Wise Solutions, Inc.

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Wise Solutions, Inc. is an American company that makes software tools for creating application installers. Their primary product, Wise was one of the most widely used installation packages for Windows. Their main competitor is InstallShield by Macrovision. Wise Solutions was acquired and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Altiris, Inc. in December of 2003. Altiris is currently owned by the Symantec Corporation.

Wise Solutions was started as a shareware tool originally distributed via CompuServe. Over time the company grew to roughly 300 employees spread across the headquarters in Plymouth Michigan and a European office in The Hague Netherlands. After the 2003 acquisition by Altiris the European office was consolidated with an existing European Altiris office. The Plymouth Michigan office is now primarily a regional software development and support site for existing Wise branded products and some Altiris branded products.

Contents

[edit] Current Products

Current products include Wise Installation Studio (This is a combination of the Wise for Windows Installer and Wise Installation System products) and Wise Package Studio.

Version 7.0 includes functionality to support virtual applications (with the .VSA extension) in addition to Wise Script .EXE and Windows Installer .MSI files.

[edit] Wise Installation Studio 7

Supports Windows Installer (.MSI) and WiseScript technologies Wise Installation Studio is the newest advanced installation authoring tool that supports both Windows Installer and WiseScript. Choose from either technology to create installations that support desktop, server, web, or mobile devices. New features include support for virtualization, Microsoft Windows Vista, 64-bit, and Nalpeiron trialware technology.

[edit] Wise Installation Express 7

Supports Windows Installer (.MSI) only Wise Installation Express is a basic installation authoring tool that supports Windows Installer (.MSI). One can create desktop installations that support Microsoft Windows Vista 32/64-bit and configure SQL Server.

[edit] Wise Package Studio

Supports most of the features of Wise Installation Studio along with tools specific to the needs of system administrators looking to deploy installation packages via a software deployment tool. These utilities include installation testing functionality, conflict detection and resolution, vendor installation repackaging, and vendor package customization.

[edit] Past Products

[edit] Developer Tools

WISE

This is the original script based installer product that gave the company its start. Intended to be a less expensive installation solution for the home developer, this product was originally sold as shareware on CompuServe.

InstallMaker, InstallBuilder, and InstallMaster

This is the renamed WISE product expanded with a new interface and sold at three edition price points. This marked the beginning of selling Wise products in editions.

Wise Installation System

As traditional install script based installation engines became less popular with the introduction of Microsofts Windows Installer technology, Wise Solutions rebranded the InstallMaker, InstallBuilder, InstallMaster product into Wise Installation System Standard and Professional. Wise Installation System 9 was the last stand alone product to be released based on the original technology that started the company.

Wise for Windows Installer

Based on Microsofts Windows Installer technology this product has been offered in many different editions including, Standard, Professional, Enterprise, and an integrated Visual Studio .NET. With MSI files becoming the preferred form of application deployment in recent years the importance of this product grew until eventually it far eclipsed the original Wise Script based product. In 2007 this product line was renamed Wise Installation Studio and the previous Wise Installation System product was included with the product.

[edit] Administrator Tools

InstallManager

This is the first repackaging tool geared toward system administrators. The tool included the ability to take a snapshot of a machine prior to installing a vendor package and repackage that content into a Wise Script file. The repackaging and editing tool for this product was licensed by Microsoft for inclusion as the repackaging tool in the first versions of SMS. The retail version of this product also introduced the ConflictManager tool that allowed for conflict detection and resolution between captured packages. This conflict detection and resolution is patented and is the core technology of disputes between Wise Solutions and Installshield.[1] The products compilation and editing interface are built on top of the InstallMaster product.

Application Integration Suite

Application Integration Suite was an attempt at building a homogeneous toolbox for System Administrators looking to repackage and deploy applications. The previous InstallManager tool was extended to give conflict resolution abilities to MSI packages as well as adding additions tools to ease the export of the resulting conflict resolved packages into various application deployment solutions. This collection of tools was packaged together into a process driven user interface called Workbench. The pricing structure for the product coupled with the lack of a robust feature set in the Workbench ultimately resulted in low adoption. This tool was refined and restructured into what is now sold as Wise Package Studio.

[edit] Legal Issues

[edit] Corporate Espionage

On June 27, 2003, Wise Solutions was sued by Installshield alleging electronic espionage.[2] The civil complaint listed the theft of nearly 1,000 confidential documents from the corporate FTP site, including a customer list.[3] The intrusion was detected when Wise Solution market material started to be received by decoy customer addresses that had been planted in the customer list. Reviews of FTP logs showed several connections from Wise Solution related addresses for a period of 10 months. This lawsuit also spawned an investigation by the FBI that resulted in the Plymouth headquarters being searched for evidence. The civil suit was resolved in July 2004 and the case was dismissed. Additionally, the U.S. Attorney's office in Chicago sent a letter indicating that they did not intend to file criminal charges.[4]

[edit] Patent Infringement

In more recent years InstallShield and Wise Solutions via their respective parent companies have had some disagreements over patent infringement, one of which ultimately resorted in a preemptive patent infringement lawsuit by Macrovision against Altiris and Wise Solutions in which it not only claims infringement by Altiris products but also asks for the court to find that it is not infringing on any Altiris or Wise Solutions patents.[5]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=3&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=%22wise+solutions%22&OS="wise+solutions"&RS="wise+solutions"
  2. ^ InstallShield sues competitor Wise Solutions for electronic espionage
  3. ^ InstallSite Tools
  4. ^ ALTIRIS INC - ATRS Quarterly Report (10-Q) Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements
  5. ^ Altiris illegally using technology, suit says - Rod Trent at myITforum.com

[edit] External links