Microsoft System Center 2012Customer Solution Case Study

Direct Seller Aims for Improved Online Retail Environment with Management Solution

OverviewCountry or Region: United StatesIndustry: Retail

Customer ProfileAmway is a direct selling company that uses multilevel marketing to sell a variety of products, primarily in the health, beauty, and home care markets. It employs 20,000 people.

Business SituationServer support teams used manual processes to configure servers, and the Desktop Engineering Team needed a better PC management tool to comply with the company’s Next Generation Desktop Program.

SolutionAmway is deploying Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager to simplify server administration and offer a stable, productive desktop computing experience to employees.

Benefits Unified IT management infrastructure Enhanced security Simplified IT administration

“We use System Center 2012 Configuration Manager to transform how we configure and audit global e-commerce environments. Better management of revenue-generating technology is good for business.”

Matt Behrens, Manager, Windows Server Support and Virtualization Technology, Amway

Amway is a direct selling company with a global presence. Its server support teams wanted a better management solution for the company’s data center and web servers, which support its online retail business. The Desktop Engineering Team also needed a management tool to support the company’s goals for a better managed desktop to optimize computing environments for employees under the company’s Next Generation Desktop Program. Amway chose Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager to unify IT administration across the enterprise’s 3,600 servers and 6,800 PCs. The Desktop Engineering Team is already using Configuration Manager to achieve a zero-touch global deployment of Windows 7. Server support teams will use Configuration Manager to ensure a standard web server configuration that optimizes the Amway retail experience.

SituationFounded in 1959, Amway offers consumer products and business opportunities through a network of more than 3 million independent business owners (IBOs) in more than 80 countries and territories around the world.

Amway North America serves IBOs in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and various trust territories and independent island nations in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and Caribbean Sea. Like all Amway affiliates, Amway North America supports IBOs with a compensation plan; portfolios of quality products in health, beauty, and other consumer categories; and training.

“Amway North America generates nearly $1 billion dollars in revenue, and 85 percent of that goes through our e-commerce site, amway.com,” says Matt Behrens, Manager, Windows Server Support and Virtualization Technology at Amway.

Server Management ChallengesTo support its business, the 14-member Windows Server Support Team maintains 3,600 servers running the Windows Server 2008 operating system at headquarters in Ada, Michigan, and at the Amway Information Technology Services (AITS) division in Malaysia. Approximately 67 percent of the servers are virtualized. The team uses a third-party server management tool that was included with the data center’s HP blade server infrastructure; however, IT staff members never fully adopted the tool because it wasn’t very intuitive. The team relied on manual processes for server provisioning, Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) for distributing software updates, and

Windows Deployment Services and the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 for software deployments.

“We had no broad-based server management solution in place,” says Behrens. “In 10 years, we’ve seen a tenfold increase in the number of servers—3,600 servers and a poor management solution made it difficult to ensure that servers were configured to meet business needs.”

The nine members of the WebTech Group, which maintains more than 600 servers in the company’s e-commerce environment, faced additional challenges. Part of their job is managing 30 servers that run Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0, a feature of Windows Server 2008. These servers host the company’s critical e-commerce solutions that support online sales, product fulfillment, and business services for IBOs. They are located in different geographical locations and support global Amway affiliates.

The WebTech Group hired contractors to build and configure isolated servers or “sandboxes” for developers to test new updates before they went into production; these support resources added up to 1.5 full-time employees. The team wanted to automate the configuration of sandboxes to reduce contractor costs. WebTech Group team members also struggled with using manual processes to build, configure, and audit e-commerce systems to make sure they stayed consistent.

“It could take a week to get a server production-ready, and all 30 servers have to be configured the same way to ensure a reliable, consistent web experience for

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“In 10 years, we’ve seen a tenfold increase in the number of servers—3,600 servers and a poor management solution made it difficult to ensure that servers were configured to meet business needs.”Matt Behrens, Manager, Windows Server

Support and Virtualization Technology, Amway

Amway customers,” says Behrens. “It could be for a marketing campaign or a new version of a tool to support IBOs, but when we install a service pack or deploy a new release, everything has to stay the same.”

Initial Success with Automated Processes In 2010, Amway solved some of these issues when it deployed System Center Configuration Manager 2007 for the WebTech Team. The team used Configuration Manager 2007 to accelerate the deployment of new systems in the e-commerce environment, saving more than 3,000 hours in the first year. IT professionals also used it to automate the installation and configuration of developers’ sandboxes, reducing the need for contractor resources to five hours a week. When the team used Configuration Manager 2007 to deploy its first web front end server it completed the project seven weeks ahead of schedule and saved $27,000 in contractor costs.

“We were so excited about what this technology had done for the WebTech Team that Matt and I decided to go to the Microsoft Management Summit [MMS] in Las Vegas in 2008 to learn about the latest version of Configuration Manager and see if would be useful for the Windows Server Support Team,” says Trey Bruneau, Senior System Support Specialist, Windows Server Support at Amway.

Goals for Desktop Management Amway was also in the process of launching its Next Generation Desktop Program, which represented a holistic change in the way that Amway manages

business computing. The program included an enterprisewide upgrade of all 6,800 PCs to the Windows 7 Enterprise operating system and to Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 business productivity software. Amway did not have a formal desktop operating system deployment process; new PCs were acquired with the latest operating system and delivered individually to employees as needed. Part of the rationale for the Next Generation Desktop Program was to standardize the desktop to simplify management, improve software inventory tracking, and deliver the most productive computing environment to employees.

“The Desktop Engineering Team wanted to support this move by replacing the third-party solution it used for remote control and inventory management with a more robust desktop management tool,” says Bruneau. “There were complaints that the tool drained computing power on the PCs, as did the antivirus solution that the desktop team used. We promised to report back to the desktop team from MMS about how we thought Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager would contribute to their program.”

SolutionThe Amway Windows Server Support Team returned from the MMS summit impressed with what they saw. System Center 2012 Configuration Manager consolidates all desktop and server management tasks across mobile, physical, and virtual environments and would help simplify IT administration for both server and desktop teams. As with its predecessor, Configuration Manager agent software is installed on the company’s PCs, laptops, servers, and mobile devices so that

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administrators can manage them through a single management console. With one tool, Amway can unify IT management tasks across the enterprise. “At Amway, we like to be ‘fast followers’ of Microsoft technology. As we were looking to deploy a global management solution, it made sense to go with the latest platform with all the improvements,” says Behrens.

Amway acquired System Center 2012 Configuration Manager through the Microsoft System Center Server Management Suite Datacenter for server management. Client Management Licenses (MLs) are required for managed devices that run non-server operating system environments, so Amway added the System Center 2012 Client Management Suite Client ML. “The way we licensed the product is very cost-effective. We get an unlimited number of server operating system environments,” says Behrens. “It also includes the other three components of the System Center 2012 Client Management Suite.” These components are: Operations Manager, Virtual Machine Manager, and Orchestrator.

“Operations Manager is next in line,” says Behrens. “We see the value of using all products together to maximize the interoperability of these tools. We are thinking about using Virtual Machine Manager for self-service provisioning of virtual machines in our data center and the WebTech Team will be excited about using Orchestrator to automate best practices in the e-commerce environments.”

In November 2011, Amway joined the System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Community Evaluation Program

(CEP) for Production Support. “We were excited about the potential of Configuration Manager, so we were eager to deploy the product in production,” says Bruneau. “We also liked that the CEP program entitles us to an upgrade to the release-to-manufacturing version when it comes out.”

New Features Attract Server Management Teams The WebTech Team appreciated the computer compliance and remediation capabilities within System Center 2012 Configuration Manager. The product provides a new, built-in role called Compliance Settings Manager that Amway server administrators can use to manage and deploy configuration baselines and view compliance results. And with IT-defined automated remediation in Configuration Manager, administrators can specify which changes in a baseline configuration should be detected and automatically reset to the desired configuration to ensure system compliance.

IT staff also saw the potential to enhance security by improving control over administration rights across the organization with the new roles-based administration in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager. Roles-based administration uses security roles to assign typical administrative tasks to particular administrators in a way that reflects the organization’s data security requirements.

IT staff are interested in evaluating how they can use System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection to manage server and desktop security and compliance from within the Configuration Manager console. “Because

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"Because Endpoint Protection is integrated with Configuration Manager, it’s easy to configure malware alerts to notify us when Endpoint Protection detects malware on our managed endpoints.”

Trey Bruneau, Senior System Support Specialist, Windows Server Support,

Amway

Endpoint Protection is integrated with Configuration Manager, it’s easy to configure malware alerts to notify us when Endpoint Protection detects malware on our managed endpoints,” says Bruneau.

Expected Contributions to Desktop Management ProjectThe Desktop Engineering Team wanted Configuration Manager for application management, operating system deployment, software updates, software inventorying and reporting, and endpoint management—all aspects of a more managed desktop endorsed by the Next Generation Desktop Program. But the team was also interested in the Configuration Manager Application Catalog, a website where employees can browse for and request software. “This makes it easy for people to find software that they need, rather than requiring a lab administrator to set up a remote session or manually deploy the software,” says Behrens. Because of the Next Generation Desktop Program, Amway decided to deploy System Center 2012 Configuration Manager first to the desktop. Beginning in March 2012, the Desktop Engineering Team used the agent push method and took a “wave” approach based on predefined collections of computers that share common criteria, which will make it easy to perform different management tasks according to Amway organizational structure and business requirements. The client push method of deployment can only be used on computers that have been discovered by System Center 2012 Configuration Manager. To date, the client has been installed on 3,746 PCs.

Amway is using the same method to deploy the agent to both physical and virtual servers. “Once we get the RTM code into production, we will change gears, and the Windows Server Support Team will ramp up, pushing the client to all our servers to get everyone in the same environment,” says Bruneau. “Outside of the e-commerce environment, we have installed the client on 800 virtual and 90 physical servers to date.”

BenefitsEven though Amway is in the middle of deploying System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, IT staff members can already see the benefits of the new, centralized solution for server and desktop management tasks—with clear implications for the business. With the new solution in the hands of the WebTech Team, Amway can expect even more streamlined, efficient administration of its e-commerce environment that generates the majority of revenue for the company. “We use System Center 2012 Configuration Manager to transform how we configure and audit global e-commerce environments,” says Behrens. “Better management of revenue-generating technology is good for business.”

The Windows Server Support Team members are beginning to use Configuration Manager in the data center to automate manual administration processes to serve the business better. The Desktop Engineering Team is already using the new solution for core desktop management tasks, such as operating system deployment, application management, and software inventory, to

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help realize the goals for the Next Generation Desktop Program.

Unifies IT Management Infrastructure Amway IT staff simplified the Configuration Manager hierarchy within the e-commerce environments to unify the IT management infrastructure. Previously, with Configuration Manager 2007, there was a primary site for each e-commerce environment, but today, these sites have been combined into one.

Both server and desktop management teams are replacing disparate tools with Configuration Manager to unify client management processes across the enterprise. Now Amway can save IT labor time and costs while streamlining operations and gaining better insight into global software and hardware inventories. “As I am responsible for security updates for all the member servers in North America, I’ll be using Configuration Manager to replace multiple consoles,” says Bruneau. “All security information will be available to me in one place, so when Matt asks me for a status report, I’ll no longer have to pull and consolidate data to get the information.”

IT staff members can also reduce management complexity when they use the single, integrated platform for managing client security and compliance that comes with System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection. “I think this is a great solution,” says Bruneau. “We can retire the resource-intensive, antivirus product we had before and replace it with a minimal scanning presence on computers that doesn’t affect performance. And it’s really easy to configure malware alerts to notify you

when Endpoint Protection detects malware on computers.”

By using Endpoint Protection, IT staff can also choose how to deliver antivirus signature updates to managed computers—through Configuration Manager, directly from Microsoft, or delivered over the Internet using WSUS. There are more update delivery options than they had with their previous antivirus tool.

Enhances SecurityAmway expects to enhance corporate network security by using roles-based administration within Configuration Manager. When Amway completes its deployment of Configuration Manager, teams from around the world on both the server and desktop side will be using it. “It’s great that we can streamline IT management tasks and replace third-party management tools with a single management solution,” says Bruneau. “With so many people using a tool that will eventually reach every PC and server in the company, we can be sure that as we describe new collections of managed computers, we can use the roles-based administration to ensure that administrators only see what they need to see. We no longer have to worry about that scenario where someone clicks on the ‘All Systems’ collection and initiates an operating system deploy that wipes out the entire environment.”

And on the desktop, Endpoint Protection has already detected viruses that were missed by the company’s previous antivirus solution. “When we pushed out the Endpoint Protection agent to computers in Asia, within the first 20 seconds, the agent

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picked up a virus from Facebook,” says Bruneau. “We have no idea how long it had been there, but it was great that we could report it and remove it right away.”

Simplifies IT AdministrationAmway management teams are more efficient and productive now that they are using Configuration Manager. Staff members describe the Configuration Manager console user interface as “fantastic” with simple, clear navigation based on functional roles, which are clearly laid out—particularly the reporting, software updates, and operating system deployment roles.

The Desktop Engineering Team uses Configuration Manager to deploy Windows 7 globally to deliver a better computing environment to users as part of the Next Generation Desktop Program. “For the first time in our history, we are achieving a true ‘zero touch’ deployment, and that’s thanks to Configuration Manager,” says Bruneau. “Based on our client collections, we are targeting departments and asking users to leave their machines on Friday night. When they return to work on Monday morning, their desktop is ready to go.”

The WebTech Team will use Compliance Settings Manager and automated remediation capabilities to maintain identical e-commerce environments. Administrators can set a configuration

baseline for each IIS server and specify a compliance threshold. If the server no longer complies with a predefined compliance threshold, System Center 2012 Configuration Manager generates an alert to notify the WebTech Team. “With our web servers, we don’t take any chances when it comes to mixed configurations,” says Behrens. “And with auto remediation, we no longer have to write scripts to correct things if a server drifts from the norm. By using Configuration Manager, we are empowered to ensure Amway retail sites are working to the same high standard, selling more products and providing better service. That’s a huge benefit.”

Microsoft System Center 2012Microsoft System Center 2012 helps your organization achieve IT as a service by enabling productive infrastructure, predictable applications, and cloud computing on your terms. With System Center 2012, use a self-service model to deliver flexible and cost-effective private cloud infrastructure to your business units while capitalizing on existing data center investments. Applications run your business, so System Center 2012 is designed to offer deep application insight combined with a service-centric approach to help you deliver predictable application services. Finally, by using System Center 2012, you can deliver and consume private

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For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about Amway products and services, call (800) 253-6500 or visit the website at: www.amway.com

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published July 2012

Software and Services Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Windows Server 2008− Microsoft System Center 2012

Configuration Manager Windows 7 Enterprise Microsoft Office− Microsoft Office Professional Plus

2010

Technologies− Internet Information Services 7.0− Windows Server Update Services

“By using Configuration Manager, we are empowered to ensure Amway retail sites are working to the same high standard, selling more products and providing better service. That’s a huge benefit.”Matt Behrens, Manager, Windows Server

Support and Virtualization Technology, Amway

and public cloud computing on your terms, with common management experiences across both.

For more information about Microsoft System Center 2012, go to: www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/system-center/2012.aspx

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