Latest Version of LANDesk® Service Desk Drives ROI in Service Management, Provides Tight Integration with other LANDesk Solutions and IT Systems

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — August 10, 2009 — Avocent Corporation (Nasdaq: AVCT) , a global leader in IT operations management, today announced a significant upgrade to its LANDesk® Service Desk IT Business Management Suite, which increases productivity, improves service quality, and reduces IT management costs. The new version, generally available immediately, continues to execute on Avocent’s LANDesk product line strategy of providing comprehensive, integrated service desk and IT service, infrastructure and asset management solutions for the data center to the desktop.

“The latest version of LANDesk Service Desk builds on our Touchpaper acquisition with many fresh, robust service desk technologies customers want today,” said Steve Workman, vice president, product management, LANDesk.  “Avocent’s LANDesk product line commitment to IT Service Management enables organisations to optimise their IT investments by transitioning the service desk from a cost center to a business services center, improving service processes and increasing productivity across the enterprise – all while reducing costs.” 

New Solution Provides Higher Productivity
With this latest release, IT organisations can achieve higher productivity because of its tight and rich integration with LANDesk solutions and systems, enabling a quicker return on investment when compared to competitive offerings. Organisations are looking for solutions that grow with them as they evolve from basic incident management to more long-term IT goals and proactive ITIL service management disciplines, such as problem and change management. LANDesk Service Desk 7.3 enables better analysis for IT assets, so more informed business decisions about service quality across the enterprise can be made.  By incorporating key performance indicators (KPIs) into the service desk, Avocent’s LANDesk product line is helping to solve IT complexities for everyone from service desk managers to IT directors.

“The ability for us to have even quicker response times through a browser, from anywhere with Web Desk, coupled with the new version’s impressive and intuitive dashboard, are compelling benefits that help streamline IT operations,” said Tom Mortimer, director of computing services, University of Dundee. “This solution provided by Avocent’s LANDesk product line allows us to develop and improve the way we use the system and we are very impressed by its speed of response.”

The upgraded LANDesk Service Desk solution provides powerful new features such as a Web Desk application and enhanced dashboards to drive more proactive service management so the service desk can quickly resolve incidents, allowing analysts more time to work on resolutions and prevention. Web Desk allows access to LANDesk Service Desk from any location via an Internet connection. This is ideal for those on the move as it requires no local installation.

 "The new Web Desk application module is a great step forward in getting the right client solution for differing support needs,” said Giovanni Vitale, ITBM administrator, Whitbread Group Plc., a UK-based hospitality company managing several popular brands in hotels, restaurants and coffee houses. “Being able to deploy a feature rich application, similar to a console without the size and configuration of a full client, will allow us to drive forward the customer experience, especially with field based support staff.”

The main features in LANDesk Service Desk 7.3 include:
•   New LANDesk Web Desk Application – A brand new browser application provides business users access to LANDesk Service Desk from remote or mobile locations.
•   Integration with SolarWinds® Orion® NPM (Network Performance Monitor), a leading network management product, via the new Event Management functionality that allows events occurring on the network to be automatically reported to the service desk.
•   Enhancements to Query Results – Several significant upgrades allow easier and faster results for users to design and interact with queries, making service management more efficient.
•   Multiple Dashboards – Enhanced graphical dashboards enable users to have one or more dashboards that can be published and administered centrally.
•   Calculations on Queries and Forms – Extending Service Desk’s proactive service management capabilities, many new mathematical functions can be performed, enabling real-time calculations on data on forms, queries and related processes, as well as ‘on-demand’ calculations.

About Avocent’s LANDesk Product Line
Avocent delivers IT operations management solutions that reduce operating costs, simplify management, and increase the availability of critical IT environments 24/7 via integrated, centralised software. LANDesk delivers cost-effective systems, security, and process management solutions that help IT teams automate and simplify the management of desktops, servers, and mobile devices. With long-standing partner relationships and solutions successfully deployed at leading enterprises worldwide, LANDesk continues to deliver rapid innovation and time to value to help organisations achieve their business objectives. Additional information is available at www.landesk.com and http://itsm.stage.verite.com/.

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