Midas Inc. (MDS) News

Midas Uses its 'Touch' to Deliver Desktop Management Services to Franchises; Ensures Business Uptime by Mitigating Security Threats While Minimizing Costly IT Support

FREMONT, Calif., Oct. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Everdream, the leading provider of on-demand desktop management services, today announced the introduction of the Self-Service Purchasing Portal, a new offering that extends the company's 'Try, Buy and Deploy' model to customers, resellers, and managed service provider (MSP) partners. By leveraging this first-of-its-kind portal capability, customers and partners can provide a branded website for difficult-to-reach, distributed user communities and ecosystems, such as multiple franchise locations, to test drive, purchase, and self-deploy desktop management services.

Using the Self-Service Purchasing Portal, customers and partners can provide easy access to Everdream's award-winning, utility-based desktop management software services for their community of users through a branded website, along with the ability to create custom service packages and promotions of desktop management services. The Portal also uniquely allows each user to test drive, purchase, and self-deploy Everdream's on-demand services including Asset Discovery, Asset Management, Software Distribution, Patch Management, Virus Protection, Online Backup and Remote Access.

The customer-branded, Self-Service Purchasing Portal is integrated with the Everdream Control Center to deliver a seamless 'self-service' experience for a customer's community of users and a partner's prospective target market. The Portal is designed for companies in industries such as franchising, retail and insurance which require close interaction with a set of independent, distributed users who need a certain level of IT continuity on their computer desktops.

Extending the Midas 'Touch'

In the case of Midas International, the company is able to deliver desktop management services to its retail shops through a simple, easy-to-use Midas- branded purchasing portal. Midas (NYSE: MDS) is one of the world's largest providers of automotive service, offering brake, exhaust, maintenance, tires, steering and suspension services at more than 2,600 franchised, licensed and company-owned Midas shops in 19 countries, including nearly 1,800 in the United States and Canada. Using the Self-Service Purchasing Portal, Midas delivers value to its franchises with high-quality desktop management services that protect them from security vulnerabilities and ensure maximum uptime. At the same time, Midas can help franchisees ensure that their desktop and laptop computers have the latest patches and virus definitions.

'The knowledge and the software services necessary to drive 100 percent patch compliance and virus protection is critical, ensuring that our network is secure,' said Bennett Cikoch, Vice President of IT for Midas. 'In addition, Midas can deliver updates to our franchises' point-of-sale applications without requiring CD mailings, onsite visits and overall help desk demands. This is a win-win for the corporate entity and the independent franchises.'

Portal Shifts Partners into High Gear

The Self-Service Purchasing Portal also serves to empower reseller and MSP partners looking to reach new communities of buyers by establishing a branded online presence to drive rapid adoption of desktop management software and managed services. By extending Everdream's 'Try, Buy, and Deploy' model to customers and partners, technology partners can take advantage of Everdream's easy, automated delivery platform to speed up installations and to reach new markets within the Everdream ecosystem.

'The Try, Buy and Deploy model of the Self-Service Purchasing Portal demonstrates Everdream's leadership in delivering disruptive technologies to market in order to provide a true end-to-end engagement experience for customers and prospects to speed time-to-value,' said Mark Hoffman, president and CEO of Everdream. 'Our new solution represents a shift in the traditional channel model, enabling us to reach out to more small and medium-sized businesses and larger, distributed businesses through our unique on-demand desktop management platform.'

All of Everdream's on-demand desktop management software services are now available for a 30-day free test drive, enabling prospective customers and partners to experience Everdream with no risk and no investment. Log on to www.everdream.com for more information.

About Everdream

Everdream Corporation is the market leader in on-demand desktop management services that enable greater visibility into hardware and software assets, better and more uniform desktop protection for unparalleled business uptime, and superior end-user satisfaction -- while significantly reducing the total cost of ownership of corporate PC's. Built around a powerful and cost effective 'software-as-a-service' model, Everdream provides an integrated offering of on-demand software and managed services that are activated with a simple Internet connection, ensuring all desktops and laptops -- regardless of location -- are 'Everdream Protected.' These services are powered by Everdream's industry-leading desktop management platform and its client-based agent architecture, providing customers with 365x24x7 access to Everdream's services. With worldwide headquarters in Fremont, California and operational facilities in Dallas, Texas and Charlotte, North Carolina, Everdream manages more than 140,000 desktops for companies in 60+ countries around the globe, including ADP, Brocade Communications, Korean Airlines, Midas, Salesforce.com, Sonic Automotive, Sylvan Learning Centers, and many others. For more information, visit the Everdream Web site at www.everdream.com or call 888-307-7299.

NOTE: Everdream is a registered trademark of Everdream Corporation. All other brands, products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

SOURCE Everdream Corporation