September 15, 1997

Single-PC Theory Eastman Chem replaced 10,000 assorted PCs at once. Target savings: $15 million By Andy Patrizio astman Chemical Co. faced a massive IT problem that threatened to jeopardize its business. For starters, many of the Kingsport, Tenn., company's roughly 10,000 PCs and back-end systems were incompatible and out of date, even as recently as last year. Its older systems-half the computers in the company-weren't networked. Eastman's existing networking infrastructure was a jumble of Token Ring, Ethernet, serial communications, and, often, sneakernet. As a result, Eastman couldn't use the Internet, an intranet, LAN-based E-mail, or even share data enterprisewide. Then, last year, the company decided to toss out virtually all of its desktop computers and back-end systems and replace them with PCs from Dell Computer-all in six months. How did Eastman, the world's 11th-largest chemical company-with $4.8 billion in sales last year-find itself in such a fix? "We weren't buying high-end technology," says Pete Eldridge, a systems associate in Eastman's IT organization who managed the desktop-replacement effort. Instead, Eastman bought hardware when a PC model reached a certain price point. Given how hardware prices change, Eastman's PC standard became a moving target. "Every three or four months, we were putting a new computer on the standard that was faster, but with different hardware, different drivers, and the like," says Eldridge. "Multiply that times four or five years for the refresh cycle, and you can see what happens." While Eastman, which has 60 offices and 175,000 employees in 35 countries, had centralized purchasing, users traditionally were giv en a lot of input into the buying decisions. "Historically, our IT group has been a very customer-focused group," says Darryl Williams, the company's senior VP of technology. But by leaving purchase decisions up to users, Eastman had created an IT hodgepodge. The company had 10 word processors alone. "Some machines were still using Multimate and Displaywrite," says Eldridge. "Every time you wanted to share a document, you had to do it at the least common denominator, which meant plain text." The first step toward centralizing the operations was a reorganization. The former Systems and Computer Services division was spun out last year from the finance department, where it had originally been located, and is now called the Information Technology Organization. At the same time, Eldridge and Charles Oliver, director of global computer and telecommunications for Eastman, began evaluating ways to standardize their IT operations. Initially, Eldridge and Oliver planned to replace one-third of the company 's desktop units over three years. But that approach was soon found unsatisfactory. "You have people on the standard this year and people on the standard in three years," says Eldridge. "You can never roll out an intranet because you're still years behind." Instead, Eastman's IT management decided to bite the bullet and initiate a rapid desktop replacement effort. All the PCs used by the company's 175,000 employees in 60 offices around the globe were to be eliminated and replaced with new machines by late 1997. Late last year, the rapid-replacement project was introduced into the company from the bottom up by telecommunications manager Jerry Hale, who at the time was manager of the computing services organization. Hale first brought the notion to the employees and departments, who gave their approval. Meanwhile, Oliver sold top management on the idea. Eastman's chairman and CEO, Ernest Deavenport Jr., backed the plan, but he urged Eldridge and Oliver to finish the project by mid-1997 instead of year's end as they had planned. Deavenport wanted Eastman to use the new technology as a platform for other applications, such as moving from SAP R/2 to R/3, as well as setting up intranets. Eastman used to buy its PCs from a local reseller that used different suppliers. Many of the computers Eastman had acquired from the reseller were no-name brands. But with the replacement project, Eastman's IT management decided to purchase all of its systems from Dell Computer instead. Among the reasons, says Oliver: The reseller required a number of providers to build the system, and Eastman wanted to deal with a single supplier. Also, the reseller had a relatively high hardware failure rate. Dell helped Eastman set a software standard. The companies worked out an agreement to provide each PC with Microsoft Windows 95; Office 97; Internet Explorer 3.0; and Walker, Richer & Quinn's Reflection terminal emulation. In all, Eastman bought more than 9,000 Pentium Pro 180 systems. Each has 32 Mbytes of RAM, a 2- Gbyte disk, a 17-inch monitor, a CD-ROM drive, and an Ethernet card. The company also bought 1,250 Dell Latitude XPi CD 150 notebooks. Each has 32 Mbytes of memory, a 1.3-Gbyte hard disk, and a 28.8-Kbps modem-Ethernet combo card. This uniformity means everyone in the company has some of the most powerful PCs available on his or her desktop. Even Eastman admits its more than some users need. "Some PCs end up overpowered for their respective use," says Oliver. Rapid Deployment The desktop rollout began this past January. The Kingsport office had the largest number of systems, more than 6,000 officewide. Between 500 and 600 desktops were replaced each week. When Eastman found it needed outside help, a local reseller was brought in. Remote offices either replaced their own PCs or hired local help as well. Eastman initially wanted to tackle the back-end servers first, but decided the upgraded servers would be useless without desktop PCs to take advantage of them. The company has 18,000 people using OfficeVision, a mainframe E-mail system; 900 users are in a pilot program testing Microsoft Exchange. Eventually, Exchange and Windows NT 4.0 Server will be rolled out companywide, replacing NetWare 3.12 and a mainframe-based E-mail system. While replacing old systems, the company dug up some real museum pieces. "We had some computers returned with floppy-based XT systems, all the way up to Pentium 100s," says Eldridge. As many as 10% of the retired machines were Macintoshes, and the die-hard Mac users did not go quietly, Eldridge says. The only Macs remaining are used in highly specialized functions, such as desktop publishing. About 90% of all the computers were sold to Eastman employees, with the remaining 10% donated to schools. At the Kingsport office, a "sales floor" was set up in one building to let people choose from the systems. In the end, very few computers were thrown out. Conversion Worries Oliver's biggest concern was converting data. Users were allowed to convert their own data, or, if needed, IT would tackle the conversion. Because Eastman was in Microsoft's early adopter program for Office 97, Microsoft also assisted in the conversion. By June, the U.S. effort was almost entirely done, except for a few sales offices. In about 90% of the European offices the replacement effort had been completed, while half of Eastman's Asia-Pacific and Latin America offices had brought in the new PCs by mid-year. The end result? Eastman went from 150 employees dedicated to full-time support-and another 150 to 200 doing part-time support-to just 50 people. The 300 or so people affected were redeployed elsewhere in the company. The true measure of savings may be difficult to gauge, since it's hard to calculate the value of reliable computers. But Oliver estimates the company will save $15 million over three years in non-employee costs, such as support and continued purchasing to replace hardware. Eastman would not disclose how much was spent on the rollout. Also, tech-support calls have been slashed. Before, responses to calls would take anywhere from four hours to a few days, and always required someone to go to the trouble spot. Now, more than 70% of all tech-support calls are fixed over the phone, usually in less than 20 minutes. Eastman is satisfied with the projected $15 million it will save on purchases over the next three years. But the company is especially pleased to see how working conditions have improved for employees. "If you get people beginning to talk about how this IT system is making their job easier, they like their job better and they're doing a better job," says Williams. "I don't see how you put a dollar sign on that." --with Bruce Caldwell and Jeff Angus Back to News in Review Send Us Your Feedback Top of the Page

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