Local adhesive manufacturer, Henkel, has answered the age-old question of how to run a nationwide IS system without stocking up on frequent flyer miles - by investing in Seagate Desktop Management Suite (DMS)."The decision to install this suite of network management tools was taken following a week-long pilot programme that ran in June last year," says Kevin Cox, IS manager, Henkel.The company identified a need for software tools to assist in network maintenance, the monitoring of systems and the provision of support to users.Henkel focused on the key applications of Seagate DMS, namely: Seagate WinINSTALL for software distribution, Proxy for remote maintenance and administration control, Seagate WinLAND for network inventory and Seagate WinSMART for software metering. Seagate WinINSTALL ensured Henkel was running the same release of each software package throughout the system. "We had to set up a network in Cape Town, so it saved us both time and money doing it from here," Cox explains. "Seagate WinINSTALL`s ability to run diagnostic programmes uncovered a number of faults in the system, but it has also helped us to overcome any snags we encountered in the implementation.Cox says there is still a lot of work to be done and comments, "We have not yet begun to scratch the surface with this application." Seagate DMS is also assisting Henkel in gaining remote access to reconfigure machines on the network. "Proxy is a major benefit as we no longer have to send staff to carry out routine repair work. This means we can support and train more users, in a shorter amount of time, anywhere in the country," says Cox.Two other issues that required attention at Henkel were those of asset management and Year 2000 compliance. "We are licensed to have X number of Microsoft products and do not want copied software on any of our machines," says Sunil Badal, Henkel`s network administrator. "Using Seagate WinLAND, we can detect unwanted software on the desktop and generate an alert when additional software is loaded onto the machine. In addition, if any hardware is stolen, the application will notify us as soon as the PCs are booted up." Badal added.Seagate WinLAND has also played a role in planning for Henkel`s Year 2000 compliance programme. "We already have our PC configurations down on paper," says Cox. "However, this does not tell us how many of these machines are Y2K compliant. With Seagate WinLAND we can run a series of tests to generate the necessary information and use this to address the issue."Future plans for Henkel include the implementation of Seagate NerveCenter, an advanced event correlation solution for managing mixed NT and UNIX environments, to assist with the company`s ongoing SAP implementation.
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