Policies

Policy application is extremely flexible and can be tailored to meet the needs of the individual user or user groups. Policies are inherited through levels, with the policy being defined on any level – for example by computer, by user, department, domain and organisation.

1) Care Taker - Smart On enables power saving policies to be defined in and outside of working hours. The specific action to be taken to save energy can be defined, as can the time delay before the action is enforced. A non disruptive, user friendly process analyses activity/inactivity on CPU, disk, keyboard, mouse and critical applications before advising the user of an imminent power down and applying the power save policy. Any open user working files are automatically saved when a power saving policy is engaged. On powering up, computers can be conveniently returned to the original usage or alternatively to a secure user log in screen.

2) Care Taker - User Wise enables HSE recommended computer Display Screen Equipment usage and breaks policies to be applied – advising the user when to take a break and for how long.

Policies and policy groups are defined centrally by IT and can be quickly updated to reflect differing work patterns and ensure smooth operation or to further improve power savings.

Central Management Tools

Care Taker – Smart On contains comprehensive tools for automated, centralised installation and ongoing management of networked PCs. The software can operate either with a local Database server within the corporate network or alternatively the database may be remotely hosted by Carbon Control Software Ltd - then only the Care Taker Manager need be installed on the network’s workstations and the Administration and Reporting modules on a single PC or server.

Care Taker- Net Able provides additional functionality for IT departments with the provision of “Wake on LAN”. This feature allows remote powering up and down of PCs on the network either at a convenient time to install upgrades and patches or to start up users’ PCs at the beginning of the working day.

Dynamic PC Client

The Care Taker Manager operates in a dynamic fashion, in both “connected state” to a local and remote database system or alternatively in a “disconnected state”, for example a laptop - meaning the policy works as normal, only uploading offline activity to the Database for continuity when the connection is restored.

Reports

Care Taker offers a web based, menu driven standard suite of reports that enable comprehensive analysis of relevant data to evaluate performance and assist policy making decisions.

Care Taker - Smart On application reports show just where energy can potentially be saved and the quantitative benefits in respect of cost, carbon and energy savings the policies are generating.

Within the Care Taker - User Wise application, reports can be exported as pdf formatted files for printing as part of a management HSE process.

Installation

The overall process has been designed to be intuitive and simple with a number of deployment options available to suit individual environments. Software for each licensed PC is installed centrally from the Administration module. The individual power specifications of each PC/display on the network are automatically identified and the Database populated to enable accurate power saving performances to be calculated. International and regional PC settings are accommodated by the software.

Ongoing management

Once configured, Care Taker is effectively maintenance free unless a change of policy is required. New users and their machines can be easily added to the policy structure and the database.

Scalability

Due to Care Taker’s compact size, structure and minimal network load characteristics the application can be scaled to support large numbers of users.

Support

A team of experienced software engineers at Carbon Control Software is dedicated to the successful implementation and use of Care Taker - just an email or telephone call away.