To be able to execute and keep control of distributed systems, there is a need to use what is typically known as system management software. Assuming an enterprise is big enough and has operations spread out considerably enough to guarantee a distributed system, the benefits are fairly self evident. For a growing organization, you will find a cutoff point at which it becomes impractical to do individual installations on each station, and examine the paper and electronic trail left by every user in an attempt to centralize the actual whole setup.

It therefore becomes necessary for managers to determine the information need of the organization and established goals for what is to be achieved with the proposed information system. It is imperative for the manager to ensure that his proposed information system has the full support of the management and adequate or required finances are appropriated for the project. If not the project might fail.

Installation & Management: Fast and easy automation for new installations and upgrades is the core benefit. A company with a handful of computers all located in the same office can do individual installations. But it gets harder when a company has a large setup and a gazillion computers. Introduce system management, and the problems go away, the entire process is now streamlined and automated and needs a lot less effort and manpower.

Remote management means that you are paying an individual or provider to monitor your networks at all times. This means trusting someone, but it also means that you don't have to wait for something to go wrong to call someone in order to help you. It also means that a problem can be fixed as soon as it pops up instead of waiting for it to grow and grow and possibly have a domino effect on the whole system, slowing or shutting everything down.

Most of the time, businesses that use IT functions outsource their work when it comes to the installation of networks or the setting up of systems. It is therefore, important at this point to ensure that one enlists the services of a reputable IT services firm that has the capacity and professional qualifications to do the work.

Then there is configuration control, which is the list of methods and approval stages that are needed to modify a configuration point's traits and reinitiate them. Configuration status accounting is the facility needed to document and deal with the configuration baselines correlated to each point at any time period. The last task is Configuration audits, which has two aspects: functional audits and physical audits. The former deals with the functional and performance attributes of the configuration point. On the other hand the latter makes certain that the configuration point is established according to what is required by the detailed design records.


To summarize, the immediate advantages of using system management are very much real and the possibilities even bigger. End of the day, each company has to make an informed decision about this based on its own size and growth curve. A cost benefit analysis to figure out the ROI of system management software would be a good place to begin.