Providing a Range of Government Services with Limited Resources

Microsoft Customer Solution Customer Solution Case Study

Government Speeds Performance 50 Percent, Improves Manageability with New Browser

Overview “When a deployment halts the clamoring for other Country or Region: Isle of Man products, it saves us the cost of having to provide Industry: Government multiple applications for the same tasks. That’s Customer Profile proof that Internet Explorer 8 has everything we The Isle of Man is located in the Irish Sea, and its government provides a full need.” range of services to its 80,000 citizens, Matthew Tee, Consultant, Isle of Man Government supported by an IT department of 100 people. The Isle of Man Government serves 80,000 citizens with a full Business Situation range of services, from Health and Education to Social Services. Because Windows® Internet Explorer® version 6 and version 7 Internet browser Employees used the Windows® XP operating system and the do not support Web standards, pages Windows Internet Explorer® 6 and 7 Internet browsers to access rendered slowly or incorrectly, and the browser sometimes stopped responding. Web applications and intranet and Internet sites. However, the browsers did not consistently provide the speed, efficiency, and Solution The government migrated to Windows accuracy that employees needed to do their jobs. In 2009, the Internet Explorer 8 to take advantage of government is migrating to Windows Vista® and Internet support for Web standards and improved rendering and manageability features. Explorer 8, and the government reports more accurate rendering, better stability, and faster Web application Benefits  Better performance performance in the browser. Where the IT department once  Increased productivity spent three or four days creating group policies to produce an  Application compatibility  More stability installation package and simple customizations, Internet  Improved management Explorer 8 helps reduce the process to hours instead of days. Situation 7,000 access the government Web portals Located in the Irish Sea at the heart of the using 4,500 portable computers, desktop British Isles, the Isle of Man has a computers, and other devices, from places population of 80,000. It is a self-governing such as hospitals, police stations, British Crown Dependency with its own government offices, and schools. In government and laws; the island is not part addition, there are 1,200 remote users who of the United Kingdom, with no access Isle of Man Government sites and representation in the British Parliament and Web applications. no military of its own. The island’s primary industries are finance, insurance, and IT security is checked and accredited every shipping, but there are many niche six months by the Lloyd’s of London Market industries as well, such as industrial Research Quality Assurance department, diamond mining, global satellite and the government’s security team also management, and rocket cable tests it internally every month. Clarke says, manufacturing. “Our security is agnostic to the technology —our security team is separate from the There are nine government departments on development team, manages all security, the island that manage citizens’ needs: and requires those of us who deploy and Education, Health and Social Security, develop business software not to rely on, or Home Affairs, Local Government and embed, security features in the products Environment, Tourism and Leisure, Trade we work with.” This policy has worked well and Industry, Transportation, Treasury, for the Isle of Man Government, which was Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry. Each the first government in the world to meet department is a separate legal entity with the ISO/IEC (International Electrotechnical its own functions, powers, and Commission) 27001.2005 security responsibilities, and is headed by a technique requirements from the Minister. International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Providing a Range of Government Services with Limited Resources Security updates were deployed to Peter Clarke, Chief Technology Officer for Windows® XP users through scripts written the Isle of Man Government, says, “We for Microsoft Systems Management Server provide the same range of services as 2003. larger nations, but we must do it from a very small base. For example, there’s only Productivity Issues and Pressure one IT unit to support all nine to Switch Browsers departments.” The IT environment is The government was standardized on the heterogeneous, with HP portable and Windows XP operating system and the laptop computers, Unisys and HP servers, Windows Internet Explorer® 6 Internet and software from Microsoft (including browser until September 2007, when it Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007) began an automated deployment of the and third-party manufacturers. Line-of- Windows Vista® Enterprise operating business applications are developed in- system with Internet Explorer 7 using house. Approximately 5,500 users out of Microsoft Systems Management Server “The biggest 2003. This migration was designed to have displaying a dialog box advising people to minimal impact on users, and is proceeding send information to Microsoft to investigate improvement is that in stages: as of March 2009, 1,500 users the problem. To resume work, they had to Internet Explorer 8 is have migrated to Windows Vista and restart the browser. These situations meant Internet Explorer 7, and approximately lost productivity, which translated into lost much faster. This will 3,000 people use Windows XP and Internet time and money. increase our Explorer 6. Planning and development for a Windows 7 deployment is underway as of The Isle of Man Government considered a productivity, because March 2009. switch to Mozilla Firefox or the Opera Web Web applications are browser. “We wanted to address internal All government employees use Web pressure, as employees made the case taking half the time to applications, SharePoint sites, and the that Opera is quite good at rendering and respond to users.” Internet, and many access the network that Firefox had offered tabbed browsing remotely each day, so the choice of for a while,” says Clarke. “We need a Nick Leece, Vista Project Manager, Isle of browser is an important one. In addition to browser with excellent performance and Man Government those considerations, says Matthew Tee, productivity.” This included ease of Consultant for the Isle of Man Government, configuration and deployment—the IT “We are constantly moving standalone department had spent three or four days software products into a Web-based creating group policies to produce an environment; our people rely on Internet installation package and simple Explorer to get their work done.” Clarke customizations for Internet Explorer version adds, “The more software we can access 6 and version 7. The government uses through the browser, the more efficient the more than 1,000 software applications, so applications function. Client-side the browser would also have to be applications in a traditional client-server compatible with existing technologies. arrangement don’t function as well as Web- based applications.” Solution The Isle of Man Government decided to Some employees found that because migrate to Internet Explorer 8 before it was Internet Explorer version 6 and version 7 released, through the Microsoft Rapid do not support Wed standards, they Deployment Program. Tee says, “We’ve rendered pages slowly and at times poorly always used Internet Explorer, so it was a if the Extensible Markup Language (XML) logical progression. And we really wanted code on a site was not written properly—or the productivity gains that it could give us, if a particular Web site was built according with improved performance and to Web standards. For example, text might manageability, right away. Even though overlay a graphic, or a graphic might some users asked for other browsers, obscure part of the screen. This was Internet Explorer 8 offers the best especially disruptive if employees were manageability—it is enterprise-ready.” The helping citizens face-to-face. These two Isle of Man Government found the versions of Internet Explorer also did not enterprise-class deployment, management, work well with Java applets; many users compatibility, and enhanced security frequently reported that the browser standards of Internet Explorer 8 to be ideal; stopped responding and exited after the browser is compatible with applications written for Internet Explorer 7 and has a complete range of deployment tools, The IT department also added access to including the Internet Explorer three approved default search engines, Administration Kit for easy configuration, which users can access with a single click and compatibility with Microsoft System from the drop-down list in the search box. Center Configuration Manager and Internet Explorer 8 provides relevant Windows Server® Update Services. More suggestions as users type words into the than 1,300 group policies are included in search box, to help save time. The browser Internet Explorer 8 that IT professionals also includes matches from users’ browser can use to customize the browser. Security histories in the bottom part of the drop- was not a big factor in choosing a new down list. When users type URLs in the Internet browser because it is handled by a address bar, Internet Explorer 8 dedicated team with specialized software, automatically provides a list of possible but, says Clark, “We’ve always considered matches from their Favorites and recently Internet Explorer to be the most secure visited sites. People can also search for browser—to meet our needs, it has to be.” pages in their history by typing keywords to easily relocate sites they have visited. Productivity, Management, and Stability Features Web pages load significantly faster in The Isle of Man Government IT department Internet Explorer 8. The browser starts used the group policies in Internet Explorer rapidly and loads pages quickly. The script 8 to configure three tabs in the browser engine is significantly quicker as well, window to display the SharePoint site, minimizing the load time for Web pages intranet site, and Internet site home pages based on JavaScript or Asynchronous specific to each department. JavaScript and XML (AJAX). Also, the new rendering engine is designed to more For Windows Vista users, IT staff can closely follow Web standards, which aim to deploy software updates automatically simplify Web site development. This through Windows Server Update Services, consistent approach to rendering Web for simpler management. And with Internet pages enables Internet Explorer 8 to Explorer 8, system administrators can display pages better. manage user settings from a central location, to quickly change computer and Productivity enhancements in Internet user policies for existing deployments. For Explorer 8 include tab isolation and the example, IT staff can install an ADMX/ADM Automatic Crash Recovery feature. If a file as part of an Internet Explorer 8 poorly coded Web site or add-on causes a installation package, so that system tab to stop responding in Internet Explorer administrators at the Isle of Man 8, only that tab is affected. The browser government can use Group Policy to itself remains stable, and other tabs remain change compatibility view settings or unaffected, minimizing work disruptions. If configure behavior of the SmartScreen one or more tabs unexpectedly closes or Filter, for example to remove the user- stops responding, they are automatically override option to fully block access to reloaded and users are returned to the site known unsafe sites. they were on before the problem occurred. “Internet Explorer 8 The Automatic Crash Recovery feature deployment of Internet Explorer 8, with no helps to prevent the loss of work in the compatibility issues. As of February 2009, doesn’t shut down unlikely event of browser failure or 30 users in the IT department have when there’s a nonresponse. migrated to Internet Explorer 8, and the government expects to deploy the browser problem. It just Deployment Process and Timeline to the remaining 70 users in the rerenders—this will In January 2009, five members of the Isle department in March 2009. Eventually, of Man Government IT department tested Internet Explorer 8 will be installed on save users time and Internet Explorer 8 to check its 5,500 computers, with 7,000 users. work.” performance and compatibility with Flash, some custom plug-ins, and line-of-business Since the initial deployment, no one in the Matthew Tee, Consultant, Isle of Man applications. Using Systems Management IT department has asked to switch Government Server 2003, the government then browsers. “When a deployment halts the deployed the browser to 30 users in the IT clamoring for other products, it saves us department a few weeks after the testing the cost of having to provide multiple was completed. When the government applications to do the same tasks,” says deploys Internet Explorer 8 to Windows Tee. “That’s proof that Internet Explorer 8 Vista Enterprise users outside the IT has everything we need.” department, it will use Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 to deploy Enhanced Speed, Performance, Internet Explorer 8, for reduced cost of and Productivity ownership and ease of management. For The government has noticed improved 95 percent of all other applications, the Isle rendering of Web pages—twice as fast in of Man Government uses Microsoft the case of Web applications. Nick Leece, Application Virtualization to deliver Vista Project Manager for the Isle of Man virtualized applications to Windows Vista Government, says, “The biggest users in real time. improvement is that Internet Explorer 8 is much faster. This will increase our Instead of piecing together a customized productivity, because Web applications are installation of the browser using Group taking half the time to respond to users. It Policy, the IT department used the step-by- renders poorly coded pages more step Internet Explorer 8 Customization intelligently—no more text overlaying Wizard in the Internet Explorer graphics.” Administration Kit to customize the browser and establish standard settings across the Because employees use more Web-based government, such as adding its own applications, they increasingly have more branding to the browser’s title bar and Web browser sessions open. “Using creating the installation packages and tabbed browsing with preset multiple home executable files necessary for deployment. pages, employees can access multiple systems all at the same time, from one Benefits place, simply by launching the browser,” The Isle of Man Government has realized says Tee. faster performance, increased stability, and better management with the initial Clarke has also seen rendering “The Internet Explorer Administration Kit improvements in Internet Explorer 8. “It’s will be a huge bonus when we start now able to handle more widgets, deploying to users who are outside of any transactions, and font types, and render Group Policy—it will save us a lot of time them more quickly—we haven’t had any and work.” problems with Java applets,” he says. Also using the Internet Explorer Better Compatibility, Stability Administration Kit, the government was From its initial testing and deployment of able to configure predeployment in a Internet Explorer 8, the Isle of Man fraction of the time. Leece says, “With the Government experienced better stability. IEAK, we can standardize and customize Says Tee, “Internet Explorer 8 doesn’t shut the browser using a wizard, and there’s no down when there’s a problem. It just configuration for the end users to manage. rerenders—this will save users time and It was simple, and it took three hours work.” instead of three or four days. With Group Policy, there are over 1,300 ready-made The government expected compatibility customizations that we can create and issues, but has not experienced any. manage from a single location.” “Whenever you deploy a release candidate or beta version of software, there’s always going to be an issue—or so we thought,” says Tee. “So far, there have been none, and we’re very pleased.” This means that technical support costs have not increased, even during testing and the initial deployment.

Improved Management The Isle of Man Government appreciates the manageability of Internet Explorer 8, which the government will update automatically using Windows Server Update Services to speed maintenance. “Internet Explorer 8 fits in with our software update and maintenance processes far easier than any other software that we’re working with,” says Tee.

For users whose computers are not part of the Active Directory® domain, the IT department will be able to use the Internet Explorer Administration Kit to create or customize settings that they would normally manage using Group Policy. Leece says, For More Information Internet Explorer For more information about Microsoft Internet Explorer is the leading web products and services, call the Microsoft browser for the Windows platform which Sales Information Center at (800) 426- provides the latest security protections, 9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft tabbed browsing and group policy support Canada Information Centre at (877) 568- to enable businesses to increase user 2495. Customers who are deaf or hard- productivity while still providing the security of-hearing can reach Microsoft text of a standard locked-down browser. telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) Industry leading support for previous 892-5234 in the United States or (905) versions gives IT Managers confidence in 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 their Internet Explorer platform United States and Canada, please investments. contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World For more information about Internet Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com Explorer 8, go to: www.microsoft.com/ie8/enterprise For more information about the Isle of Man Government, call (01) (624) 68 6801 or visit the Web site at: www.gov.im

Software and Services Hardware  Windows Internet Explorer 8  HP notebook and personal computers  Windows Vista Enterprise  Unisys servers  Technologies  HP servers − Active Directory

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Document published April 2009