The Silver Award in the Desktop Management category went to a software suite from Macrovision Corp. that automates the process of prepping reliable applications and patch packages for enterprise deployment.

The FLEXnet AdminStudio 7.0 scored consistently well among the judges, with one judge calling it "a good old dependable standard that every deployment specialist needs." It addresses a big problem for many administrators: delivering software updates and applications to users in a timely and efficient manner. The software automates the steps involved in preparing software for installation.

New in this version of the FLEXnet AdminStudio, which was released in September, is the Patch Impact Manager. It speeds up patch testing. The tool analyzes the impact of patches on the runtime file dependencies of a company's applications. It compares system files used by an application at runtime with files being replaced by a patch.

The 7.0 version also offers a central source for all application files and meta data to help improve resource allocation and overall security management. Web-based workflow management tools were also included in this release.

The software works with all major distribution systems, such as Altiris, Microsoft's Systems Management Server, Novell Inc.'s ZENworks and IBM Tivoli.

Pricing: FLEXnet AdminStudio 7.0 is available in Enterprise, Professional and Standard editions. The Enterprise Edition is sold per desktop. The Professional Edition costs $3,999 and the Standard Edition is $1,699.

SearchWinSystems.com editors