DELUXE CORPORATION | Relocation Planning and Migration


DEDICATED. FOCUSED. SUCCESSFUL

Deluxe Corporation (Deluxe) of Arden Hills, Minnesota was challenged with an expiring business strategy, the production of business checks. Since 1915, Deluxe’s philosophy was to lead with innovation and integrity, which has allowed them the agility to change, making them the dynamic organization they are today.

“I cannot overstate the value of N’compass. Their powerful approach to our project was unique and provided Deluxe the security it needed to accomplish one of the largest IT projects in the company’s history. Collaborating with N’compass instilled confidence, allowing me to sleep at night. Selecting N’compass was the best decision made during the project.“

Blake Talley, Director of Systems Integration

THE CHALLENGE

As a knowledge leader with versatility in their business plan, Deluxe transitioned the company beyond checks to provide a range of products and services for small businesses, financial institutions and personal consumers. This company transformation required change throughout the entire organization including the IT infrastructure. One significant change, affecting many, included the relocation of their data center to hosted facilities and other Deluxe locations. With business operations working two shifts seven days a week, it was critical this relocation be done with flawless execution and minimal unplanned downtime to the business. N’compass started the project as an advisor to Deluxe and vendors Acxiom and AT&T who were selected to execute the physical relocation of server, storage and network assets respectively. N’compass’ data center knowledge and experience proved valuable, as their project role was more involved with each passing day of the project.

THE SOLUTION

To relocate all resources, infrastructure, and facilities from the Shoreview location into two outsourced data center sites. For N’compass, this detail involved release management, validation of hardware, documentation, and source of truth of all equipment including architectural coordination of the hardware infrastructure and migration. N’compass constructed “the glue,” the connection of all infrastructure components including servers, storage, and applications. With a pursuit of defining the business needs and demands of the IT equipment, N’compass was able to drive towards the goal of no unplanned availability of applications to the users and financial institutions.

THE RESULTS

As within all relocation projects, the goal is a seamless cut-over from the old site to the new, overcoming the many complex variables that arise throughout. For Deluxe and N’compass, together they accomplished this once unimaginable goal and in a cost effective and efficient manner. Additionally, all work was completed by September 2011, a goal and hard deadline established at the beginning of the project.

Deluxe contributed project success to the ability to orchestrate all elements of the relocation. To do this, N’compass consultants served as the project managers with a primary focus on communication and coordination. As a project relocation team, the following were completed on time and within a known budget:

  • 16 months of effective project execution
  • Migration of 515 servers
  • Migration of 357 applications