Overview

I was consulted to perform an in-place upgrade to the existing traders and end-user’s computers throughout the US to a standardized desktop. This included moving user data, settings, and applications without replacing the desktop with a new one, while some applications needed to be upgraded during the move (i.e., Bloomberg Terminal and Microsoft Office). I worked closely and reported to US Director of IT to understand project requirements and constraints. Besides coming up with the technology solution I also created and maintained a project management plan with tasks, resources requirements, timeframes, and estimated costs. Before deployment, I had to perform an assessment on current desktop environment which included hundreds of desktops in 5 different models with 250 applications spread out throughout multiple locations. There were numerous custom applications with data modeling that traders were using. Many traders also had old hardware that needed some hardware upgrades like memory. To make matter worse, users were administrators on their local computers with a lot of sensitive data on them. I put together a team that included some guru internal staff personnel with some specialized outside consultants for programming Microsoft Office macros, and a hardware specialist to help with the builds and the installation. The design we used was to create a standard build for all desktops models and create WMI packages for all applications.

Based on user inventory with existing hardware we would ghost with SysPrep a standard image onto a spare hard disk in lab; use the USMT tool to copy up user settings the day before migration; logon to user night before in lab to download settings and allow to publish applications to user; morning crew would swap out the old hard drive (label and store) with the ghosted prepared hard drive. Installed and deployed Microsoft Systems Management Server to deploy the 250 applications to the users based on department. I worked closely with network engineers and data center personnel to redesigned network topology and storage requirements to accommodate new desktop environment.

We accomplished this on Trading Desk Systems with no downtime. We also applied Active Directory GPO’s to secure and standardized desktop functions. I setup a system where users were provided training both on our project website and in a classroom if needed. We utilized WinInstall MSI for application packaging and WinBatch was used for desktop automation. Finally, we installed a helpdesk ticket system to help organization track changes and issues.

NOTABLE TECHNOLOGY USED

Microsoft Windows Desktop

Microsoft Office

Microsoft Windows Server

Microsoft Systems Management Server

Microsoft SQL

Ghost

SysPrep, BartPE, WinPE, USMT. RIS, WinBatch, WinInstall

Microsoft Exchange

Microsoft GPO Management

Microsoft Project

Microsoft Visio

Microsoft IIS

AppVerifier, AppCompTester

Microsoft Office Macros and VBA Scripts