Although it is always important to keep Windows up-to-date, actually delivering the latest software to far-flung end-users isn’t necessarily simple. But ING Investment Management has found that combining Microsoft SMS (Systems Management Server) 2003 with a remote wakeup product from 1E provides an easy solution for its current Windows XP installation.

“We want to get as close as possible to being a 100 percent Microsoft shop,” says Richard Peterson, senior desktop engineer in ING Investment Management’s Information Technology (IT) Department.

Using SMS 2003 together with 1E WakeUp, Windows updates are delivered to almost all of the group’s desktops within 24 hours. Adding in NightWatchman, the company estimates it could cut energy costs by $160,000 per year.

All desktop systems within US-based ING Investment Management are running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) on Hewlett-Packard (HP) PCs, with Vista migration now in the planning stages.

Meanwhile, the Investment Management arm’s European-based parent company – which oversees real estate as well as financial services interests – is collaborating closely with Microsoft around pilot initiatives, according to the senior desktop engineer.

Like other components of ING, Investment Management is now under mandate from corporate headquarters in The Hague, The Netherlands, to deploy all Microsoft security patches and other updates to users’ desktops within three days of the updates’ availability.

When Peterson heard about a pilot of a product from 1E at the European headquarters, he decided to implement the software in a production rollout among his own users in the US.

That’s because the 2,200 geographically dispersed traders, portfolio managers, investment counselors and other desktop users at ING Investment Management – who work in locations such as Connecticut, Georgia, New York, and Texas – show varying levels of understanding about how to cooperate with SMS, the server-based Microsoft tool traditionally deployed for software delivery.

In order for SMS 2003 to work on its own in delivering overnight updates, users must log off of their systems – or “shut them down” – before leaving for the night, Peterson says.

But like end-users in SMS installations almost everywhere, some employees of ING Investment Group have been turning off their PCs entirely instead of shutting them down.

Alternatively, users have been forgetting to log out, leaving their systems running all night long. As a result, their desktops have locked up, and SMS hasn’t been able to deliver the needed updates.

But software from 1E called IE WakeUp – known until January of 2008 as SMSWakeUp – overcomes these barriers, maintains Simon Francis, 1E’s VP of energy solutions.

Essentially, 1E WakeUp “awakens” PCs and puts them into a ready state for software delivery by SMS.

“We want to get as close as possible to being a 100 percent Microsoft shop,” says ING Investment Management’s Richard Peterson. He is currently working with Microsoft to improve Windows Vista’s functionality to allow smoother usage of plug-ins to third-party data feeds such as Reuters and Bloomberg.

The 1E product also includes recently added reporting tools that provide information on a PC’s current status and creates groups called “Collections” containing problem PCs.

In the recently released SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager) 2007, the successor to SCM 2003, Microsoft has incorporated a slimmed down version of 1E’s technology directly within its own product.

ING Investment Management will implement SCCM 2007 by the end of March, Peterson notes.

Meanwhile, by using SMS 2003 together with 1E WakeUp, the division has managed to more than meet its corporate mandate. Windows updates are now delivered to almost all of the group’s desktops within 24 hours.

Despite its impending deployment of SCCM 2007, ING Investment Management plans to keep using 1E WakeUp, anyway, largely because WakeUp’s reporting capabilities will not be incorporated into SCCM 2007, he says.

At the same time, ING Investment’s parent company in The Hague is also at work on green initiatives. “We’re a really ‘green’ company,” Peterson remarks.

Consequently, Peterson’s group is eyeing possible deployment of another product from 1E, known as NightWatchman, which offers a number of capabilities around energy savings, including automatic shutdown of remote PCs according to a centrally-controlled schedule.

Before shutting down a PC, NightWatchman saves any unsaved data on that PC. PCs can then later be “woken up” by IE WakeUp, according to Francis.

ING Investment Management estimates that using 1E WakeUp together with NightWatchman would cut energy costs by $160,000 per year.

But even though the latest edition of NightWatchman supports XP in addition to Windows Vista, Peterson expects to hold off on NightWatchman until ING Investment Management moves all of its desktops from XP to Vista.

Peterson says that currently he is working with Microsoft to improve Vista’s functionality so as to allow smoother usage of plug-ins to third-party data feeds such as Reuters and Bloomberg.

He also said that he would like to see more granular reporting capabilities in 1E WakeUp.

IE’s Francis has since spoken with Peterson directly, and 1E has started working with Peterson around the senior desktop engineer’s wish list for how he would like to be able to use 1E WakeUp.

As a result of feedback from various IT customers, the next release of IE WakeUp will include “self-healing” capabilities meant to automatically resolve any delivery problems encountered on either the hardware or software sides, Francis says.

In January, after completing its own 1E WakeUp pilot, ING headquarters decided to implement the software in a production rollout throughout all of its 80,000 PC desktops.

www.inginvestment.com

www.ie.com

By Jacqueline Emigh