Lincolnshire council ditches Novell for Microsoft

Cost savings and reliability prompt switch

Lincolnshire County Council is shifting thousands of workers from Novell to Microsoft systems as part of an IT overhaul.

The revamp will see the council migrate 5,500 staff from Novell Netware and Groupwise to Microsoft Windows and Exchange, as well as build a new wide area network and expand its range of thin clients, as it seeks to cut costs and make its IT easier to maintain and manage.

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John Ward, programme manager at the council, said in a statement: "We realised that we needed a faster, more reliable IT infrastructure.

"Without it we wouldn't be able to support new ways of working for our staff, which is a key element of enabling us to provide improved service for customers."

The migration to Microsoft products is being undertaken by IT integrator Fordway and forms part of the council's Actively Creating Opportunities for Remote and New Ways of Working (Acorn) initiative.

The Acorn programme is expected to be complete by 2010.