By CATHERINE LANGFORD
KeyLabs Inc., one of the computer industry's largest, independent
software and hardware testing facilities, has impacted companies like Novell, JavaSoft and even Brigham Young University, since its beginning in January 1996.
With the company's specialty in network testing, KeyLabs maintains customers from various professional sectors who need to know the strengths, weaknesses and capabilities of their particular system whether for company or vendor use, said Tyler Smith, vice president of marketing.
KeyLabs was created by Novell veterans, Smith said, and was inspired by Novell's private testing lab and its inaccessibility to outside companies. KeyLabs is available to any company or vendor that may require the lab's services, Smith said.
With a lab of over 300 computer modules, KeyLabs is well qualified to max-out any network's testing needs, Smith said. They are able to easily switch over to various systems and environments, including Windows or DOS, thanks to software developed by Chief Engineer Kevin Turpin, said Software Sales Manager Paul Kruger.
LabExpert was created to maximize KeyLabs' capabilities, but is currently being marketed as a tool for classrooms and labs of all kinds, Smith said. It could be a lab manager or anyone's dream who has had to deal with the problems that are a part of a lab environment.
On BYU campus, LabExpert made its debut with the labs in the Computer Science Department where Klark Walker works as a computer support representative and the department's systems manager.
Walker already knew KeyLabs President and CEO Jan Newman from their former employment with Novell. When Newman found out Walker was over the computer science labs at BYU, he asked if Walker would be interested in using LabExpert, Walker said.
Walker agreed, since the program's capabilities would help reduce time spent installing environments with Windows, DOS or NIT for different classes and teachers, Walker said.
As he used LabExpert, Walker found that what had previously required three or four days took only a half hour, and it helped reinstall files overwritten by students since the entire system could be reinstalled automatically, Walker said.
Although Walker's labs are the only ones on BYU campus using the software at present, many others have expressed interest and are only waiting for arrangements to be made to use LabExpert in their own labs, Kruger said.
LabExpert is becoming an increasingly important software package to many educational and testing centers as its advantages become better-known.
'We really expect it to take off because it saves so much time,' Smith said.