N-Able Create IT Value for SMB Mid-sized Businesses

8/14/2019 N-Able Create IT Value for SMB Mid-sized Businesses

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WHITEPAPER

5 ways to create superior IT value

for your SMB or mid-sizedbusinesses in 2010

Practical tactics and strategies for contributing measurably

to the bottom line in good times and bad


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION AND

OBJECTIVES

...#

TOP BUSINESS PRIORITIES FOR2010.#

BUSINESS PRIORITY #1: BUSINESS PROCESS

IMPROVEMENT..#

BUSINESS PRIORITY #2: REDUCING ENTERPRISE

COSTS#

BUSINESS PRIORITY #3: INCREASING THE USE OF

ANALYTICS..#

BUSINESS PRIORITY #4: IMPROVING ENTERPRISE

WORKFORCE EFFECTIVENESS#

BUSINESS PRIORITY #5: ATTRACTING AND RETAINING

CUSTOMERS#

REMOTE MONITORING AND

MANAGEMENT.#

CONCLUSION

.#


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INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES

According to Gartner, CIOs are eying relatively flat IT budgets this

year. Budgets are expected to rise on average a modest 1.3 percent

and IT spending in 2010 will be on a par with 2005 levels1. Similarly, the

United Nations has forecast a fragile and uneven economic recovery in

2010 from the worst recession since World War II, with a global growthrate of 2.4 percent.

2Thats the good news.

The bad news for IT departments of small to medium sized businesses

(SMBs) and midmarket enterprises is that they will experience

continuing pressure to streamline their operations and reduce costs. For

many this will sound tiresomely familiar. However, IT is not alone: most

departments have seen their budgets frozen or slashed to ensure the

viability of the business. As the economy rebounds and budgets are

loosened, all departments can expect a higher than normal level of

scrutiny on requests for additional resources. For IT departments this

may be daunting. Many are seen as an expense or cost center rather

than a high value, strategic contributor to the enterprises success. As aresult, IT budgets are often established by senior management or a CIO

using an arbitrary percentage of operating expenditures, in good times

and bad.

Yet, the enterprise will continue to face attacks from a variety of

security threats. Eventually, new branch offices will be added, with

routers, firewalls, servers, employee workstations, and other

infrastructure equipment. All of this will need to be managed,

monitored, and maintained, often 24/7. In short, demands on help desk

and IT support services will inevitably increase and budgets likely will

not.

The purpose of this whitepaper is to provide resource strapped ITdepartments of SMBs and midsize enterprises with practical strategies

for demonstrating superior IT value and to thrive in this demanding

environment.

Specifically this white paper will:

Map IT strategies to the top five business priorities in 2010 Demonstrate how maximum IT value can be achieved through

automation, cost reductions and savings, managing distributed

architectures, improved resource utilization, customized C-level

performance reports, high availability and desktop management,

and enhanced enterprise agility Show how an integrated, centrally managed remote monitoring

and management platform can support business priorities and

deliver superior IT value immediately

1Credit: Gartner, January 2010, based on a poll of 1,586 chief information officers.

2Credit: United Nations annual economic forecast, a 176 page report released January

2010.


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IT DEPARTMENTS CAN

MOVE IN LOCKSTEP WITH

THE TOP BUSINESS

PRIORITY

Automation is a key tobusiness process

improvement and can

streamline or replace many

labour intensive, manual

processes such as:

Updating patches Resetting passwords Running defrags Application deployments Performing asset

management and updating

software on employeessystems,

Endpoint security Regulatory compliance

The ideas and strategies presented

in this white paper are based on the

ongoing work by N-able

Technologies with over 2,000

Managed Service Provider Partners

(MSPs) and IT departments

worldwide. N-able is a recognizedleader in IT automation solutions

with a proven ability to reduce IT

costs, improve network performance

and increase productivity.

This white paper will be invaluable to

any IT manager or director, providing

services to a 100 to 1,000 seat SMB

or midsize enterprise, and who

wants practical strategies for cost

effectively improving their IT value.

TOP BUSINESS PRIORITIES

FOR 2010

An IT department can dramatically

improve its perceived value to the enterprise by directly supporting and

aligning its strategies with business priorities. According to Gartner, the

top five business priorities for 2010 appear in the first column of figure 1

below. These priorities translate into concrete business drivers if not a

battle cry for IT departments.

In our work with IT departments and MSPs around the world, N-able hasmapped specific IT strategies for addressing these business priorities

and delivering superior IT value to the mid-size businesses. These IT

strategies are summarized in the second column of figure 1.

Figure 1: The Top Business Priorities for 2010

Business priorities for 20103

IT Strategy

1. Business processimprovement

Improved resource utilization andefficiencies through IT automation

2. Reducing enterprise costs Cost reduction and savings3. Increasing the use of

information/analytics Customizable C-level performance

reports for demonstrating IT ROI

4. Improving enterpriseworkforce effectiveness Improved IT services to remote usersand integrated desktop management5. Attracting and retaining

customers Enabling enterprise agility through

an optimized, highly available

infrastructure

3Source: Gartner EXP (January 2010). The left column shows the business priorities for

2010; the right column shows specific IT strategies proposed by N-able Technologies.


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Each IT strategy has specific challenges that will be briefly discussed in

this whitepaper.


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THE FINANCIAL BENEFITS OF

AN AUTOMATION STRATEGY

The following is a realistic,

hypothetical scenario that

dramatizes the financial

benefits of automation:

Cost of IT help deskresource: $60 per hour

Conservative savings perdevice from an automation

solution: $10 to $20 per

device

Size of SMB: 200 devices Total enterprise savings

resulting from an

automation platform in an

SMB with 200 devices:

$120,000 to $240,000 peryear

While hypothetical these

conservative figures are

consistent with N-ables

experience with partners and

enterprises.

Cost savings go hand-in-hand

with dramatic improvements in

IT technician utilization and the

ability to do more with less:

An automation platformeasily boosts the number ofdevices that can be

managed per technician

from 125 (to 150) to 500+:

a 300% productivity

improvement.

BUSINESS PRIORITY #1:

BUSINESS PROCESS

IMPROVEMENT

Motivated by a global marketplace,

increased commoditization of both

products and services, and growing

regulatory compliance, businesses of

all sizes have scrutinized their

business processes with the goal of

finding more efficient ways to do

business. Redesigning, optimizing

and automating business process

are central ideas for achieving new

efficiencies and realizing business

goals.

Business process improvement

through automation is also an areawhere IT departments can move in

lockstep with this top business

priority if not lead by example. The

key is to automate the right type of

routine tasks to realize new

efficiencies, achieve a systematic

approach, and improve technician

productivity. For example, an

automation platform can replace

many tedious manual in-house

processes including:

Updating patches, resettingpasswords, running defrags,

application deployments, performing

asset management and updating

software on employees systems,

endpoint security, and regulatory

compliance with auditable logs

and many other tasks.

The importance of IT automation is punctuated by the number of

desktops or computers that can be managed per help desk employee. N-

ables experience with IT departments and MSPs shows that an average

IT technician can effectively manage about 125 to 150 devices withoutan automation solution. Contrast this with the operational reality of

many SMB and mid-size businesses that have 100 to 1000 employees.

For this size of business, particularly if any infrastructure growth is

anticipated, automation is critical to an IT departments ability to

maintain or improve upon service levels. N-ables work with MSPs in

particular shows that by automating tasks and processes related to

network monitoring and management, an IT service provider can easily

manage 500 devices or more per technician.


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An automation platform enables IT departments to deliver superior IT

value by:

Reducing or eliminating time wasting visits to employee sites/desks Cutting the number of Help Desk calls Reduce operational/maintenance costs while adding more services Speeding-up response times to employees Managing more devices without adding technicians Freeing-up time and IT resources to proactively plan Maintaining consistent, higher-quality services Increasing end user (employee) satisfaction Allocating IT resources and work more efficientlyMore than anything, IT automation is a strategy for automating manual

processes, eliminating or reducing the number of nuisance calls, and

lessening the cost of dealing with calls that are received.


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THE HIGH COST OF OVER

LICENSING

Many enterprises are over-licensed and paying for

software that sits idle

The underlying problem,and a significant challenge

for IT departments, is the

inability to effectively track

and manage deployed

assets

An automatic assetmanagement and software

tracking tool enables IT to

immediately add significant

value

Questions to ask

The key to a successful IT automation platform that realizes these

important benefits is one that integrates remote control, remote

monitoring, remote management (including desktop management),

and reporting into a single integrated tool set. However, before leaping

on the automation bandwagon, the enterprise should ask a number of

critical questions to objectively assess potential IT automation solutionsincluding:

What tasks should really be automated? How much effort will be required to deploy and integrate any new

tools into the existing IT infrastructure?

How many different tools will be required to automate differentprocesses?

Will these tools realize promised efficiencies across a distributedarchitecture?

How easy will it be to learn and use the tool(s)? Can these tools be managed in a centralized way?

Will these tools quantify and report on where IT resources wereinvested and with what results?

How much money will these tools really save?


REDUCING ENTERPRISE COSTS

Periods of economic contraction put

pressure on companies to re-

evaluate every aspect of their

business with the overriding goal of

reducing enterprise costs. Costreduction can occur in one of two

ways: hard cost savings or soft

cost reduction or avoidance.

Hard cost savings focus on tangible,

bottom line reductions of expenses

that can be tracked on the P&L. For

IT departments, deploying the right

kind of IT automation solution is one

proven strategy for realizing new

process efficiencies that measurably

reduce the cost of in-house services

and maintenance costs whileimproving resource utilization. In

addition, automation drives down the cost of IT ownership through

improved network and systems management.

In comparison, cost reduction strategies minimize, delay or avoid an

expense that impacts the bottom line. Software licensing and

consolidation are two concrete strategies that enable IT departments to

support a cost reduction business priority and add immediate IT value.


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Over-licensing adds costs

Most software licenses incur maintenance or renewal fees and as such

they have a long-term financial impact on the business. For example,

technical support and upgrades for software are typically charged to

SMBs as a percentage of the licensing fee. This can vary between 10 and

25 percent of license fees. Over time, these software expenses add-upon the balance ledger. Despite these recurring costs, many companies

find they are over licensed effectively they are paying for licenses to sit

idle or unused.


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THE PROBLEM WITH POINT

SOLUTIONS

Many corporate IT professionals

have tackled IT automation by

securing a variety of individual

midmarket tools for varioustasks. This can lead to a

proliferation of individual point

solutions.

Generally point solutions:

Add complexity toplanning, managing, and

governing the IT

infrastructure

Cannot be integrated into asingle flexible, easy to use

solution

Do not give IT visibility onall devices and applications

Result in vendor fingerpointing when things go

wrong

Consolidating around a single,

integrated solution is a key IT

strategy for:

Reducing costs andrealizing improved

efficiencies and superior

productivity

Introducing centralizedaccountability

Simplifying technologicalcomplexity, training and

maintenance requirements

Key business drivers for over

licensing

Typically over licensing happens for

two reasons. First, a reduction in

headcount during an economic

contraction can quickly lead to over

licensing. Second, fear of licensecompliance from major software

vendors has driven many

organizations to err on the side of

caution and overbuy software. In

both cases, management complexity

is further magnified when the

enterprise has different releases and

renewal dates of the same software

or tool. The underlying problem, and

a major challenge for many IT

departments, is the inability to

effectively track and manage

network assets deployed across the

mid-size business.

Asset management

The key to ensuring an organization

is not over-purchasing software

licenses and paying more than it

should is through an automatic

software based asset and license

management tracking tool. In

addition to avoiding costs from over

licensing, introducing an effective

asset management strategy enablesIT departments to provide superior

value to the enterprise through:

Improved corporatetransparency and governance

Reduced cost of support Increased network security

Improved budget and upgrade planningAs well, an IT strategy for discovering and tracking all software installed

across the network ensures the enterprise will:

Meet legal obligations with respect to managing licenses Know the number of licenses that are owned with all software

packages

Automatically receive notifications when the enterpriseexceeds or approaches the licensing limit

Consolidating achieves savings and superior efficiencies


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In the same way that many businesses have a proliferation of unused

requirements software licenses, many also deploy a number ofpoint

solutions, particularly antivirus, firewall, anti-spam, and spyware tools.

Efficiently managing multiple tools can be hugely challenging and time

consuming. They add management complexity and in most cannot be

integrated into a single, flexible solution. Consolidating around a single,integrated solution is a key IT strategy for reducing costs and realizing

improved efficiencies and superior productivity.

Consolidation enables the IT department to replace a number of tools or

point solutions with a single network monitoring and management tool

that can perform various tasks related to event logs, networking, policy

management, patch management, back-up, endpoint security, and

others.


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CONSOLIDATING DRIVES

STANDARDIZATION AND

SAVINGS

By consolidating and integrating

multiple point products into a

single, centrally controlled,

remote monitoring and

management platform, IT

departments can:

Standardize endpointsecurity applications

deployment, configuration

and management across

the entire enterprise

Train IT technicians on onetool to realize important

new operational

efficiencies Significantly reduce the

time and cost of delivering

high value IT services,

particularly in a distributed

environment.

Key requirements for an IT

consolidation strategy

The desired requirements for an IT

solution that reduces costs by

consolidating point solutions while

saving time and simplifying

management complexity include:

Centralized management andmonitoring the ability to monitor

and manage all networks, devices

and users from one, integrated

management console

True platform approachallowing IT to add solutions and

applications that are needed today

with the flexibility to grow in the

future


INCREASING THE USE OF

ANALYTICS

Analytics is the key to data driven

decision making. Having the ability

to capture, analyze, and report on

the performance of the network infrastructure is how IT can directly

support this business priority and in so doing, implement a strategy for

adding value and demonstrating ROI to senior management.

Delivering on this strategy means IT Professionals need fingertip access

to performance data on a wide range of network and operational issues.

Examples of reports that deliver this type of critical information include:

Application availability an overall assessment of serviceavailability by device

Asset discovery automatically provides a summary ofdiscovered assets on a network

Capacity planning identifies devices approaching utilizationlimits

Downtime cost impact report demonstrates the costsassociated with a service downtime for a given period

Incident report a list of all incidents and escalations andacknowledgements in addition to resolution time information

License compliance a list of all licensed software packagesmonitored by the license compliance service within the

enterprise, the quantity of each that is installed, and the

number of defined licenses

Patch level management report provides a patch levelanalysis by status or type for selected devices


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Security incident summary a summary of all security-relatedevents detected

And many othersThese and many other types of reports not only provide crucial data to

support decision making, they make it easier for IT to audit and track

assets that require hardware and software upgrades and ultimatelythey boost management confidence in the IT department.


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IT PERFORMANCE REPORTS

The ability to quickly gather and

report on vital business

information is a critical part of

an IT strategy for supporting

business priorities.

Strategic and technical reports

enable IT to quickly demonstrate

the performance of the IT

infrastructure and can also be

used to maintain compliance

with internal SLAs and

regulatory requirements.

Types of valuable IT

performance reports

include:

Application compliance byapplication and device

Availability reports Customer devices Detailed asset information Executive summaries Security incidents Notifications sent Patch status System audits Windows Event Log

C-Level Reporting

Tough economies put all senior

resources the VP of Finance, VP of

Human Resources, the CTO and

others under pressure to

demonstrate the ROI of their team

or business unit to the enterprisesprofitability. Increasingly, these

stakeholders need and expect their

IT infrastructure to give them

customized reports on key areas of

the network that directly impact

their productivity, often using real-

time data.

The ability to generate customized C-

level reports on a demand basis

enables IT to add significant strategic

value. For example:

VPs of Sales or Marketing maywant to know if the Customer

Relationship Management System

(CRM) is up and running.

Chief Financial Officers (CFOs)may want to know about capacity

planning and what the projected

expenditures are for the next year.

Chief Technology Officers(CTOs) will want to know about

trending, such as firewall incidents,

audit and security information.

Easy-to-read, scorecard style

executive summaries that deliver this type of customized information

allows IT to help senior executives better understand IT performance

data. For the midsize business, these reports are also invaluable for

making better informed capacity planning decisions.

In good economic times and bad, the IT department will increasingly

need lightening-speed access to performance reports with hard info to

substantiate the status of the infrastructure, demonstrate their IT value,

and to get sign-off on future IT budget requests.

More than anything, performance reports give IT visibility into the entire

infrastructure, enabling them to become true business managers rather

than technicians.

BUSINESS PRIORITY #4: IMPROVING WORKFORCE

EFFECTIVENESS


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Workforce effectiveness interventions cover a wide range of activities

that ultimately strive to improve employee engagement and

productivity. IT can play a significant and strategically important

supporting role in enhancing employee productivity by:

Improving IT services to all users including remote users in branchoffices and in particular mobile/roaming users

Ensuring highly secure, always available, 24/7 Internet-speedbusiness services for all applications, desktops, servers, switches,

routers and printers

An Internet based tool with a single console that provides centralized

remote control and remote monitoring is optimal for delivering this

type of IT value, particularly to small satellite offices and a mobile

workforce.


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NUISANCE CALLS TAKE THE

LIONS SHARE OF IT TIME

Up to 75 percentof ITs time is

taken up attending to desktop

related nuisance calls.

Top nuisance problems reported

by IT departments of SMBs and

midsize enterprises that N-able

works with around the globe

include:

Resetting passwords VPN remote connection

problems

Laptop boot problem Slow running PCs Desktop icons dont appear Email complaints Weird backgrounds Low virtual memory Taskbar has disappeared, And many others

Better service to remote and mobile

users

This type of approach enables IT to

reduce or eliminate the time it

spends in the field while speeding-

up and improving service delivery.

Without remote access to device inthe field, IT is handicapped in its

ability to implement corrective

strategies to secure, safeguard,

troubleshoot and effect corrective

action.

Desktop management is a powerful

productivity enabler

Integrated desktop management is

also of critical importance to

enterprise workforce effectiveness.

Attending to desktop issues is a huge

sinkhole for most IT departments,

gobbling up as much as 75 percent

of their help technicians time. Top

nuisance problems reported by IT

departments of SMBs and

enterprises that N-able works with

around the globe include:

Resetting passwords, VPNremote connection problems, laptop

boot problem, slow running PCs, desktop icons dont appear, email

complaints, weird backgrounds, low virtual memory, the taskbar

has disappeared, and many other desktop related problems.

This list barely scratches the surface of issues and complaints that keep

IT resources scrambling from dawn to dusk, if not working around the

clock in highly distributed environments with many satellite or branch

offices. A strong desktop management strategy will enable IT

departments to eliminate many of these problems, maximize technician

utilization rates while simultaneously improving workforce productivity

and IT as a service.

Five things to look for in a desktop management solution

Critical requirements of an integrated desktop management solution for

IT departments are patch management, endpoint security, asset

management, remote control, and monitoring. When these features are

managed from a single comprehensive console, IT is empowered with

the ability to:

Remotely monitor the entire network and all devices to deliverhigher levels of proactive service


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Provide endpoint security with anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-malware,personal firewall and host intrusion prevention for desktops, and

other devices such as laptops and servers

Automate a number of desktop related activities including cacheclean-up and the distribution of software, upgrades, and patches

A web-based integrated desktop management strategy with remotemonitoring and control effectively frees-up IT resources to manage

hundreds of devices from any location in the world home, the airport,

a satellite office, or wherever you need to go. This not only improves

technician utilization rates but enables IT to provide superior service

levels and resolve problems to ensure optimal workforce productivity.


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JUST DO IT

Many businesses have put

critical purchases on hold

pending an economic

turnaround. New devices,

software, and upgrades such as

Windows 7 are all part of a

growing backlog of legitimate

and in some cases desperately

needed purchases.

When the economy does turn, IT

will be one of the first

departments to feel the

pressure and the last to be

offered additional budget or

new headcounts. Patience will

be thin for delays when the

embargo is lifted and thebusiness starts to grow. IT will

be under the gun to just do it.

By taking proactive steps now to

ensure an optimized, always-

on IT infrastructure, IT

departments can better equip

their resources to:

Meet pent-up demand forIT related investments

Proactively supportanticipated SMB growth

with existing IT resources Support customer

acquisition and retention

through enhanced

enterprise agility


ATTRACTING AND RETAINING

CUSTOMERS

New and current customers are the

lifeblood of any business. Satisfying

customer needs at a profit is the

overriding goal of any SMB or

enterprise. While IT departments

typically do not interact directly with

end customers, it plays a crucial role

by optimizing the enterprise

infrastructure for optimal

responsiveness, reliability, and

service delivery.

Enterprise agility supports customer

acquisition

In this way, IT department directlysupports client acquisition and

retention by ensuring highly secure,

always available, 24/7 Internet-

speed business services for all

applications, desktops, servers,

switches, routers and printers. These

are the indispensible tools and

services that the entire enterprise

counts on to be agile, efficient, and

ultimately highly competitive in all

client facing engagements.

Problems occur when IT department

are forced into a reactive, break-fix

mode of service delivery. When this

happens, technicians are deployed

unpredictably in a kneejerk reaction

to resolve unanticipated problems.

While it is hard to quantify

downtime, everyone will agree that it is expensive regardless of the size

of the business. At minimum, downtime means lost employee

productivity. In worst case scenarios, downtime translates directly into

reduced service levels to customers and lost revenue from sales.

How to maximize enterprise agilityThe IT strategy for maximizing enterprise agility and ensuring an

optimal infrastructure for acquiring and retaining customers involves

the following:

Single view of the enterprise network

Having a 24 x 7 pulse on critical network devices Ability to see things fail before the rest of the company does Full visibility and responsibility for the network


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Efficient management of distributed architectures

The ability to remotely support multiple office locations Access to critical network devicesLeveraging IT automation to become proactive

Being strategic and proactive vs. fighting fires Automating mundane, labour intensive tasks Effectively managing and controlling both the desktop and

infrastructure

Providing transparency to management

Showing strategic value to C-level management for the IT workbeing done

Adding value to their role Improving technician utilization rates to do more with less


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HOW IT DEPARTMENTS

BENEFIT FROM A REMOTE

MONITORING AND

MANAGEMENT PLATFORM

Reduce IT operational costs and

increase IT staff productivity

Easily automate a host ofmanual tasks behind the

scenes, such as:

oRun defrags, send patchupdates, distribute

software, execute scripts

Desktop policymanagement

Remote monitoring to deliver

higher levels of proactive

service

Become proactive withaccess to real-time, 24x7network information

Manage a distributedarchitecture as if it were

local

Detect and correct networkand system problems

before they lead to costly

downtime

Apply monitoringautomatically based on

discovered asset

information

Improve transparency with

tactical and business reporting

Budgetary and capacityplanning

Legislative compliance andwarranty management

Drive down operational costs

and increase staff productivity

Technicians can easilymanage 500+ devices each

Support and troubleshootremotely anywhere,

anytime

Leverage sophisticatedremote control tools to

improve offsite

maintenance, lower

response times, and

improve off-hours access to

systems

In a 24/7 world, employees and

customers have virtually zero

tolerance for device or application

problems, service interruptions, or

system failures. By implementing an

IT strategy that ensures secure,

highly available systems andsupport, IT goes a long way to

helping the enterprise attract and

retain customers and thrive in an

ultra competitive economy.

REMOTE MONITORING

AND MANAGEMENT

This whitepaper has introduced a

number of IT tactics and strategies

for supporting top business priorities

and delivering optimal IT value to

SMB and midsize enterprises.

The total solution for efficiently

delivering this value requires an

integrated platform that gives the IT

manager complete visibility on all

enterprise assets. The solution needs

to give IT the ability to manage;

report on, and control assets in a

cohesive way that brings

transparency to the organization andsuperior utilization of all devices

across the infrastructure. All of these

requirements can be directly

supported by a Remote Monitoring

and Management (RMM) platform.

An RMM platform is designed

specifically to automate routine IT

services in midsize businesses while

giving IT Professionals the ability to

monitor and manage devices, and fix

issues on desktops and servers all

done remotely and easily from a

central location. The specific

functionality provided by an

integrated RMM platform for an

SMB or midsize business is:

Remote control, Remote management,


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Remote monitoring and Reporting performance metrics.Remote control

Technical issues need to be resolved as quickly and easily as possible to

ensure no downtime and lost services to end customers. With the right

software tool, IT can immediately take control of devices and servers totroubleshoot and fix issues without disrupting employees. Having the

ability to access and control all devices on a distributed network goes

hand and glove with the ability to fix issues remotely. Remote control is

a key way to increase technician productivity, reduce internal IT service

costs, shorten resolution times, and ultimately, to keep employees

productive and customers happy.

Remote Monitoring and Management

The ability to remotely monitor is imperative for the proper

management of enterprise network devices. By employing a monitoring

solution that can issue alerts based on thresholds that IT defines,

enterprise decision makers gain impressive insight into potential

problems on the network.


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A PROVEN PLATFORM

FOR DELIVERING

SUPERIOR IT VALUE

N-Central from N-able

Technologies provides IT

Departments with a powerful

platform that has been purposebuilt to meet the needs of

resource challenged IT

Professionals who want to:

Remotely monitor andmanage their network and

all devices using a single,

easy to use console

Reduce costs by drivingsuperior operational

efficiencies

Automate manual tasks toimprove technician

utilization rates and freeup time to proactively focus

on strategic IT initiatives

Auto-discover thecomplete network

infrastructure and remotely

connect to end user devices

instantly regardless of their

location

Quickly demonstrate ITvalue to enterprise users

and C-level executives alike

through over 40 pre-built,

easy-to-read performance

reports

Moreover, IT can work proactively to

correct problems before they lead to

costly downtime for users. The most

effective monitoring and

management solutions use a

combination of both agents (used

primarily on mobile devices such aslaptops) and probes to provide a full

view of the entire business network

in the most flexible and efficient

way.

Reporting

The ability to access, troubleshoot,

fix, and manage problems remotely

is undeniably powerful. The ability to

easily report details of IT

intervention and resolution is the

final, critical component of an end-

to-end RMM platform for IT

automation. For example, IT will

want the ability to report on the

number and duration of downtime

incidents, the number of prevented

incidents, and other key metrics to

help quantify the value of the IT

organization.

In addition, the reporting function of

an integrated RMM platform should

enable IT to provide customized

performance reports to seniormanagers. For example, can the CEO

log in and immediately see that the

CRM is up and running? What is the

status of email functionality? The

ability to report on these and other

questions through customized CXO level views of the network is critical

to delivering IT value.

Collectively, remote CONTROL, remote MONITORING, remote

MANAGEMENT, and REPORTING define a complete, end-to-end RMM

platform that enables IT to directly support top business priorities,

reduce costs, and create superior IT value.

CONCLUSION

IT departments can directly support all of the top five business priorities

highlighted in this paper through the use of a remote monitoring and

management (RMM) platform. Specifically:

Priority #1: Business process improvement


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Priority #2: Reducing enterprise costs Priority #3: Increasing the use of information/analytics Priority #4: Improving enterprise workforce effectiveness Priority #5: Attracting and retaining customersN-central from N-able Technologies is an award-winning, RMM platform

that delivers the most cost-effective and flexible remote network,security, desktop, server and environment management solution

available. No other solution combines best-of-class monitoring

capabilities with industry-leading management capabilities.

A comprehensive set of remote management tools is included in N-

central and provides the core functionality that IT professionals require

to manage end-users effectively and deliver more than 90% of services

remotely. These capabilities are critical for complying with internal SLAs

governing IT service delivery.


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24

Request an

Evaluation Copy

of N-Central 7.0

The latest release of ourindustry leading Remote

Monitoring and Management

platform comes complete

with advanced new features

that make it the easiest, least

complicated and most

flexible platform for

optimizing your entire IT

infrastructure and adding

superior IT value.

Request your evaluation copy

and try out the #1 rated

Remote Monitoring and

Management platform by

visitingwww.n-able.com

Includes Endpoint Security Manager

N-Centralhas seamlessly integrated

enterprise-classendpoint security

into a leading edgeremote control,

remote monitoring,remote

managementand reporting

platform. IT can now monitor,manage and control all devices

through a single management

console. ExtendingN-Centrals

native multi-tenant capabilities to

endpoint securitymakes managing

employee devices in distributed

geographic locations dramatically

simpler and more cost effective.

Advanced new features include:

Flexible, hybrid(FREEMIUM) licensing model with

Professional and Essential Licenses

for critical and non-critical

applications that are all managed

from a single centralized console

Endpoint SecurityManager: delivers integrated Anti-Virus, Anti-Spam, Anti-

Malware, Personal Firewall and Host Intrusion Prevention for

Windows devices

Self healing: gives you the ability to pre-configure responses tospecific types of failures saving you more time

Remote Mediation: the ability to seamlessly fix a problem withno involvement or disruption to end users

First to market with Windows 7.0 /R2 support andcompatibility

And more.N-Centralis available as an on-premise software solution or as a hosted

subscription based service from N-able Certified Resellers.

To learn more about N-able Technologies andN-Central, visitwww.N-

able.com
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About N-able Technologies

N-able Technologies is the global leader inremote monitoringand

management software formanaged serviceproviders andIT

departments. N-ables award-winningN-centralplatform and

complementary toolsets, backed by best-in-class business and technical

services, are proven to reduceIT supportcosts, improvenetwork

performanceand increase productivity through the proactivemonitoring, management and optimization of IP-enabled devices and IT

infrastructure. N-able is 100% channel-friendly and maintains operations

in North America, the U.K., the Netherlands and Australia.Get N-central

with managedendpoint securityfree for one year.

Copyright

Copyright 2010 N-able Technologies.

All rights reserved. This document contains information intended for the

exclusive use of N-able Technologies personnel, partners and potential

partners. The information herein is restricted in use and is strictly

confidential and subject to change without notice. No part of this document

may be altered, reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means,

electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written

permission of N-able Technologies.

Copyright protection includes, but is not limited to, program code, program

documentation, and material generated from the software product

displayed on the screen, such as graphics, icons, screen displays, screen

layouts, and buttons.

N-able Technologies,N-centraland Monitor Manage Optimize are

trademarks or registered trademarks of N-able Technologies International

Inc., licensed for use by N-able Technologies, Inc. All other names and

trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
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