Leeds City Council Successfully Completes Windows XP Migration With Centennial Discovery

Published 6th November 2007

Discovery now being used to aid ITIL compliance...

Swindon, UK, 6 November, 2007 - Centennial Software, a leading developer of IT asset discovery and endpoint security solutions, today announced Leeds City Council has successfully completed a major upgrade of all laptops and PCs to Windows XP with the help of Centennial Discovery. With more than 12,000 IT users to migrate, Centennial Discovery was used to achieve significant cost savings in the planning and execution of the project, as well as helping Leeds City Council use the migration to take charge of its software licensing and ensure it was compliant across the network. .

Leeds City Council is one of the largest local government bodies in the UK, representing over 750,000 residents. When the Council made the decision to migrate all computers to Windows XP, it first needed detailed knowledge of all IT assets residing on the network. A manual audit of all machines and the software deployed on them would have taken months and there was a danger the results would have been out of date before it was even completed, meaning a comprehensive audit tool was needed.

Phil Wright, Configuration Manager at Leeds City Council, said: “We wanted a best-of-breed solution to ensure the upgrade progressed as smoothly and efficiently as possible. We chose Centennial Discovery to provide complete visibility of the network and appointed CTMS as support partners. The installation of on our predominantly Novell-based network went without a hitch and we started auditing within 12 hours. Discovery provided visibility of assets we were not previously aware of and as a result enabled us to feel entirely in control of the migration.”

As well as the cost savings and total compliance achievement, the discovery of all assets presented the Council with a dynamic, accurate view of all software inventories - an asset that lies at the heart of a Software Asset Management (SAM) strategy.

Not only is the Council is now running a SAM project, it is also working towards ITIL compliance. ITIL compliance will bring improved efficiency and productivity and Centennial Discovery is an essential source for its forthcoming Configuration Management database processes. The Council now also has complete visibility of the IT estate enabling Wright to budget and manage software resources in a much more efficient manner. Since the upgrade, Centennial has also been used to as a data source for the Council’s forthcoming CMDB project and in support of our managed service process. The latter project includes both asset management and rolling kit refresh programs and enables Wright’s department to provide IT facilities to other Council Departments.

Matt Fisher, VP Marketing, Centennial Software said: “We are delighted to have helped Leeds City Council become fully compliant. It is imperative that local authorities ensure that they are fully accountable for all their IT assets. We look forward to continuing to work with Leeds City Council as they look to become ITIL compliant and reap the governance benefits that come with it.”

For more information, please visit www.centennial-software.com