Since 1997 Bossard Singapore has been the Asia-Pacific regional headquarters for Bossard Group. Headquartered in Switzerland, Bossard Group has around 1500 employees and consists of over 75 affiliates in USA, Europe and Asia-Pacific - specializing in industrial assembly technology and international logistic services for fasteners.

Bossard Singapore IT Support manages 50 machines in Singapore, and roughly 120 in the Asia-Pacific region, including those in Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand.

Two key challenges that IT Asset Management at Bossard face are ensuring company policy and planning for upgrades. As such, Singapore IT Support need accurate information about the hardware and OS version installed on each of the computers that they manage and they also need to be able to identify over/under licensed software products on these computers.

Using Microforge.net Enterprise Server in conjunction with Virtual Private Network tunnels, Bossard Singapore can perform computer audits from their location in Singapore without the need for deployment of extra software at remote locations.

Sae Kiat Ng of Bossard Singapore says: “Problems we faced [were being able to] track the number of assets we have currently and what has been installed on user's computers. We found the solution in [Enterprise Server] which provides network scans over our existing network.”

“As we have lots of computers deployed over South-East Asia, managing them becomes very difficult especially with users installing unwanted software. [Enterprise Server] let us know whose computer is not adhering to the company policy and actions can then be taken against them if required.”

“Changes to computers can be tracked easily by scanning the network again,” continues Ng. “Detailed information for [various hardware components] such as physical RAM, Hard disk [and] Model can be tracked easily and this assists in planning for upgrades. Installation of unwanted or unlicensed software by the users can also be monitored and tracked.”

“[Enterprise Server] helps to provide a better overview and management of all the hardware and software in the company.”

When asked what drew his attention to Enterprise Server ahead of the competition, Ng had this to say: "User friendliness and flexibility - the program can be easily understood. Reports can be easily created to suit our needs or downloaded from the website. The website also offers great documentation and help files. One of the connectivity issues (RPC errors) is solved by following the step-by-step instructions on the website without difficulties."

Further information about Bossard Group can be found on their web site at: www.bossard.com.