WHY POLICY CENTRAL ENTERPRISE?
Some reasons why our customers' installed Policy Central Enterprise rather than another e-Safety solution.
Policy Central Enterprise installed in twice as many UK schools as nearest competitor
There are currently in excess of 1,500 educational establishments that are implementing and using PCE, ranging from Infant/Junior Schools to Colleges and Academies.
Policy Central Enterprise (PCE) is wholly owned and developed by Forensic Software Ltd. We have no third party products embedded in our programs.
By not incorporating any OEM products in our solutions, it allows us to provide accurate release dates for version upgrades, give efficient support and have the flexibility to decide exactly how our product evolves.
Fully released Windows Vista Business Support
Microsoft will soon cease to sell Windows XP Professional and there is already a limited choice of hardware manufacturers still shipping this operating system. PCE has had full Vista Business support since February 2008. This gives your establishment greater choice for replacement hardware.
Automated email notification of violations and alerts
PCE can be configured so that different individuals are sent alerts via email. This decreases the workload for central administrators in having to constantly check for new violations/captures.
Automated Scheduled Reports
Daily, weekly and/or monthly reports can be generated by PCE, providing summary information or specific sets of report data for multiple recipients. For example, a Head of Year can easily notice a sharp increase in violations of a particular student and review the data to assess what has caused the increase.
Ability to exclude specified websites from capture.
Common websites like BBC News can generate large amounts of captures based on the text contained within them, but are often viewed quite legitimately. In order to help reduce the number of 'false positives', these websites may be excluded from the desktop scanning engine at a group level. Tests show this facility can reduce false positives by up to 79%.
Ability to export data directly to common applications such as Word, Excel and Adobe PDF
All of the 41 ready made reports can be exported in common data formats. Users of the PCE Console therefore have the ability to save and print reports for use in meetings such as parent's evenings. As PCE uses an SQL Database engine, individuals with SQL skills and the correct level of access can develop their own SQL queries on PCE data.
Dynamic Active Directory synchronisation
PCE provides easy 'point and click' integration with existing Microsoft Active Directory deployments. Available groups can be selected for use with PCE at any time. User Accounts can be imported from a current Active Directory or allocated to their matching group on first log on.
Full support for non-Active Directory environments
In addition to the above, PCE can set group membership for specific clients outside of any Microsoft Active Directory structure. This can be useful to integrate non-Domain client computers, 'feeder' schools or other non-Single Active Directory implementations.
No requirement for confidential data to leave site when hardware fails.
As the PCE solution is not provided on proprietary hardware, in the event of any hardware failure your captured data doesn’t have to leave your site.
Choice of hardware platform and ability to migrate hardware platform independently of software.
By giving establishments the choice of hardware platform it allows Forensic Software to concentrate on the features and development of PCE. Customers can maintain and upgrade hardware as technology moves on. In the event of hardware failing, PCE can be easily migrated to an alternative platform allowing monitoring to continue and the hardware to be repaired without interruption.
The location of the Backup is not restricted to server in use.
In addition to the advantage of being able to migrate the solution easily from one hardware platform to another, by allowing establishments to choose their hardware it means they can also integrate backup of essential PCE data into their existing backup solution. Customers have the piece of mind that their data can be securely backed up to the location of choice.
Runs on Industry-Standard software and hardware platform, not proprietary based.
PCE uses a robust, industry-standard infrastructure based around core Microsoft Technologies, such as Windows 2003 Server, Internet Information Services (IIS), .NET Framework components and Microsoft SQL. This ensures a completely scalable platform suitable for small peer-to-peer networks or large-scale multiple site implementations.
Highly scaleable product. Number of groups supported in individual installation between 1 and 65536.
By utilising the components detailed above, PCE can be easily scaled up to authority-wide deployments with the same 'look and feel' of a single school installation.
Ability to support virtual implementations.
By utilising the Microsoft 'back-end' components above, this means PCE is ideally suited to Virtualisation using products such as VMWare or Microsoft Virtual Server.
Violation capturing can be disabled on laptops when offline, if authorised.
PCE gives establishments the option to disable 'off line' capture by the client for authorised users, should it be required.
Only E-Safety product to have a fully developed web-based home version.
PCE is complemented by the innovative and unique CS Web product, providing the same level of e-Safety monitoring and control to the home user. This helps to protect home users as well those at establishments where PCE is in use.
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