Altiris To Boost IT Governance
Dwain Kinghorn, CTO of Lindon, Utah-based Altiris, said the BSM strategy will focus on "user and client provisioning" that would more tightly choreograph IT management with business processes mandated from the boardroom. Altiris will likely introduce the BSM tools at its ManageFusion user conference in the second half of this year, he said.
Customers that employ Altiris' management software as part of their help desk should get the most benefit when adding BSM, said Wade Wyant, program manager of ITS Communications, Grand Rapids, Mich. Still, Wyant said Altiris' BSM strategy should greatly improve the vendor's ability to get its stand-alone software into large, sophisticated networks. Thanks to the regulatory requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley and other legislation, enterprises increasingly need better coordination between their business processes and IT management, he said.
Altiris expects to do more than add new tools for managing business services. Kinghorn said the vendor also is seriously considering offering its platform as a managed service that could be resold through the channel. Altiris expects VARs selling the MSP model to help the company leapfrog over the competition, and to entice customers, the vendor is exploring the option of offering its MSP program on a trial basis, he said.
Altiris is honing its BSM and MSP strategies as it prepares to launch a revamped channel partner program. Company officials have not determined when to roll out the program but said it could be within weeks. All three efforts aim to combat competition from Microsoft, Novell, LANDesk and others selling IT life-cycle management tools, Kinghorn said.
In other news, Altiris last week won an extension of its OEM pact with Dell to ship its software as an option in Dell servers.