By Dick Stark

Last Friday, RightStar a RightStar senior FootPrints consultant led an internal discussion and demonstration of BMC’s FootPrints Asset Management offering, AssetCore.  RightStar has installed AssetCore for many customers, including Memphis City Public Schools (MCPS), BMC’s largest FootPrints/AssetCore account. I strongly believe that AssetCore should be the centerpiece of any IT organization’s service management offering.  Using MCPS as a guideline, here’s why:

Software License Management. Accurately tracking software can lead to cost savings, compliance, increased data integrity and security. Despite these benefits, and based upon observations over the past ten years, less than 50 percent of our customers do a good job is this area. A key function of AssetCore is discovery and inventory tracking to help guide investment decisions, reduce manual processes, and maintain compliance.

PowerManagement. Especially for larger organizations, an investment in green IT initiatives normally leads to a rapid ROI. MCPS expects a 100 percent return on their BMC FootPrints investment in approximately two years based on PC power consumption savings alone.

Patch Management. Centrally managing, deploying, and reporting on patches ensures that systems are secure and that the integrity of the organization is never compromised. With more than 498 applications, patch management was a never-ending battle for MCPS requiring IT employees to run around to each school. As a result, MCPS saw a reduction in patch deployment times from one week to under 24 hours through the automation of previously manual processes.

Device Management. AssetCore offer the ability to centrally define and enforce device usage policies, control upload and download activity, log peripheral device events for proactive response, and audit any unwanted activity. This enabled MCPS staff to download appropriate resources while blocking those that are inappropriate.

Migration.  AssetCore simplifies the migration of user data and personalities, including desktop layout, metadata, drive mappings, customized settings, and file/folder structure. At MCPS, even FootPrints Level 1 techs can deploy the most complicated of installation, for example, Windows 8 migrations, with both approval processes and audit trails.

Over the years RightStar has partnered with various asset management vendors: Altiris/Symantec (while at Evergreen), LanDesk, BigFix, BCA (formerly Marimba), and now AssetCore. Except for Microsoft SCCM, most of the competition is fading.  Thanks to customers like MCPS and experienced RightStar consultants, expect to see lots of interest and success with AssetCore in 2013!