This post will be the first in our series of Did You Know...

All of the log files associated with our Enhansoft products (Monitor Information Reporting, Warranty Information Reporting, Enhanced Web Reporting and Enhanced Network Device Discovery) are SMS Trace compliant and can be found in one of the following locations: %WINDIR%\System32\CCM\Logs folder, %WINDIR%\SysWOW64\CCM\Logs (for x64 OS) or in the temp file.

Here are your choices for Enhansoft’s next SSRS report give-away:

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or

Component Health

Please register your vote at:

http://support.enhansoft.com/Forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=28

Remember that you can still request a license key for the Software Distribution Status Report - http://www.enhansoft.com/downloads/custom%20reports/softwaredistributionstatus.zip – the winning choice of the last SSRS Report give-away vote.

Enhansoft is pleased to announce that it will be attending the Microsoft Management Summit 2011 (MMS-2011) at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada from March 21 to March 25, 2011.   We hope that you will drop by Enhansoft’s booth #128 for an informative demonstration of all our product software.   Enhansoft is an industry leader in comprehensive asset reporting and custom report writing.    Enhansoft’s product software includes: Warranty Information Reporting, Monitor Information Reporting, and Enhanced Web Reporting.  All products are available either on their own or in the Enhanced Asset Management Suite. Our products have a worldwide reputation for extending and enhancing Microsoft technologies by leveraging Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr / SCCM) & Systems Management Server (SMS) technologies to extend their asset information and reporting capabilities.  For more information on Enhansoft products please visit our website www.Enhansoft.com.  More information on MMS-2011 may be obtained at www.mms-2011.com.

Here are your choices for Enhansoft’s next SSRS report give-away:

Advertisement Home

or

Component Health

Please register your vote at:

http://support.enhansoft.com/Forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=28

Remember that you can still request a license key for the Software Distribution Status Report - http://www.enhansoft.com/downloads/custom%20reports/softwaredistributionstatus.zip – the winning choice of the last SSRS Report give-away vote.

Enhansoft has created many reports and we keep report layout in mind. To this end, we have several guidelines that we use when creating reports.

• Use a standard page size
• Provide a minimum of ¼ inch for margin all the way around
• Use a footer
• Note the date and time the report
• Note the Page numbers
• Highlight alternating lines
• Allow tables to be sorted by any column

We make an effort to ensure that all Enhansoft SSRS reports will print on standard page sizes. Each Enhansoft report is designed to be printout on one of the following page formats:

• 8.5 inches by 11 inches
• 11 inches by 8.5 inches
• 14 inches by 8.5 inches

Of course with our custom reports, we will design the reports to suit the client‘s preferences.

How can I create a report using a SQL query provided by Enhansoft or that I find on a blog. (Like the personal blog of Garth Jones, the Chief Architect of Enhansoft.)

· Within the ConfigMgr Console, Browse to Site Database | Computer Management | Reporting | Reports

· In the left pane, right click the Reports node

· Point to New

· Click Report

· In the New Report Wizard, fill in details for:

o Report name

o Category

· Click Edit SQL statement…

· Remove contents of the SQL statement: text box

· Paste the query provided into the SQL Statement:

· Click OK

· On the Display window, click Next >

· On the Links window, click Next >

· On the Security window, click Next >

· On the Wizard Complete window, click Close

Enhansoft is pleased to announce that Warranty Information Reporting (WIR) now includes SQL Server Report Services (SSRS) reports. Moving forward all new reports created for WIR will included SSRS reports.

SQL Reporting Services in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 enables administrators to use the advanced reporting features of SSRS. Some of the advantages of using SSRS are:

· Report subscriptions by allowing report to be e-mailed on a schedule.

· Cleaner user interface

· Allows for reports to be exported to various file formats such as PDF and Excel.

· Allows for graphics and data to be intermixed within reports.

To see samples of all the reports available, please see http://support.enhansoft.com/wiki/wir.ashx

Sample report for WIR:

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, January 19, 2010--- Enhansoft Inc., a leading developer of System Center Configuration Manager solutions, was awarded Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status on January 15^th 2010. Holding the Systems Management competencies confirms Enhansoft’s commitment to Microsoft customers and technologies. 

Microsoft Gold Certified Partners have access to exclusive resources and early product information. The program includes direct access to Microsoft staff, product support, new products and technologies, and planning tools and events on the latest Microsoft product developments and future direction.

 “Our new partnership provides us greater access to the Microsoft System Center team. Our dedication to providing the best solutions and support in the industry has paid off. ”

Garth Jones

Chief Architect

About Enhansoft Inc.

Enhansoft, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, specializes in providing software solutions and consulting services within the system management area focusing on Microsoft System Center products. Maximize the potential of your systems, the productivity of the company workforce and, best of all, the impact on the bottom line.

Our products have a worldwide reputation for extending and enhancing Microsoft technologies by leveraging Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr / SCCM) & Systems Management Server (SMS) technologies to extend their asset information and reporting capabilities.

Enhansoft professional services bring together a deep product knowledge of system management focused on Microsoft System Center products.

Our Clients Benefit From:

Our Focus

We specialize in the system management area, focusing on Microsoft System Center products with an emphasis on asset management.

Our Experience

The team at Enhansoft combines real-world system management experience with high-level programming expertise to design software that is easy to implement and has an immediate impact on workload and company bottom line.

Our professional services team helps customers realize value within their system management environment. Many of our consultants have more than 10 years of experience within system management area, are leaders in their respective IT communities and user groups, and have presented at such conferences as Microsoft Management Summit, Techdays, and EnergizeIT.

Our Expertise

Our products and services are designed for ConfigMgr experts by ConfigMgr experts.

From global corporations to institutes of higher learning and public school systems, to global government agencies, Enhansoft has the software and expertise to help any organization realize the long-term efficiencies and cost savings associated with asset management. Our headquarters are located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada with remotes offices in Chicago, Illinois. We leverage hands-on experience, as well as client feedback to continually refine our products. We also work with a network of partners — including software resellers and consulting firms — who recommend our products, service and expertise to their own clients.

http://www.enhansoft.com/

Let face it, most IT people are not finance savvy, however they unknowingly have to deal with finance issues on a day to day bases.

So to help out everyone lets discus Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

The TCO of a PC is not just the cost of the PC itself it is much more than that.

• Service Desk cost
• Infrastructure cost
• Application Testing cost
• Out of Warranty Support costs
• Etc. 

In a recent WIPRO study “Using Total Cost of Ownership to Determine Optimal PC Refresh Lifecycles” (available on the Intel web site), they listed various cost associated with TCO for a PCs.

What you might be asking yourself is why not keep the PCs until it breaks. Well this is when the more hidden cost come into play.

• Application testing
• Service desk cost
• Client performance costs
• Increase of operation cost vs newer PCs. 

How is TCO affected by application testing?

Application testing affects TCO by increasing the number of workstations needed for any application rollout. If you have a 5 year life cycle and assuming that you replace 1/5 of your workstation each year at a minimum you would have 5 different configureations but more likely you would have 10 (5 Desktops and 5 laptops). If you are a multinational company this number would increase even more with respect to different OS languages and regional procurements. By reducing the refresh cycle to ever three years, you reduce this number significantly. 

How is TCO affected by Service Desk Cost?

There are hundreds of way this is affects TCO but some of the more common ways are:

• Locating drivers when moving from one version of an OS to the next
• Increased conflict resolution between drivers
• Increase in image sizes due to the number of drivers that need to be supported
  • Increase in bandwidth used by image deployment
  • Backup cost for bigger images
• Increase in troubleshooting
• Once a PC is out of warranty, there could be costs with stocking parts such as hard drives, RAM, monitors, etc. 

What are some of the client performance costs?

This is a catch-all for anything that affects the client. Costs in this section range from

• Downtime due to hardware failure
• Cost of overtime to recover from data loss
• Increase in cost of out of band PC replacements
• Inability to run needed software 

What are some of the increase operating cost vs newer PCs?

For example take these two Intel processors E5410 vs L5410, There is a difference of 30W. If you assume that you have 10000 PCs that were replaced you would see a 30*10000 = 300 000W or 300 KW/H. At $0.10 KWH that is $30 an hour in saving between the two processors. If you assume 7.5 hours a day with 200 working days a year that equates to almost $50K  is savings. ($30*7.5*200 =$45 000). From this we can see that you can save money by picking the right processor.  

We all know that if you that a PC and lock it away in a closed room that the room will get hot. Now take several hundred or thousands of PCs in a building, this will increase the air conditioning (AC) cost. Yes it will decrease the heating cost but you will find that AC cost will out weight your heating savings. As you look at processor specs you will see that some run hotter than others, there is a trade-off. This is where upgrading to a newer CPU might give you more saving with respect to AC / power consumed, etc. with the same performance. Don’t forget about the capital  & operating cost of the AC units and UPSs that you might need to run this equipment.  

What this is ultimately meant to show is that there is a lot more to a PC’s cost than just the capital cost of the PC. We need to look at all the costs to determine what is right for our company. These are just example of some of the costs are involved in TCO for a PC. 

Attached is a simple spreadsheet that you can used to help determine what is the appropriate TCO and therefore PC replacement cycle for your company.

TCO.xlsx (11.63 kb)

Many firms don’t have a predefined refresh cycle. This can lead to many issues such as cost of downtime, loss of data and PC repair costs, particularly when a PC is out of warranty. When a PC is under warranty there should be no cost associated with PC repairs and generally it is unlikely there will be unexpected downtime or data loss. When a company has no refresh cycle or a refresh cycle of more than 3 years this will lead to higher costs in the long run.

In a resent WIPRO study “Using Total Cost of Ownership to Determine Optimal PC Refresh Lifecycles” (available on the Intel web site), based on WIPRO analysis they found the average yearly cost for laptops and desktops. The cost includes capital cost, support cost and repair cost.

Laptop

Yearly TCO for 3 year refresh is $1266

Yearly TCO for 5 year refresh is $1430

That is a saving of $164 a year per laptop.

Desktop

Yearly TCO for 3 year refresh is $740

Yearly TCO for 5 year refresh is $802

That is a saving of $62 a year per desktop.

It should be noted that WIPRO found that the yearly support cost per PC was twice as much in year 5 vs year 1.

One of the interesting notes within the study was “Wipro’s survey data shows that a firm with 30,800 PCs can reduce power consumption costs by $214,000 a year once they optimize on a three year refresh cycle…” because “Newer PCs use significantly less power because of improved processor efficiency”.

WIPRO concluded that a three life cycle for replacing desktops and laptops was the most cost effective. They also concluded that putting off PC purchases only shifted the burden and ultimately increased the Total Cost of Ownership.

What I found interesting was there was not discussion on how to determine when a PC was out of warranty. It is great to say that all PCs that are 3 years old get replaced but how do you know that a PC is out of warranty? Using their example of 30 000 PCs how do you find the 10 000 PCs that need to be replaced?

This is where Warranty Information Reporting in conjunction with System Center Configuration Manager can be used to determine this information thereby reducing your support cost even further.