New enhanced support for the cloud, Windows 8, Microsoft System Center 2012 and improved installation experience for on-premises, virtual and cloud applications

Maidenhead, UK – May 10, 2012 - Flexera Software, the leading provider of Application Usage Management solutions for application producers and enterprises, announced today the launch of InstallShield 2012 Spring. InstallShield is the global de facto installation development solution on more than 500 million PCs, supporting traditional and agile development teams with their Windows, cloud and virtualisation installation requirements.

“Enterprises are in the midst of significant transformation – the consumerisation of IT, virtualisation and the cloud, to name a few examples,” said Maureen Polte, Vice President of Product Management at Flexera Software. “This creates new opportunities for software producers able to deliver next-generation solutions while creating an exceptional experience – starting with software installation. InstallShield 2012 Spring demonstrates Flexera Software’s leadership in the installation management space as an enabler to desktop transformations and the cloud.”

Helping Software Producers Deliver Desktop Transformation
The rapidly changing technology marketplace favors software producers that can adapt quickly, go to market faster, and create an exceptional customer experience consistent with a “there’s an app for that” mindset. InstallShield 2012 Spring empowers software producers with support for emerging technologies using traditional and agile development processes. For instance, as the cloud transforms enterprise application strategies, software producers must support database access for their products both on-premises and in hybrid cloud environments. InstallShield 2012 Spring offers new Microsoft SQL Azure database scripting capabilities enabling software producers to support hybrid cloud deployments of their applications.

“SQL Azure is a highly available and scalable cloud database service, built on SQL Server technologies, that makes it easy for enterprises to extend solutions to the cloud without having to migrate all of their data or existing enterprise datacenter applications at once,” said Gregory Leake, Director, Product Marketing at Microsoft. “InstallShield 2012 Spring’s support of SQL Azure database scripting is critical to software producers that want to facilitate their customers’ application migrations to hybrid cloud environments.”

“Our enterprise customers are interested in adopting hybrid on-premise/cloud solutions that help in their transition to the cloud,” said Mikhail Dikov, Principal Software Engineer, Open Text. “InstallShield 2012 Spring’s support of SQL Azure helps ensure we can deliver a first-rate installation experience in traditional, on-premise as well as hybrid cloud environments.”

Moreover, Microsoft’s upcoming releases of Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 and Visual Studio 11 signal a major acceleration towards user-centric computing and the consumerisation of IT. Leading software producers will want to ensure ahead of time that their solutions will work in those environments with a positive installation experience. InstallShield 2012 Spring now provides a specification that an installation requires Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012, and lets software producers build feature and component conditions for these operating systems.

“Enterprises are in the throes of their Windows 7 migrations, and are beginning to explore Windows 8,” said Polte. “InstallShield 2012 Spring’s support of these environments provides essential tools to facilitate a smooth migration and positive installation experience to Windows 8.”

Finally, as enterprises migrate to Microsoft System Center 2012 and user-centric computing, they need accurate deployment metadata to populate Microsoft’s new App Model. InstallShield 2012 Spring enables software producers to provide this metadata to their enterprise customers, reducing the burden in managing those applications.

Enhancing Customer Loyalty via Improved End User Experience
Enterprises choose software producers whose applications are easy to install, deploy and manage. InstallShield 2012 Spring makes it easier for enterprise customers to deploy and manage enterprise applications when, where and how they are needed. For instance, to appeal to a new generation of “app-store savvy” users, InstallShield 2012 Spring offers an entirely new end-user interface with redesigned built-in wizard pages and a new wizard page editor to create a better run-time experience. In addition, software producers increasingly bundle multiple products into application suites, and they must deliver a unified installation experience that is easy, intuitive and consistent. This latest release provides enhancements to Suite/Advanced UI project types with new functionality including the ability to import and reference prerequisite files as suite packages, dynamic links, advanced reporting and logging, as well as a new user interface for custom conditions.

“Accenture is dedicated to developing differentiated software-based solutions across a wide range of industries to help organisations meet their business goals. The dynamic installation experience that we create ensures smooth adoption in enterprise environments. This is just as important as the functionality of the software products as a whole,” said Ferdi Öztürk, Delivery Excellence Specialist at Accenture. “Our priority is a practical application of new technologies that work in a business environment and drive business outcomes.”

Öztürk added, “The ability to tailor our software to individual needs and - by ease-of-use - to eliminate implementation barriers is essential in order that we can offer configurable and customisable support for an individual organisation’s requirements. To this end, we chose the versatile and robust InstallShield because of Flexera Software’s domain expertise in innovative and flexible software suite products.”

Automated Update & Patch Downloads
Finally, update and patch deployment helps ensure that end customers are deployed on the latest application versions. To facilitate this process InstallShield 2012 Spring enables automatic update and patch download at run-time. If an update is found, it will be automatically downloaded and run in place of the old installer, resulting in decreased support call volume and increased product satisfaction.

To provide additional connections between the software producer and end customer, InstallShield 2012 Spring Premier Edition offers a subscription to FlexNet Connect, providing a complete and professional software installation, software update and management solution. FlexNet Connect provides software producers with a deep understanding of the install base with rich reporting and business analytics. This subscription offer is available to InstallShield 2012 Spring Premier Edition customers when they purchase or are on a current maintenance plan.

“As a reliable and effective government contractor, we are continually enhancing and improving our applications, making it essential for customer satisfaction that users are on the latest versions of our products,” said Aysen Bankeroglu, Principal Configuration Management Engineer at REI Systems.  “We have to provide reliability and quality under pressure for our customers. In these efforts, InstallShield continues to differentiate itself from other installation solutions through innovative enhancements that help create stronger connections between our software and our customers.”