2014-09-12

This is an independent review of Miradore.

AT A GLANCE

Founded in 2006 with headquarters in Finland, Miradore is a provider of IT Asset Management (ITAM) solutions enabling organisations to manage their IT assets throughout their lifecycle.

This review takes a look at the core capabilities, the route to market, competitive strengths and weaknesses, product development roadmap and market reach of Miradore’s latest offering, which was released in July 2014.

Miradore offer both an on-premise solution and an online solution for its customers, with the on-premise offering only available through channel partners and managed service providers (MSP). The online offering, including its free mobile device management solution, can be found on the website.

SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS

Strengths

Weaknesses

Asset management data reporting

  On-premise solution only purchasable through MSP’s

Built in approval processes

Day-to-day Software Asset Management (SAM)

Easy software deployment

Poor software metering

User Interface (UI) is customizable and easy to use

Strong Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution (Miradore Online)

PRIMARY MARKET FOCUS

Miradore’s market focus is primarily within the Nordic regions. It also has a number of customers in other regions, with the percentage of customers outlined below:

Finland 69%

Sweden 18%

Denmark 5%

UK 4%

Brazil 3%

Singapore 1%

The cost of a typical project ranges between €100,000 to €500, 000, with the total project cost normally consisting of 80% licence costs and 20% implementation services. Maintenance and support is included in this price.

ANALYSIS

There are not many ITAM tools currently on the market that claim to do as much as Miradore does. Usually tools primarily focus on specialising in one aspect, whether that’s IT asset management, SAM, configuration, deployment or MDM. However, Miradore appears to have torn up the rule book, and decided to provide a solution that does anything and everything you could possibly need to manage your assets throughout their lifecycle. It’s a big challenge, but we think Miradore may have just pulled it off.

Miradore offers a clean, fresh UI for its customers, with a lot of customization options. A user can specify what information they want to see on their homepage to best suit their own requirements. Furthermore, Miradore users can chose from over 70 Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) when customizing the tool, which we believe gives a unique feel to each user.

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In The ITAM Review’s opinion, Miradore really excels in the hardware asset management (HAM) and hardware discovery aspect. The sheer amount of hardware information available to the end user is superb; it provides all the hardware information that an organisation could possibly need to effectively manage its hardware assets throughout its lifecycle. Miradore can track any form of asset, from laptop to printer to mobile device, and it presents the data it has recorded in a comprehensive format.

What we really liked about the HAM aspect of Miradore was the way that hardware information is presented, and the facts and figures it provides. From a default menu within Miradore you can see who last used the hardware device, what location they were in, and when it was last used. In addition, the end user is able to set up alerts for any devices that have been moved from their ‘home’ location and also for those devices that haven’t been seen on the network for a set period of time.

In our view, the sheer amount of data and management options for hardware will make the life of any IT Manager or Asset Managers a lot easier. Miradore provides more that enough data to help with any form of asset management project. We believe that the data will also be extremely useful for forecasting hardware budgets, so it could save an organisation a lot of money.

SAM tools are becoming more and more important to an organisation in the current financial climate. Organisations want to get the most out of their software, and ensure that money isn’t being overspent or wasted. One of Miradore’s many tricks is the fact it is a SAM solution. It provides the usual SAM aspects of a tool, such as license management, assigning licenses, and monitoring installs. Miradore does what you’d expect any SAM tool to do, and in our opinion it does it well.

However, one flaw that we did identify within the SAM feature is the weakness of its software metering and general usage stats. Whilst Miradore claims it can provide real-time data, we feel that the software metering and usage aspect is a little weak compared to other similar solutions in the market. We can’t stress enough how important software metering is for a tool where licenses and software assets are managed, as it gives the user an understanding of what is actually being used within their estate. This results in organisations not being able to fully utilize their software licenses, thus money saved on software will not be as much as it could be. Server and datacentre software management also appears to be lacking.

Furthermore, the actual act of adding and reviewing licenses seemed to be lacking sophistication. It didn’t present itself well and looked far more complicated than it should. In our opinion, the act of actually managing existing licenses and seeing the compliancy figures could be improved upon to make it more user friendly.

There are plenty of established service management tools available to organisations, but what about a tool that also provides sophisticated software and hardware asset management capabilities? Step forward Miradore who appear to have succeeded where other tools have failed. It has managed to integrate service management capabilities, into the very same tool that provides software, hardware, configuration management and also software deployment.

In our opinion the service management aspect looks strong, with users able to raise their own ticket request and track the progress of said request throughout the approval process. However, whether or not an organisation would give up its existing sophisticated IT service management (ITSM) solution to use Miradore instead is another matter. It is important to note that Miradore isn’t an ITSM tool, so its service management features should simply be considered a bonus.

Miradore has integrated a self-service approval process for software within the tool. This feature is very important for SAM as it only allows users or service desk personnel to install authorized and approved software onto the estate. In our view, Miradore has successfully made license optimization and SAM a whole lot easier, and more effective. Miradore state that approving users have the ability to deny the deployment or purchase of unauthorized applications without the software being installed without them knowing, which we believe will ease the headache of users installing their own software.

One aspect of the Miradore solution that we really liked is its ability to push software and updates directly from the tool. Whilst this may not be particularly unique, coupled with the approval process it provides a controlling and powerful method for managing and updating an organisations software estate. With the aforementioned approval process and the ability to actually deploy software from the tool, in our opinion this makes Miradore a very strong solution. This reduces the need for different solutions for software deployment or software updates, which helps the IT staff that have to use multiple tools for different actions.

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The reporting functionality within Miradore is again, top notch. The amount of data you can pull from the tool itself is second to none, and you can then modify the data in different file types. Whilst reporting is commonplace with tools, the fact that Miradore provides so much information within its tool results in reports with a high level of detail. This is especially true on the hardware side of things as Miradore is able to inventory a large variety of hardware assets. This is really useful for any hardware refresh or update projects that an organisation may encounter.

In the ITAM Review’s opinion, Miradore should be very high on your consideration list when looking for an ITAM solution. It excels in so many areas, such as HAM, its built in approval and deployment features, and its SAM capabilities. While it may have a few minor flaws such as weak software metering, we believe that the rest of the tool is very strong against other solutions in the market. In our opinion it is a shame that you can only purchase Miradore through partner channels or MSP’s as we feel that selling and promoting the tool in that method doesn’t provide the exposure that such a brilliant tool deserves.

KEY CAPABILITIES

The table below highlights the key capabilities of Miradore.

General

Multi customer support with MSP Console for managing multiple customer instances in one view

Hardware asset management

Software asset management (including software metering)

Configuration management

Operating system deployment and software distribution

Event monitoring and incident management

Power management

User data backup

Self-service portal

Quality indices and reporting

Wide platform coverage

Easy to integrate with a number of ready-made connectors

Asset Management

SNMP scan for printers, switches, routers

Asset discovery

Connectors to third-party systems

Hardware and software inventory

Monitoring and Alerts

Software Asset Management

Normalized software inventory

Software usage measuring

License management

Software compliancy management

Software catalogue

GO-TO-MARKET STRATEGY

Potential customers wanting to purchase Miradore On-Premise can only do so through MSP’s. Miradore use channel partners and local partners as they have the right connections and experience in their own regional markets.

Business Partner Summary

Key Business Partners

APAC: Dimension Data

Europe: Fujitsu, Tieto, Efecte

South America: Scopus

Market Penetration

Number of customers

300

Typical Customer

Through MSP offerings

Different sizes

Based in the Nordics

Implementation

Typical installation

Miradore state: “fastest implementations have been done during one week. If there were no external delays (network connectivity issues, company internal politics etc.), a realistic calendar time for a big scale implementation would be eight weeks. For a small-scale implementation two weeks would be a realistic time”. This form of implementation includes all aspects of implementation and installation. The actual installation of Miradore can be done within one to two days for smaller scale implementations.

Furthermore, Miradore also has a cloud-based ‘out-of-the-box’ solution. It states that this can be implemented within “2-10 days from our certified partners to set up a production environment. But naturally this depends on the case”.

For system requirements, you are advised to contact Miradore or a Miradore approved MSP.

Time to value

In our opinion, the implementation time is quite lengthy, with the fastest implementation taking around one week. Based on our experiences, customers may want their new solution implemented in shorter timeframe.

Resources Required

A number of resources are required through the MSP’s such as:

A Project Manager

Solutions Architect

Specialist Trainer

Overall Technical Specialist

These are the resources required for implementing Miradore. For smaller organisations these roles can usually be combined into a single person, however for larger enterprises they would be better served as individual roles.

Scalability

Miradore’s technology architecture and tool offers are modern and relevant, such that they enable scalability for all of their customers.

PRODUCT ROADMAP

Based on the information provided, the next major functional enhancement from Miradore, is heading towards a hybrid cloud model with support to provide best in class inventory and automation functionality. Bring your own device (BYOD) and MDM are key focus areas in upcoming releases.

2014 H2, BYOD support

2015 H1, Hybrid cloud support for Miradore, Patch management

2015 H2, Focus in data availability and further automation of WS management

PRODUCT PORTFOLIO

Miradore’s standard offering consists of the following features:

Asset Management

Supports Win, Linux, OS X Symbian, Android, iOS, WP8

SNMP scan for printers, switches, routers

Asset discovery

Connectors to third-party systems

REST based Web service API

Hardware and software inventory

Power management and reporting

Monitoring and Alerts, including automated actions based on event occurrences

Quality Index reporting

MDM policies

Customers also have the option of additional extras:

Software Asset Management

Normalized software inventory

Software usage measuring

License management

Software compliancy management

Software catalogue

Configuration Management

For Windows, Linux, OS X

Desktop Configuration management

Software deployment

Initial installation

Self-service

Endpoint Backup

Backup to USB, file share, or network storage

Centralized management

User specific backup jobs

Shared backup jobs

Data restore

Self-service

Remote Control

Screen sharing with multi-monitor support

Control mouse and keyboard

Two-way file transfer

Drawing tools

Voice chat

Diagnostics

FURTHER RESOURCES

Website – http://www.miradore.com/all-in-one-solution/

Downloads – http://www.miradore.com/downloads/

Company Information

Founded in 2006, with headquarters in Finland, Miradore is a provider of ITAM solutions enabling organisations to manage their IT assets throughout their lifecycle. Miradore offer a number of offerings including:

Miradore On-Premise

Miradore Online (free MDM)

Miradore has a number of features to help customers manage their asset estate. These features include:

Asset and Configuration Management – maintain comprehensive information on all IT and mobile devices, their configurations, and relationships with other configuration items.

Operating System and software deployment – Deploy operating systems, drivers, and software for computers, and applications or configuration settings for mobile devices.

Remote control – troubleshoot end-user problems and administer computers remotely as if you were sitting next to the end-user.

Software asset management – ensure software license compliance and minimize licensing costs with accurate software inventory and usage information.

End Point backup – implement centralized backup management for company devices, and allow end-users to backup their personal files.

Mobile Device Management – Track and manage all mobile devices across the organization through a single intuitive console, regardless of the device’s operating system.

VENDOR PROFILE

In their own words:

“Miradore was born when three IT specialists working for a global paper giant UPM needed a better way to manage their own IT infrastructure. Since none of the existing configuration management solutions did not address the challenges they faced in a company with 20,000 workstations in over 30 countries, they decided to create their own. The pilot project and full-scale roll out was a success, and so in 2006 they left UPM to found Miradore Ltd. And naturally, UPM became Miradore’s first customer.

Today Miradore provides a mature and feature-rich product for managing different types of IT devices throughout their entire lifecycles. This is done by collecting accurate and up-to-date information from devices, automating device management activities, and integrating Miradore easily to overall ITSM toolset.

Miradore is committed to continuous improvement and thereby strives to further improve the product, focusing especially on utilization of cloud technologies, easiness of implementation and use, and mobility.”

CONTACT DETAILS

Miradore Contact Details

Head Office

Lappeenranta, Finland,

Regional Offices

Helsinki, Finland.

Details

* http://www.miradore.com/contact-us/* info@miradore.com* +358 45 1322 772

SUMMARY

Strengths

Weaknesses

Asset management data reporting

On-premise solution only purchasable through MSP’s

Built in approval processes

Day-to-day Software Asset Management (SAM)

Easy software deployment

Poor software metering

User Interface (UI) is customizable and easy to use

Strong Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution (Miradore Online)

Disclaimer, Scope and Limitations

The information contained in this review is based on sources and information believed to be accurate as of the time it was created. Therefore, the completeness and current accuracy of the information provided cannot be guaranteed. Readers should therefore use the contents of this review as a general guideline, and not as the ultimate source of truth.

Similarly, this review is not based on rigorous and exhaustive technical study. The ITSM Review recommends that readers complete a thorough live evaluation before investing in technology.

This is a paid review, that is, the vendors included in this review paid to participate in exchange for all results and analysis being published free of charge, without registration.

For further information, please read our Disclosure page.

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