No organisation has a clear and complete picture of what software is installed on its users' PCs. This is a big statement, but it's true - and the consequences are costly for these organisations. Research among our customers has shown that the more users organisations have, the greater the extent of the problem. The growth in loading of unauthorised software is exponential the more users an organisation has:
* An organisation with 500-1 000 users will use around 100 authorised software applications, and around 400 that are unauthorised.
* An organisation with 3 000 users will have 400 authorised applications, and between 800 and unauthorised applications
Unauthorised software takes many forms: it can be software that does not fit in with the organisation's overall architecture; or software that has been acquired illegally, outside of licensing agreements; it can be an unsupported browser, like Firefox; games; open source software; or applications whose licences have expired. Or it can even be Web-based applications such as Google Apps, which slip in under the corporate radar.
The commonality with all of this software is that it costs a great deal of money - and it is inordinately difficult to quantify.
Just at one level, there is the requirement to track software provisioned to new employees, and then to remove it when the employee leaves. Not to do so means continuing to pay for software licences which are not being used - and given the size and dollar value of volume licensing agreements, such costs can be extreme.
Add to this the issue of shelfware - software bought but never used, and amazingly one third of all software fits into this category. Such software is tough to track and monitor, but every organisation in the world has loads of it.
As an example of how software can spiral out of control, one of the top four auditing houses was commissioned to audit a giant German bank to track what Microsoft software it was using, as it was quite unable to prove that it had the software it thought it had. Such a situation would have a major impact on future licensing negotiations with Microsoft, not to mention other software suppliers.
All of these factors, and others, are key contributors to the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a PC through its lifespan. Gartner says the various associated costs of a PC run to around $10 000 a year. Our research has shown that at least $3 000 of this can be eliminated through automated and remote system management. (Convert to local currency -
Today's state of the art in remote automation is mandated on a simple principle: as long as a PC can power on, you should be able to manage it remotely. The operating system does not have to be loaded, an important consideration if you want to repair a PC remotely, and given that many of today's PCs can be powered up remotely.
With this ability, system administrators can conduct a wide range of activities, from a central location, and all designed to smooth the process of managing large numbers of PCs.
With this approach, management can:
* Load software and updates to any number of PCs, as long as they are connected to the network.
* Upload software patches and antivirus definition updates, ensuring that PCs are always secure.
* Diagnose and repair remotely, within certain constraints (physical failure can obviously not be fixed remotely).
* Centralised remote asset management, from acquisition to disposal. This includes the tracking of any changes in physical configuration of PCs, and any changes in the state of software, along with software provisioning and deprovisioning.
* Remote imaging of PCs, which allows rapid and easy configuration of hundreds, even thousands of PCs in the field, with concomitant cost savings.
Remote automated systems management has grown up dramatically in the last decade, offering major productivity boosts and cost savings, along with process enhancements
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