Tools Overview
NEW!
- Check out our new Complex License Analyzer (ready to go
for SQL Server) and our new SQL Server auto-discovery tool.
HOVER OVER THIS ICON FOR MORE DETAILS >>>
Then contact us to set up a demonstration.
Although we understand through experience that ITAM/SAM/SLM are
highly dependent on process and successful organizational change
management, and are therefore highly focused on those
disciplines, we also understand that eventually you need
automation to be successful. We have developed a Software
as a Service (SaaS) automation platform that we use to deliver
full solutions to our customers. We now offer our
automation platform to clients who are only looking for a cost
effective, yet comprehensive, ITAM/SAM tool.
Benefits of our tool set:
- Built for practitioners by practitioners - translates to
very little data entry and a tool designed to work like ITAM/SAM
practitioners work
- No hardware to buy or roll out - be up and running
faster
- High availability - guaranteed
- Secure
- Web-based - all you need is a browser
- Global
- Built on a rapid process development platform -
translates to ability to adapt to changing business needs
very fast. No more waiting until the next release.
- Cost effective
Typical use cases:
- Managing all license types - to include complex data
center titles
- Comprehensive hardware asset management
- Complete software asset management to include harvesting
and compliance
- Self service software request portal with approvals and
automated install
- Efficiently calculate and report accuracy SLAs
- Bar coding and hand held scanners
- Hardware physical inventory management and measurement
- Software metering and usage monitoring
- Auto-discovery (hardware and software)
- Advanced Shipping Notice (ASN) processing - both
hardware and software
- Automated approval process for introducing new software
- 3 levels of ITAD tracking and reconciliation
- Workflow design and automation
- Auto-discovering SQL Server installations
- General purpose self-service request portal
- Private Cloud provisioning request portal (self
service)
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Advanced Shipping Notices (ASNs)
Advanced Shipping Notices (ASNs), sent directly from your vendors, are the most efficient and accurate
way to collect initial hardware and software information. You need a way to handle the various formats and spellings in use by the vendors - and that's
where our Advanced Shipping Notice Processor comes in. It can be trained to handle any number of vendors' ASN formats and spellings. It makes quick work
of capturing and creating both hardware and software entitlemnent records. Ask us for a demonstration. We can also help you get ASNs set up with your
vendors - we work with most of the major resellers/LARs.
What about Stock Keeping Units (SKUs)? Why don't you just use those? The answer? We do - when they are available, repeatable, and reliable. We tend
to take ASNs from multiple vendors - all of which have their own numbering systems (usually). So SKUs aren't always available - but when they are, we
support using them as well.
Bottom line? Why spend time typing in information that you can readily get from your vendors - and at no extra charge? All you need is our ASN Processor to handle
the various vendor formats and spellings - it's a huge time saver as well as accuracy enhancer.
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Auto-discovery
Auto-discovery is a necessary ingredient to any successful ITAM/SAM solution. It efficiently supplies some of the essential information, such as
hardware information and installed software. As such, our ITAM/SAM tool solution has been designed to be compatible with all major auto-discovery tools. We work
with Altiris, SCCM, Marimba, Landesk, and more. Chances are high that whatever auto-discovery tool you have in place, we can use it.
And if you have three different tools running in your environment, no problem. We often integrate with different tools that are scanning different
platforms/environments. Our flexibility affords us the ability to work with any number of auto-discovery tools simultaneously.
Don't have an auto-discovery tool in place? Use ours. Our Workstation Data Assistant (WDA) includes an auto-discovery snap-in that reports both
hardware and software information.
NEW! - We have just
introduced our SQL Server discovery tool that specializes in finding
up-and-running Microsoft SQL Servers. No over-reporting of deployments
(SQL Server licenses are expensive so you don't want to over-count your
deployed position). If you are trying to accurately understand your
licensing needs for SQL Server, you need our SQL Server discovery tool and
our Complex License Analyzer.
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Hand-held Scanners
Hand-held bar code scanners are a highly recommended addition to any hardware tracking / hardware asset management solution. They are fast and accurate.
We integrate with any style of "wedge/keyboard" scanners. We also integrate with scanners by
Brazos Technology. Brazos features Symbol scanners running their unique software that allows
their scanners to directly read from, and write to, our system - without any intermediate hardware or software investment.
Our Management Information Exchange (MIE) supports hand-held scanners in many ways. Print bar code labels directly from the MIE. You can also set
the MIE to calculate current repository accuracy using hand-held scanners.
Are you an outsourcer with an accuracy Service Level Agreement (SLA)? Do you have to prepare and submit monthly SLA reports? The MIE, integrated with
hand-held scanners, can make that task literally the push of a button. (And the scanners can ensure you continue to meet your accuracy SLA)
We recommend scanners for recieving of new hardware, disposing of old hardware, as well as performing periodic "floor walks" to restore lost accuracy (as well as measure and
report current accuracy).
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Hardware Asset Management/Tracking
In the "old" days, IT Asset Management was primarily focused on hardware - so our tools have their roots in hardware tracking/management. Whether
you are simply tracking hardware (keeping up with where it is, who has it, and what cost center it is in) or managing hardware (focused on ensuring
optimum use / minimized cost of ownership), our Management Information Exchange (MIE) can handle it.
Keeping up with hardware - especially hardware that is off-network, in storage, etc - requires process. We have several channels of data capture process
(we call them "catch points") that we recommend and use.
The result is somewhat unique in that, using our solution, you won't need data entry clerks
sitting at their PCs all day entering asset data. As a matter of fact, very little "back end" data entry is required with our solution. We subscribe
to a philosophy that we have learned over our many years of doing this - capture asset change data as close to the change - both in time and place - as
possible. As such, we use "catch point screens" and hand-held scanners as data capture media - pushing capture out to the point of change. The result
is much more accurate and timely information - and fewer required dedicated ITAM staff.
Of course we also integrate easily with all of the major auto-discovery tools. Auto-discovery supplies a subset of the information required for true
asset tracking/management - on a subset of asset types - but it is an essential addition to any hardware asset tracking/management solution. If you
don't have auto-discovery, you can use our Workstation Data Assistant (WDA). Read about that by hovering over the auto-discovery icon.
Ask us to elaborate on our hardware tracking/management capabilities.
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IT Asset Disposition (ITAD)
Are you focused on asset disposition (ITAD)? So are we. Our Management Information Exchange (MIE) tracks assets at their end of life through three
important stages: initial decommissioning, receipt by disposition vendor, and final disposition. We automatically reconcile assets as they
pass through these three important stages. We can ensure you catch when assets "fall off the truck" and/or fail to move from one stage to the next.
Are you receiving cash back from your ITAD vendor? If so, we can help you track how much. Put one of our convenient graphs on your dashboard and you
will always know how much your program is returning to your company.
We work with all of the major ITAD vendors. Ask us to elaborate.
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IT Asset Management (ITAM)
If you're pursuing full ITAM, you're doing both hardware and software. You need an automation solution that is not only strong at both, but also
was built by people who understand the integration points between the two endeavors. We developed our ITAM solution - yes. But we are first and
foremost practitioners - and have been for over twenty five years. We built our toolset so that we could automate our proven approach, built on
philosophy learned over the years - and so that we could control the evolution of the automation so that it would follow our learning as we continue
to design and implement full ITAM solutions for clients.
In our solution you will find the automation of concepts that we have found to be important to success - things you may not find in other solutions.
In our solution you will find built-in behavior drivers - designed to help you with the organizational change necessary to be successful. You will find
support for MOD137 checksum bar code tags - woven throughout our solution - because that little detail can make a huge difference in accuracy.
You will find the concept of catch points - pushing data collection as close, in time and place, as possible to the actual change occurence. You will find
a very powerful and flexible import engine - one that requires no coding or scripting - because linking to other systems is a critical necessity in
ITAM. You will find over 100 reports ready to go, but more importantly, you will find a very efficient data replication capability that allows you to
design your own ad-hoc reporting capability using your favorite reporting tools (such as Access, Excel, or Crystal Reports).
There are over 25 years of practical experience captured and embodied in our toolset. ITAM isn't an afterthought or a simple check in the box for us -
it is what we do and only what we do.
Ask us for a tour of our full ITAM capabilites.
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Software As A Service - The MIE
We saw years ago that computing was moving to the "cloud", and that Software as a Service (SaaS) would grow in popularity. That's why we committed to architecting
our flagship - the Management Information Exchange (MIE) - as a SssS offering. Some of the benefits are obvious:
No hardware to buy, own, or support
A browser is all you need to use the service
Much faster time to benefits
Pay only for what you use
Some of the benefits, however, are not as readily apparent:
Features are released incrementally over time - no more major projects to move to the next release, or getting "stuck" at the current release
The MIE was designed as a rapid development platform - new features can be added quickly
The MIE was designed to be very flexible - allowing your use of the MIE to be tailored to specifically how you operate
And how about security? Customers are getting more comfortable with SaaS. The MIE has many layers of security and has withstood multiple security
reviews and penetration tests. We are hosted in a Tier III data center in Tampa, Florida.
What about uptime? We guarantee uptime - it's our primary Service Level Agreement with you. Some of our customers find they have better uptime with
our SaaS offering then they do with their own internal systems.
Ask for details on our SaaS offering, our architecture, and our security.
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Software Asset Management (SAM)
In the more recent days of IT Asset Management, managing software has risen in value significantly. As a matter of fact, when we perform our Value Analysis
for clients, we routinely calculate the value of managing software to be, on average, four times (4x) greater than managing hardware.
The bottom line? The "money" in IT Asset Management these days is in managing software.
That's why we have spent considerable investment in developing our SAM capability. We have an integrated Software Request Portal,
we keep track of licenses and other entitlements, we have a sophisticated license optimizer and allocation engine that optimizes the use of your licenses,
and we can handle all license types. You will find capabilities that exist in our solution that you probably don't even know are important - yet. But you
will as you get deeper into what is probably the most challenging asset management domain there is.
Unlike hardware, licenses aren't tangible - they are essentially "rights" that you have purhcased and can take advantage of - or not. And, since they aren't
tangible, they're easy to change - from customer to customer - as publishers attempt to negotiate each "deal". All of this adds up to a very
complex undertaking of not only attempting to understand compliance, but then optimizing your software spend so you are taking full advantage of all of the
"rights" you purchased. SAM is complicated, and if anything needs automation, it's SAM.
You will find our SAM tools to be one of our strengths - far exceeding many of the other tools you might look into - in terms of capability and cost effectiveness.
Unfortunately for us, much of our SAM-specific capability isn't immediately obvious to those who are just getting started in SAM.
If you're getting started in SAM and would like to "pick our brains" on what we've learned over the past years of doing this, ask for a consultation. We're
happy to share what we know.
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Automated Software Delivery
Working hand-in-hand with our Software Request Portal is our ability to push requested and approved software directly to the target machine. We will
usually reduce software request cycle times from days to minutes, resulting in a huge increase in customer satisfaction. You can use our Workstation
Data Assistant (WDA) module to push and install software, or we can use whatever tool you already have in place (such as Altiris or SCCM). We have
an interface called Application Push Scheduler (APS) that knows how to talk to various software delivery tools.
And what about harvesting? Yes, we also push a de-install package when an application is harvested to make sure it is actually physically removed.
Ask us to show you how this works.
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Software Metering
We offer software metering as part of our Workstation Data Assistant (WDA) module. WDA allows several different snap-ins, one of which is
software usage monitoring and metering. We monitor both running usage (when the target title is up and running in the user's task list), as well
as active usage (when the target title is actually in use). Standard features for most monitoring/metering tools.
However, we go a step further. When integrated into our Software Asset Management capability, you can set usage thresholds and cause automated
actions to occur if/when a user falls below the set threshold. You can produce and send out an automated report, fire a workflow that you design
(which can be designed by you to do practically anything), or you can go as far as automatically harvesting the software from the user's workstation.
Also ask us about our credit/debit behavior driver system, which works hand-in-hand with metering - putting metering in a new light.
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Software Request Portal
You may or may not have a self-service software request portal in operation today, but if you do, does
your portal integrate with your software license and entitlement records? Does it know if a user is entitled, through Software Assurance (for example),
to the Project Professional title they're requesting? Does it automatically allow them to exercise that entitlement, updating your records, and then
automatically pushing the software directly to their desktop?
Ours does!
It does that and much more. Plus it easily integrates with your current systems. Our Software Request
Portal is one of the highest valued (by our clients) parts of our solution - and it can stand alone. Ask us for a demonstration.
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Automated Workflow
Our workflow engine is one of the most powerful parts of our solution. Design and automate complex workflows, all through a Visio-like visual designer.
It essentially gives you the power to customize your solution to meet your constantly-evolving needs - without having to wait for us to develop, test,
and release new features. You can set up approval routing, automated notification, and even automated / conditional database updates through the
workflow engine.
Successful ITAM/SAM requires well-defined processes that are followed. Our workflow engine allows you to automate many of those processes,
significantly increasing the compliance rate.
If you can draw it on a flow chart, chances are you can automate it with our workflow engine. Ask us to show you how.
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Complex License Analyzer
ESI has closed a significant gap in automating the management of complex licenses with the
addition of our Complex License Analyzer.
Microsoft SQL Server, IBM PVUs/RVUs, Oracle by-Processor or Named User Plus
... the list of complex license types seems endless. If you are
spending too much time and effort trying to count your deployments for these
types of licenses, you need our Complex License Analyzer (AA). It is
based on a rules engine that you can control.
We have already loaded it with the rules, based on Microsoft's licensing guides, for all editions
of SQL Server from version 2000 to 2012. It comes with a graphical
user interface for adding and/or modifying rules. It can handle very
complicated licensing scenarios that are based on, for example:
- Processor count.
- Core count.
- Virtualization.
- Environment (production versus development versus QA versus DR versus ...)
- Covered by additional entitlements such as software maintenance or SA (Microsoft), or not.
- Part of a product bundle or suite, or not.
- Hyperthreading in use, or not.
- .... and many others.
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