Both of these features are facilitated by the underlying managed preferences architecture.
If you have used the Parental Controls preferences to manage a local Mac or the Preferences pane of Workgroup Manager on a Mac OS X Server to manage networked Macs, then you have used preference management. Learn More Buy Integrating with Managed Preferences
Apple Training Series: Mac OS X Deployment v10.6: A Guide to Deploying and Maintaining Mac OS X and Mac OS X Software