News

NetSupport brings NetInstall to U.S.

• By Lana Gates
• June 18, 2003

NetSupport Solutions Inc. (NSSI) has unveiled a new version of the NetInstall desktop management software, a move that marks the Karlsruhe, Germany-based firm's entry into the United States software market.

According to company officials, the new U.S. operation of NetSupport GmbH, based in Schaumburg, Ill., is targeting what officials there call the underserved midrange enterprise market -- companies with 300 to 55,000 desktops -- with its latest release.

Designed by network administrators for network administrators, the software deployment and desktop configuration and management software takes an automated approach to packaging and deploying applications, officials said. This approach, they say, can eliminate weeks of custom coding and network congestion, allowing administrators to install and deploy applications in hours, not months.

The product includes more than 140 wizard-driven commands, and enables administrators to complete most tasks in five mouse clicks or less, officials claim.

NSSI is filling a hole with this product, said Chet Sargeant, president of the U.S. operation. "A lot of solutions out there were people-intensive and took a long period of time. They took a complex problem and gave it a complex solution, which was costly and inefficient," he said. "They kept massaging old technology. We saw these [products] were made for programmers, not administrators."

The company took that knowledge and created NetInstall to accomplish tasks within five mouse clicks and to pit point-and-click, drag-and-drop functions against debugging and testing code. NetInstall competes with offerings from companies such as Marimba, Tivoli and Novadigm.

NetInstall addresses three issues companies are facing these days: producing things faster, cheaper and better, Sargeant asserted. The product boasts an install of less than one hour and includes plug-and-play device installation, Web services configuration, global site management and extended reporting.

In addition, NetInstall builds on the strengths of dynamic configuration management, tangible ROI, traveling user support and broad directory service support. NetInstall supports both Microsoft's Active Directory and Novell Directory Service. For more information, click on www.netinstall.com