Solution Brief Zenith* SAAZ for PCs with

Zenith* Infotech SAAZ

Intel® vPro™ Technology
Intel® vPro™ Technology
Company Zenith* Infotech Ltd. is the developer of SAAZ, and provider of a subscription IT
management service that allows hardware resellers to provide small businesses
with a level of IT support usually seen only in large corporations.

Business Challenge Reducing costly on-site service calls, providing more off-hours maintenance
and management services, and improving security updates for small businesses.

Technology Solution Zenith Infotech SAAZ1

Enhanced By PCs with Intel® vPro™technology

Reducing on-site service calls and performing off-hours maintenance for

small-business customers
Intel® vPro™ technology delivers powerful new capabilities for remote management
of desktop PCs. When used on PCs with Intel vPro technology, Zenith* Infotech SAAZ
improves remote problem resolution, off-hours maintenance, and remote security for PC
resellers and service providers who manage PCs for small-business customers. This helps
hardware resellers deliver more services off-hours and down the wire, minimizing down-
time and interference with small-business operations.

The capabilities that improve remote and off-hours management are designed into the
hardware and “firmware” of PCs with Intel vPro technology. These capabilities are available
to authorized information technology (IT) technicians even if the customer’s PC power is
off, an operating system (OS) is down, or management or security software isn’t available.
Zenith technicians can now perform remote monitoring, management, maintenance,
and updates for PCs with Intel vPro technology anytime. Hardware resellers can now
give small businesses even more of the benefits of big-business services on a small-
business budget.
Today’s service model
Small businesses don’t often have the time, staff, or expertise to
manage their PCs. Instead, they contract with hardware resellers
or local service providers for management and security services
for their systems.
In turn, hardware resellers rely on software-based management
tools and services, such as Zenith Infotech SAAZ, to perform the
actual management services for the IT infrastructure in small busi-
nesses. These services include remote asset inventory, problem
resolution, virus and spyware scans, application updates, system
maintenance, and back-ups.
For scheduled management tasks, the reseller taps into the Zenith
web portal to get real-time information from the SAAZ software
about the PCs at customer sites. Other services, such as problem
resolution, are performed by Zenith technicians on an as-needed
basis. For example, when the SAAZ agent discovers a hardware or
software problem or potential issue that requires immediate atten-
tion, a Zenith technician fixes the problem remotely, from the Zenith
management center, if possible. If the problem can’t be fixed remotely,
SAAZ sends an alert to the hardware reseller, so the reseller can
dispatch a service technician to the customer site.
IT service challenges
The challenge in providing remote IT services is that software-
only management tools have not traditionally allowed remote
communication with PCs when management agents are missing,
PC power is off, or the OS is inoperative. Instead, costly on-site
service calls are required to maintain, update, troubleshoot, or repair
machines. For many small businesses, 40% of a customer’s total
cost of management is for on-site maintenance, security updates,
2
and problem resolution. There is an additional burden of user
downtime, not just during the service call, but as users wait for
a service technician to arrive on-site.
Compounding the problem is that most remote services must be
performed during working hours, when PCs are powered on and
the user is available over the phone to help with remote diagnostics
or other tasks. This causes significant interruption to users and busi-
ness. There is a critical need for tools that allow IT technicians to
perform more tasks remotely and off-hours, and help reduce user
interruptions and downtime.
The solution: Zenith SAAZ used on PCs with
Intel vPro technology
Zenith is improving remote management of PCs for hardware resellers
by taking advantage of new, hardware-based capabilities built into
systems with Intel vPro technology. The built-in capabilities include
remote communication that runs “under” the OS, as well as remote
power-up, remote boot, console redirection, persistent hardware and
configuration information, and agent presence checking.
Zenith can now remotely troubleshoot and diagnose a PC with
Intel vPro technology, even if the OS is down. With remote power-
up capabilities, Zenith can make back-ups and execute virus and
spyware scans off-hours, even for systems that are powered off
at the start of the maintenance cycle. Hardware resellers can now
reduce costly on-site service calls, speed up problem resolution,
and reduce user interruptions for small businesses.
Remote communication for critical system information
Zenith SAAZ is taking full advantage of one of the most powerful
capabilities built into PCs with Intel vPro technology: hardware-based
remote communication. The communication channel in these PCs is
independent of the PC power state or the health of the OS. As long
as the customer’s PC is connected to a power source and plugged
into the network, the communication channel is available to autho-
rized Zenith technicians.
This means that Zenith technicians can trigger remote-boot com-
mands for problem resolution, acquire hardware asset information,
and perform other tasks without leaving the management center.
This not only reduces on-site service calls for customers, but
improves user uptime, since users no longer have to wait for a
service technician to arrive to fix the problem.
Proactive monitoring for maintenance and repair
PCs with Intel vPro technology include nonvolatile memory for
critical system information. The information in this memory remains
available to Zenith technicians, even if the PC is powered off, hardware
assets change, the OS is reimaged, or management agents are missing.
Zenith is taking advantage of this persistent memory space to store
SAAZ error codes for system health. For example, SAAZ tracks disk
controller performance and registry corruption issues for hardware
resellers. When a problem condition or potential issue is identified,
SAAZ stores the health code for that condition in the PC’s non-
volatile memory.
Zenith can now run scans off-hours to collect a PC’s error codes
and determine which machines might need maintenance, further
investigation, or troubleshooting. This allows Zenith to proactively
monitor a system for health issues. When an issue is discovered,
Zenith performs maintenance or proactive repair as needed to
prevent the system from becoming inoperative during business
hours. If the problem can’t be fixed remotely, SAAZ sends an alert
to the hardware reseller, who can quickly dispatch a service tech-
nician to the customer site.
When SAAZ is used on PCs with Intel vPro technology, Zenith can
address more general maintenance and service issues off-hours.
Hardware resellers can now deliver a higher level of service, with
even less interference in the customer’s business.
Reducing costly on-site service calls
When used on PCs with Intel vPro technology, SAAZ allows a Zenith
technician to remotely boot, troubleshoot, diagnose, and reimage the
system, even if the OS is down. Remote boot capabilities are provided
through integrated device electronics redirect (IDE-R). Console redirection
is provided through a serial-over-LAN (SOL) capability. Combined with
hardware-based alerting, persistent event logs, and “always-available”
hardware asset information, these capabilities allow Zenith technicians
to eliminate many of the on-site service calls traditionally required to
resolve hardware and software problems.
For example, if a PC won’t boot, the Zenith technician can remotely
change the PC’s boot device to a remote drive, such as a boot image
at the Zenith management center. The technician can then use con-
sole redirection to walk the PC through a troubleshooting session
without requiring user participation in the process. If the problem is
a corrupted system file, the technician can remotely reinstall a new
file from the Zenith management console. When a problem requires
a full software rebuild, the technician can reimage the drive from the
Zenith console.
With access to persistent hardware asset information and BIOS
configuration settings in nonvolatile memory, the Zenith technician
can also use SAAZ to easily upload information about failed compo-
nents. The hardware reseller can now eliminate many service calls for
on-site diagnostics. Instead, the reseller can often dispatch a service
technician just once, to deliver and install the new component in
the customer’s PC. Expensive on-site labor costs can be reduced for
the customer, and users can be back up and working more quickly.
Because on-site service calls can be reduced, resellers might also be
able to reduce staffing requirements for on-site service calls.
Performing back-ups, updates, and service tasks off-hours
Hardware resellers often carefully schedule time-consuming
maintenance tasks, such as virus scans and back-ups, around user
schedules during working hours. SAAZ is now taking advantage of
a powerful, embedded, remote power-up capability in PCs with Intel
vPro technology to improve off-hours services. This capability allows
an authorized Zenith technician to remotely wake the PC for main-
tenance, proactive problem resolution, updates, or other IT tasks,
even if the PC was powered down when the user left for the day.
For example, a technician might schedule a virus and spyware scan
for late evening, after workers have gone home. To perform the scan,
the Zenith technician first polls PCs with Intel vPro technology to find
out which systems are powered off. The technician then remotely
wakes these PCs, executes the scans, and returns the PCs to the
state in which users left them: on, off, hibernating, or sleeping. When
users come in the next day, the PCs have already been scanned and
are ready for work.
When combined with hardware-based capabilities for problem
resolution, the remote power-up capability gives Zenith more
flexibility in providing services off-hours. For example, if a critical
antivirus patch causes a software problem, Zenith technicians can
diagnose the problem remotely, and fix or reimage systems as
needed, from the Zenith management center. Maintenance tasks,
such as disk clean-up, can also be performed more easily around
a customer’s production and work schedules, so businesses can
experience fewer interruptions.
Summary
Hardware resellers and service providers face increasing pressure
to deliver IT services around business schedules. PCs with Intel vPro
technology now provide powerful hardware-based capabilities that
allow Zenith to offer enhanced remote management, diagnostics,
disaster recovery, and off-hours maintenance—from the management
center. This is a new level of service that hardware resellers can offer
small-business customers. Resellers can now deliver enterprise-level
IT support, help reduce costly on-site service calls, and increase user
uptime for small-business customers.
S O LU T I O N B E N E F I T S
• Reduced number of costly on-site service calls
for problem resolution and maintenance
• Fewer interruptions to users and business
• Faster and more proactive problem resolution
with proactive monitoring of the health of
user PCs
• Lower staff requirements for on-site service
calls made by resellers
 For more information
PCs with Intel vPro technology give IT administrators critical, hardware-based security and
manageability capabilities not available in software-only solutions. When provisioned with
third-party software, these PCs make it easier for IT to manage and secure desktop systems
3
directly from the IT console, regardless of PC power state or the health of the OS.

For more information about PCs with Intel vPro technology, visit
www.intel.com/vpro
For more information about Zenith Infotech SAAZ, visit
www.zenithinfotech.com

1
All content regarding Zenith* Infotech SAAZ was provided by Zenith Infotech Ltd.

2
Source: Zenith Infotech knowledge base.

3
PCs with Intel® vPro™ technology include Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT). Intel AMT requires the computer to have an
Intel AMT-enabled chipset, network hardware and software, connection with a power source, and a network connection.

Copyright 2006 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel, the Intel logo, and Intel vPro are trademarks or registered trademarks of
©
Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Printed in USA/0406/JN/PMS/PDF Order Number: 312669-001US