Solution Provider Helps Equipment Vendor Manage Remote Systems and Cut IT Costs

Situation

Founded in 1991 and based inNorcross, Georgia,Business Oriented Software Solutions (BOSS) provides information technology asset management software and services. The Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner’s flagship products are DiagWin Professional and U-Win. Based on the Microsoft Windows®operating system, they handle hardware and software inventory, application deployment, systems maintenance, and network security functions in any size heterogeneous enterprise network environment.

Currently, BOSS has more than 200 customers representing a variety of vertical markets, including government, healthcare, manufacturing, financial, and professional services sectors. These organizations range in size from small to medium-size companies with between 500 and 1,000 workstations to larger enterprises that maintain more than 15,000 systems.

The BOSS customer base includes most of the Caterpillar (CAT) heavy equipment vendors in the United States, including Nebraska Machinery Company. These vendors face daily challenges managing their IT systems, which are situated throughout multiple, remote locations and require frequent updates to the various software applications.

Nebraska Machinery Company sells heavy equipment and has 450 workstations distributed throughout its 11 locations in Nebraska and Iowa. The company uses Microsoft software and various proprietary applications required by Caterpillar to support financial, customer relationship management, and parts and service operations.

Until recently, installing applications and updates was an arduous, time-consuming task. One of the four IT staff members at the headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, had to drive to each remote location—some of which are hundreds of miles away—and install software manually. “We had to travel and then wait there until the installation was completed,” says John Dickmeyer, Director of Technology at Nebraska Machinery. “For a Microsoft Office application upgrade, we’d have to spend two to three days at a given store and hit every computer that we could.”

If an IT staff member could not physically access each workstation, the company would mail CDs to the remote locations and have the users install the software themselves. But this also was inefficient. “Typically, users would have problems loading the application, or the CDs would be lost or damaged,” Dickmeyer says. He estimates that an upgrade of all 450 workstations would take weeks to complete.

Solution

To help companies like Nebraska Machinery simplify systems management, BOSS developed DiagWin Professional. Companies use the solution to quickly and easily inventory computer assets, deploy client software, and install updates from a single console based on Microsoft Windows.

After meeting BOSS at a CAT vendor trade show, Nebraska Machinery chose BOSS for help with its application upgrades. “I saw a DiagWin demo there, and I immediately knew it was what we needed,” says Dickmeyer. “The product basically sold itself. We liked the solution’s ability to inventory each computer in our company, which was always a problem for us. We also were impressed by the ability to automate deployment of updates.”

DiagWin, which BOSS introduced in 2001, runs on the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and later operating systems, and it supports client systems running Windows version 9x and later. Built using the Microsoft Visual C++®development system version 6.0, DiagWin uses client/server architecture and offers several options to retrieve and manage information about an organization’s computers and users, including the Active Directory® service, Network Neighborhood, and Internet Protocol (IP) scanning capability.

The solution stores data, such as hardware, software, and security inventory details, in a Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 database. “Since SQL Server 2000 is a very open database system, customers can export data into Microsoft Office Excel®or Microsoft Office Access to build their own reporting mechanism,” says Vish Ramakrishnan, Director of Technical Sales at BOSS. For customers that don’t have SQL Server, BOSS offers Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine, a free version of SQL Server 2000 designed for client applications that require an embedded database, along with its DiagWin solution.

Collects Real-Time Information

With DiagWin, companies collect reliable, real-time inventory information about every personal computer on a network and deploy both Microsoft and non-Microsoft applications and updates from a single console. DiagWin inventories workstations using a range of identifying tags such as serial numbers, physical locations, and network IP addresses. It collects both hardware information, such as hard disk size and processor types, and software information, such as application versions and service packs. DiagWin also gathers information on security settings, including password policies and open network shares.

By using DiagWin, network administrators can determine operating systems and applications that need to be upgraded, amounts of memory and storage capacity on each client computer, and security holes that need to be closed. For example, an inventory might show that of the 800 computers running the Microsoft Windows XP Professional operating system, only 500 of them have Windows XP Service Pack 2 installed. That means 300 computers need to be upgraded, and the network administrator, equipped with the inventory collected by DiagWin, can now devise a plan to address this critical security requirement.

Enables Easy Software Installation

To install software such as a service pack, DiagWin can automatically download the software from the Microsoft Web site using Microsoft Software Update Services—an add-in component for Windows 2000 and the Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 operating system—or simply launch an automated deployment script pointing to applications stored on the server. Then a company’s network administrator approves and deploys the software to every computer that needs it with the click of a button. Deployment scripts can even be customized to include any required registry settings or configuration changes, such as opening and closing ports. “Using DiagWin, companies can deploy packages, applications, and service packs to all locations simultaneously,” says Vish Ramakrishnan. “They can save money and travel time to see an immediate return on investment, and reduce the ongoing costs of supporting out-of-date software.”

DiagWin also includes a software and license management feature including exception reporting for available versus installed licenses, and usage metering to determine how frequently an application is used. “This means that if someone isn’t using a product, DiagWin can be used to uninstall that license and reallocate it to another computer where it will be used,” Vish Ramakrishnan says. “That way, a company can save on licensing costs, and identify any unlicensed applications to prevent costly liabilities resulting from noncompliance.”

Nebraska Machinery installed DiagWin in July 2004 and began realizing benefits almost immediately.

Benefits

DiagWin Professional helps Nebraska Machinery expedite service and reduce costs by eliminating the need to travel to each location for software upgrades and deployment. Additionally, since systems maintenance tasks are automated and performed remotely, the company was able to maximize existing resources by reallocating a full-time IT staff position to address other initiatives within the organization. Nebraska Machinery has also gained a highly secure and stable solution backed by the strength of Microsoft.

Quick, Easy Software Deployment

According to Dickmeyer, the primary benefit of DiagWin is its ability to simplify the software deployment process to the company’s 11 locations. Nebraska Machinery no longer needs IT staff or computer users to install software manually on each workstation. “Because DiagWin is completely automated, it works almost like an on/off switch,” says Dickmeyer.

Nebraska Machinery recently upgraded all 450 workstations to Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003. “We chose DiagWin to install the package, and were able to do that in one step over a weekend,” Dickmeyer says. “We installed it remotely with DiagWin and had no problems at all.”

DiagWin also helps the company to quickly install important updates that can affect system security. “Now, if we have a virus outbreak or if a security patch is released, we can build a package in DiagWin and send it out to everyone immediately,” says Dickmeyer.

Reduced Travel and Maintenance Time

Because DiagWin enables remote management, Nebraska Machinery has been able to reduce the time its IT staff spends traveling to remote stores and installing software manually. “Before, we had to send someone out on the road and would lose that resource from the department for an extended period of time,” says Dickmeyer. DiagWin, however, provides a more efficient solution. “In terms of IT maintenance, we’ve probably reduced our workload and time spent by 20 to 30 percent with DiagWin.”

In addition, the IT department saves time on help-desk requests. “Before, we had to write down their problem and tell them we’d get back to them,” Dickmeyer says. “Now, since we have an installer package built for troubleshooting scenarios, we’ve decreased hours from our workday because we don’t have to run to individual workstations anymore.”

Cost Savings for Nebraska Machinery and Its Customers

Nebraska Machinery has been able to reallocate one full-time employee by using the solution, thanks to the time saved on installation and travel. “Including salary and benefits, that’s $60,000–70,000 annually that can be used elsewhere within the company,” says Dickmeyer.

In addition, Nebraska Machinery uses DiagWin to help its customers save money. “If I need to update a program that we use to fix a customer’s $500,000 machine sitting in our service shop, I can do it immediately,” he says. “That provides a huge reduction in time and cost that we can pass on to that customer because we can accomplish that task in minutes rather than days. Situations like that occur on a monthly basis.”

Overall, Dickmeyer reports that Nebraska Machinery has reduced its IT maintenance costs by 30 percent and increased revenue an estimated 15 percent since deploying DiagWin.

High Levels of Security, Scalability, and Availability

For any solution in today’s environment, security is of the utmost importance, and DiagWin is no exception. DiagWin provides both user-level and database-level security with passwords and an encrypted data storage method supported by SQL Server. The solution also scales to meet the growing needs of BOSS customers. “SQL Server makes DiagWin highly scalable,” saysVish Ramakrishnan. “Customers see a real value with the use of SQL Server for that reason.”

BOSS has also designed DiagWin with uptime in mind. “As far as reliability, our customers have never had a problem with downtime,” says Vish Ramakrishnan. “Much of that is due to the Windows Server operating system. It is fast and stable, and it can support so many platforms and threads.”

Integrated Microsoft Technology and Strong Support

Because BOSS is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, the company uses its expertise and Microsoft tools and technology to develop DiagWin and other solutions that simplify network and systems management. “We wanted to partner with Microsoft because it is a market leader,” says Vish Ramakrishnan. “And with Microsoft integrated technology, everything comes from one place, so it’s very easy to get help from the Microsoft support group.”

He explains that being a Microsoft partner also means that BOSS can act as a one-stop shop for its customers. “If our customers want to implement other Microsoft solutions, such as Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003, for example, we can help them with that. Customers today want a company to be their single point of contact for all their IT needs. Our expertise with Microsoft technologies offers our customers tremendous added value over and above the benefits of our software products.”

That was certainly true for Nebraska Machinery. “When we saw that BOSS was a Gold Certified Partner, it made our decision much easier,” says Dickmeyer. “We know that you have to earn that recognition, so that’s an important distinction.”

Dickmeyer also says that the company’s partnership with BOSS was a solid choice in terms of customer service. “They’ve been exceptional. They’ve been quick to listen to us and even quicker to respond. They’ve even incorporated some our requests into the next version of DiagWin.”

Microsoft Windows Server System

Microsoft Windows Server System is a line of integrated and manageable server software designed to reduce the complexity and cost of IT. Windows Server System enables you to spend less time and budget on managing your systems so that you can focus your resources on other priorities for you and your business.

For more information about Windows Server System, go to:

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