Microsoft Windows Server System
Customer Solution Case Study
Solution Provider Helps Equipment Vendor
Manage Remote Systems and Cut IT Costs
Overview
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Professional Services
Customer Profile
Business Oriented Software Solutions
(BOSS), based in Norcross, Georgia,
provides IT asset management, software
deployment, and Microsoft® Windows®
migration solutions to a range of vertical
markets.
Business Situation
BOSS customers, which typically have overburdened IT departments and many
remote, distributed locations, want to
simplify processes for managing their
workstations.
Solution
DiagWin Professional helps companies
maximize network resources, manage IT
assets, and deploy client applications and
upgrades from a single console based on
Microsoft Windows.
Benefits
 Quick, easy deployment
 Comprehensive asset inventory
 IT costs reduced by 30 percent
 High security and scalability
 Strong Microsoft support
“Using DiagWin, companies can deploy packages,
applications, and service packs to all locations
simultaneously. They can save money and travel time
to see an immediate return on investment.”
Vish Ramakrishnan, Director of Technical Sales, Business Oriented Software Solutions
Business Oriented Software Solutions (BOSS) provides IT asset
management and software distribution solutions to a range of
vertical markets. The company’s DiagWin Professional software,
which runs on Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Server and later versions,
helps organizations quickly track client hardware and software
assets and easily deploy applications and updates. BOSS customer
Nebraska Machinery Company, a heavy equipment sales and
service provider, recently used DiagWin to install a Microsoft
software upgrade on 450 workstations at 11 locations in a
weekend. With DiagWin, Nebraska Machinery has simplified
systems management processes and improved support of its large
group of workstations—using only four IT personnel. As a result, the
company has saved more than U.S.$60,000 in annual personnel
expenses, reduced IT maintenance costs by 30 percent, and
increased revenue by 15 percent.
Situation
Founded in 1991 and based in Norcross,
Georgia, Business Oriented Software
Solutions (BOSS) provides information
technology asset management software and
services. The Microsoft® Gold Certified
Partner’s flagship products are DiagWin
Professional and U-Win. Based on the
Microsoft Windows® operating system, they
handle hardware and software inventory,
application deployment, systems
maintenance, and network security functions
in any size heterogeneous enterprise network
environment.
Currently, BOSS has more than 200
customers representing a variety of vertical
markets, including government, healthcare,
manufacturing, financial, and professional
services sectors. These organizations range
in size from small to medium-size companies
with between 500 and 1,000 workstations to
larger enterprises that maintain more than
15,000 systems.
The BOSS customer base includes most of
the Caterpillar (CAT) heavy equipment
vendors in the United States, including
Nebraska Machinery Company. These
vendors face daily challenges managing their
IT systems, which are situated throughout
multiple, remote locations and require
frequent updates to the various software
applications.
Nebraska Machinery Company sells heavy
equipment and has 450 workstations
distributed throughout its 11 locations in
Nebraska and Iowa. The company uses
Microsoft software and various proprietary
applications required by Caterpillar to support
financial, customer relationship
management, and parts and service
operations.
Until recently, installing applications and
updates was an arduous, time-consuming
task. One of the four IT staff members at the
headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, had to
drive to each remote location—some of which
are hundreds of miles away—and install
software manually. “We had to travel and
then wait there until the installation was
completed,” says John Dickmeyer, Director of
Technology at Nebraska Machinery. “For a
Microsoft Office application upgrade, we’d
have to spend two to three days at a given
store and hit every computer that we could.”
If an IT staff member could not physically
access each workstation, the company would
mail CDs to the remote locations and have
the users install the software themselves. But
this also was inefficient. “Typically, users
would have problems loading the application,
or the CDs would be lost or damaged,”
Dickmeyer says. He estimates that an
upgrade of all 450 workstations would take
weeks to complete.
Solution
To help companies like Nebraska Machinery
simplify systems management, BOSS
developed DiagWin Professional. Companies
use the solution to quickly and easily
inventory computer assets, deploy client
software, and install updates from a single
console based on Microsoft Windows.
After meeting BOSS at a CAT vendor trade
show, Nebraska Machinery chose BOSS for
help with its application upgrades. “I saw a
DiagWin demo there, and I immediately knew
it was what we needed,” says Dickmeyer.
“The product basically sold itself. We liked
the solution’s ability to inventory each
computer in our company, which was always
a problem for us. We also were impressed by
the ability to automate deployment of
updates.”
DiagWin, which BOSS introduced in 2001,
runs on the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
and later operating systems, and it supports
client systems running Windows version 9x
and later. Built using the Microsoft Visual
C++® development system version 6.0,
DiagWin uses client/server architecture and
offers several options to retrieve and manage
information about an organization’s
computers and users, including the Active
Directory® service, Network Neighborhood,
and Internet Protocol (IP) scanning capability.
The solution stores data, such as hardware,
software, and security inventory details, in a
Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 database.
“Since SQL Server 2000 is a very open
database system, customers can export data
into Microsoft Office Excel® or Microsoft
Office Access to build their own reporting
mechanism,” says Vish Ramakrishnan,
Director of Technical Sales at BOSS. For
customers that don’t have SQL Server, BOSS
offers Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop
Engine, a free version of SQL Server 2000
designed for client applications that require
an embedded database, along with its
DiagWin solution.
Collects Real-Time Information
With DiagWin, companies collect reliable,
real-time inventory information about every
personal computer on a network and deploy
both Microsoft and non-Microsoft
applications and updates from a single
console. DiagWin inventories workstations
using a range of identifying tags such as
serial numbers, physical locations, and
network IP addresses. It collects both
hardware information, such as hard disk size
and processor types, and software
information, such as application versions and
service packs. DiagWin also gathers
information on security settings, including
password policies and open network shares.
By using DiagWin, network administrators
can determine operating systems and
applications that need to be upgraded,
amounts of memory and storage capacity on
each client computer, and security holes that
need to be closed. For example, an inventory
might show that of the 800 computers
running the Microsoft Windows XP
Professional operating system, only 500 of
them have Windows XP Service Pack 2
installed. That means 300 computers need to
be upgraded, and the network administrator,
equipped with the inventory collected by
DiagWin, can now devise a plan to address
this critical security requirement.
Enables Easy Software Installation
To install software such as a service pack,
DiagWin can automatically download the
software from the Microsoft Web site using
Microsoft Software Update Services—an addin component for Windows 2000 and the
Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 operating
system—or simply launch an automated
deployment script pointing to applications
stored on the server. Then a company’s
network administrator approves and deploys
the software to every computer that needs it
with the click of a button. Deployment scripts
can even be customized to include any
required registry settings or configuration
changes, such as opening and closing ports.
“Using DiagWin, companies can deploy
packages, applications, and service packs to
all locations simultaneously,” says Vish
Ramakrishnan. “They can save money and
travel time to see an immediate return on
investment, and reduce the ongoing costs of
supporting out-of-date software.”
DiagWin also includes a software and license
management feature including exception
reporting for available versus installed
licenses, and usage metering to determine
how frequently an application is used. “This
means that if someone isn’t using a product,
DiagWin can be used to uninstall that license
and reallocate it to another computer where
it will be used,” Vish Ramakrishnan says.
“That way, a company can save on licensing
costs, and identify any unlicensed
“In terms
“Now,
if we
ofhave
IT a virus
outbreak or if awe’ve
maintenance,
security
patch is released,
probably
reduced our
we
can build and
workload
a package
time spent
in
DiagWin
by
20 to 30
andpercent
send it with
out
to everyone
DiagWin.”
immediately.”
John Dickmeyer, Director of Technology,
Nebraska Machinery Company
John Dickmeyer, Director of Technology,
Nebraska Machinery Company
applications to prevent costly liabilities
resulting from noncompliance.”
out to everyone immediately,” says
Dickmeyer.
Nebraska Machinery installed DiagWin in July
2004 and began realizing benefits almost
immediately.
Reduced Travel and Maintenance Time
Because DiagWin enables remote
management, Nebraska Machinery has been
able to reduce the time its IT staff spends
traveling to remote stores and installing
software manually. “Before, we had to send
someone out on the road and would lose that
resource from the department for an
extended period of time,” says Dickmeyer.
DiagWin, however, provides a more efficient
solution. “In terms of IT maintenance, we’ve
probably reduced our workload and time
spent by 20 to 30 percent with DiagWin.”
Benefits
DiagWin Professional helps Nebraska
Machinery expedite service and reduce costs
by eliminating the need to travel to each
location for software upgrades and
deployment. Additionally, since systems
maintenance tasks are automated and
performed remotely, the company was able to
maximize existing resources by reallocating a
full-time IT staff position to address other
initiatives within the organization. Nebraska
Machinery has also gained a highly secure
and stable solution backed by the strength of
Microsoft.
Quick, Easy Software Deployment
According to Dickmeyer, the primary benefit
of DiagWin is its ability to simplify the
software deployment process to the
company’s 11 locations. Nebraska Machinery
no longer needs IT staff or computer users to
install software manually on each
workstation. “Because DiagWin is completely
automated, it works almost like an on/off
switch,” says Dickmeyer.
Nebraska Machinery recently upgraded all
450 workstations to Microsoft Office Basic
Edition 2003. “We chose DiagWin to install
the package, and were able to do that in one
step over a weekend,” Dickmeyer says. “We
installed it remotely with DiagWin and had no
problems at all.”
DiagWin also helps the company to quickly
install important updates that can affect
system security. “Now, if we have a virus
outbreak or if a security patch is released, we
can build a package in DiagWin and send it
In addition, the IT department saves time on
help-desk requests. “Before, we had to write
down their problem and tell them we’d get
back to them,” Dickmeyer says. “Now, since
we have an installer package built for
troubleshooting scenarios, we’ve decreased
hours from our workday because we don’t
have to run to individual workstations
anymore.”
Cost Savings for Nebraska Machinery
and Its Customers
Nebraska Machinery has been able to
reallocate one full-time employee by using
the solution, thanks to the time saved on
installation and travel. “Including salary and
benefits, that’s $60,000–70,000 annually
that can be used elsewhere within the
company,” says Dickmeyer.
In addition, Nebraska Machinery uses
DiagWin to help its customers save money. “If
I need to update a program that we use to fix
a customer’s $500,000 machine sitting in
our service shop, I can do it immediately,” he
says. “That provides a huge reduction in time
and cost that we can pass on to that
customer because we can accomplish that
task in minutes rather than days. Situations
like that occur on a monthly basis.”
“Now, if we have a virus
outbreak or if a security
patch is released, we
can build a package in
DiagWin and send it out
to everyone
immediately.”
John Dickmeyer, Director of Technology,
Nebraska Machinery Company
Overall, Dickmeyer reports that Nebraska
Machinery has reduced its IT maintenance
costs by 30 percent and increased revenue
an estimated 15 percent since deploying
DiagWin.
High Levels of Security, Scalability, and
Availability
For any solution in today’s environment,
security is of the utmost importance, and
DiagWin is no exception. DiagWin provides
both user-level and database-level security
with passwords and an encrypted data
storage method supported by SQL Server.
The solution also scales to meet the growing
needs of BOSS customers. “SQL Server
makes DiagWin highly scalable,” says Vish
Ramakrishnan. “Customers see a real value
with the use of SQL Server for that reason.”
BOSS has also designed DiagWin with uptime
in mind. “As far as reliability, our customers
have never had a problem with downtime,”
says Vish Ramakrishnan. “Much of that is
due to the Windows Server operating system.
It is fast and stable, and it can support so
many platforms and threads.”
Integrated Microsoft Technology and
Strong Support
Because BOSS is a Microsoft Gold Certified
Partner, the company uses its expertise and
Microsoft tools and technology to develop
DiagWin and other solutions that simplify
network and systems management. “We
wanted to partner with Microsoft because it is
a market leader,” says Vish Ramakrishnan.
“And with Microsoft integrated technology,
everything comes from one place, so it’s very
easy to get help from the Microsoft support
group.”
He explains that being a Microsoft partner
also means that BOSS can act as a one-stop
shop for its customers. “If our customers
want to implement other Microsoft solutions,
such as Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal
Server 2003, for example, we can help them
with that. Customers today want a company
to be their single point of contact for all their
IT needs. Our expertise with Microsoft
technologies offers our customers
tremendous added value over and above the
benefits of our software products.”
That was certainly true for Nebraska
Machinery. “When we saw that BOSS was a
Gold Certified Partner, it made our decision
much easier,” says Dickmeyer. “We know that
you have to earn that recognition, so that’s
an important distinction.”
Dickmeyer also says that the company’s
partnership with BOSS was a solid choice in
terms of customer service. “They’ve been
exceptional. They’ve been quick to listen to
us and even quicker to respond. They’ve even
incorporated some our requests into the next
version of DiagWin.”
For More Information
Microsoft Windows Server System
For more information about Microsoft
products and services, call the Microsoft
Sales Information Center at (800) 4269400. In Canada, call the Microsoft
Canada Information Centre at (877) 5682495. Customers who are deaf or hard-ofhearing can reach Microsoft text telephone
(TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in
the United States or (905) 568-9641 in
Canada. Outside the 50 United States and
Canada, please contact your local
Microsoft subsidiary. To access information
using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com
Microsoft Windows Server System is a line of
integrated and manageable server software
designed to reduce the complexity and cost
of IT. Windows Server System enables you to
spend less time and budget on managing
your systems so that you can focus your
resources on other priorities for you and your
business.
For more information about Windows Server
System, go to:
www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem
For more information about BOSS products
and services, call (800) 317-6639 or visit
the Web site at:
www.boss-solutions.com
For more information about Nebraska
Machinery Company, call (800) 628-6025
or visit the Web site at:
www.nebraska-machinery.com
Software and Services
Microsoft Windows Server System
− Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
− Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Standard Edition
− Microsoft SQL Server 2000
 Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0


© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case
study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO
WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Microsoft, Active Directory, Excel, SharePoint, Visual C++,
Windows, the Windows logo, Windows Server, and Windows
Server System are either registered trademarks or trademarks
of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other
countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective
owners.
Document published August 2005.
Technologies
− Active Directory
− Microsoft Software Update Services
Hardware
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IBM AS400 server computers
Dell workstations