Yarra Valley Water begins desktop overhaul

Yarra Valley Water has kicked off a transformation project that will see it deploy Windows 7, Office 2010 and Lync unified communications across its 1000-strong desktop fleet.

"Like all aging software packages, supporting costs increase along with potential security breaches. XP is [as well] unable to make full use of today's computing hardware."

Berrell said that Yarra Valley Water was scoping a number of "major themes" in the design phase for the Windows 7 environment, including self-service application provisioning.

The design of the Windows 7 environment

The design of the Windows 7 environment would incorporate feedback from partners for whom the utility supplied and maintained IT equipment.

"Through the consultation process, we will seek the actual computing requirements for our partners and design with this in mind," he said.

The XP-to-Windows 7 migration

While the XP-to-Windows 7 migration was all in all in planning, Yarra Valley Water had upgraded about half of its XP machines to Office 2010.

Apart from improving communication processes by surfacing the 'presence' status of users and enabling 'click-to-call' from the desktop, unified communications was as well expected to have a practical use during the utility extended its Mitcham headquarters in Victoria.

"By providing staff with access to online conferencing, general business can proceed much faster and meetings can be shorter and more efficient."