Postproduction Management of the SBC Environment

SBC is now rolled out across the enterprise. Your users are happy, and your IT staff has joined the swelling ranks of server-based computing evangelists. Performance should be compared with both expectations and established success metrics. The results should be reported to both management and users.

Measuring User Satisfaction

One method for measuring user satisfaction is to send out surveys asking users to grade the project on various criteria, including performance, reliability, how well it meets expectations, ease of use, training, and implementation. Compare the user satisfaction results with those obtained in surveys taken before the SBC deployment. You can also use the surveys to find out what other attributes users would like.

Rate Project Milestones

Were project milestones reached on time? For instance, one milestone may have been to migrate all headquarters users within 60 days of the project start. Record and publish the results.

Updating the Budget

Measure actual expenditures against the budget. Update the financial feasibility model with the project costs as well as with costs as they accrue going forward. This will enable a return on investment (ROI) to be calculated for the project over a three-to-five-year period.

Measuring SBC Benefits

During the beta and the production deployment, you established service levels for your SBC environment. These service levels represent an agreement between the IT staff and the user community. Part of the agreement is that the IT staff will manage the system to meet certain established metrics and goals. The data needed to establish whether these goals are being met needs to be collected diligently and continuously. For example, if part of the SLA is 99.99 percent system uptime, every blue screen or other server outage needs to be recorded, as well as major network disruptions for a given region or data center.

Publishing Results

The collected data does no good unless the appropriate people review it. There should be a policy of no secrets between the IT staff and the user community. Establish a reporting cycle as part of the SLA. It may not be critical for a user to see daily status, but it may be appropriate to display quarterly or monthly SLA results. This will depend on your corporate culture and what your internal reporting capabilities are.

Establishing an SBC Steering Committee

A technique for keeping IT staff and the user community focused on continuous improvement is to create a committee made up of both groups. The user representatives should be as diverse as the reach of the server-based computing project. If the SBC environment is multinational, a representative from each major region or country should participate. The exact scope and responsibility of the committee will depend on your corporate culture, but it should at least evaluate and recommend changes to the server-based computing environment.

Providing a Forum for Feedback "Outside the Box"

The help desk will record user problems and outages. In addition, you should provide a way for any employee of the company to give suggestions or constructive criticism. This input should be reviewed and evaluated by the steering committee. We've found that brilliant suggestions sometimes come from the most unlikely places.

Making Fact-Based Decisions on the Future Direction of Your SBC Environment

Collecting and reporting on established SLAs and keeping the users involved results in invaluable information for making decisions about the future of your company's server-based computing initiative. Even after a successful rollout, there may be factions within the company that remain unconvinced as to the value of server-based computing. Having facts to back up a recommendation to expand the infrastructure or add applications can mean the difference between an environment's success or its failure.

Establishing a Server-Based Computing Lab

To maintain a high quality of service, it is necessary to maintain a lab environment where new versions of software and hardware can be evaluated and tested. This lab does not need to be onsite. In fact, manufacturers often allow their facilities to be used for this purpose, as long as you agree to share the results. Regularly check the web sites of Microsoft and Citrix for the latest information on changes and upgrades. The Citrix knowledge base, in particular, is an excellent place to find this kind of information. Since your SBC environment is now tested and stable, any change must be rigorously evaluated and tested before deployment.

Sharing Your Experiences

After getting the proper clearance from management, seek out other companies that have undergone similar server-based computing deployments, and offer to share information. Even if a nondisclosure agreement is necessary, the result will be an enrichment of the server-based computing environment at each company. Participate in server-based computing-related forums and events from Citrix and Microsoft to keep up on the latest developments and share your experiences. Finally, seek out peers on the Internet, in discussion groups, chat rooms, e-forums, or other areas.

Server-based computing on an enterprise level is an emerging technology. Manufacturers of server-based computing hardware and software are eager to help you publicize your success by writing and publishing success stories. In this way, you can help contribute to the growing momentum behind this new and tremendously exciting industry.