More than Just Lines on a Map: Best Practices for U.S Bike Routes
Advanced PC Management Capabilities Help MSP’s
1. Case Study
Intel® vPro™ Technology
A Strategy of Continuous
IT Authorities
Improvement Leads IT Authorities
to Adopt Intel® vPro™ Technology
Advanced PC Management Capabilities Help MSP’s
Customers Do More, Spend Smarter, and be More Secure
“Managing 5,000 PCs at IT Authorities has built its success as a managed service provider on continuous
one company is infinitely improvement of both processes and tools. In the managed services arena, change is
simpler than managing constant and yields both threats and opportunities — but no room to stand still. “Every
one of our 22 employees believes that they will be a little bit better tomorrow than
5,000 machines at 100
they were today,” says Tom Beckman, chief technology officer at IT Authorities. “You’ve
companies. So for an
got to approach the managed services business that way if you’re going to grow and
MSP, efficiency and
remain competitive.” This approach to growth led IT Authorities to adopt Intel® vPro™
simplification are critical. technology-based HP desktop and laptop PCs as a standard part of their solution. By
Intel vPro technology managing these advanced platforms through their N-able N-central* management
extends our reach and console software, the company has been able to significantly cut the cost of delivering
makes many activities services while at the same time significantly improving their customers’ IT experience.
simpler.” “vPro-based HP PCs offer new ways to connect to our customers’ PCs, new ways
– Tom Beckman, CTO, to troubleshoot, and new ways to remediate,” explains Doug Garrett, director of
IT Authorities managed services for IT Authorities. “These are significant advantages. In addition,
they’re advantages that can eventually be made standard across all our customers,
regardless of the PC brand or location.” As a result, IT Authorities has made Intel vPro
technology-based PCs their standard and preferred platform. “The cost addition for
a vPro system is only $20, which is inconsequential compared to the ROI for the
customer,” says Beckman. “Every PC we quote is now a vPro-based machine.”
2. Table 1. Delivering More to Customers Through Intel® vPro™ Technology
IT Authorities’ deployment of PCs based on Intel vPro technology yields better IT functionality and lower service delivery cost2
Without With
Activity Intel vPro Technology Intel vPro Technology Improvement
Average time to resolve a hardware problem 48 hours 24 hours Reduced 50%
Average time to resolve an OS problem 72 hours 3 hours Reduced 96%
Average amount of downtime per PC per month 20 minutes 15 minutes Reduced 25%
Time to achieve 95% patch saturation 168 hours 72 hours Reduced 67%
Deskside visits per month 10 8 Reduced 20%
Power cost savings per PC over 3-year life span $0 $561 TCO lowered
by $561
Advanced Tools Cut Costs Advanced remote capabilities that significantly raise effi-
and Improve Customer Service Levels ciency and lower costs. The advanced remote capabilities of
Intel vPro technology allow IT Authorities to maintain and repair
The advanced manageability and security features of Intel
PCs more quickly and at lower cost. This is true for both normal
vPro technology allow IT Authorities to significantly streamline
maintenance activities and problem resolutions. “Clients often
a number of key PC management tasks within their existing
turn PCs off after hours, and that used to mean that we couldn’t
management console software. This both reduces their cost
reach that PC,” says Beckman. “Before vPro, we got at best a 50
and helps eliminate downtime and interruptions for PC users.
percent success rate on updates, resulting in performance and
The power of this solution has three elements:
security problems.” With Intel vPro technology-based PCs, IT
• Increased abilities to monitor, manage, and repair PCs remotely — Authorities can automatically power the PC on and execute the
regardless of power state or operating system health1 — that updates seamlessly. “Showing clients how this improves their IT
greatly reduce maintenance and management costs and increase function helps us in the push for standardization of their PCs,”
the utilization of IT Authorities’ personnel. notes Beckman.
• Increased security capabilities that better protect the customer’s For the repair of hardware and software problems, Intel vPro
critical data while reducing downtime. technology’s remote capabilities eliminate many field service
• A standardized, energy-efficient platform that can meet the calls by allowing IT Authorities to fix problems remotely. “Avoid-
developing demands of the customer’s business while significantly ing a technician dispatch is a big deal,” says Beckman. “It can
reducing total cost of ownership (TCO). easily save half a day of effort.” Recently, a client called with
a blue-screened Intel vPro technology-based PC. “With vPro’s
These capabilities give IT Authorities considerable advantages. out-of-band capabilities, we were able to remotely examine the
“Managing 5,000 PCs at one company is infinitely simpler than machine and determine that it had a memory fault. That allowed
managing 5,000 machines at 100 companies,” explains Beckman. us to check inventory and get the right part shipped overnight.
“So for an MSP, efficiency and simplification are critical. Intel vPro Without vPro, we would have had to visit the site twice, once to
technology extends our reach and makes many activities simpler.” diagnose and once to remediate,” explains Beckman. “We can
even poll machines for hardware inventory information when
“We can now re-image and rebuild a machine they’re turned off.”
remotely – which means the turnaround time Remote repair of software problems. In addition to allowing IT
has gone from two days to ten minutes.” Authorities to diagnose many hardware-related issues remotely,
Intel vPro technology allows the company to diagnose and repair
– Tom Beckman, CTO, many software-related issues without a service visit. “With vPro’s
IT Authorities in-band and out-of-band capabilities, there really is no software
problem that you can’t fix remotely,” notes Beckman. “We can
3. now re-image and rebuild a machine remotely — which means the
turnaround time has gone from two days to ten minutes.” N-central* Fuels Managed Services
IT Authorities recently dealt with a PC that failed to boot up. N-central from N-able Technologies is the leading remote
“We looked at it remotely and determined that the user had a monitoring and management platform deployed globally by
USB key plugged in that was preventing the boot from disk,” Managed Service Providers (MSPs) servicing the small and
says Beckman. “By avoiding a field visit, vPro’s remote capability
midsize business market. In addition to providing full support
turned a 4½ hour remediation into a very quick fix.” Even simple
for the capabilities of Intel® vPro™ technology, N-central
maintenance tasks are greatly accelerated: “One of our clients had
accelerates growing managed services businesses with
a start-up utility that they wanted removed from every machine,”
unique offerings:
notes Beckman. “We could do it remotely without vPro, but only
on the machines that were turned on – so the task took five days Unparalleled business support. N-able’s state-of-the-art
to accomplish. With vPro, it would have been a snap.” knowledge management portal provides the training, tools,
and materials you need to build a profitable, high-value
“A vPro-based PC replacing an older PC saves $187 managed services business.
per year [in energy costs] – and that’s for every PC. A low-risk, proven solution. N-central is deployed by 2,000
MSPs to monitor and manage 25,000 remote networks.
This makes upgrading to a vPro PC very attractive
Powerful PC and server management features.
and makes our sales process easier.”
A comprehensive set of remote management tools provide
– Tom Beckman, CTO, the core functionality that all MSPs require to manage
IT Authorities customers effectively and deliver more than 90 percent
of services remotely.
Built-in technologies that improve security and help lower
customers’ risk. Because IT Authorities can reach machines that Lowest cost of service delivery. The combination of
are powered down, security software updates are accomplished N-central, best-practice tutorials, Automated Configuration
much more quickly, resulting in better customer protection. “vPro Management, and Remote Support Manager reduce your
decreases the time it takes to reach 95 percent patch saturation cost of service delivery.
at a typical customer from seven days to three days,” says Beck- Agent and agent-less monitoring. Only N-able offers the
man. In addition, Intel vPro technology’s hardware-based filters
flexibility of both agent- and probe-based network monitor-
can automatically isolate an infected PC and keep it from spread-
ing, allowing you to select the most efficient way to manage
ing across the entire network while maintaining IT Authorities’
your customer’s environment.
connection to the infected machine for remediation. “These are
critical improvements,” says Beckman. “If one guy plugs in a USB Available as an on-premise or hosted solution. N-able’s
key that his kid was playing with, he can take down an Exchange remote monitoring and management technology is offered
server, an SQL database, or an entire company. vPro delivers both as a platform and as a hosted subscription service,
marked improvements to the customer’s security profile, and allowing you to pick the option that best fits your needs.
these are benefits that customers understand and want.”
For more information on N-central, visit www.n-able.com.
Active and passive power management capabilities that signif-
icantly reduce energy costs. With the ability to turn off groups of
PCs after hours and then power them back up before the start of Better customer experiences and improved account control.
the next business day, IT Authorities can now save their customers Because Intel vPro technology helps IT Authorities respond more
money through lower energy usage, making a substantial positive quickly to customer issues, customer’s productivity and satisfac-
impact on their ROI. “Unlike server power consumption, most people tion are improved. “We can show customers that we’re doing
are not aware of how PC power usage adds up,” explains Beckman. more proactively, and the customer instinctively understands
“We estimate that a vPro-based PC replacing an older PC saves how responsive we are to reactive issues,” says Beckman. “In
$187 per year — and that’s for every PC. This makes upgrading to both cases, Intel vPro technology puts us ahead.” Especially in
a vPro PC very attractive and makes our sales process easier.” the case of problem remediation, Intel vPro technology brings
According to Beckman, energy-efficient IT is becoming a client clear advantages. “When a vPro-based system has an issue, we
priority, and Intel vPro technology’s power savings is an important can start the process faster; fix the problem faster; and eliminate
part of the sales process. “In terms of energy cost, the dollars that frustrating ‘middle-time’ when the customer knows help is
saved for many of our clients are monumental.” coming but the help isn’t there yet.”
