Introduction
Even after the painful sting of the Y2K bug, most IT departments still do not know how many desktops they have, much less what software is installed and running on those desktops. The chaos that reigns in the desktop environment drives up costs and drives down user satisfaction. Without a way to bring these costs under control and make users more productive, new technology initiatives—which so many IT departments are under the gun to deliver—cannot be pursued successfully.
One way to tame the chaos and reduce costs is to introduce and enforce desktop standards. META Group estimates that standard PC builds that are locked down can save more than $650 per desktop per year. A standard desktop reduces costs across job functions in an organization-from IT support and services staff to procurement and supplier administrators. A standard desktop means fewer support calls, faster repair time, and lower migration costs. A standard desktop means reduced software licensing fees and better negotiating power with software vendors. A standard desktop means more productive end users, all of whom have the right set of applications with limited or no access to time-wasting software.
This white paper details the steps you can take to arrive at a standard desktop. It discusses both hardware and software standards. And it gives you a range of options for enforcing the standards you set.
Setting desktop standards
If you are starting a new business and bringing in all new PCs, setting a desktop standard is easy. You decide what everyone will use and order PCs with that standard image. Most of you, however, do not have the luxury of building your PC infrastructure from scratch. You must start where you are, which is often in the midst of chaos. In this case, the first thing you need to do is take an inventory of your environment.
Doing a baseline inventory
Depending on your environment—Is everyone connected to the network? Do they use login scripts?—you may have to combine automated and manual inventory methods. If everyone is networked and you can rely on an inventory tool to automate the process, you will save a great deal of time. Conservative estimates for a manual inventory are 30 minutes per PC, while an automated process is much faster.
A baseline inventory will tell you how many PCs you have and their hardware and software configurations. Decide how much you want to know about your PC hardware. At a minimum you should collect information on CPU speed, RAM, math coprocessor, size of hard drive, free disk space, and NIC address. For environments that are DMI-enabled, you can gather a vast amount of information, such as chip set, video card, type of modem installed, which mouse is being used, etc. This information may be valuable-for example, if you see that a particular video card is prone to failure, you may want to replace that particular card in your environment. Good inventory data will show you instantly which PCs are using the defective card.
Also, once you establish your standard desktop, you may need to upgrade some hardware to accommodate the authorized applications. You will know which machines need to be upgraded because you have good inventory data.
On the software side, inventory will tell you everything that is installed on your desktops. You may be astounded at what your inventory finds. Most organizations have many more applications installed than IT ever dreamed of. But knowing what's installed gets you only part of the way to setting standards.
The goal of setting a desktop standard is to reduce costs without sacrificing the end-users' access to applications that they need. The same desktop standard for everyone in the organization may not be practical or helpful. Instead, establish standard desktops according to job function. The desktop application set that Engineering uses will be different from the one you give to the Marketing department. Accounting will use a different set of applications than the Art department.
But knowing what's installed on the desktops in Engineering, Marketing, Accounting, and Art will give you only the scantiest clue about which applications should be the standards for each of those departments. You may find two or three different spreadsheets, a couple of different word processors and a database or two, in addition to CAD, financial, and desktop publishing packages.
Gathering usage information
To find out which applications should be part of the standard, you need to know what users are actually running. A metering tool can show you exactly which applications receive the most usage. Metering may find that some of the installed applications are never run.
To get a good picture of usage, you should let metering run for at least 30 days—longer if your standardization schedule permits.
Metering will give you the data you need to go to each department and propose a standard desktop. It will also show you how many nonproductive applications, such as games, are being run in your organization. This information is always eye-opening. Some organizations establish policies against game playing after seeing just how much time employees spend in that activity.
Cleaning up the environment
Once you have combined inventory and usage information to decide which applications will make up the standard desktop, you must decide whether to remove nonstandard applications from the desktops or prevent users from running them. If you decide to remove them, you can use the inventory data you have to identify where they are. If you decide to leave them on the desktops but prevent users from running them, you will need a way to lock out certain applications.
Enforcing desktop standards
The most effective method for enforcing standards is a complete lockdown of the desktop. There are often political obstacles to such a method, however. One way to overcome objections is to emphasize reduced costs and quicker implementation of new technologies. META estimates that a complete PC lockdown can reduce PC operational costs by 10 percent and reduce pure help desk costs by as much as 25 percent. A standard, locked-down desktop can also speed technology initiatives because implementation can be thoroughly tested in circumstances that are not changing from day to day.
If a complete lockdown is not possible, there are other methods for enforcing standards. The metering tool that you used to help set your desktop standards can also help you enforce them. It can accomplish what is in essence a lockdown by not allowing users to run applications that are not designated as standard. When an end user tries to run a nonstandard application, the metering tool can block the launch and deliver a message indicating that the the launch is not authorized.
Express Software Manager gives you a way to prevent
users from running certain applications.
You can set your metering tool to give users a bit more leeway if that's what your environment requires. Instead of preventing the launch of a nonstandard application, the tool can warn the user that he or she is in violation of standards and grant that user a grace period. Or the metering tool can simply watch quietly for violation of standards and let you know when a user launches an application outside the approved set. Then you can take the appropriate action.
Creative uses for metering technology
Metering technology has many uses in addition to setting and enforcing
standards. Maintaining license compliance without overbuying is probably
the way the technology is most often used. But metering can also provide
a powerful tool to combat viruses. When a new virus (such as Melissa or
the Worm) strikes, and you know the name of the executable, you can set
your metering tool to prevent its launch and thus contain the damage it
could do. You can also use metering to prevent people from running applications
downloaded from the Internet until you test them to see how they will
behave in your environment. For instance, if you want to keep people from
running the latest version of Netscape or Internet Explorer, you can lock
those out by version number until you have tested them.
Because the metering agent sits on the desktop and sees every launch and every close of every application, it can be used in a variety of creative ways.
Summary
Desktop standards can go a long way toward bringing order to the chaos that so often rules the PC environment. A combination of inventory and metering technology can help you decide what standards to set and then assist you in ensuring that those standards are maintained.
About Express Metrix products
Express Metrix software provides exceptional tools for asset management. Products include:
Express Software Manager
Express Software Manager is the comprehensive solution for asset management. Integrating the full power of Express Inventory and Express Meter enables you to control all desktops from one console.
Express Inventory
Express Inventory is a thorough, rapid, low-impact inventory tool that reveals all your desktop hardware and software without disrupting users. It discovers applications on stand-alone and remote PCs, as well as targeted hardware information, including support for WMI.
Express Meter
This highly advanced metering software tracks applications usage for informed decision-making and control. It offers several capabilities including automatic discovery of newly introduced applications, a lock-out feature to prevent the launch of unauthorized applications, the ability to limit access to server applications, and proof of license compliance for concurrent programs.