LANDesk Adds Help-Desk Offering

Salt Lake City-based LANDesk said it licensed tools from Touchpaper, a U.K.-based provider of IT business management solutions, to create the LANDesk Service Center.

The addition of a service desk offering is key for LANDesk because some of its rivals in the increasingly competitive midmarket network systems management arena already offer service desk solutions, according to Kevin Auger, director of service management solutions at LANDesk. For example, BMC Software added its IT Service Support Express offering when it acquired the Magic product line from McAfee in 2003. FrontRange Solutions also is a LANDesk rival in this space, he said.

By being able to offer partners the Service Center, LANDesk takes another step toward its goal of becoming a comprehensive business solution for mid- and upper-midmarket customers, Auger noted. "This is just further evidence that we are getting away from just providing technology and toolsets and moving to really providing true business value," he said.

The Service Center platform, which starts at about $27,000, is a separate console from the vendor's LANDesk Management Suite, Auger added. Solution providers should commit about a month for complete deployment of the platform at a customer site, including installation and training, he said.