I’m curious what people thing about the Software Distribution Self Service Portal “Offer” versus a regular Action “Offer”.
It seems to me that a regular offer allows much more flexibility in actioning (re-apply etc) ad well as more flexibility in verbiage the end user see’s. Additionally, the SSP is a PITA to set up… users have to register computers, etc… Seems like a lot of setup for a system that isn’t as good.
Can anyone point to something that I’m missing about the AMG’s and the SSP that make it worthwhile? I just don’t see why anyone would use this versus a regular offer…
Yea… I’ve used offers too… I’m just trying to figure out why SSP? Whats the point? Seems like a lot of headache for no benefit over offers… I figure… hey… IBM put a lot into developing this portal… there must be some benefit… but I’m just not seeing it at all.
Just trying to make sure I’m not missing some benefit of it before I tell clients “don’t use that… it’s of no benefit over offers”
I believe Application Management Groups have a syncing functionality so you can add/remove apps from the group (or change the version) and just hit sync instead of having to manually redeploy actions.
This is true… so it might have a benefit of managing multiple actions (one for each piece of software), but there’s still no control over HOW they are actioned… For instance, I can’t action it as a policy offer with reapply… giving the end user the ability to reinstall if they remove it and it becomes relevant again. Offer actions via the dashboard only run once and have to be stopped and started to re-deploy. There are definite differences… but the fact using the SSP requires EVERY user to register themselves before they can use it and the setup required (IMO) makes it an overall net loss of productivity unless one’s business model really NEEDS the way the AMG dashboard organizes things with groups and targets. In the organizations I’ve worked with, the operators typically want more control over action options versus a dashboard creating actions for them.
IBM is going to start beta testing a new self service app. I have seen some screen shots and it looks promising. If you want to get in on the beta test and provide feedback, sign up.
I never use these. Software Distribution items don’t work as well for a multi-tenant environment anyway. They have to be either public or private, no inbetween. They seem confusing and don’t work as well in general.
I only ever set an action as an offer for normal tasks/fixlets/baselines.
Also, given that IBM is working on a new Self Service UI, the SWD Portal Offers are even more out of style.