Contributed By: Cliff Hobbs [MVP SMS]
Reproduced from the Microsoft Connect Site:

"In most cases – the 3rd service pack to a product is not a significant release – but in the case of SMS 2003 SP3 that is certainly not the case. SP3 is many ways is one of the most significant service packs ever released on SMS. With SP3, SMS will fully support Vista. Vista is off and running and adoption is happening quicker than our forcasts. Vista is a significant release of Windows and SMS 2003 and the upcoming System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (SMS v4) will be the premiers solutions for deploying Vista and Office 2007.

SP3 is also significant because of the enhanced asset and license management capabilities that have been integrated. Last April we announced the acquisition of AssetMetrix – a company that had focused on asset and license management since it’s founding. The assets (no pun intended) from the AssetMetrix acquisition are being integrated into SMS 2003 SP3. With SP3, the inventory in SMS will be much useable and valuable. The data will be much easier to use the deep information discovered through SMS will be categorized and displayed with “friendly” names. There are over 30 new reports focused on helping customers make business decisions are asset and license management.

Finally a word on quality – job number one. We have seen the market share and SMS double in the last 4 years. In the United States – SMS is used in more than 2 out of 3 enterprise organizations. This is tremendous growth. At the same time the market share has doubled – the number of calls coming into our support organization have dropped by close to 50%. With the release of SP3 we expect to see the continued market growth of SMS and the continued decrease in calls being logged with support."
 

To see other SMS Design related FAQs click here.