The question "What's new in Snow Inventory 3" is not so easy to answer. The quickest answer would be "everything" – this is the most radical and major upgrade of the program that we have ever released. Virtually every single function of the program has undergone a complete overhaul and many, many new features have been added, some of them extremely powerful. Our users have provided valuable feedback on function and features. The most frequently requested functions are now implemented in Snow Inventory 3.0 plus many more that you will not want to do without.
However, all these changes don't mean that the program has become unfamiliar – on the contrary. Our top design priority was to maintain the "look and feel" of the program and its highly-intuitive interface so that users upgrading will feel at home immediately.
This section outlines the main new features and improvements introduced in Snow Inventory.
Administration Console:
The console is redesigned and rewritten - based on the best parts of the previous version. We have simplified and streamlined the workplace, making it easy for the user to accomplish demanding tasks with a few easy operations or mouse clicks. The console is divided into three main parts:
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Inventory management: Look at inventory overview and details, enter additional custom data, and reporting. |
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Metering management: Look at metering data and display and manage metering reports. |
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Client management: Configure clients, manage configurations, deploy and manage client updates. |
Client and Scanner:
The scanner is based on the previous - industry strength - Snow Inventory 2 engine. However, several modifications and adjustments have been made to improve scanning speed and software and hardware detection.
The Client is completely new for this release. The client replaces the Snow System Services component in the 2.x release of Snow Inventory. The client controls when scanning takes place, and lets the administrator perform remote scanning from the administration console. All communication with console or server is encrypted using SSL technology over the HTTP protocol.
Server and Database:
Snow Inventory 3 has a completely new server and a fully redesigned database model. The server uses Microsoft SQL Server 2000
as the database engine. The server is an efficient HTTP server secured with SSL encryption. Most of the data logic is moved to stored procedures in the database, making insertions and updates in the database a much more efficient than the previous version. The new database model also identifies and stores historic data, items removed or changed are stored and viewable in the console.