Is the Cloud Right for You? A Real-World Case Study on Ardent Mills

Jeff Schreiner, CIO - Ardent MillsEric Van Heel, VP UC and Data Solutions - Avtex

INTRODUCTIONSWho are Jeff and Eric?

Who is Ardent Mills?Brand new company born from three industry pioneers, ConAgra Mills®, Horizon Milling® and CHS to form the Joint Venture called Ardent Mills.

Ardent Mills + Office365

• Bridging two separate companies that, until the final days, were unable to collaborate

• Coast to coast network of 43 plants with a HQ in Denver CO

• Needed to be up and running by a set date in May of 2014

Challenges

Ardent Mills + Office365

Ardent Mills enlisted Avtex to deploy Office365 which includes:• Exchange Online• Lync Online• SharePoint Online• Voice-Integrated

Conferencing

• Avtex manages levels 1, 2 and 3 support, from Help Desk to Architect level

Solution

Ardent Mills + Office 365

• Resources: – Deployment Team, Business Team, Parent Transition Teams

• Timeline:– Moving End Date

• Special Considerations:– Two Infrastructures– Two Security Practices– Two End-User Computing Environments– Regulatory Controls– Change Management

Go-Live and Preparations

Ardent Mills + Office365

• Up and running at full function on their first day with all IT structures in place, including e-mail

• Ease of adding users with no planning necessary

• Unlimited scale in O365

• Cost – no surprises; each user costs a fixed amount

• No physical servers to maintain; also cuts costs

• Avtex manages support, so Ardent Mills can focus on the real tasks at hand, not admin tasks

Benefits

Ardent Mills + Office365Approach

Ardent Mills + Office365

Silver Lining Planning Services

Avtex Silver Lining Planning Services is at the core of our Cloud practice and allows your organization to fully understand the Microsoft Office 365 or CRM Online offering.

Deliverables:• Assess readiness• Privacy and Security• Review Network, AD,

Workstations, etc.• Deliver basic TCO/ROI

Analysis• Project Requirements• Proposal for next two

phases

Ardent Mills + Office365

Silver Lining Identity Services

Design and implementation of a seamless end-user experience for authentication

Solution Options:• Cloud Identity• ADFS• DirSync with Password Sync

Ardent Mills + Office365

Silver Lining Migration Services

Migration • Email Addresses• Data (user and shared mailboxes, public folders, etc.)• From Exchange, non-Microsoft platforms (Google, Lotus Notes, GroupWise, etc.)

Rich Coexistence • Same experience for uses On-prem. and Cloud – Short or Long Term• Free/Busy Schedules• Address Books• Secure Message Delivery• Outlook Profile Preservation (OST, Rules, Views, OOO, Sig. Block)

What’s Next?Setting the stage for the future