Handily besting its competitors for the third straight year, Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 is your choice for Best Asset Management Software. SMS is one dominant piece of software in the Systems Management Products category, as you'll see from a quick perusal of the other award winners on the next few pages. Readers acknowledged SMS's peerless asset-management capabilities.
Management of hardware and software assets is increasingly important to the IT budget, as corporations need to find ways to reduce costs while remaining compliant with vendors' licensing policies. SMS 2003 lets you make informed and cost-effective business decisions about the IT infrastructure. The product uses Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to provide excellent client-side performance during inventory scans, as well as a rich set of inventory data. SMS 2003 also integrates its inventory capabilities with robust software metering, letting you not only know what software is installed, but more important, what software is in use. Such usage tracking lets you reduce costs by identifying and discontinuing support for unused applications.