Fun project facts Interesting tidbits on the project that won Royal & SunAlliance the 2002 User Excellence Award.  From liability to asset  Building a software  mall  Centrally managed,  locally placed  Getting active  Only three questions  Picking the winners  Fun facts  Runner up: Veterans  Affairs  Runner up: Wellís  Dairy  Honorable mentions Royal & SunAlliance USAís network staff used a 1985 version of Quick Basic to write scripts and used TCP/IP 1.0. This allowed the scripts to operate via DOS even after the hard drive was wiped, while maintaining the network-assigned IP address. The infrastructure team wrote a VisualBasic script to do password synchronization for offices that cut over in June, before IT implemented a password synchronization product, M-Tech Mercury Information Technologyís P-Synch, in mid-July. About a dozen offices relied on this. Each office needed only a single IT expert ìcoachî onsite during the installation. Users would hold up a yellow construction-paper ìflagî to indicate they had begun, a red flag for help and a green flag to signal successful completion. Users received personalized packets containing the inventory of their own hardware and software, an installation packet with screen shots, an XP training guide and their colored-paper ìflags.î After acting as the first onsite coach himself, Roger Thibodeau, the executive project manager, created a ìcommand centerî of help desk professionals dedicated to handling calls from coaches or users. Thibodeau staffed this command center at the low rate of $20 to $40 per hour by hiring between-jobs IT people and enticing them with XP training. Many found jobs right after the R&SA USA gig, some even with Microsoft, he says. The four-month cutover window meant that on most days, two to seven offices were scheduled to upgrade simultaneously, often 1,000 machines at once. The average user backed up between 60M and 70M bytes of data. A few backed up more than 3G bytes. This self-installation upgrade solved another new, but major problem: how to include roughly 1,200 remote workers. Facility managers scheduled teleworkers assigned to their offices to be part of upgrade day, or those workers shipped their PCs to the IT department for the upgrades. Because R&SA USA was an XP beta site, Microsoft set up a nearby office and trained the insurance company on rapid adoption techniques. After this project, R&SA USA trained Microsoft on its unattended upgrade processes.

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