IT Asset Management

NetSupport DNA (Dynamic Network Administration) facilitates central management of your enterprise PCs in a secure, coordinated and efficient manner. Combining powerful Hardware and Software Inventory with Software Distribution, Application and Internet Metering, and PC Remote Control, NetSupport DNA ensures compliance with corporate configuration standards whilst simultaneously reducing the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of your Windows and Linux systems.

IT assets account for the largest proportion of the overall IT spend, therefore, ensuring they are properly managed and maintained becomes one of the highest priority corporate goals for any organisation where TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) is high on the agenda.

Without a comprehensive network management program in place, IT assets can cost far more than necessary through waste and redundancy (direct costs) and overly complex management and maintenance (indirect costs). By implementing an effective IT asset management program such as NetSupport DNA, companies can view every asset in their enterprise, allowing them to control and manage IT assets, eliminate waste and redundancy, and comply with ever-tightening government compliance regulations. NetSupport DNA also features seamless integration with the NetSupport ITIL web-based ServiceDesk software.

The annual cost of supporting this IT infrastructure can often result in costs spiralling out of control, where the initial purchase price of IT assets pales into insignificance. Understanding leasing arrangements and undertaking proactive asset management ensures compliance with software license agreements and makes budget forecasting more accurate. Knowing how many of your users are using a specific application at any given time will allow for both effective trimming of software budgets and a realistic prediction of future software investment.

Information is key. Without this, decisions on upgrades and the roll-out of new technology will not be taken from an entirely informed position. From a cost-saving standpoint, knowing the inventory of IT assets is critical when deciding whether to purchase more assets, redistribute current assets, or retire them completely - along with their costly maintenance contracts and renewal fees.

Recognising that organisations have differing requirements, NetSupport DNA is available in a modular format, allowing you to pick and choose only those features that best meet the current needs of your organisation.

NetSupport DNA Product Tour

Discover	Detail	Deploy
NetSupport DNA will automatically discover all PCs on a LAN or WAN based on an IP range or utilising the existing Windows Network. Once discovered, key PC status & DNA Client status (if installed) is displayed. Using the Discovery Tool, DNA clients can be remotely installed onto clean systems across the Enterprise.	NetSupport DNA also offers two "styles" of reporting. On-screen reports are provided with supporting Bar and Pie charts and drill down capabilities on all key summary data. In addition, Print Optimised reports are provided, powered by the Crystal Report engine that offers a full set of management reports. All reports include the option to print or export to PDF, DOC and XLS.	DNA provides a multi delivery option for Software Distribution. To begin, an Operator can define a software package to be deployed - this can either be a collection of files and folders specified with appropriate action parameters once delivered to a target system or by recording and scripting any user prompts required during an application install so that the package can be deployed onto a users system without intervention.

Discover

User Management

NetSupport DNA provides a range of features to locate and manage PCs and Users within a networked environment. Not only does DNA store key user data (Name, Telephone etc.) but it also provides detailed storage of supporting Asset, Lease and Maintenance data. In addition DNA provides the customer with the ability to customise the data to be gathered and collated from each user.

DNA also provides the mechanism to create Dynamic Groups, these are added to the main Company Tree view and can contain PCs from any number of departments. A typical group might be "all PCs with Windows XP and more than 256Mb of Ram".

Other supporting tools include Connection Statistics, Find User, Chat, Message and a powerful Database Query Tool.

NetSupport DNA integrates with Active Directory enabling you to configure the PCs and Users within the DNA Console to mirror their relative position within the Active Directory Container structure. Changes made within the AD structure are automatically reflected within DNA. User Information can also be retrieved from Active Directory.

Discovery

NetSupport DNA will automatically discover all PCs on a LAN or WAN based on an IP range or utilising the existing Windows Network. Once discovered, key PC status & DNA Client status (if installed) is displayed. Using the Discovery Tool, DNA clients can be remotely installed onto clean systems across the Enterprise.

DNA Inventory for Remote Computers

In order to maintain accurate asset information it is vital that all user hardware & software related data is recorded. Whilst the DNA Server will dynamically retrieve information from those machines that have a Client installed, there will be instances where peripheral equipment, such as routers or remote PCs that are not connected to the network will not be found. To ensure that this information is known, DNA provides you with the tools to add details of 'non-scanned' items manually.

Detail

Hardware Inventory

NetSupport DNA features a powerful Hardware Inventory module that presents a wealth of information about a specific PC, from CPU and BIOS to memory, memory slots used and even those available for future expansion. When viewing the Company as a whole or a department, DNA provides quick and easy summaries by category, such as all PCs grouped by OS, CPU type or Memory.

Software Inventory

Featuring a detailed summary of all installed programs and applications detected on each PC, NetSupport DNA displays this information for either a selected PC, a department or custom group. Full support for recording, tracking and the management of software licences and maintenance contracts is included.

Application Metering

NetSupport DNA offers an Application Metering component which reports all applications used on each Windows PC, detailing the time the application was both started and finished and the actual time it was active and in use. Additionally, when the data is viewed at “department” level, summaries by frequency of use or by duration are shown.

Alerting

DNA’s real-time Alerting facility enables you to identify changes to the gathered data based on predefined conditions. For example, highlighting situations where the total installed copies of an application exceeds the company license limit or where a PCs free disk space has dropped below a certain level.

Energy Monitor

The Energy Monitor component provides a simple and concise high level summary of potential energy wastage across an organisation by computer systems that are left powered on out of business hours. Once implemented, department heads or management can see a high level view of energy usage by computers across the organisation, see where “out of hours” usage is highest and identify if this is a result of diligent staff working late or simply systems that have been left switched on overnight.

Internet Metering

Like Application Metering, DNA also provides a detailed summary of Internet (or Intranet) activity on each Windows PC. URLs visited, duration on a page and page analysis within a specific URL are all recorded. DNA even provides a quick link to review a specific URL. Internet Metering also provides the Operator with the ability to restrict URL access based on its status of Approved or Restricted and by a flexible time based policy.

Reporting

NetSupport DNA also offers two "styles" of reporting. On-screen reports are provided with supporting Bar and Pie charts and drill down capabilities on all key summary data. In addition, Print Optimised reports are provided, powered by a Crystal Report engine that offers a full set of management reports. All reports include the option to print or export to PDF, DOC and XLS.

Deploy

Software Distribution

DNA provides a multi delivery option for software distribution. To begin, an Operator can define a Software package to be deployed - this can either be a collection of files and folders specified with appropriate action parameters once delivered to a target system or by recording and scripting any user prompts required during an application install so that the package can be deployed onto a user’s system without intervention.

Once created the application package can be automatically "Pushed" to target PCs for deployment or "Published" centrally. Once “Published” a User can check to see which applications are available for their PC and install these on-demand.

DNA further offers the ability to schedule packages for distribution, whereby the user can specify the date and time to distribute a specific package. This is especially effective for out of office hours distribution when network activity is at its lowest.

Software Distribution Warehouse

To ease network traffic congestion when executing large scale deployments, DNA enables you to nominate a Client, ideally local to the target machines, to act as a 'distribution warehouse'. When the package is deployed, rather than the server pushing it to each Client in turn, it installs at the Warehouse Client which then distributes it to the remaining targets.

Internet Gateway

What sets NetSupport DNA apart is its ability to report on your assets no matter where they are, going beyond just a local or wide area network. NetSupport’s Internet Gateway technology provides a stable and secure method for tracking assets that may ordinarily be ‘hidden’ on a remote network or behind firewalls.

Remote Control

DNA Remote Control offers advanced functionality for the effective management of remote workstations. Watch, Share or Control the screen, mouse & keyboard of target PCs irrespective of O/S & network protocol. Includes full message & text chat facilities, comprehensive security, multi-platform support & desktop integration.

For a more powerful remote control solution, NetSupport Manager (NSM) is offered as an extra module. Together with the above, NSM offers File Transfer & File Distribution, Hardware & Software Inventory, Scripting & Scheduling, The Gateway (connecting to PCs located behind firewalls) and Scan, for the monitoring of multiple remote workstation screens.

Testimonials

"We have recently implemented DNA Helpdesk (May 2005) as a replacement to a Lotus Notes based system. I found DNA Helpdesk to be very easy to install and customise to our needs.

I was particularly impressed with the notification and escalation functionality which have ensured that our Helpdesk calls are being resolved within the designated timeframes. The reporting functionality allows us to graphically view the status of existing and completed calls. From our perspective the Solution bank has been the most useful feature. We can use the solution bank to search for solutions to common problems. I would be happy to recommend this product."

Brooke Humphries, Network Administrator, Lake Macquarie City Council

"We have PCs in various locations that we have to administer, our IT support centre is quite small so we need to have all information at our fingertips to analyse the needs of our users” says Damien Clark, Finance & Administration Manager.

"We have implemented NetSupport DNA in all locations. NetSupport DNA has made it very easy to see all computer infrastructures at a glance and analyse issues and needs for now and the future. It has also helped us analyse what is actually being used on these computers, enabling us to respond to the user needs in a far more timely manner."

About District Council of Coober Pedy:

Coober Pedy is an opal mining town located in the harsh Outback of South Australia, some 850 kilometres north of Adelaide and 680 kilometres south of Alice Springs. Coober Pedy is recognised as the largest producer of opal in the world with an estimated 70% of the world's precious opal being mined in the opal fields of the area.

The continued development of Coober Pedy can be attributed to the maintenance of its opal mining industry and the increasingly important role of tourism. Its recognition as a major regional centre for the Outback of South Australia has seen its importance to the delivery of Government services grow.

Damien Clark, Finance & Administration Manager, District Council of Coober Pedy

What format can I export the data from the DNA reports in?

The NetSupport DNA reports are provided using a Crystal Reports engine. Details of all reports available within the system are listed by selecting the “Reports” option within the console and selecting Summary Reports.

Once a report is displayed on screen the resulting report can be exported in any of the following formats:

Acrobat PDF
Crystal Reports (RPT)
HTML
MS Excel (XLS)
MS Word (DOC)
Rich Text Format (RTF)
Comma Separated Values (CSV)
Text
XML

Can I connect and report on remote PCs running in different locations?

Yes. DNA version 3 provides support for connecting remote client PCs. The “DNA Gateway” enables clients to connect to the DNA Server where both may be located behind different firewalls. The “DNA Gateway” consists of a Gateway service that communicates with the DNA Server and a “Gateway Client” that acts as a proxy server for the remote DNA Clients.

For any “DNA Gateway” installation only one Gateway Server is required. The Gateway Server will support multiple connections from Gateway Clients enabling them to connect from multiple network/physical locations.

Does NetSupport DNA collect information against the User of the PC as well as the PC itself?

Yes. Support has been added for logged on users. Users now have equal status with the PCs. The main console tree view will now display either the User or PC view.

What support is available within NetSupport DNA for my Active Directory Groups?

Support has been provided to enable membership of AD groups to control logon/access rights to the DNA Console.

User data can be bound with Active Directory.

Within the DNA Console, operators can switch between the standard DNA hierarchy and the AD hierarchy view for their enterprise.

My company is looking at reducing our carbon footprint and we will have internal energy saving targets so what can NetSupport DNA do to help me monitor energy usage?

New functionality in the new version is the “Energy Monitor”. Aimed at helping organisations reduce their carbon footprint, meet internal energy saving targets and reduce operational costs, the new Energy Monitor component tracks all powered-on systems across the enterprise, highlighting their energy consumption and associated costs. Working day hours can be defined making it easy to identify out-of-hours usage.

If you navigate to http://www.netsupportdna.com/dnaroi/roi.asp you will find a calculator which helps you calculate your Return on Investment.

What is the typical install base for NetSupport DNA and how many machines can be supported without causing any performance issues?

NetSupport DNA is installed in varying enterprises around the world. It’s easy to install and implement in typically less than 30 minutes. Customers currently using the product have it installed on anywhere between 10 and 6000 machines.

I’m concerned about the software being used within my company and need to ensure I have a full inventory of every PC. What levels of software inventory does DNA report on?

NetSupport DNA features a detailed summary of all applications detected on a target PC. This is displayed with a supporting application icon either on a PC-by-PC basis or as a group where overall totals for each application are shown.

The newly introduced ‘Installed Programs’ option mirrors the add/remove programs structure of your Client machines, detailing the license levels for the displayed applications.

NetSupport DNA also features three level software inventory:

Software Programs (eg MS Office)
Software Applications (eg MS Word)
Software Resources (eg Letter.doc)

License management is further enhanced with the ability to assign licenses to specific departments.

I need an option where I can quickly control the access rights of my Console Operators without having to individually set-up them up?

Access rights for Console Operators are now controlled by defined profiles or “Roles”. Once these have been created the Role can be assigned to multiple operators. Roles can be linked to a AD Group and are relevant when Active Directory is being used.

What methods for software deployment are provided within NetSupport DNA?

NetSupport DNA provides two distinct methods for delivery of software packages to end user systems.

1) Distribute Package - the operator can select a Company, Department or User from the main DNA tree view, and then "Distribute Package" from the right mouse click menu. The package details are confirmed and the product is distributed to the target PCs.

2) Advertise Package - the operator can select a Company or Department and "Advertise Package" from the right mouse click menu. The package information is advertised for the selected PCs. The end user can then select "Request Package" from the DNA client menu, where they will be provided with a list of packages available to them.

What languages is NetSupport DNA available in?

NetSupport DNA is available in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian.

How can I keep track of Assets that are not detected by DNA, such as PDAs and mobile phones?

NetSupport DNA will dynamically retrieve inventory information from those Windows and Linux PCs with a DNA Client installed. There will however be instances where peripheral equipment, such as routers, will not be identified even in the case of remote PCs where they are unconnected to the network. Ensuring the most accurate information is always available, DNA provides the option to add details of "non-scanned" items manually, or provide a standalone inventory scan of a PC for subsequent import into the central system.

I like the reports that are available in DNA but I need additional information about my organization. Can I generate additional reports?

Yes. NetSupport has a DNA Query Tool function for those users who would rather view information from NetSupport DNA in their own reports. The NetSupport DNA Query tool provides an easy interface for defining limitless reports covering all of the available data within the DNA database.

Once created, these reports (Queries) can be assigned to specific components within the DNA console, such as the Hardware Inventory or User Details components and are then available to all operators in a single click from within the main console view.

Do I need to update any other programs for DNA 3?

Yes. In order for NetSupport DNA version 3 to display the pie charts and graphs in the summary view you need to have Adobe Flash version 10 installed as a minimum requirement on the DNA Console machine. This is available to download free of charge from their website.

NetSupport DNA Product Tour

NetSupport DNA Server

Console

Client