Thursday, 28 July 2005 07:21 EST

qcl technologies is delighted to announce its recent appointment as a Partner to iQuate with rights to market and assist in IT Asset Management, IT Governance and IT Compliance. qcl will integrate iQuate’s range of software solutions and IT Compliance Health Checks into their business offering, ensuring that qcl’s clients follow best practices through IT Governance and IT Compliance.

The business development is a direct result from activities with the BSA at the ICT Expo this year.

About iQuate
iQuate specialize in IT asset management and corporate governance applications and services. They develop software tools for use in the areas of hardware and software inventory, software deployment, helpdesk and network monitoring. Its products provide IT managers with solutions that address and solve issues associated with corporate IT lifecycle.

iQNetScan
Asset Management - iQNetScan is an auditing and inventory software, allowing you to, very quickly, get a snapshot of what software and hardware exists on the network and then helps you to manage your IT assets on an ongoing basis.

iQFileScan
File Searching - iQFileScan is a software tool that searches the corporate network for particular files, based on a set of chosen parameters. For example, you might want to find and remove MP3 files from the network or you might have lost that management report with a particular phrase in it. In both of these cases, iQFileScan will quickly and efficiently find these files, wherever they exist on the network.

iQDeploy
Software Deployment - iQDeploy is a very simple software deployment tool. Whether you are rolling out a new version of your enterprise CRM software or implementing the latest patch across the network, iQDeploy can make you job much easier.

iQStatus
Network Monitoring- iQStatus is an agentless monitoring solution designed to ensure the optimum availability and performance of distributed IT infrastructures such as mission critical servers, operating systems, network devices and services, applications and application servers and components

iQHelpDesk
Service Desk - iQHelpDesk is a web based support desk software tool that manages support calls, including ticketing, escalation procedures and SLA management.

qcl will now be able to offer complete turnkey compliance strategies for their customers by implementing iQuate’s ‘Health Check’. iQuate will assist by focusing on the key goals which are relevant to you. The key areas covered generally include the following steps:

1 Compliance Check
Audits for the existence of written procedures and implemented practices that ensure compliance with all legislation, industry regulations and contractual obligations which may be relevant to your company. Areas covered include Authorized Usage Policies (AUP's) for Hardware, Software, Internet Access and Email, License Compliance, Copyright Compliance (media and IPR) and other industry specific requirements. The primary result of this part of the engagement will be to answer the question: Is the business adhering to all of the legislative and regulatory requirements with regard to your IT processes? If not, we highlight the gaps and identify the associated risks.

2 Business Alignment
Alignment involves meeting with and interviewing company directors and managers to get an understanding of the key corporate objectives. Once these objectives are ranked in terms of importance, we then analyse the current and planned IT projects, mapping the corporate objectives to the IT projects, ensuring that the IT department is aligned to the business and company objectives.

3 Process Check
"General controls check" which involves identifying and evaluating existing controls and procedures relating to the day-to-day operation of the IT department. Once procedures have been identified, they are evaluated for “completeness” against the COBIT model and for compliance, from the end point out to the audit trail. We ensure that your IT processes are holistic, efficient and well implemented.

4 User Satisfaction
Analysis of IT systems from an end-user perspective. We identify strengths and weaknesses in the existing support structure to ensure that the systems that are in place are the best fit for the employees for them to align themselves to the key business objectives. We analyse whether your end-users are satisfied with the system and using it efficiently and effectively.

5 Change Management
Change to your IT systems (servers, workstations, network infrastructure etc.) will be properly scheduled, efficient and orderly, with little to no risk of unexpected results from a change going into place. Change management has to be looked at with a “real-world” perspective – iQuate’s tools and services blend best practice with leading change monitoring solutions to ensure change management is handled in the most efficient way possible providing procedures which are simple to implement and audit trails that are easy to follow. The procedures that iQuate will assist you in implementing will ensure that changes are Identified, Prioritized, Categorized, and Authorized, that proper risk assessments take place, and audit trails exist to ensure that your IT department not only manages changes, but can prove it.

6 Software Management
Ongoing software management is essential to ensure that your AUP’s are adhered to and that you can gain acknowledgement that you are following best practices. As part of the package, we will utilise iQNetscan and iQFilescan to ensure that we measure your level of compliance based on the findings from your corporate network.