An installation of Microsoft`s Small Business Server 2003 (SBS2003) has been carried out in SA prior to the product`s availability on the local market.
The installation took place at the Institute of Commercial and Financial Accountants of Southern Africa (CFA), which has recently gone through a flurry of activity as its IT infrastructure was upgraded to a tight deadline.
"We as an institute are funded by a member fee, so we don`t have a large technology budget," explains Karen Fairfield, corporate services manager at the CFA.
"Over the years, we had found ourselves in a bit of a lag and realised that we needed to catch up and evaluate all of our technology. We were pushed by the fact that we were installing a very up to date customer management database, tailor-made to our needs. We needed to upgrade our infrastructure to service the database`s requirements."
Having no internal IT department, the CFA approached Netsurit for its advice and recommendation. Brian Cooper, sales director at Netsurit, felt that since the new Microsoft technology was about to be made available on the local market, it didn`t make sense to install the previous version, SBS2000.
"Obviously, knowing that the newer technology was available, it made sense for us to supply a solution that was going to add as much value as possible," he says. "The timing was critical, as they are in the process of installing one of Microsoft`s business solutions applications, and the installation could not be delayed."
In light of this, Microsoft made an early copy of the software available for the installation. "We lent a helping hand in getting the product there very quickly," says Thomas Hansen, director, small and mid-market solutions and partner group at Microsoft South Africa. He adds that while SBS2003 is now available locally, this is the first known installation of the product.
The installation was complex, as Netsurit had to upgrade what was a peer-to-peer system with no security or functionality into a fully-fledged central domain-controlled Windows environment.
"The roll-out has gone 100% according to plan, with one of the major reasons being that we have been testing the beta versions since they were released to us a few months ago," says Cooper. "The product is superior to its predecessor, and we are proud that we`ve researched it to the point where we could do an installation as it was hot off the press."
Although it`s still too early to gauge the success of the installation, the CFA is pleased with the results so far. "We`re still getting the glitches out, but it`s only been a week," says Fairfield. "The installation is well ahead of schedule, with about 70% of the changeover being complete."
Related story:
Microsoft launches Small Business Server
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