A Message from the CEO
Hello and Welcome to Scalable SoftwareThanks for taking the time to read our summer newsletter We've just finished a hectic year at Scalable. Four major software releases, an acquisition and a doubling of top-line revenue. At the same time we've seen our investment in customer satisfaction pay-off with qualitative evidence of improvement from widespread customer feedback. I would like to extend thanks to all our customers and partners for supporting us, and our fantastic team of employees whose dedication and enthusiasm for going the extra-mile makes this job a real pleasure. In this issue we are majoring on cost reduction. Virtually all customers of our Survey product, speak in terms of how much money they save after implementation. In the current climate, I don't think anyone can afford to ignore opportunities to reduce wasteful expenditure Our development team continues to deliver high-value new features for our maintenance paying customers. As we promised in the last newsletter, version 10.0 of WinINSTALL was delivered at the end of last year. Just recently we enhanced v10 further with OS migration support for the latest Microsoft Operating Systems. We are also announcing in this newsletter the delivery of version 3.8 of Survey. Version 3.8 is the most feature rich release of Survey for many years; with facilities such as detailed user auditing, extended support for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure and USB device usage auditing. More details on both these new versions can be found elsewhere in the newsletter. To our customers and partners, once again thank you for your business. We are delighted to have you with us, and rest assured we will continue to work tirelessly to keep you happy Mark |
ANZ Bank Benefits from Scalable's Class-Leading Usage Auditing
Today it is vital that IT departments prove they are investing in only what is needed by the business and that any wasteful procurement practices are eliminated. With Survey, ANZ Bank was able to prove this. The granularity of detail surrounding Scalable Software’s Survey Suite delivered to the bank a unique set of reports designed to maximize the value obtained from investment in computer hardware and software. The bank deployed Survey across four sites globally, in London, New York, Frankfurt and Dubai.
Now Available! Survey 3.8
Survey3.8 was released this month. 3.8 is the most significant improvement in the Survey product for over 3 years. Apart from dramatic improvements in performance, scalability and bandwidth utilization, Survey 3.8 adds considerable new functionality. Notably, we have introduced detailed usage auditing of both USB attached devices and applications. In the case of applications we enable the tracking, in time sequenced order of Window caption names. Also, this release sees the introduction of turnkey tracking of Oracle Applications, the ability to track machine aging directly from BIOS information and performance capture designed to assist people planning a move to Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). Finally, Survey 3.8 is now certified to work with SQL Express. Organizations wishing to take advantage of Survey can now do so without the expense and complexity of configuring a full SQL Server 2005 installation.
» Register for Free Evaluation Here
» Release Details Here
Now Available! WinINSTALL 10.0 SP1
WinINSTALL 10.0 was officially released in January. Like Survey 3.8, WinINSTALL 10.0 is the most significant WinINSTALL release for several years. A significant number of important customer driven enhancements have been delivered in addition to several market driven additions. Details of how WinINSTALL 10.0 compares with prior releases can be found at this link. In April we released Service Pack 1. Service Pack 1 contains various maintenance items plus adds PXE support for Vista SP1 and Windows 2008 Server. We are running a Webinar on May 13th 11am CDT. You can register for that webinar at the link below
» Download Evaluation Here
» Register for Webinar Here
Survey3.8 was released this month. 3.8 is the most significant improvement in the Survey product for over 3 years. Apart from dramatic improvements in performance, scalability and bandwidth utilization, Survey 3.8 adds considerable new functionality. Notably, we have introduced detailed usage auditing of both USB attached devices and applications. In the case of applications we enable the tracking, in time sequenced order of Window caption names. Also, this release sees the introduction of turnkey tracking of Oracle Applications, the ability to track machine aging directly from BIOS information and performance capture designed to assist people planning a move to Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). Finally, Survey 3.8 is now certified to work with SQL Express. Organizations wishing to take advantage of Survey can now do so without the expense and complexity of configuring a full SQL Server 2005 installation.
» Register for Free Evaluation Here
» Release Details Here
Now Available! WinINSTALL 10.0 SP1
WinINSTALL 10.0 was officially released in January. Like Survey 3.8, WinINSTALL 10.0 is the most significant WinINSTALL release for several years. A significant number of important customer driven enhancements have been delivered in addition to several market driven additions. Details of how WinINSTALL 10.0 compares with prior releases can be found at this link. In April we released Service Pack 1. Service Pack 1 contains various maintenance items plus adds PXE support for Vista SP1 and Windows 2008 Server. We are running a Webinar on May 13th 11am CDT. You can register for that webinar at the link below
» Download Evaluation Here
» Register for Webinar Here
Detailed Analysis of Application Use under Citrix or Terminal Server
Did you know that Survey can track hosted applications through Thin-Client servers, especially Citrix? Why is this important when it comes to licensing a hosted application on a user, concurrent or subscription license?
Many customers will host an application on a Citrix server while leaving it locally available to a desktop; ultimately running the risk of paying twice for a single license just for convenience.
In this economy, there are not enough cost savings benefits in consolidating applications by hosting them on a Thin-Client server, you have to take it a step further and find out if users are accessing and using those applications.
With Survey usage intelligence, we are able to give customers the benefit of tracking ‘real usage’ (mouse and keyboard activity inside the hosted application on a Citrix server) down to the hour for each application by user and location, for the main purpose of:
➢ License Compliance
➢ License Reduction (Concurrent, Subscription)
➢ Thin-Client vs Desktop comparison (on the same application)
➢ Thin-Client server load balance
➢ User usage per application (down to the hour)
Did you know that Survey can track hosted applications through Thin-Client servers, especially Citrix? Why is this important when it comes to licensing a hosted application on a user, concurrent or subscription license?
Many customers will host an application on a Citrix server while leaving it locally available to a desktop; ultimately running the risk of paying twice for a single license just for convenience.
In this economy, there are not enough cost savings benefits in consolidating applications by hosting them on a Thin-Client server, you have to take it a step further and find out if users are accessing and using those applications.
With Survey usage intelligence, we are able to give customers the benefit of tracking ‘real usage’ (mouse and keyboard activity inside the hosted application on a Citrix server) down to the hour for each application by user and location, for the main purpose of:
➢ License Compliance
➢ License Reduction (Concurrent, Subscription)
➢ Thin-Client vs Desktop comparison (on the same application)
➢ Thin-Client server load balance
➢ User usage per application (down to the hour)
Issue 3 | Summer 2009
ASUS Netbook Winning Entry
Congratulations to Douglas Doblas, a technician within the IT depatment at National Raisin Company, one of the largest independant raisin producers in the world. Douglas gets a new EeePC S101, ultra-thin netbook by winning our Desktop Availability Suite download competition
Modify MSI Files Through Discover
A little known feature of WinINSTALL is the ability to modify options and preferences of Windows Installer Packages through the discover process. Although repackaging Windows installer Packages is not recommended, many of the custom configurations administrators need to change or set can be captured in a transform (MST) file.
A transform is a collection of changes applied to an installation. By applying a transform to a base installation package, the installer can add or replace data in the installation database.
To create a transform using the discover process, simply run \\Server\WinINSTALL\Bin\Discover.exe on any machine. The package format will need to be Windows Installer and the advance options check box should be selected. WinINSTALL will then prompt for discovering a transform. Discover will then prompt for the Windows Installer Package to be modified and will only focus on the selected package.
A little known feature of WinINSTALL is the ability to modify options and preferences of Windows Installer Packages through the discover process. Although repackaging Windows installer Packages is not recommended, many of the custom configurations administrators need to change or set can be captured in a transform (MST) file.
A transform is a collection of changes applied to an installation. By applying a transform to a base installation package, the installer can add or replace data in the installation database.
To create a transform using the discover process, simply run \\Server\WinINSTALL\Bin\Discover.exe on any machine. The package format will need to be Windows Installer and the advance options check box should be selected. WinINSTALL will then prompt for discovering a transform. Discover will then prompt for the Windows Installer Package to be modified and will only focus on the selected package.
Stop Wasting Money on Software NOW
Scalable has produced this webcast detailing how to tackle the staggering level of software overspend we routinely encounter across our customer base. Many of the companies, which have already benefitted from this approach, originally felt they had the situation totally under control. However, the information in the webcast is new and, as is often the case, 'you don't know, what you don't know'. We would ask that you approach this information with an open mind as it may just make the difference between employment and a pink slip
Scalable has produced this webcast detailing how to tackle the staggering level of software overspend we routinely encounter across our customer base. Many of the companies, which have already benefitted from this approach, originally felt they had the situation totally under control. However, the information in the webcast is new and, as is often the case, 'you don't know, what you don't know'. We would ask that you approach this information with an open mind as it may just make the difference between employment and a pink slip
"..the main trigger for us to invest in Survey was our desire to ascertain usage information about software deployed, so that we could reduce our overall licence bill when it came time to renegotiate our licence agreements."
"..we were aware of the fact that Adobe was planning to audit us, and we needed to ensure that the audit didn't uncover any nasty suprises "
David Ward
Head of Technical and Computer Services, ANZ Bank
Twitter & YouTube
Softmart provides software investment management through cost-containment, innovation and advocacy. We believe your information technology investments should be made cost effectively and with an eye toward managing risk.
Our approach is best illustrated by our Microsoft Analytics Program. Our Microsoft Analytics Team has created and applies an objective, fact-based and data-driven analysis engine that will show you how to optimize your Microsoft investments by:
Softmart’s Analytics methodology combined with Survey’s asset intelligence data ensures that an organization buys only the software they truly need, and ensures their Microsoft investment is optimized, controlled, and effective.
To learn more about Softmarts services click here.
Our approach is best illustrated by our Microsoft Analytics Program. Our Microsoft Analytics Team has created and applies an objective, fact-based and data-driven analysis engine that will show you how to optimize your Microsoft investments by:
- Understanding all of your options and the impact of every possible decision in terms of cost, cash-flow, and risk
- Aligning your Microsoft investment with your technology roadmap, business goals, and fiscal constraints
- Most importantly – saving time, money, and reducing compliance risk
Softmart’s Analytics methodology combined with Survey’s asset intelligence data ensures that an organization buys only the software they truly need, and ensures their Microsoft investment is optimized, controlled, and effective.
To learn more about Softmarts services click here.
Scalable is now on Twitter. Keep up with the latest snippets of news via our Twitter channel at http://twitter.com/scalable. For those with a Twitter account we encourage you to follow us. Also, we have an active YouTube channel for video demonstrations of our software.
Active Directory Based Automated WinINSTALL Deployment
In conjunction with one of our larger customers, Scalable customer support has developed a method by which the WinINSTALL agent can be automatically deployed to specified Active Directory Organization Units. It ensures that machines which join the network can be included within the WinINSTALL management domain with no human intervention.
» Download the white paper that details the method here
In conjunction with one of our larger customers, Scalable customer support has developed a method by which the WinINSTALL agent can be automatically deployed to specified Active Directory Organization Units. It ensures that machines which join the network can be included within the WinINSTALL management domain with no human intervention.
» Download the white paper that details the method here
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