Hankins & Anderson Benefits from Windws 7 Professional and Notebook PCs

1. Windows 7
Customer Solution Case Study
Engineering Firm Benefits from Agile Operating
System and Notebook PCs
Overview “Running Windows 7 Professional on my Dell E6400
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Engineering consultancy gives me the most stable, reliable machine I’ve used.
It’s sturdy, reliable, and intuitive—and that’s everything
Customer Profile
Launched in 1947, Hankins & Anderson is I could ask for in a system.”
a full services engineering consulting firm
Chris Underwood, IT Manager, Hankins & Anderson
with offices in Virginia and California.
Launched in 1947, engineering consultancy firm Hankins &
Business Situation
Hankins & Anderson needed to improve
Anderson provides guidance in the areas of mechanical,
productivity, enhance flexibility for electrical, life safety, structural, and civil engineering to federal,
mobile workers, and boost security while
minimizing costs.
embassy, military, and government markets. The company is
renowned for innovation and impeccable service, having
Solution
With Windows 7 Professional and the
received a 2010 American Council of Engineering Companies of
Dell Latitude E6400, Hankins & Anderson Virginia (ACEC Virginia) “Engineering Excellence Honor Award”
provides employees with more intuitive,
efficient ways to complete tasks, work on
and the “Best Multidiscipline A/E Service Firms to Work For”
the go, and protect sensitive information. distinction from ZweigWhite. To uphold this reputation of
Benefits
excellence, the managers at Hankins & Anderson needed
 Enhances productivity and mobile efficient, high-quality solutions that maximize productivity.
performance
 Boosts efficiency in the office and on
When introduced to the Dell Latitude E6400 running on
the go Windows 7 Professional, they found a combination of speed,
 Fortifies security, minimizes costs
 Discovers new opportunities
performance, and enhanced security that aligned with the
company’s vision.
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2. “I’m a high-powered PC Situation Anderson expects to gain the following
At Hankins & Anderson, existing systems benefits:
user, and I’ll work until were notorious for lengthy start and
resume times that disrupted workflow. Enhancing Productivity and Mobile
my battery dies. With Employees also noted that older systems Performance
previous systems, that drew a lot of energy, which often translated Third-party test groups found that the Dell
into employees having to stop working— Latitude E6400 running Windows 7 starts
could be just a few even in the middle of customer meetings— 10 percent faster and resumes 61 percent
to recharge their notebook computers. faster than previous systems. Hankins &
hours. But with Windows Anderson employees agree—pointing out
7 Professional and my For mobile users, connecting to the right that this increased speed is in part due to
network printer in disparate offices was the faster resume, shutdown, and standby
Dell E6400, my battery tedious and frustrating. Because of this, times of Windows 7.
many employees avoided bringing their
lasts much longer.” notebooks to remote offices altogether, “With Windows 7 Professional, my Dell
Chris Underwood, IT Manager, which then posed productivity issues when E6400 powers up at least a minute or two
Hankins & Anderson trying to locate pertinent files and folders. faster than previous systems,” Underwood
states. “That adds up to hundreds of hours
Creating training manuals was also of savings across the organization
laborious for users who had to cut, paste, annually.”
and reformat screenshots into new
documents one at a time. Employees also Windows 7 Power Management, which
found that encrypting files was tedious and conserves energy by using features such as
time consuming. When they experienced adaptive screen display brightness, helps
any IT issues, employees would call on the employees get more life out of their
tech team for help, and then wait for notebooks. With the Dell Latitude E6400
technicians to run back and forth between long-lasting battery life, users get a more
systems before being able to resolve PC reliable mobile solution that works for up
issues—and resume work. to 19 hours. For example, the Dell Control
Point Software includes All Day Battery
Solution mode, which automatically powers down
When Hankins & Anderson managers unused features for prolonged use.
discovered the Dell Latitude E6400 running
the Windows 7 Professional operating “I’m a high-powered PC user, and I’ll work
system, they found a way to overcome until my battery dies,” Underwood states.
these challenges.* “Running Windows 7 “With previous systems, that could be just a
Professional on my Dell E6400 gives me the few hours. But with Windows 7 Professional
most stable, reliable machine I’ve used,” and my Dell E6400, my battery lasts much
says Chris Underwood, IT Manager at longer.”
Hankins & Anderson. “It’s sturdy, reliable,
and intuitive—and that’s everything I could Boosting Efficiency in the Office and on
ask for in a system.” the Go
Location Aware Printing, a feature included
Benefits with Windows 7 Professional, automatically
By deploying the Windows 7 and Dell detects when an employee changes to a
Latitude E6400 solution, Hankins & new network and connects to the
appropriate network printer, saving hours
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3. “Once we found out over the course of the year. “Location performing a task and create a simple step-
Aware Printing is saving us time, of course, by-step account that they can then
about Windows XP because our systems automatically annotate. While originally designed to help
recognize the right network printer,” says IT technicians better understand and
Mode, we knew we Underwood. “But more than that—it’s resolve technical issues, the Hankins &
could benefit from the completely eliminating frustration.” Anderson training team has discovered that
they can create robust training manuals in
power of Windows 7 For businesses considering the switch to less time.
Windows 7 but are concerned that legacy
Professional while still applications may be incompatible, ”Problem Steps Recorder is the ultimate
being able to use Windows XP Mode, a benefit of Windows 7 technical solution for us,” says Underwood.
Professional, provides the solution. Hankins “It saves time in terms of helping
existing programs. Every & Anderson uses this feature to run older employees solve PC issues, and our training
programs while still taking advantage of team can create rich manuals in half the
business can make the the power and performance of Windows 7 time.”
switch without worrying Professional.
about compatibility.” “Once we found out about Windows XP * As part of the solution deployment
Mode, we knew we could benefit from the through the Windows 7 SMB Evidence
Chris Underwood, IT Manager,
Hankins & Anderson power of Windows 7 Professional while still Program, the customer received
being able to use legacy programs,” complimentary notebooks and technical
Underwood says. “Every business can make support from Microsoft and Dell.
the switch without worrying about
compatibility.”
Fortifying Security, Minimizing Costs
Protecting sensitive client information is a
top priority for Hankins & Anderson
employees, but they found that previous
file encryption systems were difficult—and
time consuming—to use. With the
Windows Encrypting File System, users can
protect important information faster and
easier than ever before.
”Data theft is always a concern, but the
solutions out there can be complex and
costly,” says Underwood. “With the
Encrypting File System, it’s so easy to
protect critical information.”
Discovering New Opportunities
The company has found an unexpected
benefit through the use of Problem Steps
Recorder, a feature of Windows 7
Professional that enables users to record
their actions while using a system or
Works the way you want

4. For More Information Windows 7
For more information about Microsoft Works the way you want: Windows 7 will
products and services, call the Microsoft help your organization use information
Sales Information Center at (800) 426- technology to gain a competitive
9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft advantage in today’s new world of work.
Canada Information Centre at (877) 568- Your people will be able to be more
2495. Customers in the United States and productive anywhere. You will be able to
Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing support your mobile workforce with better
can reach Microsoft text telephone access to shared data and collaboration
(TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. tools. And your IT staff will have better
Outside the 50 United States and tools and technologies for enhanced
Canada, please contact your local corporate IT security and data protection,
Microsoft subsidiary. To access and more efficient deployment and
information using the World Wide Web, management.
go to:
www.microsoft.com For more information about Windows 7, go
to:
For more information about Dell www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7
products and services, call (800) 456-
3355 or visit the website at:
www.dell.com
For more information about Hankins &
Anderson products and services, call
(804) 285-4171 or visit the website at:
www.haengineers.com
Software and Services Hardware
 Windows 7 Professional  Dell Latitude E6400
Partner
 Dell
This case study is for informational purposes only.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published September 2010
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