Effective PC Management
Effective PC Management begins with knowing what you have to manage. Complete and accurate asset and license management is key. Knowing how many machines of what type, their location, memory, hard drive, processor speed, etc., is a big step forward for many small and medium sized businesses. Tools available today have automatic discovery capabilities and excellent management reporting which can assist IT staff in establishing and maintaining good processes for asset management. With an accurate picture of the installed hardware base, it becomes much easier to assess operating system and business suite software upgrades.

Keeping track of software licenses and where they are installed is another important function. Accurate information of which machines have which software installed is a major starting point to effectively manage PCs across the company. This information can minimize the number and duration of on-site visits by IT support personnel. It can also ensure that software licenses are appropriately managed; paying for only those copies of a particular software that are needed and reducing the risk of fines in a software license audit.

Another good practice is to keep software installs to the minimum required for each employee to do their job. This will shorten install time, reduce updates and patches required, and use fewer resources leaving more capacity for each user’s needs. Some systems administrators will attempt to make things easier by standardizing the desktop to one image for everyone. PC manag

Introduction
Personal computers have delivered on the promise of productivity for knowledge workers. As a consequence, desktop and laptop computers have proliferated to almost every knowledge worker in a company. Advances in network bandwidth and the availability of wireless connectivity options have radically increased the number of home and remote workers. However, the increased use of personal computers and remote access has added significant workload and coordination to the already busy IT schedule.

For many companies, desktop management is not a core competency and there are other IT tasks that are considered mission critical or more strategic. Yet for many knowledge workers, the desktop is mission critical. Schedules, correspondence, contact lists, presentations and work in progress all live in the desktop for most office workers. Take away the desktop and work stops until the desktop is back up and running.

Most small and medium businesses do not have the IT staff and tools to treat desktop management issues with the attention they deserve. IT shops in small and medium sized companies are generally over-taxed and doing the best they can to keep the IT infrastructure running smoothly. Budgets are much smaller than those of their large enterprise counterparts, staffing is limited, and toolsets are few and far between. Too often manual processes and “just enough to get by” scripting is the answer to desktop management in the small and medium sized company. Individual users can be left to handle minor issues for themselves, and pseudo power users often get themselves into trouble and require IT staff assistance to resolve problems they have created through their self-help efforts. It is no longer a viable answer for small and medium sized business to treat desktop management casually.

Importance of PC Management
The task of PC management has become too large and too important to be handled on an ad-hoc basis with limited tools. The number of personal computers is significant. There are many versions of operating systems and many different software applications. This is also complicated by the number of employees working from remote offices. The scale has become rather large, even in a small to medium sized business. Now add in the constant stream of Microsoft patch updates (security, operating system and application software updates), periodic operating system upgrades, user initiated software installations and configuration changes, antivirus updates, and IT configuration changes. The rate and volume of change is significant, if not overwhelming. Not to mention the problem of Microsoft phasing out their support of old office applications and operating systems. Windows 95 is no longer supported and 98 is now no longer going to be supported.

The risks of doing a poor job of desktop management are now quite high given the security risks to every PC every day. Left unprotected, PCs are subject to Trojans, Keyloggers, Root Kits, Spyware and Viruses. One of the best ways to be protected is to apply all patches to operating systems and applications in a timely fashion. However, coordinating, staging and testing these patches is time consuming and something that should not be left to end users or ad hoc processes by the IT team. Every desktop needs Anti-virus software that is constantly updated, and users cannot be trusted to keep their virus data files current. Mobile users should also be protected with personal Firewall software, but again, users cannot be depended upon to install and keep such software current. Leaving this to chance can put the entire network and subsequently the entire company at risk. The employee desktop today contains significant corporate data, both data taken from corporate repositories for use on the desktop as well as work-in-process data not yet stored on a secured and backed-up repository. Employees handle important and sensitive data that needs to be protected. This can include price lists, customer lists, customer data, human resources data, strategic plans, product plans and corporate financial information. Security breaches, viruses, and spy-ware can lead to stolen, lost or corrupted data. Regular backups can mitigate the risk of lost or corrupted data, however most users are not disciplined enough to perform regular backups. Mobile and remote users complicate the backup problem and render home-grown backup scripting ineffective.

Dealing with the disruption and potential data loss of security breaches can represent significant productivity loss. Work-in-process data on the desktop can represent weeks of effort and may be difficult or impossible to recreate. The loss of such data can affect project time-lines, which in turn can cause customer satisfaction issues and/or contractual penalties. Desktop data loss can also affect revenue if a desktop problem interrupts critical timeframes for customer proposals.

Another factor driving the need for good desktop management is the increasing regulatory compliance issues that are affecting businesses of all sizes. Consumer and patient privacy laws such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and the wave of trend setting privacy laws out of California affect businesses of all sizes. Sarbanes-Oxley compliance includes rigorous asset management, change management and other controls for IT. This should be of concern for more than just the public companies covered by the law. Many small and medium sized businesses are working toward an eventual acquisition as an exit strategy, and most such acquisitions are by companies that are subject to Sarbanes-Oxley. It is much easier and faster to work through the due diligence phase of the acquisition if the company being acquired has implemented the types of controls required by Sarbanes-Oxley. Good desktop management can assist a company in certain aspects of regulatory compliance.

Effective PC Management
Effective PC Management begins with knowing what you have to manage. Complete and accurate asset and license management is key. Knowing how many machines of what type, their location, memory, hard drive, processor speed, etc., is a big step forward for many small and medium sized businesses. Tools available today have automatic discovery capabilities and excellent management reporting which can assist IT staff in establishing and maintaining good processes for asset management. With an accurate picture of the installed hardware base, it becomes much easier to assess operating system and business suite software upgrades.

Keeping track of software licenses and where they are installed is another important function. Accurate information of which machines have which software installed is a major starting point to effectively manage PCs across the company. This information can minimize the number and duration of on-site visits by IT support personnel. It can also ensure that software licenses are appropriately managed; paying for only those copies of a particular software that are needed and reducing the risk of fines in a software license audit.

Another good practice is to keep software installs to the minimum required for each employee to do their job. This will shorten install time, reduce updates and patches required, and use fewer resources leaving more capacity for each user’s needs. Some systems administrators will attempt to make things easier by standardizing the desktop to one image for everyone. PC manage

Importance of PC Management
The task of PC management has become too large and too important to be handled on an ad-hoc basis with limited tools. The number of personal computers is significant. There are many versions of operating systems and many different software applications. This is also complicated by the number of employees working from remote offices. The scale has become rather large, even in a small to medium sized business. Now add in the constant stream of Microsoft patch updates (security, operating system and application software updates), periodic operating system upgrades, user initiated software installations and configuration changes, antivirus updates, and IT configuration changes. The rate and volume of change is significant, if not overwhelming. Not to mention the problem of Microsoft phasing out their support of old office applications and operating systems. Windows 95 is no longer supported and 98 is now no longer going to be supported.

The risks of doing a poor job of desktop management are now quite high given the security risks to every PC every day. Left unprotected, PCs are subject to Trojans, Keyloggers, Root Kits, Spyware and Viruses. One of the best ways to be protected is to apply all patches to operating systems and applications in a timely fashion. However, coordinating, staging and testing these patches is time consuming and something that should not be left to end users or ad hoc processes by the IT team. Every desktop needs Anti-virus software that is constantly updated, and users cannot be trusted to keep their virus data files current. Mobile users should also be protected with personal Firewall software, but again, users cannot be depended upon to install and keep such software current. Leaving this to chance can put the entire network and subsequently the entire company at risk. The employee desktop today contains significant corporate data, both data taken from corporate repositories for use on the desktop as well as work-in-process data not yet stored on a secured and backed-up repository. Employees handle important and sensitive data that needs to be protected. This can include price lists, customer lists, customer data, human resources data, strategic plans, product plans and corporate financial information. Security breaches, viruses, and spy-ware can lead to stolen, lost or corrupted data. Regular backups can mitigate the risk of lost or corrupted data, however most users are not disciplined enough to perform regular backups. Mobile and remote users complicate the backup problem and render home-grown backup scripting ineffective.

Dealing with the disruption and potential data loss of security breaches can represent significant productivity loss. Work-in-process data on the desktop can represent weeks of effort and may be difficult or impossible to recreate. The loss of such data can affect project time-lines, which in turn can cause customer satisfaction issues and/or contractual penalties. Desktop data loss can also affect revenue if a desktop problem interrupts critical timeframes for customer proposals.

Another factor driving the need for good desktop management is the increasing regulatory compliance issues that are affecting businesses of all sizes. Consumer and patient privacy laws such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and the wave of trend setting privacy laws out of California affect businesses of all sizes. Sarbanes-Oxley compliance includes rigorous asset management, change management and other controls for IT. This should be of concern for more than just the public companies covered by the law. Many small and medium sized businesses are working toward an eventual acquisition as an exit strategy, and most such acquisitions are by companies that are subject to Sarbanes-Oxley. It is much easier and faster to work through the due diligence phase of the acquisition if the company being acquired has implemented the types of controls required by Sarbanes-Oxley. Good desktop management can assist a company in certain aspects of regulatory compliance.

Effective PC Management
Effective PC Management begins with knowing what you have to manage. Complete and accurate asset and license management is key. Knowing how many machines of what type, their location, memory, hard drive, processor speed, etc., is a big step forward for many small and medium sized businesses. Tools available today have automatic discovery capabilities and excellent management reporting which can assist IT staff in establishing and maintaining good processes for asset management. With an accurate picture of the installed hardware base, it becomes much easier to assess operating system and business suite software upgrades.

Keeping track of software licenses and where they are installed is another important function. Accurate information of which machines have which software installed is a major starting point to effectively manage PCs across the company. This information can minimize the number and duration of on-site visits by IT support personnel. It can also ensure that software licenses are appropriately managed; paying for only those copies of a particular software that are needed and reducing the risk of fines in a software license audit.

Another good practice is to keep software installs to the minimum required for each employee to do their job. This will shorten install time, reduce updates and patches required, and use fewer resources leaving more capacity for each user’s needs. Some systems administrators will attempt to make things easier by standardizing the desktop to one image for everyone. PC manag

The risks of doing a poor job of desktop management are now quite high given the security risks to every PC every day. Left unprotected, PCs are subject to Trojans, Keyloggers, Root Kits, Spyware and Viruses. One of the best ways to be protected is to apply all patches to operating systems and applications in a timely fashion. However, coordinating, staging and testing these patches is time consuming and something that should not be left to end users or ad hoc processes by the IT team. Every desktop needs Anti-virus software that is constantly updated, and users cannot be trusted to keep their virus data files current. Mobile users should also be protected with personal Firewall software, but again, users cannot be depended upon to install and keep such software current. Leaving this to chance can put the entire network and subsequently the entire company at risk. The employee desktop today contains significant corporate data, both data taken from corporate repositories for use on the desktop as well as work-in-process data not yet stored on a secured and backed-up repository. Employees handle important and sensitive data that needs to be protected. This can include price lists, customer lists, customer data, human resources data, strategic plans, product plans and corporate financial information. Security breaches, viruses, and spy-ware can lead to stolen, lost or corrupted data. Regular backups can mitigate the risk of lost or corrupted data, however most users are not disciplined enough to perform regular backups. Mobile and remote users complicate the backup problem and render home-grown backup scripting ineffective.

Dealing with the disruption and potential data loss of security breaches can represent significant productivity loss. Work-in-process data on the desktop can represent weeks of effort and may be difficult or impossible to recreate. The loss of such data can affect project time-lines, which in turn can cause customer satisfaction issues and/or contractual penalties. Desktop data loss can also affect revenue if a desktop problem interrupts critical timeframes for customer proposals.

Another factor driving the need for good desktop management is the increasing regulatory compliance issues that are affecting businesses of all sizes. Consumer and patient privacy laws such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and the wave of trend setting privacy laws out of California affect businesses of all sizes. Sarbanes-Oxley compliance includes rigorous asset management, change management and other controls for IT. This should be of concern for more than just the public companies covered by the law. Many small and medium sized businesses are working toward an eventual acquisition as an exit strategy, and most such acquisitions are by companies that are subject to Sarbanes-Oxley. It is much easier and faster to work through the due diligence phase of the acquisition if the company being acquired has implemented the types of controls required by Sarbanes-Oxley. Good desktop management can assist a company in certain aspects of regulatory compliance.

Effective PC Management
Effective PC Management begins with knowing what you have to manage. Complete and accurate asset and license management is key. Knowing how many machines of what type, their location, memory, hard drive, processor speed, etc., is a big step forward for many small and medium sized businesses. Tools available today have automatic discovery capabilities and excellent management reporting which can assist IT staff in establishing and maintaining good processes for asset management. With an accurate picture of the installed hardware base, it becomes much easier to assess operating system and business suite software upgrades.

Keeping track of software licenses and where they are installed is another important function. Accurate information of which machines have which software installed is a major starting point to effectively manage PCs across the company. This information can minimize the number and duration of on-site visits by IT support personnel. It can also ensure that software licenses are appropriately managed; paying for only those copies of a particular software that are needed and reducing the risk of fines in a software license audit.

Another good practice is to keep software installs to the minimum required for each employee to do their job. This will shorten install time, reduce updates and patches required, and use fewer resources leaving more capacity for each user’s needs. Some systems administrators will attempt to make things easier by standardizing the desktop to one image for everyone. PC manag

Dealing with the disruption and potential data loss of security breaches can represent significant productivity loss. Work-in-process data on the desktop can represent weeks of effort and may be difficult or impossible to recreate. The loss of such data can affect project time-lines, which in turn can cause customer satisfaction issues and/or contractual penalties. Desktop data loss can also affect revenue if a desktop problem interrupts critical timeframes for customer proposals.

Another factor driving the need for good desktop management is the increasing regulatory compliance issues that are affecting businesses of all sizes. Consumer and patient privacy laws such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and the wave of trend setting privacy laws out of California affect businesses of all sizes. Sarbanes-Oxley compliance includes rigorous asset management, change management and other controls for IT. This should be of concern for more than just the public companies covered by the law. Many small and medium sized businesses are working toward an eventual acquisition as an exit strategy, and most such acquisitions are by companies that are subject to Sarbanes-Oxley. It is much easier and faster to work through the due diligence phase of the acquisition if the company being acquired has implemented the types of controls required by Sarbanes-Oxley. Good desktop management can assist a company in certain aspects of regulatory compliance.

Effective PC Management
Effective PC Management begins with knowing what you have to manage. Complete and accurate asset and license management is key. Knowing how many machines of what type, their location, memory, hard drive, processor speed, etc., is a big step forward for many small and medium sized businesses. Tools available today have automatic discovery capabilities and excellent management reporting which can assist IT staff in establishing and maintaining good processes for asset management. With an accurate picture of the installed hardware base, it becomes much easier to assess operating system and business suite software upgrades.

Keeping track of software licenses and where they are installed is another important function. Accurate information of which machines have which software installed is a major starting point to effectively manage PCs across the company. This information can minimize the number and duration of on-site visits by IT support personnel. It can also ensure that software licenses are appropriately managed; paying for only those copies of a particular software that are needed and reducing the risk of fines in a software license audit.

Another good practice is to keep software installs to the minimum required for each employee to do their job. This will shorten install time, reduce updates and patches required, and use fewer resources leaving more capacity for each user’s needs. Some systems administrators will attempt to make things easier by standardizing the desktop to one image for everyone. PC manag

Effective PC Management
Effective PC Management begins with knowing what you have to manage. Complete and accurate asset and license management is key. Knowing how many machines of what type, their location, memory, hard drive, processor speed, etc., is a big step forward for many small and medium sized businesses. Tools available today have automatic discovery capabilities and excellent management reporting which can assist IT staff in establishing and maintaining good processes for asset management. With an accurate picture of the installed hardware base, it becomes much easier to assess operating system and business suite software upgrades.

Keeping track of software licenses and where they are installed is another important function. Accurate information of which machines have which software installed is a major starting point to effectively manage PCs across the company. This information can minimize the number and duration of on-site visits by IT support personnel. It can also ensure that software licenses are appropriately managed; paying for only those copies of a particular software that are needed and reducing the risk of fines in a software license audit.

Another good practice is to keep software installs to the minimum required for each employee to do their job. This will shorten install time, reduce updates and patches required, and use fewer resources leaving more capacity for each user’s needs. Some systems administrators will attempt to make things easier by standardizing the desktop to one image for everyone. PC management is one place where “one size does not fit all.” Overcomplicating the software image for every user by installing all applications everywhere will increase work in the long run and make everyone unhappy. A better practice is to define unique user types by department or job function, and to define a standard image for each user type. This can limit the time to upgrade applications and allow for better service for each user.

With an accurate inventory of all hardware and only the software needed on each desktop, the next step toward effective PC management is to automate software distribution. Automated software distribution minimizes the number of onsite visits IT staff must make. This lowers the cost of support and allows for more frequent updates. This can be applied to virus data files, operating system patches as well as updates and new versions of application software. Changes should be staged in a separate environment for testing and then rolled out based on individual or group user profiles.

Automated software distribution is the first step in remote management. Full remote management includes the ability to remotely control the desktop and make all required configuration changes through a networked connection. This is a critical function as the number of remote and mobile workers has increased. IT staff must be able to perform administrative functions from their office as if they were sitting in front of the PC of remote and mobile workers.

When considering how to implement desktop management best practices, companies need to acquire management tools to automate the management tasks. Companies can license tools and build an in-house management infrastructure, access management tools through a hosted Software as a Service (SaaS) model, or outsource the entire desktop management process. Each of these alternatives is explored in more detail below.
Alternatives for Acquiring Good Tools:
Build, Software as a Service, Outsource
A company with as few as 2-20 employees can struggle
with manual desktop management processes. The more

desktops to be managed and the more mobile and remote workers to support, the more difficult it becomes to deliver good service with manual processes. The severity of issues that can arise from poor PC management requires that the problem be taken seriously and therefore automation should be given significant consideration.

There are now many options available to automate some or all of the PC management functions, and some of these options are cost effective even for small and medium sized companies. However, tool selection should be made carefully to ensure that the necessary functions are addressed by the tool, to keep training time to a minimum and to avoid selecting a tool that requires more effort to administer than it saves. As with any decision, all of the alternatives should be considered before making the decision. PC management is no different, and it can be accomplished through several approaches: management tools deployed in-house to internally manage PCs (the “build” approach), using a Software as a Service hosted management tool with internal staff, and outsourcing the management of PCs to a third party.

Building an Internal PC Management Infrastructure
This traditional approach to management involves identifying tools to purchase, purchasing those tools, deploying the tools, training IT staff on how to effectively use the newly deployed management tools, and staffing sufficiently to manage the PC infrastructure on an ongoing basis. One of the advantages of this approach is that the IT organization retains full control of the management infrastructure and functions because the solution is an internally deployed solution. However, the control also brings with it the responsibility to manage the management system/software itself.

The build approach typically requires a larger initial budget outlay for purchase/licensing costs, with on-going maintenance fees, and any investment in additional hardware that is required to run the management infrastructure. In addition to these initial licensing costs, it is also important for IT organizations to realize that there is an associated cost of management. The IT staff is naturally responsible for managing the IT infrastructure, but in addition, they are also responsible for managing the IT management infrastructure itself. For example, in the case of internally deployed management software tools, these costs reveal themselves in deployment costs of the management tools, maintenance of the management tools (upgrades, patching), support personnel for ongoing operational support, management tool consulting services, training, software licensing costs (both initial purchase and recurring maintenance costs), hardware costs for additional hardware that is required to run the management software, and the cost of integrating tools in-house.

The cost of management depends on several factors; the ease-of-use and ease-of-deployment of the management solution, the stability of the management code, the frequency of new releases, and the maturity of the IT organization. Most of these factors translate to IT staff time that is required to manage the management infrastructure. In addition to these direct costs, maintaining a help desk to assist users with PC issues is another additive cost of management. For geographically dispersed companies, the help desk may be required to operate 24x7, which adds significantly to the cost of ownership.

Software as a Service
Another way for IT organizations to employ PC management functionality is through management software delivered as a service. This option shifts the responsibility for the management software deployment and maintenance to the service provider. Software as a Service (SaaS) results in eliminating the following costs for enterprises: deploying the tool, maintaining the tools, consulting services to deploy the tool, software licensing, internal tool integration, hardware to run the management software, and troubleshooting when the tool is not working properly. Instead of these costs of ownership, the cost of the hosted software is in the form of fixed monthly subscription fees.

PC management SaaS can bring additional advantages beyond the features of the tool. Virus protection and automated update of virus data files is a feature often available. Some services include significant coordination of new patches; simplifying the staging, tes