Software Deployment

Maybe...who knows? What I *do* know is, as soon as I see the names of the 'partners' including the likes of Altiris, that the end result is the outlay of shed-loads of money.

Well guys as you can see I am from ChangeBASE.[:)]

And in answer to the first question, can it help in a packaging environment the answer is yes. It does automated reporting AND fixing of a number of components of the packaging process. For example it will do automated garbage clean up using the appropriate combinations of removal and side by side isolation, it has in built QA and allows you to configure your own QA checks and fixes. It has automated remediation of the most problematic ICE issues and the ability to easily configure for conflict analysis and automatic remediation thereof. In addition it allows you to build your own middleware groupings for reporting and missing dependency analysis checks. Thats all in addition the the automatic reporting and remediation of platform compatibility issues for Vista and just recently windows 7. The changes can be saved either directly to the MSI or to transforms and there is full logging and history of all changes. So pretty useful. about the only thing it doesnt allow you to do is edit custom actions but you can use Wise or Installshield for that.

On the second question, the cost, it is cost efficient enough for offshore indian outsourcers to use it so it cant be that bad [;)]

hope this helps

about the only thing it doesnt allow you to do is edit custom actions but you can use Wise or Installshield for that. No offence, Grant, but your product does everything which Wise and IS do, except I need a copy of either AS WELL?!? Don't be shy: how much? I'll allow you some market-pricing leeway and say that my client base is exclusively UK-based.

no offense taken [:)]

however it is not a simple answer. there is a sliding scale and it depends on which modules you take. so for example are you a small client with 100 apps or are you an outsource partner dealing with 20 customers with an average of 2000apps each. Do you just want the vanilla Test-It, Test-It and Fix-It or do you want some of the bolt ons like office2007/ie7 compatibility, Virtualisation compatibility (citrix, MAV, Thinapp). Also there are some other very cool functions like Convert-It which will extract an installed application off a machine and build it into and MSI (in about 2 mins).

Best thing to do is give the sales team a buzz and tell them what your profile is and they will help you out. Try Colin Gray at

colin.gray@changebase.com
+44 (0)7770 875000

LOL, I was rather hoping you'd address the first point, i.e. if I'm already using, say, Wise, why would I switch, when I need to keep Wise anyway?

Having said that, give us a ball-park:
- all 6 modules: Test-It, Fix-It, Manage-It, QA-It, Convert-It, Virtualise-It. All modules to have all options.
- approx 4,500 desktops
- approx 850 apps

The point is....you don't switch....that's the point, we compliment the customization with the packaging tools for fast and accurate bulk application management.....we're not an editing tool. We deal through authorized partners, who have gone through training and made a commitment to support and professional services etc, so it would be wrong of us to quote prices and undermine them. However, Total AOK usually comes in at 'street price' for your medium-sized account opportunity at circa 20% of the total application packaging charges associated with on-going packaging delivery by service providers, ie, if their cost to deliver a package ready for deployment are, say, £600-£800 (typical for a low to medium complexity application), you can derive the likely automation costs of AOK. Interestingly, service delivery partners are seeing upwards of 50% time savings, and dramatic quality improvements by incorporating AOK at the capture, analysis, remediation and QA elements of the process, complimenting the likes of AdminStudio or PackageStudio for the manual customisation. Value depends upon your viewpoint.....the business benefits are faster deployment of accurate, error-free apps, and the ability to make informed O/S and virtualisation decisions in double quick time, with a far higher degree of certainty than can be gained through manually testing a sample of apps..........
I realise that you did not ask the original Q so maybe this is just a matter of interest to you in which case I haope that this has helped somewhat. If you do have a deeper interest then please do contact Colin as he will be able to help you further. And to the person that wrote the original Q I hope that this helps a little [8|]