The ZENworks Handheld Management product focuses on three key issues for any organization’s bottom line: compliance, risk and cost reduction. This centrally administerd product can increase productivity while strengthening security, adhering to compliance regulations and lowering mobile support costs. Its primary function is a handheld management system that integrates into the overall ZENworks management of the enterprise. In that regard, it treats the handheld as just another component of the enterprise, simplifying device management.

Administrators can change and enforce passwords and policies, and can easily initiate data self-destruct or lock out lost or stolen devices. They also can deploy standard images/content, update applications, lock down configurations and monitor license compliance. The Handheld Management product works on many popular PDAs in use today, including Palm, Windows CE, Pocket PC and RIM BlackBerry.

This product is simple to deploy and manage from the start. Installation begins with a wizard. This wizard has several installation and integration configurations during deployment. Once installed, the management console is well organized and intuitive. Settings and policies can be configured with a couple of clicks.

The platform focuses mostly on security and configuration compliance within the enterprise environment. For this reason, we find that ZENworks becomes the basic platform onto which an enterprise can then build.

Documentation is good and it is easy to locate vital installation information quickly. The instructions, along with screen shots that accompany them, makes deployment and integration of this product easier from an administrator’s standpoint.

Standard Novell support is offered by incidents or contract. Novell has a well-constructed website that helps users find support and locate answers to problems. It also contains a knowledge base to quickly find administrative answers.

At $59 this product is a good value for the money. However, it does not have too much functionality in and of itself. It offers the most value when paired with other ZENworks modules.