nick

You could try out Parago (http://www.itvision.net/) automated discovery, PAT testing fields.. and soon to have wifi barcode scanner integration for instant auditing.

Hi All, We are looking at the possibility of integrating Antivirus & AntiSpyware into our product 'Parago' to give it the ability to audit the level of virus/spyware detection coverage across your network. Below is a rough outline of the capabilities. We would really like to hear some feedback from schools not using Parago at the moment to see if this would be a feature that would save them time and money. Antivirus & AntiSpyware Integration Our proposed Antivirus and AntiSpyware solution would allow us to integrate with currently installed virus and spy ware solutions. The ‘ParagoAgent’ would interface with whatever antivirus/spyware software is currently installed on each client machine and interrogate it for information on its current status. This information is then uploaded to the correct account and stored against the relevant PC. This then gives a live representation of the virus and spyware status of all machines that ParagoAgent is currently installed on. This gives you the following abilities * Unique ability to retrieve virus/spy ware information from all major virus/spyware software * Account managers can query this information across multiple accounts (LEA can see status of all its schools) * Automated alerts for reporting virus/spy ware issues Create reports * That show any machines (laptops/pcs) that have no antivirus and/or anti-spyware * List any machines that currently have detected viruses or spyware * Show any machines that have out of date definition files * List the machines that have not had a full scan within the last week (or any date range) * Build up a picture of what virus/spyware software is installed across all machines Search * Find any particular machine with a version of virus/spyware software * Find machines with out of date definition files * Search for virus/spyware information and specific virus/spyware names within the data returned

IRM is certainly only asset management. Parago does only automate the process of tracking hardware changes. The act of tracking anything else does have to be done manually, we have fields for storing information for this purpose. We also track movement of any kind of asset (e.g. desks, chairs, hardware and people) Plus we have objects that cover a whole other range of things within schools even down to microwaves..

You could always look at our system 'Parago' which was designed for this exact purpose, we also have met with Becta several times to make sure we have implemented everything that FITS requires. We track changes of every bit of software and hardware on anything that is running our agent (which run's on 98 upwards, unlike the vista solution which obviously is vista only.) http://www.itvision.net/ if your interested

We are looking at putting together a demo site but we have to make it part of a registration process as you can't have more than one person using the same login at once (for technical reasons) so before you started a demo you would at least have to create a user/password - and then we can expire that account after say 24 hours. But apart from a few issues of putting 'for demo purpose only' across all the reports etc we can do it. So watch this space

Look at the fuss weve caused! Firstly I was one of the first people to join edugeeks! (like in the top 10) and I keep up to date with most of the threads as I don't get enough time within schools to see what current issues etc are. Obviously we want to try and raise our profile and we don't have a marketing budget like RM/Capita and as I am the chief techie at IT Vision I wouldnt call it marketing! lol My only concern is trying to get people involved and get feedback so I make what I am doing better. On the Wiki front, wiki's are open for the reason that other people can add suggestions to other sites, others are then free to move it in the list and or delete it if they feel its not relevant. As our product is relevant AND I am a edugeek member I felt it was not unreasonable to list it. Erm... and lastly http://www.parago.com is alas not one of our sites!! if you wish to link the product its http://www.parago.co.uk or http://www.itvision.net .. (feel free to flame) Nick

It would initially seem fairer to base it on the school IT infrastructure size, but we have found enough schools which break the mould in terms of pupil to computer ratio that would make the pricing policy unfair. The pricing we felt (and I am just a techie not sales/marketing) is low enough (even with the stupidly low budgets schools get) to make it cost effective with the amount of time it can save, we already have one school who saved 3 weeks works (that what it took him last year) to do a full audit and produce a report. And compared with the commerical cost of most network scanners (£500+) which only do the scanning part and don't have any asset abilities etc its a bargain (but then again I would say that!)

Well OCS can grab some data about each PC/Laptop (but not in the level of detail we do.) but as with a lot of other solutions out there the data once gathered is in a format that is not then very useful. We gather the data using our agent, you then get a nice graphical interface to choose where each PC is located in your school (by room, by department, or even assigned to a particular person) Once its located within your school structure the next time it receives an update (for instance when someone adds extra software) you get an alert of what has changed and you can go review it so if its something nasty you can locate it by room and then go uninstall it. Our interface is also designed for non-techies (but also caters for those with lots of technical skill) so its all graphical with lots of icons to represent everything in the IT sector. OCS of course is Open source (therefore free) and I am big linux opensource fan, but OCS doesnt even really scratch the surface in comparison with the abililties our product has. But anyway I will stop rambling, have a read and contact us if you want a demo.

We have just added a great new feature to our product which now makes asset management and inventory management a lot easier. We now have something called 'Parago Agent' which can be run over a whole network (not to be confused with network scanners) or run individually from a USB key. Once run the program uploads all information about that PC/Laptop into our database (cpu,memory,software installed,etc..) Once uploaded everything is represented in icon form and can have extra info attached (e.g. asset tag) and placed into rooms/departments to organise them better. And most importantly you can generate reports on how much software is installed on each pc, how many licenses you are currently using. Anyway enough rambling, have a look on http://www.itvision.net/ and any feedback would be great. The product has been in test over the last 6 months over 3 different LEA's and 10+ schools and we are continuing to try and get schools involved in the direction that the product is taking. Best regards, Nick Techie Bloke

Good to see people wanting to take part! We will shortly be opening up a Public Beta which will allow anyone in education use the system for a number of weeks. (as long as it doesnt end up being hundreds!) During that time we will be looking for as much feedback as possible, although the system has been tested within a 20+ schools already I still find different issues with every school I visit. If anyone wants any questions answered about the system just ask, Nick Halstead Parago Team