K2 6.1 enhances reporting achitecture

Sassafras Software has begun shipping K2 - KeyAuditor & KeyServer 6.1, updating the cross-platform IT asset management (ITAM) tool for software asset management, hardware auditing, usage tracking, and software license compliance. The new reporting architecture includes scheduling features to automatically run reports on a recurring basis, a Web interface for convenience across an enterprise network, several new reports, and a speed increase for faster reporting. The application manages software assets for Mac, Windows, and thin-client computers across any global network including laptop computers both inside and outside a firewall. K2 6.1 runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs as a Universal Binary, and comes with a Dashboard widget for monitoring the status and usage activity of a remote KeyServer. Pricing ranges from $10-55 per client.

Scheduled reports and Web console

The new report server introduces significantly faster performance, and adds numerous report templates to K2's collection of reports. K2's built-in report templates support hundreds of reports directly from its management console.

Reports are executable from the admin console, or from the new K2 Web Reports Server. All K2 administrative accounts have direct Web browser access within the scope of each account's settings for real-time, scheduled, and archived reports. Both Divisional and Full administrators can run reports on-demand for their business units, or schedule them to run automatically at recurring times during non peak hours.

K2's Web Reports home page also grants guest access to public documents while managing authenticated access to restricted reports. Users can make notification of newly published reports available via an RSS feed, and customized settings as well as saved report templates allow flexibility in meeting site-specific requirements.

Rules-based filtering

K2 6.1 offers discovery rules designed to quickly get an IT staff up and running with a Software Asset Management plan. Discovery rules work automatically during the audit process to assign management settings to computers and programs, and to classify them into predefined categories.

K2 uses predefined rules to choose between four program action settings (Controlled, Logged, Audited, or Ignored) as well as two client computer settings (Full and Basic) as each computer and program is discovered. Users can alter settings manually as desired to fine-tune the management configuration. Correct categorization of computers and programs helps make reporting and configuration of software audits and license management faster and easier.

Role- and Scope-based administration

In addition to a fully privileged administrator account, K2 is configurable for role- and scope-based administrative access. A single-button setting limits accounts to "Report-only" access for convenient configuration of departmental reporting accounts for anyone within an organization.

Active Directory integration

K2 supports numerous industry-standard authentication methods such as Kerberos, LDAP, Windows NT, Active Directory, SQL, and Unix. K2 6.1 supports nested groups when using Active Directory for group membership.

Rapid client deployment

K2 6.1 supports rapid, large-scale deployment of the K2 client agent through the use of Mac and Windows MSI Package installers. Client installers are easily configured with site-specific options. Deployment is streamlined using common enterprise deployment tools such as Microsoft Active Directory with Group Policy Objects, Novell ZENworks, or Mac OS X Open Directory with Apple Remote Desktop.

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Other story tags: business software