Hi Charles
We had a similar question once and our answer was:
We can use group policy to provide better help desk support through
application upgrades, blocking of bad applications (ie. known spyware exe),
and remote administration. For the end user this will mean help desk calls
will reduce, and no longer involve a 4 hour drive across town and up to 3
weeks to see somebody - they can now generally be handled either via. chat
or over the phone using remote administration.
Albeit, very little of this requires AD but without AD at some locations,
patching, updating software, and turning on remote desktop / turning off
the firewall to allow remote desktop and assistance take weeks to set up -
which to the user means weeks that he is unable to get something fixed, get
help, get support, or even get the latest software update.
The explanation - highlighting reduced time to support - seems to have made
the users in that location very happy.
Regards;
James R. Day
Active Directory Core Team
Office of the Chief Information Officer
National Park Service
(202) 354-1464 (direct)
(202) 371-1549 (fax)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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| | "joe" |
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| | 06/01/2005 09:06 AM AST|
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| To: <[email protected]>
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| cc: (bcc: James Day/Contractor/NPS)
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| Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Enhancement Question
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I would be a bit concerned about the manager's approach. Playing up to the
end users is not the proper way to run the infrastructure. If the users
gripe about what is being done, the answer is simply we are doing these
upgrades to be in a position to better support the environment with
increased security, stability, and availability.
End users should be concerned with their end user job, not what IT is
doing.
joe
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Carerros, Charles
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 8:54 AM
To: '[email protected]'
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Enhancement Question
Neil,
We deployed AD based on a very serious and well defined business case.
However, when we argued for this it was indicated that the end-user would
not feel any effects and all of the enhancements would be on the management
and stability side. Since then, however, we have a new network manager who
would like us to show the end-user what the new benefits are from the
upgrade. However, telling an end-user we can not manage your PC more
effectively, well, they just don't care about that. So now I'm stuck
looking for a way to show them how great AD is.
I would like to thank everyone for their responses.
Thanks,
Charlie
-----Original Message-----
From: Ruston, Neil [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 4:21 AM
To: '[email protected]'
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Enhancement Question
It's funny how people approach AD this way - i.e. deploy and look to
justify
its existence thereafter :)
When AD was designed and a business case was created, what were the
perceived benefits back then? Why not try to create additional benefit
along
those lines? We all have different reasons for deploying AD - to some it's
simply an upgrade, to others it's seen as a way to simplify / improve the
Windows environment in many different ways. Identify your initial reasons
for deploying AD and then build from there.
For the record, I would argue that the end user need not see real, tangible
benefits in order that AD be seen to benefit the business itself. The real
benefits are normally less tangible.
neil
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Carerros, Charles
Sent: 31 May 2005 16:05
To: '[email protected]'
Subject: [ActiveDir] Enhancement Question
This is an odd question.
We have just about finished up rolling out AD 2003 (from an NT domain) and
I
have been charged with finding "several ways to utilize Active Directory to
optimize the management of our applications and infrastructure. At least
one of the solutions should enhance functionality directly for the user
community."
I'm having problems of finding ways to enhance functionally for the
end-users. Besides tying the AD into a one of our outsourced web based
applications to reduce their password count I'm stretching.
I know of a number of management and infrastructure enhancements that could
be made but none enhance the functionality of our end-users to a point
where
they will notice it and say "Wow, now that's cool".
Does anyone know of a location where I can get ideas on this topic?
Increased security, stability, management. These core things are not seen
by the end-user even though they directly affect them. I need to find
something that the end-users will like to see and something that benefits
them. I'm just coming up blank on this. In the past, I have always been
instructions to use AD in ways that the end-user doesn't notice but
increases the functionality.
Thanks,
Charlie
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