Products
Control Room
6/27/2011 By:
Wouldn’t it be great to know how many laptops are being used at
the school down the street? Or how many of those are due for an
antivirus upgrade? Asset-management tools let IT directors find out
these things, and a whole lot more, from the comfort of their desk
chairs. Here’s how a handful of districts across the country use these
omniscient lifesavers.
Scotland
County
Schools
Laurinburg,
North
Carolina
What do you use?
LANDesk Management Suite
and LANDesk Patch Manager
www.landesk.com
What do you use it for?
“When I came here last August, I wanted to use
LANDesk, because I’d used it before and loved it,”
says Rick DeLaunay, director of technology and media.
“With budget and staff cuts, a product like this is the
only way to control and manage our environment.” So
far the product has been installed on 995 out of 3,000
computers, and the rest will receive it this summer. Once
migration from Novell to Windows is complete, LANDesk
will allow tech staff to control every machine from the IT
room. “We’ll be able to fix 90 percent of the problems
without leaving our desks, and I can reduce head count,”
DeLaunay says. The product’s power-management
system also lets him shut off machines at night.
What are the pros?
“The functionality is topof-
the-line; we even use
it to reimage machines.”
Tech support is wonderful,
DeLaunay says, and
LANDesk has a helpful user
group. He is also glad that
there is one front end for
everything. “It tells me all I
need to know about what’s
going on with every one of
our machines.”
Any cons?
“It’s not cheap, and
to come up with that
money up front is hard.
But you are investing in
a management system;
you’re not just buying
something. I’m getting
my money back and then
some.”
Any financial
savings? ROI?
The product saves
DeLaunay between
$130,000 and $140,000 a
year in personnel costs. His
ROI is 1.3 years or less. “I
spent about $235,000 with
installation, but I’ll save
$140,000 every year on
labor costs.”
Kansas City
(KS) Public
Schools
What do you use?
Absolute Software
Computrace
www.absolute.com
What do you use it for?
In November 2007, Kansas City decided to provide
laptops for all its high school students. It was a major
policy change, as the district had never allowed
technology to leave school grounds before. “The public
was concerned about laptops getting stolen, so we had
to come up with something,” says Joe Fives, director of
technology and information services. “Since Computrace
does for laptops what LoJack does for cars, we installed
it on all the laptops, and the community’s concern went
away, so we could focus on teaching and learning.” It’s
currently installed on 5,500 laptops.
What are the pros?
“If we can find a product
that answers a question
and shuts down concerns
quickly, we’re taking
the right path, and
Computrace works.” The
district has lost 2 percent
or fewer of its laptops
each year. “If we lose a
machine and it isn’t found
in a certain time, Absolute
Software sends us a
check.”
Any cons?
“It’s not free,” Fives says,
laughing, “but it’s money
well spent.”
Any financial
savings? ROI?
It’s hard to determine,
Fives says, since it’s
something Kansas City
has never done before.
He is pleased to be
below average in terms
of losses compared with
corporations and knows
that a lot more laptops
would be lost without
Computrace.
READS
Collaborative,
Inc.
Middleboro,
Massachusetts
What do you use?
CrossTec EMS
www.crosstecsoftware.com
What do you use it for?
“I wanted to monitor all the computers from my own
workstation instead of running all over to answer
questions and solve problems,” says Christine Pavao,
technology coordinator. CrossTec EMS lets her handle
everything from her desk. “I can do all my updating,
monitor the students, do hardware and software
inventories, and see which machines need updates and
who’s trying to download inappropriate material.”
What are the pros?
It’s easy to use and
generate reports with,
Pavao says. She likes being
able to help teachers by
monitoring the students’
machines, which the
teachers can’t see. “I can
get an instant inventory,
see if a computer is down.
If someone’s having a
problem, I just log on
and help them fix it.” In
addition, tech support is
“fabulous.”
Any cons?
“I can’t think of any. I love
every piece of this.”
Any financial
savings? ROI?
Although she can’t put a
figure on it, Pavao knows
that the time savings is
huge. “Doing an update
used to take me an entire
week; now it takes about
a day.”
Monterey
County
Office of
Education
Salinas,
California
What do you use?
Kaseya
www.kaseya.com
What do you use it for?
The Monterey County Office of Education provides
Internet service to 22 school districts, serving about
70,000 students. As only two dedicated desktop techs
were handling PCs all over the county, it was time to
find a better system. Scott Sexsmith, executive director
of technology and information services, learned about
Kaseya from a neighboring county. “We’re about 75
percent deployed with Kaseya now,” Sexsmith says. He
uses the energy-management system to power down
PCs, and the inventory console to inventory hardware
and software. “We’ve been able to generate reports that
we would’ve had to do manually, and we can use the
data to make more-informed decisions.”
What are the pros?
“It’s a Swiss army knife: There’s
so much it can do,” Sexsmith says.
“We’re using only a fraction of it,
and it’s already cost-effective. The
price point is outstanding.” Phone
support is wonderful, he says, and he
appreciates Kaseya’s functionality,
especially the integrated database
for both inventory and the service
desk, which lets him track the time
his technicians spend on jobs.
Any cons?
“We knew when we bought it that it
wasn’t fully fleshed out for some of
what we need, including Macs and
imaging support. But the company’s
commitment shows, and they’ve
already done what they promised
they’d do.”
Any financial savings? ROI?
Sexsmith will save $30,000 a year
in energy consumption, he says; in
addition, the local power company
gives him a $15,000 rebate. “Right
off the bat, that’s $45,000 back in
my pocket in year one, plus another
$30,000 for year two. To purchase
and license for two years runs just
under $50,000, so my ROI is a
little over 1.5 years. And that’s not
even taking the soft costs—doing
inventory, deploying antivirus—
into account.
Academy
School
District 20
Colorado
Springs,
Colorado
What do you use?
Dell KACE
www.kace.com/products/overview
What do you use it for?
“About four years ago, we were getting to the point
where we couldn’t manage our infrastructure centrally,”
says Shelley Kooser, chief information officer. “We
needed to know what assets we had, and their operating
systems, to do centralized patch management and
software pushes and to honor our licensing compliance.”
It took about one and a half years to get KACE installed
on all the clients and to get reliable numbers, but now the
district uses it in conjunction with software inventory for
replenishment so schools can tell how many machines are
on the network at various sites, what they are running,
and how often they are being used. It also reports which
machines need to be refreshed, upgraded, or updated.
What are the pros?
“We can see exactly what hardware
is running on the network, see any
potential problems, and fix them
before buying new software. We’re
able to push things through KACE
down to the client, which saves
us from the sneakernet approach,
which we were using before.”
Any cons?
The up-front costs are high, but
Kooser says it’s the right thing to
use and that she’ll save money in the
long run.
Any financial savings? ROI?
“We recouped our initial investment
within 13 months. People aren’t
doing the same redundant tasks,
and thanks to the way it structured
our help-desk processes, nothing
gets lost in the shuffle any longer.
It’s changed how we do business
centrally, and I can’t imagine being
without it.”
Parkway
School
District
Chesterfield,
Missouri
What do you use?
SchoolDude ITAMDirect
www.schooldude.com
What do you use it for?
About six years ago, application technical support
specialist Dale Rapp was looking for a new work-order
system. The IT department was using Excel spreadsheets
to track inventory, and this approach required a lot of
manual effort. The district already used SchoolDude
products, so it evaluated the inventory piece and loved
it. Now an agent is installed on all computer assets that
reports all their details back to the main database.
“It captures all the software loaded on each machine,
a breakdown of files, space being used on the hard
drive, hardware details, OS versions. Whenever we do
an update, it reports back and makes sure everything
got done.”
What are the pros?
Rapp appreciates the fact that the
product is a Web-based software
as a service. “Since it’s hosted,
that’s less hardware for us to buy,
manage, and license,” he says. “We
don’t have to back anything up;
they do it all for us.” He also likes
SchoolDude’s tech support. “They
are quick to respond and helpful.
I’ve dealt with a lot of companies,
and their support is the best.”
Any cons?
The only problem he’s had—and
SchoolDude is working on it—is that
the agent has a little bit of trouble
reporting on Macs. “It doesn’t really
affect us a whole lot, since we’re
almost all PC, but it’s there.”
Any financial savings? ROI?
Rapp can’t give a dollar amount
but knows that the product has
saved money and time. “We know
that the inventory is more accurate,
and now it’s automated. It used to
take months to pull some of those
reports; now we can do it in a day.”
Higley
Unified
School
District
Gilbert,
Arizona
What do you use?
Follett Software
www.follettsoftware.com
What do you use it for?
Higley USD was already happily using Follett’s Destiny
Library Manager and Textbook Manager products, so it
was only a matter of time before Joyce Lewis, materials
resource manager, purchased the company’s Destiny
Asset Manager. The district uses it to track the lessthan-$
1,000 assets, including computer hardware and
software, audiovisual equipment, and business machines.
This summer it is adding athletic and musical equipment.
When recently a teacher asked to borrow a digital
camera, Lewis quickly looked through the system and
saw three at another school that weren’t checked out.
What are the pros?
Teachers and staff can view what
students have checked out or
compare equipment across sites.
Assets that are not checked out at
one site can be transferred to another.
Lewis appreciates the asset manager’s
“excellent reporting capability” and is
a big fan of Follett’s customer service.
“They know what they’re doing and
can walk me through any problem.
In addition, I’ve made numerous
suggestions, and now they ask me
how they can improve things.”
Any cons?
Lewis expected the products to
be more similar to each other. For
example, a physical inventory in
Library Manager is done differently
than in Textbook Manager or Asset
Manager. “From a user’s perspective,
a physical inventory is a physical
inventory.” But the company is
working to address this problem.
Any financial savings? ROI?
“How do you record what you’ve
saved when you have no idea what
you’ve lost?” Since implementing
Asset Manager, however, the
district has identified $1.3 million
in property assets that were not
previously tracked at the site level.
Other assetmanagement
options are the
following:
Faronics
System Profiler
www.faronics.com
IBM Maximo
Asset Management
Software
www-01.ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/maximoasset-mgmt
NetSupport DNA
www.netsupportdna.com
Symantec
Altiris Asset
Management Suite
www.symantec.com