In sports, speed kills. It is often the key difference maker during a match. In IT departments, as Martin Schyth will tell you, speed also plays an important role. It saves both time and money.

As systems administrator for Bonnier Publications A/S, a Nordic media company that publishes more than a dozen magazines in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, Martin was astounded by the speed Filewave 3.0.1 delivered as he test-installed Adobe Creative Suite 3 on a Mac during his preparations for an upgrade to new computers.

"I was testing how fast I can install a machine from scratch. I was working with an image of 1.5 GB and a software package of roughly 5 GB. The total installation time was under 15 minutes, including customization and binding to the AD domain, plus the installation of all applications. This is very fast – when we're using Windows machines with an RIS and SMS server the same process takes about one to two hours."

Bonnier Publications employs around 400 people in Denmark, Norway and Finland, half of whom use PCs and the other half Macs administered with FileWave.

"We have offices in Copenhagen (Denmark), Oslo (Norway) and Helsinki (Finland) which are all connected to our (Apple) Netboot/FileWave setup," Martin explains. "It is centralized in Copenhagen and there are boosters in the other cities. We have FileWave admins in Oslo and Copenhagen and may add another one in Helsinki."

Bonnier's FileWave server runs on an Intel-based xserve with an 850-GB Raid 1 HDD. "The two boosters in Oslo and Helsinki run on iMacs with 250-GB HDDs," says Martin. "We are currently upgrading all Mac clients to Mac Pro and iMacs."

Before the hardware upgrade was started, there had been a long planning and implementation process. Netboot and FileWave were used to handle the installation and software administration.

"We now have the possibility of easily installing, administering and distributing software packages," Martin says. "The greatest benefit of FileWave is that we save so much time when users want new software.

"We're a bit slow when something is brand new because we don't install any software on clients unless it's in FileWave. But if a second person wants it, then FileWave shows its strengths. The new speed increase, both when updating models and in the actual transfer speed, is amazing. It works much faster than [version] 2.6, which is a great advantage because the packages keep getting bigger and bigger."

Other FileWave features have also impressed Martin – its user-friendly interface and admin capabilities. "We have a much better overview of how many licenses we have distributed."

He also values FileWave's support.

"It's very professional! In my opinion, [FileWave] has professional programmers and supporters who don't take bug reports as negative criticism. They are all very positive when bugs are found and take a head-on approach to solving the issue."

His one concern is with the wider FileWave community. "One thing that could be improved is not a FileWave thing as such. But the community could be more proactive on your forum. How to achieve this is hard to answer. Maybe by conducting country-specific workshops so the members of the community get to know each other."

Bonnier has plans to purchase additional FileWave clients this year, and the Helsinki office is currently being implemented. While the company currently doesn't use Asset Trustee, "we're very interested in it," Martin says.

It's only fitting that a multi-media company like Denmark's Fynske Medier should employ a multi-platform solution like FileWave for distributing and managing its software.

"We're a company that produces, prints and distributes several newspapers and Yellow Pages," says IT Electronics Engineer Kim Kaersgaard. "We also have a radio station and an online/Internet company.

"In total we have about 700-750 computer users, with roughly 80 Macs and the rest PCs. The ease of use and the multi-platform capabilities are what we particularly like about FileWave."

The media business is fast paced and dependent on making deadlines, and FileWave is up to the challenge presented by this environment, according to Kaersgaard.

"We haven't made any calculations when it comes to speed benchmarks, increased productivity or cost efficiencies," he says. "But before we had FileWave we spent a lot of time finding software and installing it while disturbing the end user in the process, who wasn't able to produce during that time. We don't have to do that anymore.

"We're able to install software in new machines with basically one person making all the packages and another person setting up the machines, installing the Windows or Mac OSX system and distributing the rest with FileWave."

The applications Kaersgaard installs revolve around Adobe programs, Creative Suite for the Macs and InCopy and InDesign for the PCs with plug-ins for the business systems. The company employs one PPC G5 for the FileWave Server, from which it directly loads the Macs, and has two G4s, which it intends to upgrade to G5s and augment with a third, that it uses for the PCs.

"We have multiple locations scattered in a radius of about 50 kilometers," Kaersgaard says. "At the locations outside our main office in Odense we have about 400 users. The great thing is being able to make the same installation with the same settings on all the machines. [FileWave] enables us to have a homogenous installation."

Kaersgaard personally has been working with FileWave since 1992 and at Fyens Stiftstidende/Fynske Medier since 2002. He says the company did look a little into Microsoft's SMS but not much "because we also have Mac OSX to support. I've never worked with SMS and I know very little about it. We looked into Active Directory for distributing software as well, but discovered it's not nearly as flexible as FileWave.

"One of its great advantages, in addition to the ease of use, is that you're not limited to one technology, for instance MSI."

Another major advantage is the support FileWave extends. "It's great support, they're great people, among the best. The only think I'm missing is some kind of feedback, a ‘roadmap' – what FileWave will look like in the future. That would absolutely ideal."

London is a city that never sleeps. And FileWave is an equally insomniac software management solution that works through the small hours to save time and energy costs during non-peak network traffic times, a feature highly appreciated by Stuart Knipe, Editorial Systems Manager at Hachette Filipacchi UK (Ltd.), a subsidiary of the leading global magazine publisher located in central London.

"One of the major challenges we faced as a magazine publisher was the fast pace at which applications may need to be upgraded," he says. "FileWave's ability to manage Apple's energy saver preference allows us to have out-of-hours maintenance windows. A whole magazine can have a version change of software outside the normal workday, with minimal cost of time to our system administrator and without disrupting the workflow."

In additional to working when you want it to, day or night, FileWave works fast. "It has allowed for a hugely reduced rebuild time for a machine," Knipe says. "It was these factors along with the ease of use that made it the correct choice for us." As he states: "FileWave was the final piece required by Hachette to have a fully managed Mac estate."

Hachette's Mac estate in London consists of approximately 300 machines. "We deploy a standard image that contains all the components required for deployment and other components that we do not need to manage the versions of," Knipe says.

"Any component that is to have its version managed is controlled by Filewave. This includes applications such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite. Other components that are managed include printer descriptions, Sophos anti-virus information, media players and Internet plug-ins."

The advantages of using FileWave in such a set-up, Knipe says, are wide ranging. "It provides a huge increase in productivity to our IT department. We no longer need to take a CD to a desk to re-install an application should it be causing a problem.

"Having version control in place also allows us to remove the ‘patching' culture that a lot of IT departments use. Patching an application no longer happens as we have the latest tested version of an application on every machine that requires it."

Knipe also values FileWave's assistance in managing license compliance. "It gives you instant information on the number of machines with a particular application on it. This is particularly important if you do not have a company big enough to warrant a site license.

"We also discovered FileWave useful for the control of high-value software for temporary deployment," he continues. "For instance, if we run a project in which we may need to deploy high-value software and fonts to a specific set of machines. Not only is this easy, it is accurate. This is the same in reverse, allowing us to remove licenses from machine easily and accurately."

And if you should run into any difficulties?

"The customer service available from FileWave is of the highest quality. We have had several problems with deploying sets that, with a combination of phoning FileWave and using their Internet information services, have been solved quickly and accurately."

Mike Kneebone was skeptical at first.

"I'd heard about magic bullets before, software that didn't live up to the hype or that simply sounded too good to be true," says the Technology Coordinator for North Central High, a school of 3,300-plus students in Indianapolis, IN. "You're always looking for the ideal solution but it's not always that easy to find."

In the area of automated software distribution and software management, "we had tried Radmind and Novell ZENworks. But both were fairly complicated and the knowledge transfer was steep. It took a long time to train people how to use them.

"Also it wasn't pull technology, it was push. Clients who'd disconnect their machines [from the network] during the download would lose it. We were looking for greater reliability, a technology that could pick up a download where it had left off."

Kneebone found that in FileWave. "The reliability of it is remarkable. After piloting it on a group of PCs and Macs for a couple of months, we were completely won over. It was easy to use, and how to use it was easy to pass on. Within a day we can have someone trained and distributing software packages."

FileWave is employed on 4400 clients running both Windows and Apple OS X at 13 locations - a mix of middle and elementary schools in addition to the high school - in Indianapolis' Washington Township school district; the load of the clients is split over two admin servers and 10 Boosters.

"For us, in our environment, centralized management is exactly what we need, as well as - well, it's certainly nice to have a solution that does a good job of supporting multiple platforms from one console.

"What impressed me in our pilot was that we were able to roll out Microsoft Office to 30 machines, while they were being used, in four minutes. Before we had to go machine to machine and it took 20 minutes or so for each install.

"I'd estimate it saves us around 18 techs. I mean, it hasn't replaced all those techs, but it saves us from having to have 18 people go around and do installs. Recently we rolled out the new version of iLife overnight. We did a FileSet and scheduled an overnight install and were able to come in and use it the next day. One of the major benefits of [FileWave] is that we don't lose any instructional time because all of the install takes place in the background. It doesn't tie up the machine."

The new multi-admin feature for version 3.0 will further improve its functionality, according to Kneebone.

"Those multi-level admin rights will result in better response times, quicker turnaround," he says. "We've been waiting for that feature. On thing about [the company FileWave], they listen to you concerning feature requests and have conferences about what needs to be included in the next version. And we see a lot of those requests being included.

"It's funny, because the service level was one thing we were concerned about with what seemed to us a small company. But they told us that they were small because the software they create works. And that really seems to be the case."

The Washington Township school district is in the middle of a tech audit at the moment, so Kneebone's hope of adding Asset Trustee to his IT environment is on hold for the time being.

"We are exploring it. It would help us a great deal with license compliance and knowledge of utilization. It'd be quite advantageous to see what pieces of software are out there idle so more effective purchasing could be achieved based on what's being used.

"Because our community isn't growing the way it was anymore, we've had to 'lean up' and manage our resources smarter, and FileWave helps us with that. We think Asset Trustee would too."

Mike Kneebone was skeptical at first.

"I'd heard about magic bullets before, software that didn't live up to the hype or that simply sounded too good to be true," says the Technology Coordinator for North Central High, a school of 3,300-plus students in Indianapolis, IN. "You're always looking for the ideal solution but it's not always that easy to find."

In the area of automated software distribution and software management, "we had tried Radmind and Novell ZENworks. But both were fairly complicated and the knowledge transfer was steep. It took a long time to train people how to use them.

"Also it wasn't pull technology, it was push. Clients who'd disconnect their machines [from the network] during the download would lose it. We were looking for greater reliability, a technology that could pick up a download where it had left off."

Kneebone found that in FileWave. "The reliability of it is remarkable. After piloting it on a group of PCs and Macs for a couple of months, we were completely won over. It was easy to use, and how to use it was easy to pass on. Within a day we can have someone trained and distributing software packages."

FileWave is employed on 4400 clients running both Windows and Apple OS X at 13 locations - a mix of middle and elementary schools in addition to the high school - in Indianapolis' Washington Township school district; the load of the clients is split over two admin servers and 10 Boosters.

"For us, in our environment, centralized management is exactly what we need, as well as - well, it's certainly nice to have a solution that does a good job of supporting multiple platforms from one console.

"What impressed me in our pilot was that we were able to roll out Microsoft Office to 30 machines, while they were being used, in four minutes. Before we had to go machine to machine and it took 20 minutes or so for each install.

"I'd estimate it saves us around 18 techs. I mean, it hasn't replaced all those techs, but it saves us from having to have 18 people go around and do installs. Recently we rolled out the new version of iLife overnight. We did a FileSet and scheduled an overnight install and were able to come in and use it the next day. One of the major benefits of [FileWave] is that we don't lose any instructional time because all of the install takes place in the background. It doesn't tie up the machine."

The new multi-admin feature for version 3.0 will further improve its functionality, according to Kneebone.

"Those multi-level admin rights will result in better response times, quicker turnaround," he says. "We've been waiting for that feature. On thing about [the company FileWave], they listen to you concerning feature requests and have conferences about what needs to be included in the next version. And we see a lot of those requests being included.

"It's funny, because the service level was one thing we were concerned about with what seemed to us a small company. But they told us that they were small because the software they create works. And that really seems to be the case."

The Washington Township school district is in the middle of a tech audit at the moment, so Kneebone's hope of adding Asset Trustee to his IT environment is on hold for the time being.

"We are exploring it. It would help us a great deal with license compliance and knowledge of utilization. It'd be quite advantageous to see what pieces of software are out there idle so more effective purchasing could be achieved based on what's being used.

"Because our community isn't growing the way it was anymore, we've had to 'lean up' and manage our resources smarter, and FileWave helps us with that. We think Asset Trustee would too."

The Lego company is justly famous for its modular, easy-to-use building blocks. Creating your own design, be it a humble cube or the most elaborate prize-winning construction, is simply a matter of snapping the blocks together.

Lego's Global IT (GIT) appreciates the simplicity and "snap-together" nature of FileWave's architecture. GIT is able to manage the company's 180 Macintoshes at locations in Billund, Denmark as well as in the UK, the US and Hong Kong from its base in Billund.

"We started using FileWave in 1998, in Billund and Copenhagen," says Niels Kristian Amby, a Macintosh engineer at GIT. "At that time we did not manage the other locations. Since then we've added Boosters for the UK and the US.

"FileWave has been a natural part of our Macintosh environment for almost 10 years now," Amby says. "And we've come to really depend on it to deploy and uninstall software. It definitely has improved over the years and is a very very useful product, especially in a global environment."

Most of the clients Amby services are involved in marketing, and the huge Adobe applications are a major part of his deployments.

"FileWave gives us full control over the applications on all our userMacs," Amby says. "It's very quick to upgrade applications, and we can upgrade all our clients at the same time.

"There's a much increased efficiency when newly installing a Mac and when reinstalling one. And anytime we update software or remove it from clients.

"Really, it saves me a lot of work," he continues. "I don't have to run from machine to machine every day. Well, actually, you can't just run to machines in the US or the UK. It lets me handle things quite automatically."

Lego's GIT also employs Asset Trustee to help it with inventory and control of licenses. He had worked with it in 1999 but wasn't completely satisfied with it at the time.

"Then we came to the point where we really needed to know the assets that we have so we started using it again. It has improved a great deal and does the job for us. I'm still not convinced it's the most Macintosh-like product, but collecting asset information has become much easier. We're in the process of updating the present version 7.6.2 to version 8."

The success of a Hollywood movie or a TV series, it's widely known, depends as much upon the people working behind the scenes as upon those appearing before the camera. At Home Box Office (HBO), the pioneering cable network that telecasts dozens of feature films every month in addition to several of its own popular TV shows, the equivalent behind-the-scenes crew would include its IT personnel. They are responsible, among other tasks, for ensuring that the cable network's computer network runs smoothly and efficiently and enables this month's big-screen blockbusters and episodes of hit series to reach their wide American viewing audience without a hitch.

Robert Tuftee is the technical leader at Information Technology Infrastructure at HBO, and works at the company's main New York location in midtown Manhattan.

"We're a subset of IT, Desktop Support," he says, "and we're responsible for all desktop computers company-wide. We have approximately 1900 employees using 2400 machines in 11 sites."

Thanks to FileWave and Asset Trustee, Tuftee can manage from his 12th floor office in a Manhattan skyscraper all the application rollouts, upgrades, OS updates, inventory, etc., for the approximately 850 Apple Macintosh computers in use at HBO facilities around the country.

"The machines are located at five of the company sites. We have around 175 Macs at our studio facility, which is also in Manhattan, 15 at out satellite broadcast center on Long Island, 20 in our Los Angeles location and all the rest in our main location here in Manhattan," he says.

"Being able to control software deliveries from one central location - that's the primary reason we have FileWave."

HBO first became aware of Filewave in 1994 and started implementing it soon afterward. "I've been a Filewave administrator since 1999," Tuftee says. "Most of the time I handle all of Filewave by myself. This is for the approximately 750 Macs running OS X and the 100 running OS 9. I have always had one backup person, but he wasn't involved day-to-day. I am currently training a new person to be my backup."

What Tuftee appreciates most about the automated software distribution system is the speed at which a full Filewave delivery comes down. "I've gone from build times in hours for a complete graphics workstation - Adobe CS2, Quark, 2 GBs of fonts plus associated tools and standard office stuff - to under a half-hour. Their commitment to improving the performance of Filewave is really impressive."

HBO also uses FileWave's inventory management solution Asset Trustee. "We used to use Asset Trustee in Mac OS 9 and have now re-implemented it again with version 7.6.2. We have an Asset Trustee server and two post offices, all based on XServers, to handle the environment.

"Filewave distributes the Asset Trustee client and SuperPrefs. As I just recently set up the Asset Trustee environment, the server is still collecting the initial data so we're not yet running queries to a defined purpose."

Any coming attractions for HBO in the software area? "I'm currently trying to persuade my management to consider Filewave and Asset Trustee as a means to deliver and report on Windows software," Tuftee says.

"I was in a discussion with our [Windows] SMS manager and he challenged me to do a proof of concept with FileWave. That's a challenge I'm going to answer."

"It's rare that I rave to others about a software product, but FileWave warrants that kind of action," says D. Michael Milbourn, Information Systems Supervisor at Jenison Public Schools. "It has dramatically changed for the better how we operate, and we could not do our jobs effectively without it."

Jenison is a public school system located in west-central Michigan, in a township just a dozen miles from Grand Rapids. "We have seven educational buildings, an Early Childhood Center, about 4800 students, 500 total staff, and roughly 1300 Macs and 100 Windows computers," Milbourn says.

Like the vast majority of school systems around the country, Jenison operates within strict cost and staffing constraints.

"Nearly all the challenges we face are money or manpower issues, and quite often one influences the other," Milbourn explains. "Like most other districts in Michigan, our budget is constantly under attack and we need to maximize the efforts of our small staff.

"In the past, software updating and installation often took several weeks and required going from machine to machine. And we would frequently miss some of our mobile machines. We tried using Apple's Remote Desktop for software distribution but it was just too unreliable and did not address machines that were turned off before or during a copy, as well as machines that were out of service for repair or simply not there (e.g., laptops).

"Task completion was a challenge," he continues, "because tech staff performing updates and installations were often interrupted and asked to look at other issues. In short, we were not able to maintain or install software in a timely manner, and spent too much time on those duties and not enough time helping staff and students realize the potential of our technology."

FileWave has answered those problems in an impressive way, according to Milbourn.

"FileWave has effectively added two 'people' to our staff for about $16 a day. What used to take two or three people a week or more can now be done in minutes by one person. It has allowed us to change our focus from software installation and updating to technology usage. With so many new technology requirements being mandated, but not funded, by the state, FileWave has allowed us to work toward meeting those requirements without the staffing we'd have normally needed."

Milbourn had looked at other products, including Radmind, NetOctopus, NetRestore and Remote Desktop, but was sold on FileWave after demoing it. "Until the education initiative was introduced, however, our district was not able to afford the kind of deployment necessary to make the software worthwhile."

That deployment is now in place, and a dual 1.2 GHz G4 tower with mirrored 300 GB drives and a 1 GB network connection functions as Jenison's FileWave server. There are no Boosters yet, "but we intend to add two next year to service our junior high and our five elementaries. We run the Admin program on a MacBook. Nearly all our machines have 100 MB network connections with a handful on 1 GB ports. About 70% of our machines are running OS 10.3.9 or higher. The other 30% are still on 10.2.8."

For Milbourn, FileWave has lived up to its reputation for user-friendliness.

"I was immediately struck by just how easy FileWave is to set up and manage, and how reliably it distributes software. I had the trial software set up and running in under 10 minutes, and was distributing programs within 30 minutes.

"There are many features I really like. First, it is very easy to manage. While I would prefer to see the Admin interface updated to be more iTunes-like and less window intensive, the learning curve is low nonetheless. Managing clients and filesets is quick and generally intuitive.

"Second, the drag and drop nature of file installations is amazing. To distribute an application to one or more machines is as basic as dragging a fileset onto a machine or a group name. That's it.

"Third, the ability to send package installers/updaters is a great tool and has made quick work of installations for products like iWork. And, finally, FileWave is reliable. I know that when I schedule a distribution that it will happen and be successful. No other products I have tested have been so trustworthy."

All in all, FileWave has made IT life at Jenison so much easier, more efficient and more productive that Milbourn would like to further its use.

"We may expand the number of clients we support to include our Windows labs."

The Publicis Groupe of advertising agencies has been on a decade-long growth spurt. During that time, as it added to the worldwide set of agencies operating under its own name such major players as Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi, it has become one of the big four global advertising holding companies.

Ad agencies, of course, are known for their clever ideas. One of better ideas David Plavin, who is Operations Manager of Macintosh Enterprise Engineering for ReSources USA IT, the New York-based group responsible for managing Publicis' North American IT operations, has come across in his professional life came from Saatchi & Saatchi after it was purchased by Publicis, although it had nothing to do with advertising.

"FileWave arrived here in New York through Saatchi & Saatchi in Los Angeles," he says. "Andi Self had implemented it there before Saatchi became part of Publicis. As we kept getting bigger and bigger - going from supporting 125 machines to 650 in New York - we needed a new tool for our software distribution.

"She was using FileWave so she brought it over here and taught us how to use it. We couldn't have done it without her, and we're eternally grateful. She's the one who really got us going."

Currently ReSources USA IT manages 2500 Macs, "pretty much all in the USA," says Plavin. "We have main offices - our North American headquarters - in New York and Chicago. There are about 775 machines in New York and I'd say 600 in Chicago, but machines are located all throughout the USA. There are another 350-plus in Los Angeles, 150 in Seattle, 120 or so in San Francisco, 50 in Detroit. Plus others. I'm sure there are another 500 Macs I don't even know about."

FileWave has been the perfect software distribution solution for such a fast-growing enterprise, not least because of its scalability. "We've been able to just keep adding to it. Any office with 25 machines or more will have its own Booster. Right now we have three main servers - in LA, Chicago and New York. New York has Boosters at four of its Manhattan locations and two Boosters where our main building is."

But scalability is hardly FileWave's only virtue, according to Plavin.

"Adobe Creative Suite, this huge thing - it now takes us only 30 to 45 minutes at a desktop. We just push a button, install 20 or more at a time. We can manage user groups. Send out customized applications to different ones.

"We just did a major upgrade of Lotus Notes with FileWave," Plavin continues. "Not only did it run the upgrade, we attached some post-install scripts. Basically it enabled every user to receive the upgrade then come to their desk the next day and log in like they had every day before. No downtime. No hassle. I can't even begin to tell you how much work it saved us."

As good and helpful as the software itself is, the company's support matches it, Plavin maintains. "They're just awesome over there [in Switzerland]. You get to talk to the developers of the program themselves. You can't do that at too many other places.

"They're extremely responsive to customer needs. They might have invented the program but customers have shaped it. They actually like to listen to you. They're totally customer-driven."

The Lotus Notes rollout he recently completed provides a good example of the quality of FileWave support, Plavin says. "They really helped us with those scripts. I think the things were written by ancient Greeks, but when we contacted FileWave with questions they totally helped us get it done."

Plavin hopes to add Asset Management to his department next. "Right now we don't use an inventory tool, but we want to. I'm going to set up a test group in the second half of this year. [Asset Trustee] would allow us to provide our customers with true asset management: monitor software usage, enhance FileWave and a whole bunch of other good things.

"The great benefit of both [FileWave and Asset Trustee] is the management part," he offers. "To my mind they're obviously cost efficient because they're cheaper than hiring people. You can do a lot of work in a short period of time with very few people. It's really a tremendous thing."

The new millennium made Bill McGhee a fan of FileWave.

"Our 'inititation' to it was to build and deploy the required y2k updates," he says. "We started in October, 1999, and were able to deploy the client, build the server and create the needed packages to upgrade all the 200-plus Macs in the U.S. prior to December 31. We were hooked after that."

As Publishing Technology Desktop Manager for Reader's Digest Association Inc., the largest-selling magazine in the world, McGhee currently depends on FileWave to help him manage, from the company's global headquarters in Pleasantville, New York, the 1100-plus Macintoshes located in multiple locations around the world.

"We've become accustomed to being able to say, 'Yes, we can upgrade every Art Director with a new copy of Illustrator next week'," McGhee explained. "All our clients connect to our main server here in Pleasantville and then download packages from a local Booster. We maintain all the Macs in this manner with everything from Apple system updates to Zinio Reader."

Just the thought of not being able to automatically distribute software causes him to shudder. In the days before FileWave, upgrading applications meant setting up "windows of opportunity with each business group in each location to have technicians take over their computer for an hour or more.

"When you consider, today, the number of people that would be required to manually install software," McGhee continues. "If we had to go door-to-door and hand install each application on every Mac, we might well need to triple our staffing and timeframes for software updates."

In addition to the time, man-hours and costs saved, McGhee said FileWave allows his firm to avoid human errors and maintain consistency worldwide.

"With FileWave, the software is installed and prepared once, and every client receives the same identical install," he said. "Every Macintosh we manage around the world can be updated to the same version at the same time.

"Not being able to open/edit a magazine or book layout because you do not have the same version can ruin deadlines and press dates. Having the ability to plan, pre-deliver and then activate a software program on any or all clients globally on a given date helps to ensure everyone is compatible with everyone else."

McGhee also has nothing but complimentary words for FileWave's support staff. "They've always been great. Whenever I have a question I always get a quick response, even if it's 'I don't know but I'll get back to you.' They want to hear what's good and what's bad and are willing to take suggestions to make the product better."

FileWave has decreased the amount of time and effort required for us to develop, deploy, and manage our software for the campus computer labs. With FileWave the user experience for support staff, students, and instructors is more reliable. With FileWave workstations can be updated and software deployed in the background and still allow users to access to the workstation.

FileWave customer support has been by far the best we have ever encountered. When we have a question or need assistance FileWave is always there to assist us in finding or developing a solution.

We have used Radmind to manage our 3000 clients for the past 2 years. It has been quite difficult to manage and configure and support is ad hoc as it is open source software.

Whilst Radmind was reasonably effective at managing the desktop machines that can be turned on at specific times for automatic updating, it was much less successful at managing the pupils laptops that were not on at the relevant times and missed the updates. Staff laptops were impossible to manage as staff add there own software to their laptops and Radmind would remove this during an update.

Filewave offers us the perfect solution to the problem. I am able to manage all machines with minimal configuration. All machines will be updated, provided they are just turned on, desktop and laptops. Staff are able to add their won software and I can maintain the central software without interfering. Finally the Filewave Server gives me a full report on exactly which machines are at which state.

The proof is in the eating - Since purchasing Filewave a few weeks ago. I have 7 boosters in place and 500 clients connected. Very straight forward and stress free.

By Brent Hayward, head of the Information Systems Department at the Urbandale Community School District

“It’s a tool that does its job without getting in the way of the user,” said Hayward, whose district is comprised of 3,350 students, 475 faculty members and staff and includes 1,013 computers. “It’s an indispensable product that allows me to support a district of our size with only two full time staff members, yet it appears that there is an army of people working in the IS department.”

Hayward said he realized that the district needed to improve the efficiency of its network around five years ago. Specifically, he sought to upgrade the distribution and maintenance of system and application software on all of the Macintosh computers in the District.

You can obtain more information on the Urbandale Community School District from:

http://www.urbandaleschools.com/

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In Fashion with FileWave

Marie Claire, the leading women's magazine, has standardized on FileWave for management of its Apple Macintosh systems. Marie Claire is one of the world's most prestigious magazines. It was founded in France in 1937 by industrialist Jean Prouvost, its goal being to present realities of life mixed with fashion and beauty coverage. It is now France's leading women's magazine and is also read by millions of women around the world, being published in France, the USA and Japan.

You can obtain more information on the media group from:

http://www.marieclaire.fr

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