http://www.managesoft.com

Just 12 months on from its corporate re-branding, ManageSoft Corporation, formerly Open Software Associates, has emerged as one of the fastest growing software management vendors worldwide. ManageSoft Corporation's latest product release, ManageSoft 6.2, now available, provides a comprehensive software management and Windows migration solution for large organizations. ManageSoft 6.2 will be distributed through the company's expanding international direct sales operations, and a global reseller network.

ManageSoft Corporation's ongoing global expansion and export success has been accelerated with a number of key announcements including most recently, the opening of an office in Chicago to expand the company's US presence and service a growing list of major US customers.

In September, the company announced expansion of its European operations to take in Scandinavian and Southern European countries, and the opening of corporate offices in Latin America (in Rio de Janeiro). Since then ManageSoft has built an active Latin America reseller network, including partnerships with local systems integration companies including Extend Software, and Grupo TMS in Brazil, and GT Computadoras, Softrends, and Kranon in Mexico. In Australia, this year, the company also signed reseller agreements with leading systems integration companies Dimension Data and Kinetica.

Recent major customer wins include Thomson Prometric, a leading provider of technology-based testing and assessment services, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), state and federal parliaments in Australia, and US telecommunications company Norstan.

Walter Elliot, ManageSoft CEO, said the past 12 months had been one of the most important periods in the software management company's 12 year history. He attributed recent success to a number of factors.

"Enterprise software deployment and management applications are one of the few bright spots to emerge from the recent downturn in the global IT industry," Mr Elliot said.

"With many large businesses scaling back their IT expenditure over the past 12 months, the focus has shifted to doing things smarter with the existing IT resource base. Software management solutions that can improve user productivity and demonstrate a lowering of direct and indirect software ownership costs are in strong demand."

Mr Elliot's comments are supported by IDC research that estimates the global market for enterprise system software management will double on current levels to around $25 billion by 2005. Similarly, the market for automated software deployment systems is expected to grow to around $2.8 billion by 2004 - roughly treble the current level of spending.

Mr Elliot added that demand for enterprise software management solutions is also being driven by the enhanced capabilities of Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems.

"Many medium to large corporations are still using Windows 95 and Windows 98 but they are beginning to encounter problems as the limits of capability are reached. What these companies all face is a large scale rollout project as they move to Windows 2000 or XP. Without an advanced migration and ongoing management solution like ManageSoft 6.2, the process can be a nightmare."

Mr Elliot said large enterprises were also rightly becoming more exacting in their approach to software and hardware asset management.

"Today, IT asset management covers a range of important issues including large-scale operating system migration projects, centralized software deployment and configuration management, inventory management, license cost control and forward planning, management of desktops, servers, and mobile computers, IT cost apportionment, and also advanced security practices."

"ManageSoft 6.2 is a comprehensive Windows migration and software management solution that enables large organizations to address these critical elements of enterprise IT management." Mr Elliot concluded.

ManageSoft 6.2 is available now from ManageSoft Corporation and a range of Accredited ManageSoft Partners including Siemens Business Services, Scalable Software, BV Solutions Group, and Computer Resource Visions (an authorized US federal government supplier: GSA GS-35F-0637K).