Identity Consolidation Project for Global Manufacturer

Overview
As part of a project to modernize its technology environment across multiple business units, our client sought Concurrency’s assistance with a project to ensure a secure, consistent approach to user identification.

We had previously assisted our client with an Office 365 migration project, in which we put in place Skype for Business, Exchange and Office applications across several business units, thereby establishing a centralized messaging and calendaring environment to allow real-time collaboration throughout the parent company and subsidiaries.

The need for a user-identity project came as a result of the Office 365 migration effort, as some details about current-practice at subsidiaries came clear. One business unit, for example, was in the process of acquiring another company and needed to modernize its approach to user account management in advance of bringing in the user base at the company being acquired.
Prior to this project, the business unit was using Active Directory but had very little control over the platform, as user accounts were handled by a third-party managed services group.

Solution
Our role, therefore, was to help this client’s business unit to establish a new, greenfield Active Directory environment on a modern footing. Doing so would handle the business unit’s current user base as well as the company being acquired and potential future acquisitions.

Concurrency’s project team included a business analyst, project manager, engineer and architect. We conducted an upfront review to clearly establish the current environment, including which applications need to integrate with Active Directory. We then took initial steps to prepare the way for the new environment, such as collapsing two separate email environments into one. (We also then moved the remaining email environment to Office 365 as part of the larger migration project.)

After designing the identity solution and laying the groundwork for the greenfield Active Directory environment, we migrated users with minimal user impact, making use of Active Director Migration Tool. We also helped the business unit upgrade its security posture by hardening servers (newly deployed Hyper-V servers put in place as Domain Controllers) in line with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. We also handled the integration of Active Directory with the applications identified during the planning phases.

The result was a modern identity platform for this client’s business unit that can serve the company’s changing needs over time.