Article

Remote management roundup, part 2

The roundup continues with a look at applications by Bluepoint, Degasoft, Netkey, and NetNearU.

July 2, 2002

Part 1 of the Remote Management Roundup covered the basics of why kiosk systems need remote management.

Part 2 begins a deeper look at remote management software. It features an introduction to products by Bluepoint Technologies Inc., Degasoft, Netkey, Info Touch Technologies Corp., and NetNearU.

Like sports, software is full of stats, and the details matter. Read on for a look at the fascinating world of kiosk remote management software.

The companies

Remote management for kiosks is younger than the World Wide Web.

Salt Lake City-based Bluepoint Technologies Inc. is one of the youngest in a young field. The company, founded in January 2000, launched its LinkWatch product suite and service in March.

Degasoft is the venerable company of the bunch. Founded eleven years ago, Degasoft wrote its first version of the Kudos remote management software in 1997. Kudos is now in Version 6.

Netkey recently entered the remote management software ring with its Netkey Manager

What's a client? What's a server, you ask? Check out our Connectivity and Software glossaries.

application. Netkey is also a kiosk application designer. The Branford, Conn.-based company began developing Netkey Manager in 2000, making it available in February. Version 2.0 is in beta testing.

Bryan, Texas-based NetNearU, founded in 1997, makes the TRACKOS (pronounced "Track-ohs") remote management software (now in Version 3), ADTRACKOS to manage advertising on the kiosks, and software modules to quickly turn kiosks into Web-based self-service terminals. TRACKOS was first released four years ago.

Both Degasoft and Netkey offer kiosk application design software in addition to remote management software. Degasoft makes the Kudos Designer package; Netkey makes Creator, Creator Plus, and Express.

Different strokes

Products
Company	Products	Modules
Bluepoint	LinkWatch	LinkWare, KioskLink, DisplayLink
Degasoft	Kudos	Designer, Distributor, Analyzer, Observer, Runtime Client
Info Touch	Surfnet	Premiere and Express
Netkey	Manager	Manager and Manager Agent client
NetNearU	TRACKOS	TRACKOS, ADTRACKOS, System Help client

Just as kiosks run different types of applications, remote management software is designed to work best with certain types applications. Before choosing a product, it's important to consider the type of application being developed and who is going to host it (run it).

Because the differences in approach can be subtle, read this section carefully.

Bluepoint

BluePoint's LinkWatch is designed for kiosks running Web sites. Bluepoint doesn't host the Web application on its servers-that's the job for the kiosk owners. Instead, customers pay a subscription fee to manage their Web-based applications. BluePoint then hosts the management, media files used for displays and advertising, and if the customer wants, a custom front page (which they call a "portal") that sends kiosk users to their destinations.

Bluepoint's LinkWatch products are:

• LinkWare - Monitors the health of the kiosk. LinkWare provides system reporting found in the Web browser-based management interface under its Network Manager, System Information, Account Manager, Report Manager, and Event Viewer menus.
• KioskLink - Controls kiosk content, such as what Web sites the kiosk can view, when to run an attract loop, what media files to run, when to black out the kiosks. When enabled, these functions can be accessed from the Screen Manager, Media Manager, and Portal Builder menus.
• DisplayLink - Controls separate kiosk screens that are used only to display ads. It works like KioskLink, but is not for interactive screens.

KioskLink offers templates, or toolbars, called "skins" that appear instead of a Web browser Window. Within the skin, the customer's kiosks display the Web page, as shown in the illustration below.

Part of the Networld Alliance Web site displayed in a KioskLink skin. Note the sculpted buttons, including a button for a pop up onscreen keyboard.

The company offers to develop custom skins as well.

Degasoft

Degasoft is designed for kiosk applications a company hosts on its own servers. These applications don't have to be Web-based. In a Degasoft scenario, a company buys licenses to use the software - a regular license fee and a per-client (per kiosk) fee. The company then owns the license and can use the products however it wants to.

Kudos might be most appropriate for companies with large kiosk deployments, or, as Halldor Sigurjohnsson, Degasoft's chief technology officer, put it, it's for customers who want to control and manage their own networks. Customers can mix and match the modules they need, or they can license the enterprise version.

To run Kudos Enterprise, companies must also run Microsoft Windows 2000 server and Microsoft SQL Server on the back end.

Degasoft also makes a kiosk application design suite, Kudos Designer, which is included in its licenses.

Degasoft's products are:

• Kudos Designer - A kiosk application design tool.
• Kudos Runtime - The client-side software for the kiosk.
• Kudos Distributor - The content manager. Using distributor, software is downloaded to the kiosks. A unique feature of distributor is that it controls versions. Application developers will be familiar with the concept of downloading only the changes from one version to another, which saves on network bandwidth.
• Kudos Analyzer - Sets up and view reports about the kiosk.
• Kudos Observer - Monitors the kiosk and takes action by setting up custom alerts, gathering screenshots, having specific alerts forward to administrators. Has a Web interface as well as an enterprise management interface.
• Kudos Enterprise - a package of all the modules

Netkey

Netkey is primarily a hosting company, seeking the market that wants to avoid headaches of running its own infrastructure. It licenses Netkey Manager to companies, and hosts both the management application and the customer's Web-based application. Companies log in to the service and connect each kiosk to it.

Recently it also began selling Netkey Manager to companies who want to host their own kiosk applications. To be a host requires that the company also run Microsoft Windows 2000 Enterprise Server, Microsoft SQL Server and Seagate's Crystal Reports on the back end.

Netkey Manager uses a unique approach to the problem dial-up networks face. Kiosks that use a dial-up connection may not be online 24/7, especially if the applications run on the kiosk and don't require the Internet. Using what Jim Decker, director of pre-sales and one of the original designers, calls, "reverse connectivity," the kiosk can dial up and send a "heartbeat," a status message, to the remote management system. If any work needs to be done, such as downloading new files, the manager tells the kiosk. Otherwise, the machine can hang up, saving per-minute dial-up charges.

Netkey also sells kiosk design software called Creator, Creator Plus, and Studio, and a product called Express intended for quickly designing and setting up self-service Web kiosks that Netkey hosts.

Info Touch

Info Touch Technologies Corp., based in Burnaby, British Columbia, is a full-service provider. The company provides software solutions through its Surfnet line of products, along with kiosk management services and the revenue development applications.

The company's Surfnet software line comes in two platforms, Premiere and Express. Info Touch recommends Premiere for use in pay-per-use or transactional solutions, while Express is recommended for Web-based e-commerce and e-information settings such as free public access terminals.

"Info Touch has achieved an unprecedented degree of excellence with Surfnet Premier through the integration of the most advanced software technology, and the inclusion of safety, security, and highly customizable features," the company states on its Web site.

Premier is designed with Web browsing in mind, including buttons that offer users one-touch access to the Internet and e-mail. On the management side, the software package provides system resource management to improve efficiency and cut down on downtime issues. Premiere also features online tracking of each kiosk, with kiosk usage, financial statistics, connectivity, and payment options.

Express offers security, content management, and reliability features to keep public access Internet systems running efficiently. On the security side, the platform includes a Microsoft Internet Explorer-based secure browser, passwords at security levels, credit-card protection, and the capability to lock out access to software and central processing units. Express also features a variety of connectivity options and software customization options.

NetNearU

NetNearU will either host its management applications, TRACKOS and ADTRACKOS, on its own servers, or sell them to companies to run on their servers. TRACKOS manages the kiosks and software, while ADTRACKOS manages advertising. Its products were originally designed to integrate into three Web-based kiosk applications NetNearU sells. NetNearU will also integrate its TRACKOS into any kiosk application.

Cody Catalena, NetNearU's chief technology officer, said, "Usually, integration is not as painstaking a word as it sounds."

NetNearU's three modules are:

• Public Access Internet Terminal - A pay terminal.
• Electronic Shopping Terminal - Used for browsing a Web site and making purchases by swiping cards on the kiosk.
• Dedicated Surfing Terminal - Created for free access information terminals.

For companies with their own kiosk applications, NetNearU sells a kiosk client, called System Help, which runs in the background on the kiosk and communicates with TRACKOS. TRACKOS and ADTRACKOS include reports designed specifically to track revenue, including advertising revenue, as well as the health of the machine.

NetNearU has designed its products as a turnkey solutions for Web-based applications, though they can be customized. For example, companies can request customize reports added to a customer's TRACKOS interface.

Kiosk type and hosting
Product	Kiosk Type	Hosts Manager	Hosts Application
LinkWatch	Web-based	Y	N
Kudos	Any	N	N
Manager	Primarily Web-based	Y, & customer hosted	Optional
TRACKOS	Primarily Web-based	Y, & customer hosted	N

Operating systems and browsers

With the exception of NetNearU, all the products reviewed for this feature require Microsoft operating systems.

These remote management systems build on the security and reporting features that Windows NT and 2000 make available to programmers. NetNearU's Catalena spoke for all the companies interviewed when he said, "We don't recommend Windows 98 in a kiosk environment. It's just not as stable an operating system as NT and 2000."

If a kiosk application is running on Unix, a version of Linux, an Apple operating system, or another operating system, almost all of the solutions in this article won't work, with the exception of NetNearU.

Bluepoint's LinkWatch runs only on kiosks using Windows 2000.

Brian Peterson, Bluepoint's vice president of sales and marketing, said, "If we find that there's demand for Linux based (kiosks), or anything else, we would definitely consider developing it as well. NT is something that we would develop if there is the demand."

Degasoft's Kudos and Netkey Manager both support the Windows NT and Windows 2000 operating systems.

NetNearU's TRACKOS and ADTRACKOS managers require Windows NT and 2000 if the kiosk is running one of their software modules. Otherwise, its System Help client has a version for Linux and Unix that will allow TRACKOS to manage the kiosk.

Here's the specs in a nutshell:

Operating systems supported
Product	Windows NT	Windows 2000	Other
LinkWatch	N	Y	N
Kudos	Y	Y	N
Manager	Y	Y	N
TRACKOS	Y	Y	Unix & Linux

With all four products, staff can administer the kiosks through a Web browser on their personal computers. Degasoft also contains an enterprise application interface, which has more features.

Cost

So how much is it going to cost?

Bluepoint charges a monthly subscription fee for its services.

• LinkWatch and KioskLink, used for managing interactive terminals, cost $75 per month, per kiosk. There are volume discounts at 101, 501,1001 kiosks.
• LinkWatch and DisplayLink, used for managing display screens, cost $145 per month, per screen.
• LinkWatch alone, used for managing kiosk systems without managing content, costs $35 per month, per kiosk.

Kudos licensing depends upon the modules purchased. Here's a breakdown:

• Runtime client: Base price = $120 per kiosk (minimum sale 5), and includes Kudos Designer.
• Kudos Enterprise: Single license = $15,000 for 1,000 kiosks, plus a license of $395 for each terminal.
• Individual remote management modules can be purchased separately per kiosk.

Netkey and NetNearU didn't disclose their license fees.

What to take away

As more companies develop kiosks projects that include remote management, they must consider the benefits offered by each software suite. Among the considerations are the type of application being run, the type of network connection, whether the company wants to host its own network, whether advertising is an important part of the kiosk plan, and of course, cost.

Comments, please Please e-mail your comments and observations about remote management software. Let us hear from you.

[Editor's note: Info Touch Technologies became Tio Networks in April 2006.]