTIVE After acquiring a rival company of equal size, a packaging
manufacturer partnered with TEKsystems to consolidate
SUMMARY both organizations’ Active Directories (AD).
Client Profile Organizations often seek third-party vendors to
The client, a leading corrugated and consumer help tackle these challenges because they are so
packaging manufacturer, provides paperboard, complex in nature and require extensive pre- and
packaging and marketing solutions to post-planning to guarantee seamless integration.
organizations across a wide range of industries.
The client has been a partner of TEKsystems since Situation
2011.
In an effort to grow as one of the leading
manufacturers in the packaging industry, the client
Project Overview acquired a large paperboard and paper-based
A free market and a competitive business packaging company, reflecting an increasingly
environment are two of America’s deeply rooted common consolidation movement within the
values. As organizations compete and thrive, competitive packaging industry.
they grow to expand their market share, often In the wake of the acquisition, the client needed to
through mergers and/or acquisitions. Mergers consolidate both organizations’ Active Directories
and acquisitions allow organizations to obtain new (AD) into a single new domain. Consolidating
products and technologies, increase their global the two legacy directories would help reduce
footprint and ultimately strengthen and diversify infrastructure support costs, improve workstation
their core business offerings. management and increase standardization across
But with any move to consolidate two or more all of the client’s business operations.
organizations comes inevitable growing pains. To do this, the acquired company’s approximately
Some organizational decisions may be more 10,500 user accounts and 500 servers needed to
straightforward than others—such as changing be migrated to the new domain with minimal to
email address domains and signatures, swapping no disruption to the client’s business processes.
out office signage or updating corporate websites Consolidating the two ADs into one domain would
to reflect new branding. However, consider the require thorough planning and extensive on-site
numerous complications around merging two coordination at the client’s 130 plants and mills
unique leadership teams or company cultures with across the United States and Canada.
different employee policies and benefits. While
the spectrum of challenges relating to mergers Given the vast scope and sweeping level of
and acquisitions is rather wide, growing pains coordination needed to migrate the acquired
pertaining to IT can pose some of the greatest company’s thousands of user accounts and
challenges. numerous servers, the client knew they did not
have the internal resources to take on such a
Consolidating IT business operations and project. They wanted to work with a partner that
processes can be a costly and complicated could complete the consolidation quickly and
endeavor requiring a vast amount of support with minimal disruption to daily plant and mill
and coordination. Organizations must fortify core packaging operations that typically run around
infrastructure pillars, integrate legacy technology the clock. It was also important that the partner
and applications, and install vital security and data of choice could scale highly skilled on-site teams
systems, among other tasks, in order to make to meet the changing needs of the project and
sure the newly expanded organization can operate anticipate and manage any unknown factors once
efficiently and effectively. the migration was underway.
Global Services: Customer Success Stories [Link] | 2
Migrating User Accounts and Servers to a New Active Directory Domain for a Packaging Manufacturer
Solution
The client first reached out to a well-known AD
migration company to assist in migrating the Our ability to ramp up
acquired company’s user accounts and servers; dedicated teams quickly,
however, they felt that the company was not a good
fit for their organization because their proposed adapt our solution as the
solution didn’t translate to the best value given the
cost. partnership matured, and
Having previously selected TEKsystems to staff a customize a solution and
data center migration project, the client decided
to bring us to the table to learn more about our
schedule that minimized
service offerings. At the time, we were finishing an business disruptions set us
AD migration at another, similar-sized client; this
was within weeks of when the client was looking apart from the competition.
to start their consolidation effort. As such, this
would enable TEKsystems to seamlessly transition
an already established and proven team from the
AD migration project of similar scope to support The migration of the user accounts would be
the client—a differentiator that other potential done on site at the client’s 130 locations across
partners could not match. the United States and Canada. Since the majority
of the work at the plants and mills would be
Our team proposed a two-phased solution to performed during normal business hours, site
migrate the acquired company’s user accounts and readiness would be critical to the success of the
servers to the client’s AD domain. We would start project. Our on-site teams would work closely with
by migrating the nearly 10,500 user accounts to the site leaders to map migration schedules for both
new domain over the course of eight months, and individual employee user accounts and machine
then during phase two, migrate the approximately user accounts to minimize disruptions to the 24/7
500 servers over to the new domain over a four- business operations and scheduled printing/cutting
month period. jobs.
To complete the migration, we would provide a In the process of migrating the user accounts, our
project management team and an AD engineering team would also clean up the acquired company’s
team which we would onboard, train and deploy legacy user accounts and group policies that
to the client’s various locations. The project were no longer active or used (i.e., user accounts
management team, consisting of one delivery for terminated employees) to make sure only
manager and two project managers, would active accounts populated the new domain. We
be responsible for providing overall project would also check to make sure both the user
management and ensuring site readiness by accounts and servers would be able to seamlessly
serving as a liaison between site leaders and move to the new domain without any additional
the AD engineering team. They would also enhancements or work needed prior to migration.
be responsible for ramping up teams quickly
should the need arise. The AD engineering To ensure overall alignment to the client’s IT goals,
team, consisting of two AD engineers and six TEKsystems would hold weekly status calls with
AD technicians, would design and execute site the client’s vice president for IT infrastructure to
user account migration plans, troubleshoot any provide project management reports and metrics;
unforeseen obstacles and serve as local points of review migration, communication and scheduling
contact for site leaders. logistics; and escalate any key issues.
Global Services: Customer Success Stories [Link] | 3
Migrating User Accounts and Servers to a New Active Directory Domain for a Packaging Manufacturer
Our ability to ramp up dedicated teams quickly, an understanding of the run shifts and identify a
adapt our solution as the partnership matured, time convenient during their business process to
and customize a solution and schedule that migrate each machine, typically at the end of a full
minimized business disruptions set us apart from production run. After formalizing a schedule for all
the competition. After hearing about our current on-site machines, our AD team worked to create
AD migration engagement and having experienced corresponding accounts within the new domain for
the level of service we provide as part of our each machine. After the new accounts were setup,
existing staffing relationship, the client selected on-site AD technicians went to each individual
TEKsystems to partner with them for the project. machine to switch their AD domain connection
and affiliation from the old domain to the client’s.
These user account migrations took anywhere
Results from one to two weeks depending on the size and
TEKsystems successfully completed the AD type of facility.
consolidation at 130 sites on time and with minimal
Our overall scheduling and on-site coordination
impact to business processes and the user
efforts throughout the engagement remained
community. During the course of the engagement,
a key driver to completing the consolidation on
we migrated approximately 9,000 user accounts
time and within budget. Our project management
at an average of five sites per week while meeting
team held daily standup meetings with client
approved schedules and staying on budget. Our
stakeholders to provide specific migration metrics
team was able to identify and disable the remaining
and address any scheduling or migration concerns.
nearly 1,500 initially scoped user accounts as
This routine communication allowed us to avoid
legacy user accounts that were no longer active.
setbacks caused by unforeseen conflicts, such
We also seamlessly transitioned the 500 servers to
as a major packaging application rollout that was
the client’s AD domain.
happening simultaneously at several of the plants
Throughout the delivery of our migration support, and mills. The application update impacted user
our team recognized the vital importance accounts associated with machines, and created
of minimizing business interruptions and conflicts with many of our previously scheduled
downtime. While many of the user accounts timelines. In response, our project management
were tied to individual employees, a large team readjusted the schedules accordingly and
portion were for specific machines running coordinated migrations at those impacted sites
box cutting or containerboard roll jobs 24/7. To only after the application enhancement was
seamlessly migrate these users, our project complete.
management team met with site leaders to gain
Additionally, our team was able to remain flexible
and adapt our site schedules when severe weather
conditions caused numerous flight cancellations
and several AD technicians’ arrivals to be delayed
multiple days. Despite these potentially schedule-
TEKsystems successfully damaging conditions, our team was still able to
completed the AD complete the sites’ scheduled migrations on time.
consolidation at 130 sites on Now, having all user accounts and servers on a
single domain, the client’s IT team can provide
time and with minimal impact better support to end users, reduce infrastructure
costs, improve workstation management, increase
to business processes and standardization and reduce back-end support time.
the user community. The client returned high customer satisfaction
reports, identifying our high-level of
communication between our teams and the client’s
Global Services: Customer Success Stories [Link] | 4
Migrating User Accounts and Servers to a New Active Directory Domain for a Packaging Manufacturer
business leaders and site staff, as well as our stakeholders informed of migration progress,
overall project management, as truly exceptional challenges and overarching timelines. Through
services. In addition, by communicating with weekly status calls, our project management
leadership throughout the engagement, we have team shared real-time metrics and reports
helped define account and server migration that gave an accurate state of the overall
processes for future acquisitions. consolidation effort and answered any questions
as they arose. This routine checkpoint allowed
Additionally, since completing the AD consolidation,
the client has re-engaged us to help migrate a leadership to feel confident in our ability to
newly purchased mill to their domain, and called complete the project on time and on budget.
on us to discuss a potential service opportunity to • Partnership. TEKsystems has partnered with
migrate approximately 8,000 PCs at 280 different the client since 2011. Starting with providing
sites to Windows 7. staffing services to augment their IT team
during a data center migration, then moving
toward a services offering through this AD
Key Success Factors consolidation, we have remained a dedicated
• Project management expertise. Project partner deeply vested in the success of their
management was the core foundation of organization. We understand the client’s
this consolidation project. Through planning, business drivers and overarching IT goals and
onboarding, managing and monitoring our have been able to customize our solutions and
teams throughout the life cycle of the project, services to meet their evolving needs as they
TEKsystems was able to clearly define project expand within the packaging industry.
stages, continually improve our processes,
ensure deadlines were met and deliver better
outcomes. Our established project management
teams kept all migration timelines on track
even when challenges arose, and coordinated
effectively with on-site teams by serving as
liaisons between business leaders and the
technical team.
• Communication. Communicating regularly
with the client’s business leaders throughout
the course of the engagement helped keep
ABOUT TEKSYSTEMS
®
People are at the heart of every successful business initiative. At TEKsystems, we understand people.
Every year we deploy over 80,000 IT professionals at 6,000 client sites across North America, Europe and
Asia. Our deep insights into IT human capital management enable us to help our clients achieve their
business goals—while optimizing their IT workforce strategies. We provide IT staffing solutions, IT talent
management expertise and IT services to help our clients plan, build and run their critical business
initiatives. Through our range of quality-focused delivery models, we meet our clients where they are,
and take them where they want to go, the way they want to get there.
Visit us online at [Link].
Global Services: Customer Success Stories [Link] | 5
