NetSupport DNA really is a fresh approach to IT Asset Management.
For many years, companies have relied on investing in complex - and frankly uninspiring - ITAM solutions.
Or they have been forced into investing in a range of individual solutions, but they combine
to give a patchwork view of their enterprise. With 25 years in the industry and over
14 million users, we knew there was a better way.
We wanted a solution you could deploy in minutes, was affordable, easy to use,
that made every scrap of data easy to see and interpret - and had the features that were
actually useful to an organisation.
NetSupport DNA is the result.
Managing an IT enterprise starts with having a full inventory of all your IT assets,
a record of any changes over time and, of course, any relevant accounting
information stored alongside. So NetSupport DNA auto-discovers your PCs, captures
inventory from tablets and mobiles - and even discovers SNMP-enabled devices
like switches and network printers. The real barrier though is accessing that core
information when you actually need it. So DNA lets you produce QR code labels
to print or display on screen, so any technician can walk up to a PC, scan the QR code
with our free smartphone app and instantly see the full inventory of that device
and the history of any changes.
Now, software licensing holds the key to cost savings and efficiencies, but we felt many solutions
needed a broader view - but with less complexity. In our view, it's the sum of what, where and when
that really matters: what software licenses you own; where the software is
installed; and then, unlike many solutions, DNA also records when applications
are actually used. With that picture, you can then identify what licences can be redeployed
elsewhere, and those licences that you don't need to renew. DNA also allows
companies to control their application use to ensure they never stray over the
licence limits of their organisation.
The last part the software jigsaw puzzle is having a distribution tool.
Flexibility for deployment is key, so in DNA you can push or schedule a software
package to be installed on PCs, but you can also publish applications. And then
your staff in an allocated department can simply pull down new applications onto
their PCs, as and when it suits them.
Now with security in mind, endpoint security seems to be an ever-present consideration and yet it
isn't typically under the remit of ITAM solutions - but we felt it could and
should be. So we let companies decide if USB memory sticks can be used on office PCs
and we let them assign use to specific staff. So now I can assign a memory
stick to me, and it can only be used on the office PC that I'm logged into. It's simple but
it's really, really useful. Now, "proactive" is our mantra. There's a gap with many IT
solutions, as few of the tools actually warn of pending issues. So, in DNA we
have an Alerting module that allows users to create hundreds of alerts: from
simple things like disk space running low, to more sophisticated event log
checking and security-based detections. This module alone really sets DNA apart
from the crowd. Some products get very wrapped up in the hardware technology, which of course we
get. But there is also a broader landscape to IT management: their staff.
With DNA, companies can view activity by users and with our AD integration they get instant alerts when
domain accounts are locked or their passwords need resetting - and these can then be
addressed directly from within the DNA console.
To aid user productivity, they can also manage internet access -
say, limiting social media sites to just lunchtimes. And in parallel, companies can
also deliver and manage their Acceptable Use Policies. Now, we all know time and
money are always a driver and the key to a successful solution is the speed a
company can secure a return on their investment. So in NetSupport DNA, companies can also monitor
energy and printer use and their costs. And the power management module ensures
selected devices can even be scheduled to automatically power down each night.
Companies love this extra value-add that the features provide as part of their overall efficiency drive.
Now we also know efficiencies can come from solutions working closely together. So, as
you'd expect, our market-leading remote control solution, NetSupport Manager, and
NetSupport ServiceDesk, both align seamlessly with DNA to ensure that you can, say,
access your inventory from within a helpdesk ticket or launch a remote control
session directly from within NetSupport DNA.
The number one thing that makes any solution successful is how accessible
that information really is once it has been captured.
So DNA has interactive dashboards and charts - and it also ensures it is always suited to a
company with a tool designed to create unlimited views of their data. And, of
course, not forgetting canned management reports that can be automatically
generated each month. The final piece of the puzzle for us was scalability: to
design gateway components so a company can also gather data from - and manage -
multiple sites, with their data securely backed to a central point, yet always
retaining 100% control of both their data and its security.
I guess when you add to the mix our network of partners in over 60 countries,
dedicated support and pre-sales teams, a really low unit cost and the chance to try NetSupport DNA
absolutely free,
we really do think it's a no-lose proposition for organisations to give it a try.