1)                   What industry are you in? Briefly describe your IT environment (operating systems, number of managed systems, applications used, remote locations, etc.) We are in the Outdoor Industry.  Our IT shop is maturing rapidly. We primarily are running in a Microsoft environment with a decent number of Macs thrown in.  Before Kace there was not really a system in place for desktop management beyond WSUS for patching. We use a laundry list of applications in our environment, everything from CAD software, to Adobe Products and everything in between. We have locations in Salt Lake, California, Switzerland, and China.            

2)                   What challenges caused you to seek a systems management solution? Please include anything specific to your industry.  We are an ever expanding company, in an always changing industry. We didn't have a system in place. It was one of the very first things I worked on when I was hired 4 months ago, and one of the first things our IT Director identified as a need when he started a few months before that. I noticed a need, did my research, and Kace came out on top. We have multiple locations and needed a better way to manage it all.

3)                   Were competitors evaluated or replaced? If so, which ones?  We did not bother with the big guys (LANDesk, Altiris, etc) because of price and implementation complexity.  There are suddenly a number of really good up and comers in the market.  We evaluated Manage Engine, Kaseya, and Scalable.  All great product but Kace came out on top.

4)                  What capabilities of the KACE Appliance(s) do you use most?  We are still in the deployment phase and right now are using it to help plan budget by getting a handle on our software and hardware inventory.  Our intention is to use it for Patch Management, Software Distribution (already started), Remote assistance, and general systems management,

5)                   Briefly, how has the KACE Appliance improved your systems management processes? Kace has changed the way that we function daily, there are only 2 of us on our Service Desk and with Kace it is as if we have another person or two on staff. Kace is nice if we are working on a project where, if a department wants to implement a new piece of software, let's say there are 15 people in that department. In the past we would have to go to each of those users machines and install the software one by painfully one. With Kace we can push it out and it is deployed in a matter of minutes instead of taking an hour or two, or even a full day.

6)                  Was there a special project (i.e., Win 7 migration) that the appliance helped with? If yes, please describe.  This was really prompted by the need to mature as an IT department.  Part of that is understanding your environment and being able to serve your customers.  Kace helps us do that.