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Monday, Symantec plans to announce PCAnywhere 11, an upgraded release of its remote-access software that features performance improvements and a revised user interface for IT help desk administrators.

The PCAnywhere technology, which was initially released in 1986 as a connectivity tool for remote users, has emerged in recent years as a help desk support tool. The software provides help desk workers with remote system control functions, including the ability to take over a PC in the field and transfer files or patches, said David Scott, a senior product manager at Symantec in Cupertino, California.

The new version can transfer needed files in the background while IT administrators continue with other work, Scott said. He added that the revamped user interface looks more like Windows XP and offers increased configuration flexibility, making it possible to reduce the size and number of tool bars and other features.

To the Test

The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway in Fort Worth, Texas, has about 250 PCAnywhere users and is beta-testing the version 11 release, said Brian Cook, a field service engineer at Wabtec. Cook works at BNSF under an IT services contract between the railway company and Wilmerding, Pennsylvania-based Wabtec. The upgraded software provides faster remote connections and better response-time performance than existing versions of PCAnywhere, and it has a better look and feel, he said.

One big benefit of using PCAnywhere is that it lets help desk staffers take control of PCs so they can show users how proprietary BNSF applications work, Cook said. And if a user's system won't start, PCAnywhere can be used to access a fail-over copy of the user's data at a backup site in Topeka, Kansas, and restore the PC.

"I have no qualms with this product," Cook said. "If they raised the price, people would still buy it."

In Control

Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC recently reported that PCAnywhere commands more than 50 percent of the global market for remote systems control software, outpacing products from Symantec's four major competitors: Tivoli Software, Computer Associates International, LANDesk Software, and Danware Data A/S.

"The remote-control market is very mature, so products are at a very high level of functionality," said IDC analyst Stephen Drake.

Products like PCAnywhere also face competition from the free remote-control capabilities that Microsoft has built into Windows XP, Drake added. The market for remote-control software will stay about level with last year's sales of $288 million for several more years, he predicted.

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