SCCM, When you know what you want to be when you grow up.
July 03, 2018
SCCM, When you know what you want to be when you grow up.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager
We are a relatively small/medium company. I was fortunate enough to have enough influence to convince them to allow me to buy the Data Center version of both SCCM and SCOM. Having said that, we utilize SCCM within our IT Department to manage our IT inventory as well as push out critical updates and patches to our Microsoft Windows devices. Additionally, we utilize SCCM to track software licensing and usage across our organization. It has been a powerful tool for us as a company to enable not only the resource management functions, but leveraging the System Center Endpoint Protection (SCEP) product enables us to manage and take advantage Microsoft built in security products. The reporting is an extremely flexible and powerful tool that enables us to quickly visualize our inventory and assist with technology refreshes and forecasting our upgrades.
- System Center Endpoint Protection (SCEP) product enables you to manage and take advantage Microsoft built in security products. Very simple to configure and maintain.
- Track software licensing and usage across your organization.
- Managing the ageing of our equipment and plan technical refreshes. Through reporting you can easily visualize your inventory and see basically any information needed to make informed decisions.
- Configuration and setup of SCCM can be quite challenging if you have never performed this. Microsoft has very good documentation on this function and can guide a seasoned IT professional through the process.
- Keeping SCCM up to date can be challenging and I believe that this is a major opportunity for an area of improvement.
- There is a right-click tool kit that is separate that Microsoft should include in the console. Once you use them, you will understand why.
- Positive Impact #1: Leveraging the Remote Access feature, we can simply remotely connect to a users workstation to assist with any issues they may encounter. We have multiple locations, so it is a huge time saver in troubleshooting end user issues.
- Positive Impact #2: ROI is different for everyone, but ours has been positive in that we dont have to travel back and fourth between building as often to assist users. This saves time, gas and ultimately money.
- Positive Impact #3: After you have deployed all the SCCM agents SCCM will start performing its magic. Inventory of your hardware and software is readily available in fully customizable reports that you can provide upper management for tech refreshes, etc. We also use the reports to ensure we have the right licensing installed vs. the licensing we have purchased.
Previously, we used GFI's LanGuard NSS which is not really an apples to apples comparison. However, the product was agent-based and had an inventory function, Windows update feature and reporting for security holes. Due to the basic nature of the product, we outgrew it and needed a more robust and industry standard product like SCCM.