Visualizing Success

When approaching any new project what you will need to do is visualize your organization's success.  It doesn't matter if it is a internal project, external project, outsourcing project, multiple business unit change, you will need a road map for your success. 

Communication should be a key part of that success.  Everyone knows change affects people / groups in different ways.  Your worst enemy is the water cooler talk in any project.  This is where rumors get started and can lead to a very negative feeling on what the organization is trying to accomplish.  As a consultant this is something we need to grasp with the organization.  You will approach it lightly and see the customer's response.  If they have a good track record of organization wide communication then they will be driving force. If this is something new, you as the project / technical expert need to be that driving force.  

In you project team / group's meetings / sessions you will need to convey a communication road map that aligns with your success road map.  You will need a strong leader in the business to share the visualized success with their employees, as these can become you worse enemy when trying to visualize, implement, and train them on the new way of doing things. 

What do I hear most when talking with employees who's management is not leading the communication of road map, "Well, this how we have always done it".  This is not a good attitude when changing for the good.  As you can see by just that one statement the success road map is not being communicated. 

Have a motto, create posters, send out weekly / bi-weekly / semi-monthly updates, and just be pro-active.  

When you start with the visualization get all the success criteria documented.  But with change there will be always a negative impact somewhere in the business.  Don't shelter it, be forthcoming and communicate this also.  

"Success Cannot Be a Success Without Change Being In the Equation"  

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Low Level Overview

After searching high and low, and even asking Microsoft for a Visio diagram, and my searches ending in zero; I have created a generalized overview of the System Center 2012 Configuration Manager using Visio.

You can either save this JPG for you consumption or click below to download the PDF version. 

Adobe Reader 11 Package Accelerator Available

As you may have seen, we announced that App-V 5.0 SP1 is now available as part of MDOP 2013.  In our many conversations at MMS a few weeks ago, we heard a lot of excitement around 5.0 SP1 as many of you are evaluating 5.0 alongside………

Read the whole post over on the “The Microsoft Application Virtualization Blog”………

http://blogs.technet.com/b/appv/archive/2013/04/30/adobe-reader-11-package-accelerator-available.aspx

System Center 2012: PowerShell – Connecting to Configuration Manager

Welcome to installment #2. In case you missed installment #1 - Getting Started – here’s the link. With the Getting Started blog, you tried a few basic Windows PowerShell cmdlets. I hope you took a bit of time to explore what other cmdlets are available in Windows. But now it’s time to get Configuration Manager hooked up to your PowerShell environment. Let’s start with the easy method………

Read the full post over on the “System Center Configuration Manager Team’s Blog Site”……

http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgrteam/archive/2013/03/27/powershell-connecting-to-configuration-manager.aspx

Whitepaper: Manage Microsoft Desktop Virtualization with System Center Configuration Manager 2012

This whitepaper describes the integration and features of managing desktop virtualization solutions with Microsoft technologies………

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35813

What’s New in Application Virtualization 5.0 SP1 and User Experience Virtualization 1.0 SP1

As you may have seen, on Wednesday, we announced that MDOP 2013 is now available and detailed the new updates and features made to Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM). But some of you might be saying, “What about Microsoft User Experience Virtualization (UE-V), and Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) 5.0? What is updated in these products?”

As you have heard us say over and over, your feedback is very important and helps drive what we build. Both UE-V and App-V 5.0 were released five months ago and we have seen these technologies adopted by companies like Eastman, NTTX,Etisalat Lanka. As more organizations continued to test and deploy these solutions, the more feedback we received. This feedback drove us to release service packs for UE-V and App-V 5.0 in MDOP 2013……

Read more on the “Spring Board Series Blog”………

http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/springboard/archive/2013/04/11/what-s-new-in-application-virtualization-5-0-sp1-and-user-experience-virtualization-1-0-sp1.aspx

Making Windows 8 Even More Manageable with MDOP 2013

The Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) 2013 for Software Assurance is now available for download! When people think about MDOP, they often think about its virtualization tools that help personalize user experience, simplify app deployment, and improve app compatibility for Windows. MDOP is much more than that though, it also helps manage and deploy important Windows features like BitLocker and Group Policy, as well as saves time by helping to make desktop repair planning proactive instead of reactive.

We’ve been working for some time to optimize our MDOP products for Windows 8 with the goal of making them easier to adopt and take advantage of all the new Windows 8 platform capabilities. Last November, we took our first step by releasing MDOP 2012, in which Microsoft User Experience Virtualization (UE-V), Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) 5.0, and the Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) 8.0 supported Windows 8.

……

Read the whole article on the “Windows For Your Business” blog.

http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/business/archive/2013/04/10/making-windows-8-even-more-manageable-with-mdop-2013.aspx

Delivering Unified Device Management with Windows Intune and System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1

Back in September, we announced our strategy around unified device management, and how the next releases of Windows Intune and System Center 2012 Configuration Manager will deliver on that vision.  As part of today’s update to our Cloud OS vision, we’re pleased to announce that System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and Endpoint Protection Service Pack 1 ……

View more on the Intune Technet Blog….

http://blogs.technet.com/b/windowsintune/archive/2013/01/15/delivering-unified-device-management-with-windows-intune-and-system-center-2012-configuration-manager-sp1.aspx

Your IT Operations’ Box

People usually think the keeper of the box is IT Management.  This may be true is some cases but it is usually the employees who’s responsibility is to support this box.  In IT Operations the biggest challenge I see is the employees grasping to that box and they fear change.  Change is the way they have neglected doing continued education and finding better ways to do the job.
 
As a consultant we get called in from management to help, as they know they need change and they are ready to embrace it.  When statements of work get ironed out with what deliverables they desire is to get their team on-board.  It is a harsh reality but the biggest challenge is the team.  If it is supporting Windows 7 now and not Windows XP, or having a new delivery method for their Operating System build / deployments, software delivery, in which now they have to learn new standards, or getting away from WSUS and start using System Center to manage their updates.
 
As people get comfortable with the day to day and not realize how un-healthy and non-optimized  their structure is. 

As Bill Gate’s said it best:

"The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency."

First mistake about System Center Configuration Manager (CM) it will not fix an un-healthy environment.  In fact it will not be successful if it is the other way around.  A challenge when going into any organization is letting them know in a convincing and well manner way their is a better way of doing this.
 
When tackling an engagement for systems management the first thing to do is tackle Active Directory.  You identify clients that have not logged into the domain for a set amount of time, and create a process to move those clients into a Organizational Unit (OU) that is not monitored by CM.  After that identification is done then the process can go on managing the clients, via in-place refreshes, OS migration, software delivery, and software updates. 

Now with CM 2012 you have the ability to manage anti-virus with forefront integrated, and with the direct access coming around with PKI you will start seeing cloud distribution points.  But there is plenty of information for you to read on the internet about the features.

You will need to think outside of your Organization’s box and strive for optimization.  You will not be successful and cause more work then it is necessary.  Only you can strive to bring you IT Operations group to the next level and be that trend setter you organization.