Microsoft .NET Framework

Customer Solution Case Study

Boosting staff productivity, IT asset management through tracking solutions

Overview Country or Region: Malaysia

Industry: Information Technology

Customer Profile

Authentic Venture Sdn Bhd is a Malaysian

software development firm focusing on

asset management solutions as well as

online tracking and monitoring solutions.

Business Situation

Authentic Venture developed AsseTrax as a

system that enables laptop owners to track

their stolen computers, and Online IT Asset

Management to help firms manage their IT

assets more effectively.

Solution

Its online IT asset management application

as well as its tracking and monitoring

solutions were developed on the Microsoft

.NET and Windows Azure platforms.

Benefits

Effective IT asset management

Cuts software audit costs

Helps recover stolen laptops

Enhances employee productivity

“The infrastructure for IT Asset Management and

AsseTrax, which was built on the .NET and Windows

Azure platforms, will be used by Authentic Venture as

the base to develop new SaaS solutions.”

Ir Aziz Ismail, CEO, Authentic Venture Sdn Bhd

A leading Malaysian software development company, Authentic

Venture Sdn Bhd’s suite of applications are designed to help

companies of all sizes manage their assets, whether physical or

information technology assets. Having made a name for its

Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) and

Asset Management applications, Authentic Venture is now forging a

reputation as a specialist in online tracking and monitoring

solutions on the Microsoft .NET and Windows Azure platforms. To

alleviate the growing problem of computer theft, Authentic Venture

developed AsseTrax, a system that enables laptop owners and the

authorities to track stolen computers. Authentic Venture also

released the country’s first online IT asset management system as

a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution and eTrax, which enables

employers to track their employees’ internet usage during working

hours.

Situation Authentic Venture Sdn Bhd is a leading

Malaysian software development company

driven by creative IT professionals with strong

background in software development to

produce asset management and enterprise

solutions that are used by customers from

around the world.

Authentic Venture is helmed by CEO Ir Aziz

Ismail who founded the company in 2002 in

the aftermath of the dotcom bust. With its

technical excellence and innovation as well

as its expertise in Microsoft technologies,

Authentic Venture is counted among the

leading Microsoft Certified Partners in the

country and in developing solutions on

cutting-edge technologies.

The first product developed by the company

was a maintenance management solution.

Since then, Authentic Venture has helped

companies of all sizes manage their assets,

whether physical or information technology

assets, enabling them to focus on their core

business.

Though the MSC-status company is known for

applications such as its Computerized

Maintenance Management System (CMMS)

and Asset Management applications,

Authentic Venture is now forging a reputation

as one of the region’s foremost specialists in

online tracking and monitoring solutions.

A growing problem faced by companies and

individuals around the world, especially with

the proliferation laptop computers, is the

theft of laptops and PCs. “People needed a

way to track and recover their computers

even after it is stolen,” says Ir Aziz.

Seeing the opportunity to help reduce the

impact of this scourge, Authentic Venture

developed AsseTrax, a system that enables

government agencies, companies and

organizations to register the ownership of

their laptops and computers, allowing the

owners and authorities to track the

computers in the event it is stolen.

The tracking technologies used in AsseTrax

had earlier been developed by Authentic

Venture to create online asset management

solutions. The company had released the first

online IT asset management system in

Malaysia as a Software as a Service (SaaS)

solution, that helps organizations manage

their IT assets in a more effective and

economical way. Online IT Asset Management

is one of three solutions placed under the

new AssetCentral product brand, the others

being Enterprise Asset Management and

Computerized Maintenance Management.

Authentic Venture also saw the potential of

software which could help boost productivity

in the workplace by reducing lost man-hours

as a result of employees engaging in

computer games, online chatting and social

networking in the workplace.

With companies increasingly providing

Internet access to its employees, this

productivity loss was something bleeding

many employers. “We knew that if we could

develop an application which could help

companies reduce such crippling productivity

loss, it could become a new growth area for

us,” Ir Aziz adds.

This was the motivation which saw Authentic

Venture developing eTrax which enables

employers to track their staff’s internet usage

such as surfing, chatting, social networking

sites, playing online games and so on.

Solution To allow its customers, especially small and

medium-sized businesses, a more cost-

effective way to use its software without

incurring huge licensing costs and without

having to invest in expensive hardware and

infrastructure, Authentic Venture decided to

develop its applications including Online IT

Asset Management and AsseTrax as SaaS

solutions delivered through the “cloud”.

Firstly, the SaaS model means that

companies need not fork out a large sum of

money upfront to acquire software licenses.

“Instead, companies just pay a small monthly

subscription fee to use the service. If it is not

up to expectations, you can discontinue it

unlike the conventional software acquisition

process where a company would have paid

upfront hundreds of thousands for new

software,” says Ir Aziz.

Secondly, he adds, the SaaS model benefits

customers in that they don’t need to invest in

new hardware and infrastructure for their

new systems, and having to allocate funds

and IT resources to manage and maintain the

system.

After deciding to go the route of cloud

computing, Authentic Venture opted to build

its SaaS applications on the Windows Azure

platform. In the process, it became one of the

first companies in Malaysia to release

commercially available software on Windows

Azure. “We were among the first ISVs in

Malaysia to push our products to the Azure

cloud,” says Ir Aziz.

He adds that Authentic Venture opted for

Windows Azure because its software offerings

were already all on the Microsoft .NET

platform and the learning curve for its

developers to move to Windows Azure would

be less steep given their familiarity with

Microsoft technologies such as the Microsoft

.NET Framework and the Visual Studio

development platform.

Ir Aziz says the company spent millions of

ringgit on developing the infrastructure for its

tracking software like Online IT Asset

Management and AsseTrax. “It costs us a lot

of money to develop it. It picks up the

relevant data from the PC, bypasses the

firewall and goes to the cloud at high speed.

Most people don’t have that technology,” he

says, adding that the infrastructure which

was built on the .NET and Windows Azure

platforms will be used by Authentic Venture

as the base to develop new SaaS solutions.

Benefits

IT Asset Management

Authentic Venture’s Online IT Asset

Management system helps to companies to

manage IT assets, such as software licenses

and computer, in a more cost-effective and

efficient way. “When you have over 100

computers, you will be wasting time if you use

pen and paper to keep track of your IT

assets,” says Ir Aziz, adding that manually

keeping track of such information and

licenses was both impractical and an IT

administrator’s nightmare.

Starting from procurement to disposal, Online

IT Asset Management manages the life-cycle

for an organization’s IT assets, both hardware

and software. Using AssetXplorer, which is a

software that comes together with IT Asset

Management, all information such as the

serial numbers, version, brand, license and

so on will be grabbed automatically. This

information will then be sent to be stored in

the Azure cloud.

Management is made easy since managers

and company owners can monitor their IT

assets from anywhere in the world. “The

managing and monitoring process is made

mobile. All the information will be at their

fingertips. With just a click, organizations can

retrieve whatever information they desire

automatically.The automated system saves

up to a whopping 95% for auto-registration

and auto-audit,” states Ir Aziz.

By keeping track of the a company’s software

licences through AsseTrax, companies can

“We were among the

first ISVs in Malaysia to

push our products to the

Azure cloud.” Ir Aziz Ismail, CEO, Authentic Venture Sdn Bhd

easily comply with software audits

requirements and ensure they are not held

liable for not being able to account for any

software used within the organisation.

AsseTrax Laptop Tracking System

AsseTrax is an advanced laptop tracking

software that enables those who have

registered, for free, to track their laptops

anywhere in the world and essentially

provides a chance for those whose laptops

have been stolen to recover it. “Laptop theft

is a big problem worldwide. According to

statistics, one is stolen every 62 seconds,”

says Ir Aziz.

He says the registration process is important

to reduce computer theft as previously, most

people could not distinguish their computers

to others when stolen and resold to

unsuspecting buyers. “With AsseTrax, laptop

crime will become more risky for the thieves.

The system provides a solution to the

increasing incidence of computer theft both

in Malaysia and worldwide,” adds Ir Aziz.

While computer owners can now track the

location of their laptops/computers with

AsseTrax, this is complemented by Authentic

Venture developing a platform for the police

to track the location of the stolen computers

and to nab the culprits. The solution is

expected to play a part in helping the police

force and the government to reduce crime

nationwide, says Ir Aziz. “It does not matter if

you have one laptop or 1,000, AsseTrax will

help you track them until recovery,” he

reiterates.

He says that AsseTrax users are now found in

45 countries around the world, and growing.

The increasing popularity of AsseTrax is

evidenced by it being at the top of the search

list on “laptop tracking” on Google, says Ir

Aziz.

Employee Tracking

While the Internet is a blessing in many ways

but when abused by staff engaging in

unproductive activities, it can be a major

problem for employers. “Studies by IT

research firm Gartner have revealed that

many companies suffer a 40% productivity

loss from non-work related Internet surfing,”

says Ir Aziz.

The survey also showed that companies with

an average workforce of 100 employees who

spend just 20 minutes per day on

inappropriate Internet use would suffer a

US$32,000 loss per month, or US$384,000

a year, Ir Aziz points out.

That’s where Authentic Venture’s eTrax

comes to the fore – in helping organizations

stem serious productivity loss by tracking

employees’ Internet usage such as surfing,

chatting, accessing social networking sites

like Facebook, playing online games and so

on. Companies can also use eTrax to track

work-at-home employees and overtime

employees.

“You can even view back the computer

screen of your staff if you need to. For an

employee, that’s a scary thought! In most

cases, companies will see a significant

increase in productivity after installing eTrax

because now your staff knows they are being

tracked.”

“In fact Gartner research reveals that the

moment you install an employee tracking

software, employers can see immediate

improvement in productivity, by more than

50%, because they know that the boss is now

monitoring what they are doing online,” Ir Aziz

says. By having the capability to track your

employees' daily computer activities,

employers can also know who their top

employees are and who the less productive

ones are.

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 .NET provides you with a comprehensive and

consistent programming model and a

common set of APIs across all tiers of your

application. .NET helps you to build

applications that work the way you want, in

the programming language you prefer, across

software, services, and devices. .NET helps

developers move quickly from idea to the

creation of rich, responsive applications that

people want to use.

.NET Framework 3.5 SP1 expands and

improves offerings in the .NET Framework

and Visual Studio 2008. .NET Framework 3.5

SP1 introduces the ADO.NET Entity

Framework and ADO.NET Data Services,

which simplify data access code in

applications by providing an extensible,

conceptual model for accessing data from

any source.

For more information about the .NET

Framework 3.5, please go to:

www.microsoft.com/netframework

For More Information

To access information using the World

Wide Web, go to:

www.microsoft.com/en/my

For more information on Authentic

Venture’s products and services, call

(+603) 8941 2739 or visit the Web site at:

www.ventures.com.my

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published: August 2010

Software and Services Windows Azure

Microsoft Visual Studio

Technologies

− Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5