Editions

In deciding which version of Enterprise Server meets the needs of your business, you will no doubt want to consider how many licenses you require for each of the modules that are available for Enterprise Server, since the Corporate Edition will prove to be more cost effective than the Desktop Edition for medium to large sized organizations. A detailed discussion of the various different licensing options is covered in the license Information topic.

In addition to this, there are various technical differences which distinguish the Corporate and Desktop editions of the software. The following table gives an overview of the various differences between these.

Server mode	Embedded	Distributed
ENT Inventory
Machine Auditing
ENT Helpdesk
ENT Calendar
ENT Report Forge
Web based access
Integrated knowledge base
WAN Capable
Can be hosted

The key difference between the Desktop and the Corporate Editions is the Server Mode. Both editions makes use of core functionality provided by an Enterprise Server and the server mode basically refers to the location of this server.

In the case of the Corporate Editions of the software, you would typically install a single Enterprise Server on your network, which runs on Microsoft's Internet Information Server. In this case, Enterprise Server includes a full web interface and you can connect to your ENT Server using your web browser OR using our windows clients (ENT NetCenter and ENT Report Forge).

In the case of the Desktop Edition of the software, the server is built in to the primary Windows clients (ENT NetCenter and ENT Report Forge), and is said to be embedded. So, rather than having one central server that each of your users connects to using their web browser or our windows applications, each installation of ENT NetCenter or ENT Report Forge on you network has it's own, private local copy of Enterprise Server. Whilst this can be convenient and simplifies installation of the software, this has certain performance implications and also means that there are a number of features that are not available in the Desktop Edition of Enterprise Server.

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Easy installation - The Desktop Edition does not require you configure any special security permissions for your Internet Information Server, which makes installing the software considerably more simple. You can install the Desktop Edition of the software in less than 5 minutes, whereas the distributed versions of the software can take anywhere from 10 -30 minutes to install and configure.

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WAN access - Enterprise Server needs to store certain information (such as file attachments for messages that you receive) on the file system in a folder called the "Working Directory". If you have multiple instances of the Desktop Edition of Enterprise Server, these must all use the same Working Directory, which means they must have access to a common shared folder somewhere, which usually means they must all be on the same Local Area Network (or LAN). By contrast, the Small Business and Corporate Editions of Enterprise Server allow you to establish a central Enterprise Server that users can be accessed using a web browser, ENT NetCenter and ENT Report Forge from anywhere in the world.

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Integrated knowledge base - The helpdesk module of Enterprise Server allows helpdesk technicians to manage content and publish articles in a user self-help knowledge base on your web site. However, because the Desktop Edition of Enterprise Server does not run on a web server, there is no way to publish this information or integrate it into your company's web site.

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Web based customer support portal - The helpdesk module of Enterprise Server also allows end users (helpdesk customers) to track and update the status of helpcalls that they have open with the helpdesk via a web based customer support portal. As with the integrated knowledge base, however, this is obviously only available in the Corporate Edition of the software

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Hosting - Since the Small Business and Corporate Editions of Enterprise Server can be run on Internet Information Server, these allow you to easily outsource the hosting of your Enterprise Server to a Web Hosting company that make sure your critical data is backed up and accessible 24/7 - which can certainly take a lot of weight of your shoulders.