The chart below represents a high level summary of how vendors are currently scored within the ‘TOOLS INTELLIGENCE’ service from The ITAM Review.

Vendors have been assessed against our ‘Mid-Market SAM’ criteria. The Enterprise SAM summary can be found here.

IMPORTANT: Every vendor has unique slant and a unique way of going about their business. The scores shown below are based on standard criteria as chosen by The ITAM Review and not based on your circumstances. The results applied to your business will vary significantly depending on your environment, goals and maturity. For this reason The ITAM Review is available to provide custom analysis; collating the 79 data points assessed for each vendor and mapping them against your unique requirements. See TOOLS INTELLIGENCE for further details.

100% Independence:

• Vendors participated in this research on a voluntary basis with no charges or entry fees.
• No reprint rights or advertising rights are available for the vendors who participated.
• This research is not sponsored or affiliated to any other organization.
• The ITAM Review does not try to write nice things about vendors in the hope they might buy a reprint. This is 100% independent research.
• The assessment criteria are open and public and available free to anyone that subscribes to the free monthly newsletter.
• The ITAM Review would like to sincerely thank all vendors for their cooperation and time.

Market Synopsis: Mid-Market SAM Tools

Martin Thompson

Martin is an independent software industry analyst, SAM consultant and founder of The ITAM Review and The ITSM Review. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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Like an elegant Swan hiding frantic legs kicking below the surface, a software webshop allows a simplified front to the complex process of license management.

One of the current competitive differentiators in market-leading SAM tools is the ability to offer a software request platform or web-shop for users within an organization.

This is whereby the Software Asset Manager can present his or her end users with some form of web-based software catalogue to choose and manage the software they consume.  This can vary in complexity from a simple web page in which to make a request for new software through to end-to-end execution and automation.

Why Is a Software Request Platform A Good Idea?

End Users: Assigning Value to Choices

Firstly I believe using a software request platform sends the right message to the users you are attempting to serve. Requesting new software or software changes represents a cost to the business. If software choices are presented in an Amazon style shop format it reinforces the fact that:

• This stuff costs us money – the choices you are making affect the business (Open source choices also cost the business money to support, update and maintain etc.)
• It isn’t just bits and bytes to be consumed instantly – software is a commodity and asset and needs to be treated as such
• Choice – We’re trying our best to serve you what you need

The IT Department: Driving Best Practice

From an IT department perspective I believe a software request platform is an excellent goal to aim for.  This is because in order to successfully deliver a software request platform you will need to have given some thought to and have the ability to deliver:

1. An approved software list with approved versions
2. A software request, approval and change request process

Both of these items are sound objectives to aim for in their own right and are firmly aligned with ISO/IEC 19770 and ITIL best practice.

Features to consider:

• Software and service options customized for the end user – the receptionist should not have to wade through 17 different variants of a high end engineering application in order to choose the software required to open a PDF.
• Presentation of software in business context, use cases and alternatives e.g. Are you looking to edit Visio diagrams on a regular basis or just view them?
• Box shots, images and pricing – a small aesthetic gimmick which reinforces the fact that software is an asset and needs to be purchased.
• An easy to use and intuitive experience – it has to be seen and experienced as easier and more responsive than getting printed forms routed via in-trays or trying to engage with the IT department directly.
• Automated approval process – route requests to an appropriate manager or team leader to approve the request. Facilitates cross charging, chargeback or ‘show-back’.
• Ability to manage job lists – send Installations, Moves and Change (IMAC) jobs to a helpdesk system for action, include the ability to mark jobs as ‘pending’ until they are acted upon (Since compliance is based on actual state not desired state) or integration / synchronization with a systems management tool.
• Reporting and Analysis – who is requesting what software? Why? What will we need in the future etc.
• Advanced Features – the ability to build complex workflow and kick off procurement requests based on license management rules.

Scope for Vast Improvement and Automation

Like the Swan, who looks elegant and graceful above the surface whilst things look less pretty and legs are kicking frantically below the surface, the web-shop presents an easy to use and simple front to an otherwise complex process; license management.

I’m not an expert on Service Oriented Architecture, but this approach also allows for modules, services or business process outsourcing to occur below the surface of the water with no change in delivery or perception for users. They make a request for service, it gets approved and it gets delivered. Behind the scenes the approval process, checks and balances, procurement and checks and balances and IMAC requests might be delivered by third party apps, business partners or different departments.

Resellers who offer SAM services are stepping up to provide ongoing managed services in this area; either as an independent business process or as part of their software licensing business.

Matrix42 and Spider have some good technology in this area – although it is a blend of software and professional services. Centrix Software also has a platform for delivering this sort of experience but it does not include very sophisticated license management capabilities.

Your ITSM provider is also likely to provide the workflow engine to deliver this form of service but most vendors lack the vital license management functions. For example one vendor I reviewed recently had a slick process from requesting software, kicking off a change request and delivering software automatically to the desktop, but it completely by-passed any license management checks and balances. Slick and efficient – but lethal if you are trying to contain costs and maintain compliance.

Finally, a successfully implemented software request platform puts the control squarely in the control of the SAM department. A proactive function rather than endless firefighting and cleaning up mess after projects and changes.

What do you think? Have you implemented a web-shop?

Photo Credit

Martin Thompson

Martin is an independent software industry analyst, SAM consultant and founder of The ITAM Review and The ITSM Review. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

More Posts – Website

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The chart below represents a high level summary of how vendors are currently scored within the ‘TOOLS INTELLIGENCE’ service from The ITAM Review.

Vendors have been assessed against our ‘Enterprise SAM’ criteria. The summary for ‘Mid-Market SAM’ can be found here.

IMPORTANT: Every vendor has unique slant and a unique way of going about their business. The scores shown below are based on standard criteria as chosen by The ITAM Review and not based on your circumstances. The results applied to your business will vary significantly depending on your environment, goals and maturity. For this reason The ITAM Review is available to provide custom analysis; collating the 79 data points assessed for each vendor and mapping them against your unique requirements. See TOOLS INTELLIGENCE for further details.

100% Independence:

• Vendors participated in this research on a voluntary basis with no charges or entry fees.
• No reprint rights or advertising rights are available for the vendors who participated.
• This research is not sponsored or affiliated to any other organization.
• The ITAM Review does not try to write nice things about vendors in the hope they might buy a reprint. This is 100% independent research.
• The assessment criteria are open and public and available free to anyone that subscribes to the free monthly newsletter.
• The ITAM Review would like to sincerely thank all vendors for their cooperation and time.

Market Synopsis: Enterprise SAM Tools

Martin Thompson

Martin is an independent software industry analyst, SAM consultant and founder of The ITAM Review and The ITSM Review. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

More Posts – Website

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The list below are what I call ‘Competitive Differentiators’. They are strong features that are unique to certain SAM tool manufacturers. Once the majority of tools on the market offer these features they will no longer be considered differentiators.

As well as serving as a way of picking the differences between different SAM tool manufacturers – they also provide an indicator of where development is focused.

Way back when…

When I began selling SAM tools in 2000, the focus was very much around inventory (What have we got?), the industry then went through a period of development around Software Recognition (OK, we found winword.exe on our network- but what is it?), and now I believe the focus is around business intelligence (OK, so that file winword.exe is actually Microsoft Word, but do I need a license for it, am I using the best version and how can I get more bang for my buck?).

I believe there is still plenty of mileage and innovation possible in inventory tools – but generally speaking, the war is being waged over ‘what to do with the data’ rather than ‘how to collect it’. This can also be seen by many tools now becoming inventory agnostic – they don’t care where the data comes from – it’s what you do with it that counts.

Not all points are useful for everyone and the list is not exhaustive.  SAM tool manufacturers  are currently adding or building in these features so if you are in the market for SAM technology make sure you ask your prospective tools manufacturer about these features if you feel they are relevant to you.

This is not technology for technology’s sake. As well as listing each differentiator I have attempted to articulate the business value of each point.

License Intelligence around Product Use Rights

Traditional SAM tools allowed you to balance installs versus licenses. I found 5 copies of Microsoft Project with my inventory tool; I will reconcile that against my 5 licenses that I purchased. Marvelous, everything is right with the world.

Unfortunately, licensing is rarely that simple. Modern tools go a step further and say – ok, you’ve told us what you have installed and what you have purchased, let’s take it a step further and make sure you are making best use of your product use rights.

Some examples:

• Second use rights – some vendors will allow you to use another copy of their application at home, on a virtual device or for backup purposes. Double counting these in your total license count can make a significant difference to your bill. Smart SAM tools offer features to begin to automate this process.
• Upgrade and downgrade rights – You’ve bought Windows 7 as part of your agreement but you are actually using something a lot older. Modern SAM tools can cope with upgrade and downgrade rights and will apply them to automatically generate a compliance position.
• Client Access Licenses – CALs are a strange beast. Since nothing is normally installed with a CAL they are notoriously difficult to manage. Modern SAM tools, when possible, begin to automate the management of CALs.
• Mainstream Support Expiry Dates – Along the business intelligence theme – some SAM tool vendors are providing additional information about the software installed. One example is the expiry dates for mainstream support. For example if you are analyzing your SAM data in preparation for a negotiation, it is useful to know that one of the products within the contract will become end of life mid-way through the contract.
• Processor or user based licensing – Modern SAM tools allow you to calculate licensing on metrics other than total installs. For example they can analyze hardware information and produce a compliance report based on total processors or concurrent users.
• Automatic License Reconciliation – modern SAM tools will attempt to build a compliance and optimization position automatically.

SKU Intelligence

The pivotal point for many SAM tools are the SKUs (Stock Keeping Unit). This is commonly used as a unique identifier to match installed software with a purchase order. This is not the only way to perform a reconciliation but it is a good way of matching the diverse worlds of IT and technical terms (exe files, installs and licensing) with the price and product terms of procurement (Prices, PO’s, Invoices). Modern SAM tools then apply some additional intelligence to those SKUs such as costs. For example some tools provide an estimated price of the SKU – this is particularly useful when you are being audited and are trying to make decisions based on partial information. Administrators can easily prioritize and assess risk.

Process Automation

I see this as a key development area for the future. It’s no good having all this marvelous data about your environment if you can’t act on it. Modern SAM tools incorporate business process management techniques such as webshops to automate key SAM processes. See also ‘Why You Should Consider a Software Webshop‘.

Customer specific clause calculation

Larger customers will negotiate and sign unique terms and clauses into their agreements. Modern SAM tools allow for a customer specific schedule to be attached to an agreement and for future calculations to be completed automatically in accordance with the schedule. Some vendors are extra versatile and can calculate compliance based on bespoke variables. If you’ve signed a contract based on the number of plant pots in the building, and the number of plant pots is stored in a LDAP database somewhere – a compliance position can automatically be generated.

License Management for specific software publishers

Modern SAM tools have the ability to manage the complexities of the largest software publishers such as IBM capacity based licensing, SAP user based licensing or being Oracle LMS certified.

Implementation and Maintenance

Modern SAM tools have the option to deliver their product via the web. Not everyone wants a cloud solution but delivery via the Internet makes things a lot easier (and cheaper) if you are outsourcing the management of your software or multiple business partners or organisational units need to access information. Similarly modern SAM tools allow for their software database updates to be trickled down via the web like new anti-virus signatures rather than the clumsy process of downloading database updates.

Data Import and Integration

Modern SAM tools are multi-lingual, paranoid and mistrusting. They will speak and integrate with different data points but assume that the data is dodgy and needs reconciling and cleaning.

Some examples:

• Modern SAM tools don’t just integrate with Active Directory – they look into AD and reconcile the data (e.g. Which devices are in AD but not audited, which devices have we found from other sources that are not in AD etc). Modern SAM tools don’t just accept SCCM data – they cleanse it, reconcile it and make it useful.
• Modern SAM tools audit and reconcile virtual environments (this includes VMWare, Microsoft, Citrix and Linux). They don’t just audit the devices, but also build a relationship between physical and virtual worlds. This is important for two reasons: 1) Discovery – ok we found a virtual device with software on it – but where is it? and 2) License Optimization – sometimes if a virtual device can be mapped to a physical device special terms can be applied to the virtual machine to save on licensing e.g. A user may have the rights to use an application free of charge or another virtual device.
• Modern SAM tools talk to dinosaurs. They recognize that some customers have no option but to use SCCM or LANDesk for inventory and will utilize this data to get the job done.
• Modern SAM tools talk to software publishers. They allow for bulk upload of purchasing history or consumption statements .

SAM Tool Geek

As you may have spotted. I am a geek for this sort of stuff! I keep a record of which SAM tool manufacturers offer which differentiators via Tools Intelligence and I provide consulting to organisations who need advice in this area. If you need any help on what to ask or what to look for – please give me a shout.

Martin Thompson

Martin is an independent software industry analyst, SAM consultant and founder of The ITAM Review and The ITSM Review. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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Root Cause Analysis not Bandaids

If organizations are to escape the painful cycle of firefighting against software audits and progress towards fully-fledged software asset management the focus needs to be on managing and acting on exceptions.

That is, identifying where leakages in management of software occur, taking action, and refining processes accordingly over time. No grand true up, but gradual business improvement.

Conventional Wisdom

However, existing SAM tools have some shortcomings when it comes to this approach.

Let’s take an example. We’re managing the vendor Shaftu software (a tribute to the brilliant Shaft University).

Typical SAM tools will provide the following:

So for Shaftu.exe we have bought 500 licenses, we have 550 copies installed on our network resulting in a deficit of minus 50 licenses. We are out of compliance and need to take action.

We can use the business intelligence gathered with shaftu.exe usage data to see that only 450 of the 550 installations are being used. So they may be the opportunity for removal of software (if terms permit) in order to maintain compliance.

This logic sells SAM tools. It allows for a true up, it gets the job done.

But the weakness here is that it is REACTIVE. Nothing provided here helps identify where the leaks occurred. The administrators might ask themselves – “How did we end up being 50 short? We were audited last year by ShaftU software and settled with them to get compliant! Where did things go wrong?”

Help Me Manage and Learn from Exceptions

What I believe would be more useful is to help administrators and Software Asset Managers to identify and manage exceptions. It would not be rocket science for SAM tool providers to build this sort of data into their analysis.

So between February and March the number of installs increased by 50. 25 of these were legitimate and tracked by our SAM program and 25 were not. Of the 25 that were not authorized we can see the nature of the install in order to take corrective action.  The goal is to slowly iron out these exceptions by tightening up and refining processes and educating users.

I have picked some examples – I’m sure there is other data that SAM tools could gather to establish root causes.

The action required on these anomalies will vary according to the policies in place, the volume of exceptions and the nature of the exception.

Some companies might be able to act on each exception individually (One SAM analyst I knew would simply email a screenshot of the install from their SAM tool to the user and let them know big brother is watching).

For high volumes it might be a case of acting on types of behaviour (“Lets focus on educating the deployment team about our license management process”). Gathering this sort of data over time enables trends to be plotted in order to build a business case for company wide change.

Whatever happens, it allows Software Asset Managers to identify what is happening, establish root causes and take action that will result in lasting improvement. It also enables change to be documented e.g. “Our series of workshops with users over the last 3 months reduced rogue installs by 95%”.

Martin Thompson

Martin is an independent software industry analyst, SAM consultant and founder of The ITAM Review and The ITSM Review. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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This independent review of AppClarity and Shopping from 1E is part of our 2012 SAM Tools Review. See all participants and terms of the review here.

Executive Summary

Commercial Summary

Independent Review

First of all, it should be noted that 1E doesn’t offer an all-round traditional SAM tool. You could quite easily compliment all of the other SAM tools in this review with what 1E have to offer. The company has a different approach to most SAM vendors and their tools in that it doesn’t offer a comprehensive multi-territory license ledger as such, but I wanted to include 1E in the 2012 SAM tools review to recognise their innovation and unique approach to managing software efficiency.

See also SCCM Plug-ins Review from February 2012 and ‘1E Launch SCCM Plug-in to Target Software Waste’ from April 2011.

Not Just License Counting but Taking Action!

If you are managing your software assets effectively you’ll recognise that SAM is not just about running reports and declaring your position, it is also about taking action and rectifying discrepancies and removing waste.

Not much is spoken in the SAM market about interaction with users and customers once we’ve calculated our license position.

You might have to:

• Contact a user or department head regarding unlicensed or unused software
• Negotiate or discuss requirements and alternatives
• Follow up with them or their manager
• Talk to the Ops guys to get it removed / changed
• Check the inventory to ensure it is removed and so on

In short, lots of email back and forth and updating spread sheets.

The 1E offering seeks to automate this process. ‘AppClarity’ is a tool to be used alongside SCCM that offers policy-based auto-reclaim of unused licenses from desktops. ‘Shopping’ is an enterprise app store which allows users to select and download software with a quick and easy approval process.

Preventing License Hoarding

This combination of license reclaim and deployment is a good approach.

Software Asset Managers looking to push forward a license reclaim project should seriously consider their license approval and deployment processes. Companies wishing to claw back licenses are much more likely to succeed if they involve the end user in any efforts to reclaim software. Users are more likely to relinquish software if they know the company has an efficient way of requesting and delivering new software.

I.e. Users are much more likely to part with their licenses if they know they can easily get them back again or can easily request free or cheaper alternatives. If it is a lengthy bureaucratic nightmare to request a piece of software they are more likely to hoard it.

Efficiency by Design

Software can be assigned to different groups within ‘AppClarity’ based on rules and policies applied. The groups can be based on operating units, vendor or application names. Decisions and policies can then be made based on the different groups.

Software policies can be configured to act based on usage information (Used, Used Rarely, Not Used) and remove software accordingly. Software removal may be a ‘stealth’ mandatory removal or by sending a proactive message out to them, which can be fully customized to appear to be from the CIO, reminding them that applications cost money, so if the given applications are no longer needed, they can authorize AppClarity to remove them.

E.g. If App X is used in department Y – just remove it. If App A is not being used in group B – liaise with the user. (See a screenshot of this liaison here).

The primary focus of these tools is volume desktop publishers such as Microsoft and Adobe – and with good reason, there is lots of waste to aim at here. However it would be good to see 1E apply their innovation and logic to some datacenter software publishers in the future. Although delivering this with SCCM as the primary inventory source will be a challenge.

Addressing Consumer Driven Demands

According to 1E research

“Two thirds of users have to wait up to a week or more to get the software they request”.

This lag presents a real hurdle to productivity and collaboration. After all, when your colleague sends you that special file to edit during your project, you probably want to look at it today or tomorrow, not in two weeks time when the app is finally installed. Companies typically have anything between a 7 and 21-day SLA for new software.

In stark contrast, employees at home are using their own pcs and smart phones and enjoying instant downloads on demand. This is not about lock down or licensing but speed of delivery and smooth execution (for example the Apple App Store is a locked down and strictly licensed channel – it just appears slick and effortless due to speed of execution).

Shopping from 1E is a portal for all software and services. 1E is not the first company to offer an enterprise App store but their tight integration with SCCM combined with license approvals and reclaim via AppClarity is a real differentiator.

A big business motivator for SAM is cost saving but combining software efficiency with a software request platform allows for big gains in customer satisfaction. Users get what they want, when they want it whilst the company meets its governance goals.

Shopping also has a clever feature for managing Windows 7 deployments. Users can choose when they wish to begin the process, rather than having it forced upon them. Once the transition has begun, users can walk through the upgrade process and transfer, review and swap their apps at the same time (see screenshot below).

1E’s success to date appears to be in large enterprise accounts. It would be good to see 1E address the SME area of the market – many organizations may wish to build in this sort of efficiency into their operations as a pre-cursor to a formal SAM practice.

The user driven Windows 7 upgrade process using 'Shopping' from 1E (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

5-Minute Video Overview

Resources

• AppClarity SCCM Plugin Review [The ITAM Review]
• 1E AppClarity Brochure
• Whitepaper: Pragmatic Software Governance
• Whitepaper: Reduce, Reclaim and Recycle

1E Customers

• 3M
• ERM
• Aptar Group
• Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
• Arup

From The 1E Brochure

“AppClarity enables you to make immediate reductions in software costs, analyzing all your applications and providing you with actionable results. AppClarity financially quantifies all software waste and initiates user centric software reclaims. It leverages Microsoft® System Center Configuration Manager to help you reclaim, recycle and reuse your software assets. Compliance is achieved at a much lower cost.AppClarity helps you:

• Find Unused Software by leveraging Microsoft® Configuration Manager to instantly obtain an accurate picture of all deployed applications. Irrelevant records are filtered out and variances in publisher and product names are normalized. The remaining installations on each PC are classified according to their usage.
• Financially Quantify Software Waste by providing reports with actionable results. All unused software is collated into one report financially outlining the total waste and potential savings. The Unused Software Report is a business case detailing the waste and the steps to take action.
• Reclaim Unused Software Licenses by using our user centric software reclaim to automatically reclaim licenses from unused software in order to reallocate or reduce liability.
• Report Savings with a built-in Software Reclaim Savings Report, which offers a breakdown of savings by publisher and product.

1E ShoppingTM and AppClarity work together to provide self-service software provisioning and complete license visibility and control. Users are more likely to return unused software licenses if they know they can easily regain the applications in the future through a corporate app store.“

Further Information

• Contact 1E
• Product and Evaluation Page

This independent review of AppClarity and Shopping from 1E is part of our 2012 SAM Tools Review. See all participants and terms of the review here.

Martin Thompson

Martin is an independent software industry analyst, SAM consultant and founder of The ITAM Review and The ITSM Review. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

More Posts – Website

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This independent review of FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises from Flexera Software is part of our 2012 SAM Tools Review. See all participants and terms of the review here.

Executive Summary

Commercial Summary

Independent Review

Back in 2010 I described the Flexera Software offering as ‘Black-belt SAM’. Over the last couple of years Flexera Software have consolidated this position with aggressive acquisition of new customers (from 130 to 500 Enterprise Customers) and broadened their portfolio around the SAM Lifecycle.

The Flexera Software value proposition is built on four tenets:

1. Maintaining continuous license compliance to reduce risk,
2. Optimizing licensing for visibility and savings,
3. Automate workflow for operational efficiency,
4. And generating business intelligence to improve decision making and forecasting.

I also mentioned in my review in 2010 that Flexera was not for the feint-hearted. This is not a plug-n-play solution so don’t expect an out of the box experience. This is an industrial strength SAM tool for multi-cost centre multi-country SAM implementations.

Flexera have the most comprehensive coverage in terms of Enterprise SAM functionality. They have really grasped the nettle in terms of wrestling with licensing in the data centre and on virtual platforms. This includes intelligent management of virtual machines, hardware partitioning, and hypervisor integrations.

Flexera were one of the early pioneers in exploiting best use of product use rights and squeezing every last drop of value out of each license purchased. They were one of the first to offer automatic calculation of an optimized license position by applying product use rights such as second use or virtual rights as well as vendor specific license optimization solutions for Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, Adobe, Symantec and IBM licensing.

Flexera also own InstallShield and AdminStudio, software tools for creating installers and software packages. This provides a unique position in the licensing market as serving both licensing creator and licensing consumer. This poacher and gamekeeper combination provides Flexera with a competitive advantage, especially when understanding high-end engineering applications and the nuances of complex licensing models. It is rather like training companies that educate both sales and procurement – it provides unique insight into the dynamics of the market.

Recent developments at Flexera Software include the acquisition of SCCMexpert to add an Enterprise App Store with tight deployment integration with Microsoft SCCM and business intelligence features.

The new business intelligence features are delivered via an inbuilt Cognos engine which provides in-depth reporting and the ability to perform multi-variable analysis of key SAM metrics. Another innovation is their predictive ‘What if?’ analysis capability that allows organizations to assess the impact of IT infrastructure changes on their license position. Simulations can be performed for hardware, software, virtual machine and shared processor pool setting changes. For example Software Asset Managers can simulate a hardware upgrade to an IBM system and forecast the increase in PVU costs.

Video Demonstration

Overview and Demonstration from Greg Holmes at Flexera Software (44 Minutes):

www.demosondemand.com/clients/flexera/001/page/prerelease_FLEX003.asp

Resources

• Flexnet Manager Data Sheet
• Whitepaper: Optimized License Management for the Datacenter

Flexera Software Customers

• Egger Group (FlexNet Manager for SAP)
• Rentokil Initial (FlexNet Manager for Microsoft)
• Freescale Semiconductor (FlexNet Manager for Engineering Apps)
• Proctor & Gamble

From The Flexera Software Brochure

“ FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises is a comprehensive, proven, next generation software asset management, license compliance and license optimization solution. The Suite provides entitlement based license management and optimization to enable organizations to reduce ongoing software licensing costs and maintain continuous license compliance.

The foundation of the FlexNet Manager Suite is the FlexNet Manager Platform that provides extensive hardware and software asset management (HAM and SAM) capabilities for managing desktop, laptop, server and other hardware devices, and software from more than 11,000 vendors. Key Platform functionality includes:

• Discovery, Inventory and Application Recognition across multiple platforms (Windows, Linux, UNIX, MAC OS, and virtual machines)
• Automated Purchased versus Installed License Reconciliation utilizing software part numbers (SKUs)
  • Oracle database discovery, inventory and license management
  • ‘What If’ Analysis to measure the impact of IT environment changes on licensing

The FlexNet Manager Suite solutions enable organizations to:

• Consolidate applications and vendors to maximize volume discounts
• Expose under-used software and re-allocate those licenses to reduce new purchases and/or reduce maintenance costs
  • Reclaim licenses from retired hardware to defer new license purchases
  • Maintain continuous license compliance to minimize audit cost and risk
  • Perform trend analyses to forecast future needs

FlexNet Manager Suite license optimization solutions—FlexNet Manager for Adobe, FlexNet Manager for IBM, FlexNet Manager for Microsoft, FlexNet Manager for Symantec, FlexNet Manager for SAP Business Suite, and FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications— enable organizations to implement multiple software license management and contract optimization strategies that save time, help ensure continuous license compliance and reduce costs.“

Further Information

• Contact Flexera Software
• Product Page: FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises

Martin Thompson

Martin is an independent software industry analyst, SAM consultant and founder of The ITAM Review and The ITSM Review. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

More Posts – Website

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This independent review of License Dashboard Enterprise Suite from License Dashboard is part of our 2012 SAM Tools Review. See all participants and terms of the review here.

Executive Summary

Commercial Summary

Independent Review

The majority of Software Asset Management (SAM) offerings available on the market today have developed from inventory, auditing or asset register systems. It is clear the ‘License Manager’ solution from License Dashboard has been built from the ground up for the sole purpose of SAM.

As mentioned during our previous review of License Dashboard in February 2012 (See the Microsoft SCCM [ConfigMgr] Plug-Ins Group Test):

“…it is evident that ‘License Manager’ from License Dashboard developed from Claret crunching. It demonstrates all the hallmarks of a great software auditor yet in an automated fashion. It meticulously combs through the evidence as a licensing specialist would and presents an auditors picture of both compliance and usage.”

There are three core components to the License Dashboard offering:

• ‘License Manager’ – an entitlement centric license management solution that works independently of inventory source.
• ‘Discovery’ – License Dashboard commonly takes advantage of existing inventory sources from other tools but also offer an Inventory and Discovery tool (with agent-based and agent-less options)
• ‘SAM Portal’ – Browser based platform for delivery of all aspects of the software lifecycle (software request, catalogue, approval etc.)

SAM Workspaces

The License Manager product is divided into seven workspaces as follows:

1. Dashboard Summary – a visual summary of installs, compliance, surpluses with drill-down to further analysis
2. License Inventory – Import License Statements and Vendor purchase history
3. Contract Inventory – Manage more complex contracts and agreements
4. License Entitlements – provides an aggregated summary of true entitlement
5. Data Cleanse – Walks the user through the recognition process
6. Software Usage – If usage is enabled users can harness the data within License Manager
7. Reports – various summaries and vendor centric reports for generating compliance summaries or true-up statements

I believe the real strengths and differentiators of this offering are threefold:

1)    The ability to provide a workbench for a number of sources

License Manager can import and aggregate multiple inventory sources. From the other side of the entitlement equation it also provides an automatic import of license statements from software publishers or other purchasing databases.

2)    The transparency of the recognition process

License Manager imports data from a number of sources. It then guides the user through the software recognition process. If necessary, users can lift up the hood and see a deep dive of how data has been processed and see the logic behind the decisions. With transparency comes trust. You can see how things have been interpreted understand the process – important if you want to have real faith in the data.

3)    The intelligence it adds to the license import process

On the basis that if you put junk in you’ll get junk out – License Manager does not just pump the asset database with crooked data; it defines which transactions it will process, those it can’t and the reasons why. Vendor statements are rarely definitive. Anomalies or discrepancies crop up. It walks the user through the process as if an auditor were looking over your shoulder.

The ‘maintenance schedule’ feature offered within License Manager is also very smart. This offers the user a visual display of upcoming renewals and is missing from the offerings of most competitors.

ROUTE TO MARKET

As with other solutions in this review, License Dashboard offers a mixture of products and services depending on the requirements of the customer. Ranging from complete outsource of the SAM function to stand alone product sale with occasional handholding when required. For the purposes of this review we looked at the ‘License Manager’ offering but License Dashboard also offer a workflow engine which aligns to the whole software lifecycle so organizations can explore outsourcing SAM in it’s entirety.

The average estate size of License Dashboard customers suggests a focus on small to medium size customers – but I see no reason why License Dashboard can’t be global enterprise player too.

1 Minute Video Overview

License Dashboard Customers

• Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust
• North Lincolnshire Council
• Irwin Mitchell Solicitors
• Jewel & Esk College

From The License Dashboard Brochure

“License Dashboard Enterprise Suite: Everything your organization needs to develop and maintain effective Software Asset Management.

License Dashboard Enterprise Suite is designed to give organizations everything they need to develop, implement and maintain a mature and cost-effective Software Asset Management (SAM) program. From software discovery to automatic license reconciliation, self-service for software users through to the management of inter-departmental transfers, Enterprise Suite unites the three core License Dashboard technologies to deliver a solution that covers all the bases of successful Software Asset Management:

• Discovery
• License Manager
• SAM Portal

Enterprise Suite brings together the following key capabilities into a fully integrated solution:

• Software Discovery - In addition to working with any IT inventory solutions the organization may already have in place (see Audit Connectors), Enterprise Suite includes integrated software and hardware discovery for Windows PCs and Servers.
• License Import - Automatic import of Microsoft Licensing Statements (MLS) and vendor licensing documents. Wizard-based input of single license records. Full audit trail of license imports and changes.
• License Reconciliation - Intelligent rules and software recognition ensure the best possible match between installations and entitlements, automatically calculating downgrade rights etc.
• Software Self-Service - Users across the organization can access an online portal to initiate and track software deployment requests. All requests are intelligently routed to the appropriate line managers to ensure they are all fully authorized.
• Full SAM Lifecycle Management - All stakeholders across the organization can use a single console to monitor, manage and report on software requests, purchases and transfers.“

Screenshots 

Click on the thumbnails to enlarge.

Further Information

• Product Page
• Datasheet
• Contact License Dashboard
• Evaluation Request

Martin Thompson

Martin is an independent software industry analyst, SAM consultant and founder of The ITAM Review and The ITSM Review. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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This independent review of BMC Footprints Inventory Manager and Compliance Manager from BMC Software is part of our 2012 SAM Tools Review. See all participants and terms of the review here.

Executive Summary

Commercial Summary

Independent Review

We reviewed ‘Footprints Inventory Manager and Compliance Manager’ as part of our Discovery and Inventory Tools Group Test back in November last year, see the full report here.

As an inventory solution I was impressed and rated the offering as ‘Best in Class’ and ‘Best All Round Tool’ compared to the other tools we reviewed.

Unfortunately I can’t say the same for using Footprints Inventory Manager and Compliance Manager as a Software Asset Management (SAM) solution.

I would certainly recommend taking a look at the Inventory, but for anything other than very basic license management requirements it falls short.

For instance it only tracks licensing by device (or perpetual licensing) and does not allow for bulk upload of purchase history. So for most organizations they would find it labour intensive and restrictive for managing the software in their estate. There is little scope for managing other license types or anything beyond very basic license management.

Since the Inventory Group Test Numara has been acquired by BMC. The product is now called BMC Footprints Inventory and Compliance Manager.

Lets hope that the BMC product management team have the foresight to invest or acquire more depth into Footprints SAM capabilities. It has a great foundation to build upon, great inventory, tight integration with the rest of the Footprints family and a strong methodology for monitoring compliance.

BMC Footprints Inventory Manager and Compliance Manager Customers

• Air France
• Thurrock Council
• Balfour Beatty
• Tottenham Hotspur FC
• West Midlands Ambulance Service

From The BMC Footprints Brochure

“Numara® FootPrints® Inventory Manager and Numara FootPrints Compliance Manager are part of a modular yet fully integrated solution for IT Lifecycle and IT Service Management.

FootPrints Inventory Manager automates complex inventory tracking providing accurate, current and complete asset intelligence to help guide investment decisions reduce manual processes and maintain compliance.

From the desktop, FootPrints Inventory Manager will automate the entire data-gathering process for your fixed and mobile IT assets whether they’re Windows®, MacOS®, Linux®/VMWare® Workstations, servers, laptops or mobile/peripheral devices. After the initial audit, you will have a complete view of your IT assets, including their current hardware and software configurations.

From the console you’ll be able to manage configuration changes across the network or enforce change-control policies. It will also maintain a detailed inventory history and update this through scheduled automated audits or its ‘audit now’ feature when you need your asset data in near real-time.

FootPrints Compliance Manager allows you to define policies based on vendors’ licensing agreements and other regulatory standards to quickly assess your compliance levels. With essential tools, reports and templates for ISO 27001, ISO 27002, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Microsoft® hardening guides, you’ll be ready for your next audit with the minimum amount of disruption.

FootPrints Compliance Manager integrates tightly with FootPrints Inventory Manager to give non-intrusive, agent-less scans of your network that will detect any potential compliance issues. The dynamic grouping options allow you to quickly identify, group and take action against any devices that do not meet your defined compliance policies.”

Screenshot 

Click to Enlarge

Further Information

• Compliance Manager Brochure
• Inventory Manager Brochure
• BMC Footprints Lifecycle Management
• Contact BMC Numara
• Download Evaluation

Martin Thompson

Martin is an independent software industry analyst, SAM consultant and founder of The ITAM Review and The ITSM Review. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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This independent review of Altiris™ Asset Management Suite from Symantec is part of our 2012 SAM Tools Review. See all participants and terms of the review here.

Executive Summary

Commercial Summary

Independent Review

Introduction

The Symantec Altiris offering consists of two main components:

• Client Management Suite (IT Management tasks e.g. deploy, manage, patch) and
• The Asset Management Suite (ITAM Tasks)

The Asset Management suite is dependent on the Client Management Suite being deployed and acts as an additional module that harnesses the configuration data.

In terms of licensing the Symantec Altiris products, an organization would buy Client Management Suite licenses to manage each of their end points and a concurrent license for each Asset Management Suite user. So for example, a single Asset Manager managing 1,000 assets would buy 1,000 Client Management Suite licenses and 1 single concurrent Asset Management Suite license.

Market Share: The Big Kahuna?

Symantec boast a large market share in the IT Management sector relative to the other vendors in this assessment. The Symantec Altiris team report around 20,000 customers using their Client Management Suite. Of this, they estimate that around half also choose the Asset Management Suite.

The Asset Management Suite is a good all round asset repository but when it comes to Enterprise-grade SAM it has significant shortcomings.

From a purely SAM point of view the closest competitor to Symantec Altiris is Microsoft SCCM. Microsoft has encouraged an ecosystem of SAM management packs and plugins to leverage their technology and bridge feature gaps for SAM. I’m not aware of a similar ecosystem for Symantec Altiris.

This is a shame because whilst Symantec Altiris provides a good foundation of inventory information, I would not recommend shortlisting this technology as an Enterprise SAM tool in isolation. I can imagine many other SAM tools in this review providing value to Symantec Altiris data.

Just Like Outlook

The console has a familiar, well polished if rather dated feel to it. The product management team were keen to tell me it was ‘Just like Outlook’ – but I don’t see that as a redeeming feature. When I think of Outlook I think “Looks good but difficult to find stuff”, perhaps not something you would highlight as a key quality of an ITAM platform. ITAM above all else is governance, so we want to see transparency, verification and accuracy.

The ITAM Bottleneck

As you would expect of a systems management platform and endpoint security vendor the hardware asset management capabilities to support key SAM tasks are comprehensive. Similarly if you are fully invested in the Symantec Altiris family you can take advantage of connectivity with Altiris Server Management Suite and Symantec ServiceDesk.

The broader Symantec Altiris family talks a good story of automated service from service request through to retirement on a common technology platform – but I struggle to see how they can deliver this without the business intelligence that industrial strength SAM provides.

Slick service delivery, customer-specific provisioning and lifecycle workflow all look good in principle but where is financial verification? It makes IT service delivery look Gung-Ho and ITAM a bottleneck. Let’s build the best shiny automated supermarket on the planet with an antiquated cash register. The missing SAM features are a chink in the portfolio.

Shortcomings

The shortcomings present themselves when attempting to interpret hardware and software data to make SAM decisions.

Specifically:

• Contracts Management features are generic and likely to be frustrating for SAM practitioners
• There is no SAM intelligence provided by the catalogue beyond basic software recognition (What needs a license, what type of software is it? How do I prioritize?)
• The software catalogue is only updated via version releases – last major version was March 2011, Service pack in October 2012.
• Out of the box License Management is primitive and is only focussed at desktop products (No per user licensing, no processor licensing, no second use rights, upgrade or downgrade rights, does not allow upload of vendor statements)

Whilst my review is not based on exhaustive technical study, I imagine day-to-day SAM with this platform is very labour intensive. Customers will have to harness complimentary technology or end up doing most of the license management heavy lifting in excel sheets.

In my opinion Symantec Altiris should invest in some stronger SAM features or align with some strategic partners in order to get some traction in this market, as it stands they are a laggard. I am perhaps being overly critical of Symantec Altiris, but the company has a big market share and the resources to invest in ITAM – I am keen for them to grasp the nettle and serve their ITAM customers who need much more.

3 Minute Video Introduction

Symantec Altiris Customers:

• 24 Hour Fitness
• Mercy Health Services
• Lone Star College System

From The Symantec Altiris Brochure

“Altiris™ Asset Management Suite from Symantec improves visibility into IT assets at every point in the lifecycle to reduce costs and fulfill compliance initiatives. The suite helps organizations eliminate unnecessary software and hardware costs, proactively manage vendor contracts, and align resources to ensure IT investments are optimized and business-aligned.

Asset managers can track and manage asset status through common changes and streamline common processes with pre-built process automated workflow templates. Altiris Client Management Suite 7.1 from Symantec manages, secures and troubleshoots systems with greater efficiency on more platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux and virtual desktop environments. The suite automates time-consuming and redundant tasks to minimize efforts and costs associated with deploying, patching, supporting client systems and software.”

Screenshots 

Click on the thumbnails to enlarge.

Further Information

• Product Page: Symantec Altiris Asset Management Suite
• Brochure: Symantec Altiris Asset Management Suite Product Sheet (PDF)
• Whitepaper:‘Never fear another software audit’

Martin Thompson

Martin is an independent software industry analyst, SAM consultant and founder of The ITAM Review and The ITSM Review. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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This independent review of the Berlin release from ServiceNow is part of our 2012 SAM Tools Review. See all participants and terms of the review here.

Executive Summary

Commercial Summary

Independent Review

ServiceNow has gained significant traction in the IT Service Management field with their cloud-based platform. The ‘Berlin’ release of ServiceNow made available in September 2012 includes significant enhancements for IT Asset Management.

For network inventory, customers can integrate their existing systems management tools into ServiceNow or use a built-in agentless discovery tool at an additional cost. We reviewed ‘ServiceNow Discovery’ in November 2011 – see the review here.

ServiceNow claim their customers are requesting more ITAM features for audit defence and addressing software spend and savings. Berlin is certainly a great start with Enterprise level SAM features such as managing different license types, tight integration with their ITSM service request platform and license management logic.

The ITAM and CMDB repositories are stored in separate tables but can relate to each other’s properties. The goal is to deliver accurate ITAM without cluttering up the CMDB; similarly ITAM can deliver their key requirements without the noise of technical and operational detail.

“ITAM and configuration management are closely related, but have different goals. The ITAM repository tracks financial information of company property, while the configuration management database (CMDB) tracks configuration item (CI) details and relationships that support business services.”

There are instances when an item might be a CI, or might be an Asset, or might be both.

For example:

• CI only – VLANs, ports, switches, IP addresses, Clusters
• Asset only – consumable item, License, contract
• CI & Asset – SQL Server

The result is a strong ITAM model. IT Asset Managers can build their repository but also leverage configuration items and the service delivery model to automate some of the leg work of ITAM lifecycle processes such as ordering, fulfilment, deployment and stock holding.

For the purposes of license management, applications in use can be normalized and managed against ‘Software Counters’ to which licensing types and rules can be applied. License types include by core, by processor, by user, by workstation and IBM PVU.

It’s a great start from ServiceNow; my only gripe is the software recognition. Large enterprises facing a daily fire hose of application data have to recognize applications manually.

ServiceNow have taken the strategic decision to partner with other software catalogue providers (such as BDNA) rather than starting from scratch with their own library.

The premise is to be able to “Automate your IT asset lifecycle on one platform” but using ServiceNow in isolation with manual recognition reliant on Add/Remove programs is far too labour intensive. Similarly suite recognition and downgrade rights must be applied manually. ServiceNow’s closest competitors in this review have inbuilt or embedded OEM software recognition databases.

2 Minute Video Introduction – ServiceNow Discovery

ServiceNow Customers

• World Wide Technology
• SkyIQ
• Santander

From the ServiceNow Brochure:

“Most organizations can gain immediate and real-cost savings from an IT asset management program, in addition to compliance benefits. ServiceNow helps achieve both goals. ServiceNow IT asset management helps IT decision- makers get the most out of assets at every stage of the life cycle through management of the physical, financial, and service attributes of IT hardware, software, and virtual assets. ServiceNow helps take the pain out of software asset management through automation of software license tracking. Manage a wide variety of license types, including those based on CPU types, location, named users, subscriptions, and much more. You can also extend the model to accommodate licenses based on any configuration item (CI) type.”

Screenshots

Click to enlarge.

Further Information

• Product Documentation / Wiki > Software Asset Management
• Product Documentation / Wiki > IT Asset Management
• Product Documentation / Wiki > ITIL ITAM
• Datasheet > IT ASSET MANAGEMENT
• SAM Webinar
• ITAM Whitepaper – ‘Gain control of your inventory’
• Contact ServiceNow
• Online Demo

Martin Thompson

Martin is an independent software industry analyst, SAM consultant and founder of The ITAM Review and The ITSM Review. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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What do people mean when they refer to a ‘SKU Catalogue’ for license management?

In this article I hope to demonstrate why organizations utilise SKU catalogues, the difference between SKU catalogues and software recognition and the business value to SAM practitioners.

Shopping for Coca-Cola

Browse any supermarket around the world and you are likely to find a section of the store dedicated to Coca-Cola and its fizzy drink competitors. Coca-Cola is produced in a myriad of flavours (Diet, regular, cherry, zero…) and a variety of sizes (cans, big bottles, little bottles, value packs…) suited to customer requirements. Each of these Coke variants has a SKU or Stock Keeping Unit assigned to it.

Stock Keeping Units allow the supermarket to manage their inventory and manage millions of different product lines. If the store is running low on Cherry Cola cans it has a unique identifier to isolate that product and manage fulfilment throughout the supply chain. The supermarket can order the SKU, the SKU is quoted on the purchase order, and the SKU is quoted on the invoice, printed on the box and so on. Without some form of unique identifier managing inventory at the supermarket would be a logistical nightmare.

Note: A SKU is different from a barcode. A barcode is used to electronically identify a product using an optical machine reader. Barcodes may contain SKU numbers and other data.

Shopping for Symantec Backup Exec

The vast majority software publishers also use a SKU to identify product variants.

If we were to go shopping online for Symantec Backup Exec we might stumble across SKU number ‘MLDZWZC1-EI1AS’ (Referred to in this instance as the manufacturers part number by CDW in image below).

It is important to note that MLDZWZC1-EI1AS refers to a very specific way of purchasing Symantec Backup Exec.

• It is for Windows
• It is an upgrade rather than a full license and therefore only valid if accompanied by the underlying base license
• It is an Academic license
• It is within a specific buying program – Level S
• It includes one-year support
• It relates to their V2012 V-Ray Edition
• It is in English
• It has technical licensing constraints (1 CPU 2-6 Cores)

These elements are known as product use rights (sometimes abbreviated to PUR). Some product use rights are made explicit by the manufacturer (this is for one CPU server with up to 6 cores), some product use rights are not made clear on purchase (can I use Backup Exec on VMware with VMotion enabled?). Worse still, some product use rights change on a monthly basis on the whims of the manufacturer.

As you can see the SKU has unique licensing characteristics associated with it. The license would be absolutely worthless if aligned to a French version of Backup Exec installed on a 2CPU server in a non-academic company.

Note: Good practice (and good business) from suppliers is to include the manufacturer’s part number for unique identification as well as the suppliers part number for easy re-ordering on all documentation and invoices (in this instance CDW 2616143). SKU numbers are also usually included in your software vendor license statements and online portals.

Hopefully you can see the business value of a unique identifier in managing an accurate inventory – but how does this apply to license management?

Enter the SKU Catalogue!

If your procurement process is tracking manufacturer part numbers for your software purchases you are, theoretically at least, already in a strong position in determining what software you are entitled to. We just need to marry up your procurement history with what is in use and installed within your environment. Unfortunately it is easier said than done.

Common sense would say that, just like the supermarket, every product in the shop should have a bar code on it so everyone knows how to identify it. In an ideal world we would whizz around your network with a software bar code reader and tally up all of your installs.

Unfortunately, although software manufacturers use SKUs internally, on their packaging and within their supply chain it is commonly missing from the actual install.

The ISO standard for SAM is doing work to rectify this, by developing an XML software tag which installs alongside every software installation storing the SKU and other meta data in a universally recognised format like a barcode (See Steve Klos over at TagVault for more information on ISO/IEC 19770-2). Although the Standard is making good progress, including Microsoft adding tags to Windows 8, we are a few years away from widespread adoption.

Software Recognition vs. SKU Catalogues

Software recognition is not the same as a SKU Catalogue. A SKU Catalogue typically includes software recognition and normalisation.

Software recognition is the process of recognising and normalising technical configuration management technical jargon into recognisable product names and product families. SKU catalogues also perform software recognition but strengthen the license management process by also normalising procurement data and linking it with installed software data to ensure software is being used in accordance with the product use rights.

When you attempt to marry the worlds of technical configuration management and procurement the challenge is to find a common denominator between the two sets of data – the SKU is that unique identifier. Installed software has technical characteristics that can be aligned to a SKU and in turn the SKU can be married to the correct procurement record. The SKU catalogue is the lookup table, the meta data and the intelligence behind this process.

Maintaining Accuracy

So how does all of this help with license management accuracy?

The SKU catalogue provides a mechanism for filtering, double-checking and maintaining accuracy in SAM processes.

It forces good practice and accuracy – e.g. it is not possible for a Microsoft Select based SKU installed on your network to be aligned to a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement contract in your procurement system. The incompatibility prevents mistakes and ensures organizations are licensed correctly. The SKU catalogue is the lynchpin and translator between the different complex languages of configuration management, product terminology and procurement.

Justifying Investments in SKU Catalogues

The main business benefits of using a SKU catalogue are:

1. Less reliance on discovery tools – SKU catalogues also perform software recognition and can therefore work with more primitive inventory and multiple systems management sources. Broad network coverage is still required to ensure discovery and inventory data is exhaustive and you’ll need some way of mapping physical to virtual relationships.
2. Time and money saved on expensive license management resource i.e. man-hours
3. Data accuracy (less mistakes, better results, reliable data)

Buyers Guide / What to Look For

1. Organizations with years and years of procurement data might want to prioritize by contract, renewal or vendor to lighten the implementation process with SKU catalogues.
2. Not all vendors use SKUs
3. Some vendors have SKUs but it is not always possible to audit and collect inventory for them – especially for data centre vendors
4. Vendors with SKU catalogues include Aspera, BDNA and Flexera
5. Some SAM tool vendors say ‘We do SKUs’ which means they have field in their SAM tool for manual entry of a SKU number. Having a field for a SKU number in a license management tool is not the same as using a SKU catalogue. The true value of a SKU catalogue is referencing the Meta data associated with it not the storage of the SKU itself. You are using a reference table built from the intelligence of hundreds or thousands of other implementations.
6. Some SKU catalogues link SKU to product use rights but not software recognition – which is kind of like having a very intelligent bar code reader which won’t scan anything.
7. Some SKU catalogues only cover the big volume titles (Adobe, Microsoft, Symantec) and not every single software publisher. No solution on the market is perfect or 100% exhaustive.
8. The proof of the pudding is in the eating – SAM vendors with good SKU based offerings should be able to benchmark your raw procurement data (with SKUs) against raw inventory data to build a picture very quickly.
9. With fear of telling you how to suck eggs – Buy software and services based on a proven working model rather than PowerPoint and contrived demo. If you have not got the time or inclination to complete a robust proof of concept then only buy on a service basis with a concrete SLA.

If you have any questions or can share experiences of using SKU catalogues please leave a comment below. Thanks, Martin

Martin Thompson

Martin is an independent software industry analyst, SAM consultant and founder of The ITAM Review and The ITSM Review. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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This independent review of Core Control from Concorde Solutions is part of our 2012 SAM Tools Review. See all participants and terms of the review here.

Executive Summary

Commercial Summary

Introduction

My advice to busy IT folks trying to wrestle with enormity of Software Asset Management and complexity of managing software agreements is to:

1. Build some credible data that you believe in and
2. Don’t try to boil the ocean. Focus on those vendors and activities that will deliver the most impact.

In an ideal world every license in your estate, from that single copy of WinZip through to the Enterprise Edition SQL Processor License, is sacred. But back down on earth, unless you have the limitless resources of a football club owner, you must prioritize ruthlessly based on a good foundation of trustworthy data.

Software Risk Triage

It is for this reason I’m a big fan of the ‘Attention Items’ feature in Core Control.

‘Attention Items’ looks at your entire estate and provides a prioritized list of action items that will deliver the most value. It is the enterprise software equivalent to triage:

“Just show me the top 5 ACTION items that will deliver the greatest impact”

Concorde Software are not the first company to offer dashboards and status reports – but this is the best reporting I’ve seen that zooms in right to the heart of the problem. It is born from the pragmatic reality of everyday SAM engagements. It is one thing being to be presented a myriad of reports on your estate – it is quite another to know the next action to take.

Within Core Control users of the system can also model what their estate would look like if the actions were taken.

“If we tackle these three projects we’ll take 10% off our total compliance risk”

Of course, all of these prioritized action items are based on the assumption that you’ve collated all the underlying data to support it. This won’t be a point and click overnight process but it is a great step forward in the focus of SAM tools.

Enterprise SAM Workbench

Core Control is a new SAM offering built from the ground upwards in the Cloud and designed specifically for large enterprises and complex environments.

It is focused on License Management only and is inventory agnostic. Multiple data feeds can be fed from various sources to provide an aggregated view of Asset Management.

Users of the system can apply software publisher filters e.g. Oracle, which allows focus on one particular vendor at a time.

Being a relatively new offering some of the depth behind certain publishers is not as detailed as some of the competitors in this review. However, being a cloud based offering new features are being added monthly based on Concorde’s heritage in this arena. A cloud-based library maintained by Core Control supports software recognition, this includes licensable status, software category and upgrade and downgrade rights. Being a Cloud based offering all intelligence added to the software library is instantly reflected across all customers.

Cloud Control

The Core Control team has introduced the concept of ‘Software Value Management’ (SVM). SVM, as I understand it, aims to take the conversation beyond compliance and license optimization and urges organizations to embrace vendor management and harness the business intelligence collected for SAM across all aspects of IT. So SAM information is used to aid the IT architect, strategic procurement decisions and support IT projects.

To be honest I’m not entirely convinced by the SVM proposition since it seems beyond the maturity of the average organization, but I find it refreshing that a vendor is using aspirational tones to take SAM beyond the humdrum compliance messages and towards its full definition: as business intelligence and IT enabler.

Reporting and Analysis

I found reporting in in Core Control to be comprehensive. Software Asset Management and Procurement professionals can plot underspend and compliance for publishers or departments. License Management is designed for large enterprises with multiple countries and cost centres allowing for internal reallocation, transfers and formal novation.

I really liked the ability to plot trends over time and comparisons between data sets. Users can view dashboards based on today, at points in the past or based on action taken in the future. SAM can sometimes feel like a two step forward, one step back process – so this is particularly useful to see what progress the company has made in their software efficiency efforts. As with most web-based tools; users can also drill down into dashboards to review and manipulate the underlying data.

Once filters have been applied I found it easy to export data to my local desktop for further analysis. In addition to standard reports users can also configure their own Widgets and dashboards.

If I were nitpicking, I would like to see Core Control providing more visibility and scrutiny over the quality of data being entered into their system to add even more credibility and confidence to the information provided (I don’t see other competitors doing this – but as a Cloud based aggregator I think it would be great value add to their proposition).

Core Control also does not use a SKU catalogue like it’s Enterprise SAM competitors – so they either need to add this functionality in or find another way to publicly demonstrate the robustness that SKU matching and catalogues provide.

1 Minute Video Introduction

Concorde Solutions Customers

• Rexam
• Telefonica
• Experian
• Leggett & Platt

From the Concorde Solutions Brochure:

“The world of software delivery is changing. Instead of perpetual licenses or lock-in contracts provided by mega vendors, cloud delivery models have the potential to save enterprise companies huge amounts of money. The Vendors tell you that in the future customers will only need to subscribe to the product capability actually used. However this new world of software licensing creates new challenges for companies. Not only will there be a requirement to continue to manage the legacy licensing environment across the desktop and the data centre, but now companies will be consuming software on a subscription basis.

Fast forward. With Core Control for the first time you can actually see what you are using on the desktop, in the data centre, with mobile and with the Cloud. This enables measurement against what you are paying for as well as evaluating the vendors’ performance. This is important as commercial models for software begin to include service agreements with key parameters around vendor’s deliverables. In a similar way to managing your utility contracts, you can measure the cost of utilising software, the accuracy of the vendor’s invoicing, usage against your actual business requirements, and critically, your vendors performance in delivering the service. This in turns allows the flexibility to seek alternatives and drive maximum value out of the relationship thereby providing you with the control for the first time.”

Screenshots

Further Information

• Concorde Software

Martin Thompson

Martin is an independent software industry analyst, SAM consultant and founder of The ITAM Review and The ITSM Review. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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Of all the qualities we might look for in a SAM Managed Services Provider – proven track record is key.

We have the following technology reviews scheduled for publication before the end of 2013 on The ITAM Review:

• Adobe License Management (in progress now)
• SAM Managed Service Providers (July / August – see below)
• Microsoft License Management (September / October)
• Management of Cloud Based IT Assets (November / December)
• Oracle License Management (December 2013 / January 2014)

If you have any questions or suggestions about who should participate in these reviews please give us a shout.

What qualities do you look for when hiring a SAM managed services provider?

SAM Managed Service providers are proving popular. The key difference is that companies are buying into an SLA rather than a tool implementation. It can provide a great way of jump starting your SAM efforts and tapping into complex licensing resource you might not afford on your own (e.g. The Oracle Licensing rocket scientist can look after your Oracle licensing estate as well as a few others).

ITAM Review readers provided some great feedback in the LinkedIn Group regarding qualities to look for when hiring a SAM Managed Services Provider (MSP):

“The ITIL v3 guide to SAM (p139) has a great section with 22 questions to ask on this and its my go to place for questions for tender docs covering your question. I have a modified version I use myself now but its a great place to start. For me, its all about experience and dedicated resources. Do you have someone in house now who is your IBM expert or would you bring someone in? etc.” Chris Morgan

Proven track record has to be key – talk to previous customers and references to make sure the SAM partner delivered what they said they would. Too many companies with little or no track record in SAM have added it to their list of skills, and in some cases, it is added to a larger outsourcing contract as an afterthought, without any vetting of capability etc. Any SAM provider worth their salt would be able to line you up a number of references” Robbie Richmond

Can the Managed SAM Provider work with what I have? I.e. existing discovery/systems management tools. Do they have the ability to perform SAM across heterogeneous environments – desktops, datacentres, development/Test, virtualised/ physical, cloud/SaaS and multiplatform. How do they decipher non-discoverable software usage / consumption – such as in the data centre (these might be Users / CALs, SAP types per account, Oracle Named Users/middleware/DB access, Symantec Back up agents etc…) Can they help me implement SAM policies, processes and procedures?” Aman Kahlon

Having their finger on the pulse in respect of provision of services; so that if budget/licence/usage limitations are being approached, then I am informed of this in sufficient time to make a considered business decision. Standard monthly usage and expenditure reports; and also having one eye on the future – i.e. being ahead of the curve in offering guidance on “end of life” information for software titles. Finally, I would hope that they could provide guidance on licence optimisation. In respect of qualities, honesty has to be top of the list; closely followed by availability/ready access – and sufficient character to deliver bad news with the same candour as the good news.” Rory Canavan

As Chris Morgan suggests above, the ITIL v3 Appendix (‘ITIL V3 Guide to Software Asset Management’, Colin Rudd, Page 139 ISBN 978-0-11-311106-4 Amazon.co.uk) provides a great starting point and will provide the backbone of our assessment criteria for our competitive review and comparison of SAM Managed Service Providers.

However, one key element missing from the V3 guidance is audit defence. Will our SAM service provider stand with us, shoulder to shoulder, in the face of audits or wither sheepishly and just refer to the SLA?

Our assessment criteria are as follows:

SAM Managed Service Provider (MSP) Competitive Review

Capabilities 

1. Experience with SAM (time in the market, projects, types of projects), proof of methodologies and tools used for SAM, specific licensing expertise (people, qualifications, experience, projects, availability, shared or dedicated resource?)
2. Scope (Geography/Language limitations, license types, environment types, environment size etc)
3. Financial credibility
4. Number of full time SAM specialists, qualifications, license program expertise (Dedicated unit or shared expertise, in-house or contract).

Conflicts of Interest 

1. “Is the organization primarily dependent on a particular manufacturer for most of it’s work” Page 141, SAM ITIL V3. Any notable conflicts of interest?
2. Royalties from tool sales, licensing sales? Used as a ‘loss leader’ for attracting other services?

References

1. Customer references proving quality of service.
2. Sample output / reports from existing customers.
3. Eating one’s own dog food / drink one’s own champagne etc – How well does the provider manage it’s own estate?

Audit Defence

1. Will the provider stand with us, shoulder to shoulder, in the face of an audit
2. Does the provider have experience with audit defence?
3. How will shortfalls / penalties be managed within the SAM SLA?

Deliverables

1. What is in scope, what are the deliverables? what is out of scope? how will we be charged for items out of scope?
2. What are the expectations of the client, what resource / time is anticipated of the customer to uphold their responsbilities
3. How does the client get started / how are publishers prioritised whilst starting? How does the client exit the service contract? what will the client be left with on exit?
4. Continual Service Improvement – what will the service provider do to improve procurement and software management processes?

What have we missed? is there anything missing from these assessment criteria for assessing the capabilities of SAM Managed Service Providers?

Martin Thompson

Martin is an independent software industry analyst, SAM consultant and founder of The ITAM Review and The ITSM Review. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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Which SAM service provider will come out on top?

Assetlabs, Aspera, Concorde, eTelligent, Flexera Software, ITAMS, Computacenter, SHI and Softline Group are confirmed participants for our upcoming SAM Managed Service Providers review.

Our review will delve into the SAM capabilities of companies providing SAM expertise as an ongoing managed service.

Our assessment criteria at a glance:

• SAM Capabilities
• Conflicts of Interest
• References
• Audit Defence
• Deliverables

Read the outline assessment criteria here.

Reviewer: Martin Thompson

Confirmed Participants:

1. Assetlabs (Canada)
2. Aspera (Germany)
3. Concorde (UK)
4. eTelligent (USA)
5. Flexera (USA)
6. ITAMS (UK)
7. Computacenter (UK)
8. SHI (USA)
9. Softline Group (Germany)

All results will be published free of charge without registration on The ITAM Review. You may wish to subscribe to the ITAM Review newsletter or follow us on Twitter to receive a notification when the research is published. Reviews will take place in August and September.

Martin Thompson

Martin is an independent software industry analyst, SAM consultant and founder of The ITAM Review and The ITSM Review. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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This independent review of HP Asset Manager from HP is part of our 2012 SAM Tools Review. See all participants and terms of the review here.

Executive Summary

Commercial Summary

Introduction

My review of the Software Asset Management (SAM) capabilities of HP focuses primarily on ‘HP Asset Manager’. However HP also has two complimentary products in the portfolio to support the work of Software Asset Managers in large enterprises:

• ‘HP Universal CMDB’ or ‘UCMDB’ and
• ‘HP Universal Discovery’

UCMDB is for configuration data and relationship mapping and HP Universal Discovery is the new name for the merger of the DDMI and DDMA products (We published a review of HP DDMI in November 2011 here).

As well as SAM features HP Asset Manager also includes Financial Management, Contracts and Procurement.

Configuration – Toolkits versus Applications

In the Enterprise Software market there are ‘Applications’ designed for a specific purpose and there are ‘Toolkits’ which customers can manipulate to achieve a variety of tasks based on a specific competency. HP Asset Manager definitely falls into the latter category.

Generally speaking, out-of-the-box (OOTB) applications are popular with smaller companies who sacrifice versatility in exchange for lower running costs. On the flip side, generally speaking, larger enterprises choose more versatile products to allow them enterprise wide integration and bespoke customizations.

HP Asset Manager and HP Universal Discovery are definitely versatile. If you like your super tanker to turn left at traffic lights and stop on a dime – this is the product for you. Customers can lift up the hood and tweak to their hearts desire. Unfortunately this versatility comes at a cost – the resource and intelligence required to run it.

Competitors to HP Asset Manager are trending towards a hybrid of OOTB Apps and Toolkits with the ability for ‘codeless configuration’ in a 100% web based environment.

Software Counters

Reconciling the disparate worlds of technical configuration data and financial procurement history is based on the principle of ‘Software Counters’; this is a real strength of HP Asset Manager.  Software counters allow Software Asset Managers to build the logic to interpret any conceivable metric.

A wizard allows users to configure software counters to determine how license entitlement will be calculated. Over 200 counters come pre-configured with Asset Manager covering 700 software titles or administrators can build their own. This logic protects the solution against any possible license metric dreamt up in the future (assuming the data to support the metrics can be recorded).

Software counters have inbuilt logic to manage upgrade and downgrade paths and allow users to quickly determine the cost of compliance and prioritize risk.

Inbuilt software counters cover popular titles such as Microsoft Windows, SQL server Enterprise Edition by CPU, Microsoft desktop products, Oracle CPU core factor, IBM PVU including sub-capacity, ESX server, Adobe desktop, Autodesk, Symantec, SAP and so on.

HP admit they are late to the party in adding SKUs but in my opinion this still places them ahead of quite a few SAM competitors. HP Asset Manager currently has around 5,000 SKU titles, several hundred thousand more are planned for summer 2013. Vendor dashboards provide a round up of the federated compliance position for specific publishers and SAM administrators can drill down into software usage information to take action on redundant applications (not used within 90 days).

If the reconciliation of a software counter generates a negative balance, a wizard or automated script can be initiated to create a removal request or new license purchase. Automating these events is key to winning with SAM.

HP claim Asset Manager is ‘ISO 19770-1’ certified on their slide ware. Which is misleading and disappointing to hear from a vendor of this size. A SAM function within a business might be audited and certified against the standard but no such certification exists for tools.

Enterprise SAM Contender

HP Asset Manager won’t win any awards for aesthetics but large enterprises with a SAM requirement should consider shortlisting this technology for further investigation. I consider HP a contender in the Enterprise SAM space but not a leader in comparison to more agile competitors.

At face value HP appear committed to developing the platform and building important features; for example the license liability analyser is very cool and HP have recently been verified by Oracle LMS for Oracle databases (To put this in perspective CA, IBM, and BMC can’t offer this).

8 Minute Video Introduction

HP Asset Manager Customers

• Telecom Italia

From the HP Asset Manager Brochure:

“HP Asset Manager serves as the foundation for IT organizations to measure and communicate the value IT provides to the businesses it supports. To do this requires a thorough understanding of the physical, virtual, financial, operational, and contractual relationships of assets to allow the organization to increase return on its IT investment.

Asset Manager covers the following ITAM processes:

• IT Asset Life Cycle Management
• Procurement
• Contract Management
• Software Asset Management
• Financial Management

The HP Asset Manager Software Asset Management (SAM) module enables a standardized and proactive method of managing software license compliance. Using the information provided by the Contract Management module, SAM associates software purchase invoices with software license agreements and can help manage software license compliance. More than 200 out of the box compliance counters are provided with Asset Manager, covering more than 700 titles and versions. Customized compliance reports can also be created.

HP Asset Manager Software Asset Management automatically tracks license counts and detailed software installation information using data returned through automated discovery tools, such as HP Universal Discovery or other discovery software. Licenses can be reconciled against actual installations, reflecting the licensing rules of the publishers and including usage. The cost information is fully reported. Once licenses are defined, HP AM Software Asset Management enables the process of determining who is entitled to use a software application, and who is actually using software assets. Entitlements can be defined by job title, function, system, or organizational placement. By tracking entitlements and utilization of installed software, you can re-deploy unused licenses without compromising compliance requirements.”

Screenshots

Further Information

• HP Enterprise Software
• HP Asset Manager Website
• HP Asset Management Blog
• HP Asset Manager Brochure (PDF)
• HP Asset Manager – SAM Module Brochure (PDF)

Martin Thompson

Martin is an independent software industry analyst, SAM consultant and founder of The ITAM Review and The ITSM Review. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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Introduction

Peer Reviews – ITAM Review readers sharing their opinions on ITAM tools, technology and services.

This review of ATEA Cloud SAM has been written by three ITAM Review readers. Our thanks to Stephen B, K Fowler and Rory Canavan for taking the time to share their views.

Our reviewers have been specially selected for their experience in the IT industry. In the interests of a fair and balanced review our reviewers are new to Atea, i.e. our reviewers are not customers or in any way affiliated with Atea.

ATEA

The Review Panel

Stephen B, IT Asset Management, USA, Manufacturing, 35,000 Assets Stephen’s Review of ATEA – Summary “A cloud based solution for license compliance that is focused on Adobe and Microsoft, but can expand into other publishers with more work” Strengths Cloud based, Web browser reporting, managed Weaknesses Limited in size/scope, only two specific modules and then its generic SAM

K Fowler, ITAM Consultant, UK, Construction and Finance, ~50K employees in last contract K. Fowler’s Review of ATEA – Summary “A well designed, simple to use SAM Service which removes much of the administrative burden of in-house license management tools. ” Strengths Ease of use – it will very quickly provide useful information to allow organisations to start realising benefits from their investment. Weaknesses It makes it seem too easy, and doesn’t manage some significant (and expensive!) areas of Microsoft Licensing!

Rory Canavan, SAM Consultant, UK, IT Consultancy Rory’s Review of ATEA – Summary “An entry-level cloud compliance solution.” Strengths Its simplicity of use Weaknesses Its simplicity of use! Also, it is my belief that the service won’t scale due to the size of inventory files generated

Ratings

The Reviews

Stephen B, IT Asset Management, USA, Manufacturing, 35,000 Assets

Stephen

“There is a trend in today’s SAM compliance toolsets. The trend is to focus on the most prominent publishers in the desktop side of IT asset management, Microsoft and Adobe. The Atea Cloud-SAM service is no exception, but with some added benefits and some pitfalls to watch for as well.

At first glance the Atea Cloud-SAM service seems to be just like everyone else. They are focused and have specific modules for Microsoft and Adobe. Behind the scenes, however, it seems like Atea is able to support more than just those two. The path to effectively managing other publishers is not quite as clear, but everything I have seen in the toolset itself says it can be done. This will need further investigation.

Atea claims to support any other publishers a customer could supply contracts and licenses for. This is all well and good, but leaves me wondering how they handle IBM licensing or Oracle licensing. Both of which can be quite complicated and are very prominent in the infrastructure side of businesses today.

Click to enlarge

The interface is quite attractive to the eye. It is easy to navigate and understand. There is a potential for a slow system, however, due to the Azure platform it sits on. With proper sizing on Atea’s part, that may never be a factor.

Reporting is good, but could be better. Looking at this from an executive’s standpoint may leave me wanting a more reporting focused view. A reporting portal, separate from the toolset itself would solve this and the appeal of the service itself would get more attention from the powers-that-be.

At the end of the day I think the jury is still out on this offering for anything outside of compliance reporting for either a completely Microsoft business or for desktop and laptop compliance only in a larger company. This is simply due to the lack of dedicated modules handling more of the advanced licensing that infrastructure systems would require. With that said, I have seen where most compliance issues are in the desktop side of most businesses since infrastructure licensing is generally contained better with tighter controls.

If you are looking for a service to help manage your desktop licensing and compliance, and do it in a fashion that you can understand and gain benefit from, Atea should, at least, be on your list of choices. If you are looking to manage more publishers on a large scale, I would still recommend looking at Atea, but other more complex vendors were not within the scope of this review.

K Fowler, ITAM Consultant, UK, Construction and Finance, ~50K employees in last contract

K Fowler

Atea Cloud SAM provides an easy to use Software Asset Management Service with low barriers to entry, although it is let down by its inability to calculate CAL, Terminal Services and MSDN licensing properly.

I particularly like the option for new customers to use Microsoft’s MAP tool to provide discovery data which will be particularly useful for customers who do not already have a discovery tool in place. Even if MAP doesn’t provide an appropriate solution for the long term, it will allow customers to build a business case for implementing Microsoft System Center or similar product.

The support materials were comprehensive and, if the documented tweaks and fixes are implemented fully, should allow the preparation of a reasonably accurate picture of compliance for Microsoft products, with the exception of Terminal Services licensing which will still need manual input.

This is, of course, assuming that Atea’s documented fixes provide all the information required to apply Microsoft’s complex server and virtualisation licensing rules! Unfortunately this is not something I was able to verify for this review.

Although the emphasis of the Standard Edition is on Microsoft and Adobe licensing and the use of Microsoft MAP or SCCM / System Center as the source of discovered data, Atea state they can use other discovery technologies as well, and can provide compliance reporting for other vendors as well – although this feature is only available with the Cloud SAM Enterprise offering.

Although using Atea Cloud SAM should significantly reduce the administrative overhead of managing in-house license management tools,organisations will still need to put in a significant amount of effort to calculate their own CAL, Terminal Services and MSDN licensing to ensure they are compliant,although Atea has said the ability to identify developer machines is planned for the next release which will make it easier to manage MSDN licenses.

Click to enlarge

Atea have a comprehensive set of reports available to customers and seem happy to create more upon request.

However Atea claim that using their solution will allow software asset managers to focus on making decisions rather than doing administration. Personally, I think that’s a little disingenuous – although there is no doubt that the Atea Cloud SAM offering significantly reduces the administration associated with managing in-house license management tools, unless there are effective processes in place to ensure both deployment and entitlement are captured accurately and communicated to Atea, the reports that Atea produce will be inaccurate and may lead to poor decision making.

For those customers who are implementing their first software asset management solution, there will still also be the hard work involved of identifying Fully Packaged Product (FPP) and other non-volume licensing entitlement, although generally this will be a one-off activity.

Atea Cloud SAM Enterprise allows organisations to report at business unit level which will be very helpful for larger organisations,although Atea don’t provide any information about whether compliance would be calculated at the business unit or corporate level – or both! Finally, as with all license management tools, usage data is limited by what the underlying discovery tool can provide.

Overall I feel the Atea Cloud SAM Service is best suited to firms with a low SAM maturity level who will appreciate the speed and simplicity of getting up and running with Atea Cloud SAM and the minimum investment required to realise benefits that will help build a business case for more SAM focused activity.

The inability to calculate CAL, Terminal Services and MSDN compliance constitutes a major risk for organisations who use the Service, and as they move up the maturity curve they are likely to find they need to implement an alternative solution which covers these areas.

Overall, the Atea C-SAM Service [Standard Edition] provides a basic entry-level SAM Service. However, as with all tools, you can never escape the age-old principle of ‘garbage in – garbage out’ and it is the customer’s responsibility to ensure that Atea have accurate data to ensure they can provide accurate reports.

Rory Canavan, SAM Consultant, UK, IT Consultancy

Rory Canavan

Atea’s C-SAM offering is very much designed for entry-level penetration into the SAM marketplace. Its service offering has been banded into 3 primary levels:

• Cloud SAM Basic includes software management and software recognition without the license management service;
• Cloud SAM Standard includes full Microsoft and Adobe license management and software recognition;
• Cloud SAM Enterprise includes license management for an unlimited number of vendors. You also receive the additional Cost Saving Report and License Compliance Report for all vendors.

At a glance

The front-end is incredibly straightforward, and allows you to click on the fascia to drill down deeper into the inventory information that is of most interest to you. Your contract position is stated clearly in the top right hand corner of the screen, with an expiry date showing when the contract is due for renewal.

Click to enlarge

Speedometer-style displays demonstrate compliance at multiple levels (Vendor, title etc) so an overall balance for compliance can be gained at a glance.

Documentation

The documentation that shipped with this review is fit for purpose, insofar as it describes the technical requirements involved in configuring either using MAP 8 or SCCM for your inventory capture (addressing both 2007 and 2012 versions for the latter). It also highlighted the shortcomings of SCCM when it came to identifying versions and releases of MS Exchange and MS SQL, and the required technical work-rounds that need to take place so that clients are not caught out by versions and editions of Microsoft Software.

One aspect that wasn’t covered in the documentation, was how licence or contract data was incorporated into the solution; many organisations will have a select agreement sitting adjacent to their Enterprise Agreement, and what about those purchases that might have taken place independently of such contracts? Routing around on the Atea website revealed the answer: It is sent to Atea (presumably scanned and then emailed) who then weave it into the client’s compliance picture. Atea also made oblique reference to the software purchasing service they offer, so that if your software is purchased through them, such purchases will instantly be reflected in a customer’s portal.

Whilst the presentation of Microsoft and Adobe data appeared very clean and tidy in the demo , it is not clear how upgrade and downgrade rights are managed.

Also, scoping of licences to cost centres or departments was deemed a consultative “value add” and clients have to ensure that their audit is split to those lines prior to importation.

Atea were candid enough to price their service (for 1000 devices at 48 cents per device, per month) so as a yardstick, 480 euros per month for an SMB would be a reasonable price to essentially outsource your MS & Adobe compliance. However my primary concern in this would be if your IT estate grows, what’s the company limit to which SCCM data can be sent over the internet? I suspect Atea are pragmatic enough to realise that enterprise clients might need bespoke data transmission requirements.

I’m sure too, that Atea are advising their clients that if a device is disposed of, then a routine needs to be established to remove that device from SCCM – otherwise a false licensing position could be reported for machines that SCCM believes are merely “missing”.

Summary

Atea’s offering is a fair entry-level proposition for SMBs who might feel that dealing with software vendors is more than their time is worth; however clients need to be mindful of Product Use Rights that extend “one install requires one license” in the desktop arena, and how software assurance can prolong upgrade and downgrade rights, as well as rights of transfer and in some cases, virtualisation.”

Atea Responds:

Andreas Hammarskjold – Director of Product Development, Atea

“Well firstly I just wanted to say thanks to the reviewers for taking the time and effort to review Cloud SAM. As it’s a relatively new service for Atea in terms of the foray into Cloud-land, it’s been great to get some feedback from fellow SAM professionals. Since its launch back in 2012 Cloud SAM is now helping to manage well over 250,000 endpoints. Most of those customers support between 2 and 25,000 users, with an un-surprisingly diverse array of licensing types from many Software vendors.

Within the Nordic region, Atea has been supplying software and services for many years, and within these services, Software License Management has grown into a major part of the business. In fact Cloud SAM itself grew out of our Compliance Manager product which is the on-premise version of our License Management solution. Our SRS team is based in Riga, and to date has amassed a database of well over 200,000 software items from which they can provide a fast and efficient license compliance and management service. Many of our Cloud SAM customers purchase their software through the Atea e-shop portal which obviously makes life easier as we can track each license from day one. Other customers deliver their license data to us in a variety of formats. Email, spreadsheet, PDF or even a drawer full of paper receipts can all be integrated by our SAM team. This is where the Cloud SAM service comes into its own, with each customer assigned a SAM specialist who can work with the internal SAM resource on any custom reporting requirements or licensing issues.

The review was based on the Standard version of Cloud SAM (there are three), which is obviously biased towards Microsoft and Adobe licensing. This gives you a fairly good taste of the interface and day to day capabilities of Cloud SAM, but most of our customers tend to move to the Enterprise subscription once they get to grips with the service, as this is a much more comprehensive offering, where we can work with the customer on the more complex licensing types such as the IBM/Oracle models mentioned in the review. It’s also worth mentioning I think, that we have quite a few customers who utilize Systems Management software other than the supported Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager and/or MAP solutions. So long as it’s a database and contains the necessary data we can work with it, although you don’t get the same level of sophistication. For example Cloud SAM uses filters and queries to leverage the SCCM heartbeat functionality that helps us to understand whether a device is alive or off etc.

We have lots of exciting new developments in the pipeline for Cloud SAM, including a much expanded Server licensing capability, so hopefully we can check back with the reviewers in a few months for an update.”

Andreas Hammarskjold – Director of Product Development, Atea

Further information:

• Atea SAM Website
• One-month free trial

This review has been written by three ITAM Review readers. Thank you to Stephen B, K Fowler and Rory Canavan for taking the time to share their views on the Atea Cloud SAM. This is a paid review. Reviewers have been paid for their time. For full details please read our Disclosure Statements. To learn more about our Peer Reviews or to become a reviewer please contact us.

Martin Thompson

Martin is an independent software industry analyst, SAM consultant and founder of The ITAM Review and The ITSM Review. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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This review of Flexnet Manager for Adobe is part of our Adobe License Management feature.

Flexera Commercial Summary

Flexnet Manager for Adobe License Management

Flexera Software’s key competitive differentiator for managing Adobe Licensing is their product use rights library that encapsulates the license entitlements provided by Adobe. Other competitive differentiators include Flexera’s discovery, inventory and Application Recognition Library that includes the ability to collect and utilize ISO tags for Adobe software identification and suite recognition. ISO tags can also be used to validate inventory sources for Adobe software. (See this article for further details). In addition, their SKU library of more than 600,000 software part numbers, including 30,000 Adobe SKUs allows automated purchase order processing and reconciliation between licenses purchased and installed software.

The use rights for Adobe will vary according to the product purchased and the license mechanism used to procure it. Flexera helps navigate this myriad of potential options by linking use rights to specific versions via a SKU catalogue.

I have written before about harnessing the value of software SKU catalogues. By identifying the specific product use rights relevant to each individual software line item you have purchased (Only really possible by using a SKU), organizations can fully utilize every product use right available to them.

There are specific Adobe product use rights that Flexera exploits, including the following:

1. Upgrade Rights – with the right license program, Adobe customers can upgrade to the latest version when it becomes available (Except Adobe Creative Cloud).
2. Downgrade Rights – Adobe customers have the right to use a version of the software older than the one purchased.
3. Second Use Policy or Portable Use Policy – Adobe allows customers to use an application on a user’s second device – for example a work and home PC.  (Does not apply to dual boot machines or mixed operating systems).
4. Multiple copies on the same device – Adobe allows multiple versions of the same application on one device. So several different versions might be installed and only consume one license.

By taking advantage of each and every one of these rights, and verifying their entitlement against procurement records via the SKU, a Software Asset Manager can squeeze every last drop of value from Adobe investments whilst also mitigating their compliance risk.

Minimising compliance risk is not just about counting installations on endpoint devices, but also requires an understanding virtual delivery models such as virtual desktops and application virtualization. The way Flexera calculates license consumption includes not only physical installations but also these virtual delivery models. This requires the ability to collect data from access control lists (ACL) and usage data, if available, from the virtualization server (e.g. Microsoft App-V, Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop servers).

SKU data from purchasing is captured during the import process and linked to installs to ensure exactly the right product use rights are used. Flexera then goes to work to ensure these are used to full capacity and the customer is in their optimal position.

This approach might seem like licensing nit picking with no obvious business value – but taking advantage of these product use rights can significantly reduce the amount of licensing required.  Even a small proportion of users in an estate using Adobe on a second device and a handful of users with multiple copies on the same device can make a big impact.

Similarly, organizations that find themselves with an Adobe shortfall or a mishmash of the wrong installs for the wrong licenses – can take advantage of upgrade and downgrade to reduce their exposure.

In addition to the Adobe discovery and recognition features above,  FlexNet Manager for Adobe also provides management of Adobe Contracts and advanced reporting and trend analysis.

Screenshots

This review of Flexnet Manager for Adobe is part of our Adobe License Management feature.

Links & Further Resources

• Flexnet Manager for Adobe Product Page
• Flexnet Manager for Adobe Data Sheet
• Whitepaper: ‘What does it take to achieve Software License Optimization?’
• Contact Flexera Software

DISCLAIMER, SCOPE & LIMITATIONS

The information contained in this review is based on sources and information believed to be accurate as of the time it was created. Therefore, the completeness and current accuracy of the information provided cannot be guaranteed. Readers should therefore use the contents of this review as a general guideline and not as the ultimate source of truth.

Similarly, this review is not based on rigorous and exhaustive technical study. The ITAM Review recommends that readers complete a thorough live evaluation before investing in technology.

This is a paid review. That is, the vendors included in this review paid to participate in exchange for all results and analysis being published free of charge without registration. For further information please read the ‘Group Tests’ section on our Disclosure page.

Martin Thompson

Martin is an independent software industry analyst, SAM consultant and founder of The ITAM Review and The ITSM Review. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

More Posts – Website

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This review of License Manager from License Dashboard is part of our Adobe License Management feature.

License Dashboard Commercial Summary

License Dashboard for Adobe License Management

Adobe moved their license model to the cloud in 2013. Traditional perpetual license installs have been replaced with Internet based activation and control. Software is still downloaded and installed onto devices in the usual way, but the management of licensing and updates is automated via a cloud subscription model.

This poses a number of potential challenges for Software Asset Managers. It may not be financially viable to transition all Adobe users to a cloud subscription immediately so it is very likely that many organizations will be managing a hybrid environment over the next few years containing both subscription and traditional perpetual license models.

Adobe Licensing Scenarios – Cloud and Perpetual Hybrid

The hybrid of cloud and perpetual creates three scenarios:

• Scenario A – Customer only has Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions. In this scenario Software Asset Managers can harness discovery and inventory tools to ensure all instances of Adobe software stem from a subscription (and not rogue perpetual installs)
• Scenario B – Customer only has traditional Adobe perpetual installs. As with A, discovery and inventory tools can be used to ensure only perpetual installs are installed. Perpetual licenses and upgrades are no longer available from Adobe, so customers will need to upgrade to Cloud or migrate away from Adobe products as products age.
• Scenario C – Hybrid of environment – mixture of traditional perpetual licensing and cloud subscriptions. Software Asset Managers need to split these two environments into discreet collections to manage them effectively. Creative Cloud installs can’t be reconciled against traditional perpetual installs and visa-versa.

License Dashboard can manage these three scenarios. Their software recognition engine can recognize instances of Adobe that have been downloaded via an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription and differentiate them from a traditional perpetual install.

When Software Asset Managers come to reconcile their Adobe estate, Creative Cloud installs are identified, greyed out and removed from entitlement calculations. Similarly, users of the system can also run reports on usage of Adobe Creative Cloud installations.

The only piece missing from the jigsaw is the ability to reconcile Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions against Creative Cloud installs. This would require some form of API access to the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, which at the time of writing is not available into License Dashboard (or any other SAM tool). In the meantime this will be a manual reconciliation process.

Family challenges

The key challenge in managing vendors such as Adobe is translating the configuration data found by discovery tools and translating it into meaningful license information and product families. License Dashboard does a good job at filtering the important information for license management. Although it would be misleading to suggest that this a point-and-click exercise. License Dashboard and other SAM tools certainly bring great value to the reconciliation process but it is not a silver bullet to get you compliant.

In addition to recognition and product family grouping, License Dashboard can also support Adobe license management with identifying multiple installs or family overlap on the same device and making use of downgrade rights where appropriate (applying current license purchases to historic installs when terms permit). License Dashboard does not currently manage ISO/IEC 19770-2 tags.

This review of License Manager from License Dashboard is part of our Adobe License Management feature.

Screenshots

Links and Further Resources

• License Manager Product Page
• License Manager Datasheet
• White Papers
• Contact License Dashboard

DISCLAIMER, SCOPE & LIMITATIONS

The information contained in this review is based on sources and information believed to be accurate as of the time it was created. Therefore, the completeness and current accuracy of the information provided cannot be guaranteed. Readers should therefore use the contents of this review as a general guideline and not as the ultimate source of truth.

Similarly, this review is not based on rigorous and exhaustive technical study. The ITAM Review recommends that readers complete a thorough live evaluation before investing in technology.

This is a paid review. That is, the vendors included in this review paid to participate in exchange for all results and analysis being published free of charge without registration. For further information please read the ‘Group Tests’ section on our Disclosure page.

Martin Thompson

Martin is an independent software industry analyst, SAM consultant and founder of The ITAM Review and The ITSM Review. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

More Posts – Website

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This review of AppClarity from 1E is part of our Adobe License Management feature.

1E Commercial Summary

1E AppClarity for Adobe License Management

AppClarity from 1E has some great technology to offer organizations looking to manage and reduce the cost of their Adobe estate.

AppClarity can import Adobe License entitlements and work with inventory sources to provide a clear view on Adobe compliance and efficiency. The inbuilt AppClarity software catalogue and analytics engines works to filter out irrelevant configuration noise, group Adobe installs into common families and identify those Adobe installs that require a license. Whilst we didn’t perform rigorous benchmarking of the Adobe recognition capabilities of 1E the technology certainly does a good job of pointing users to the most pertinent information and sorting the wheat from the chaff.

Set and Forget Software Efficiency

Reports can be run to calculate the savings from unused Adobe software. However, for me the real AppClarity raison d’être is going beyond reporting and actually taking action on unused Adobe software.

Administrators can specify policies to remove unused or rarely used software by an automated ‘re-claimer’ facility which offers a customer friendly pop-up interaction. Users can specify whether they wish to keep hold of software or give blessing for removal.

This is a great, proactive and automated efficiency driver.  The real savings are three fold:

1. Organizations will typically have a run-rate of new Adobe purchases to make – these can be reduced or eliminated by stockpiling unused copies.
2. Organizations can ensure they are making the most efficient use of Adobe well ahead of a contract negotiations or audits, rather than trying to catch up retrospectively. It places the organization in charge of their negotiation – not only providing good visibility of their compliance position but also the leanest possible use of the software. Assuming that is, that AppClarity has been given a few months to work its magic.
3. Efficiency is built in the front end – an organization could be quite immature when it comes to SAM processes and still benefit from efficiency savings.

Functional Redundancy – Acrobat and ‘Save as PDF’ in Office

There is a cool report within AppClarity to identify functional overlap between users with Adobe Standard and Professional and Microsoft ‘Save as PDF’ Office plugin functionality. Users can be weaned away from Adobe to use the PDF creation facility within Microsoft with some persuasion from Software Asset Managers.

The report automatically identifies the target devices and calculates potential savings. A quick campaign to educate users on how to use this Microsoft functionality and convince users to part with their Adobe installs could shift a few more copies of Acrobat off the network (Those without the Microsoft PDF functionality can be transitioned to cheaper or free alternatives)

Monitoring Creative Cloud

Adobe Creative Cloud editions are included (or will be included as they appear) along with existing legacy Adobe Creative Suite and individual product installations. So organizations will be able to discriminate which elements of their Adobe estate were installed as part of a Creative Cloud subscription.

We have looked at 1E AppClarity before as a plug-in for Microsoft SCCM. Version 4.0 of AppClarity extends beyond desktop software into the datacentre via agentless discovery. Their first target for datacentre efficiency is VMware.

1E have done a great job in taking an action-oriented approach to SAM since entering the market in 2011. Large enterprise SAM competitors tend to have more depth in managing entitlements and contracts. I look forward to seeing 1E depth build more capabilities in this area and what innovation they can bring to managing other datacentre vendors.

Screenshots

This review is part of our Adobe License Management feature.

Links & Further Resources

• AppClarity Product Page
• AppClarity Datasheet
• Software License Optimization
• Contact 1E

DISCLAIMER, SCOPE & LIMITATIONS

The information contained in this review is based on sources and information believed to be accurate as of the time it was created. Therefore, the completeness and current accuracy of the information provided cannot be guaranteed. Readers should therefore use the contents of this review as a general guideline and not as the ultimate source of truth.

Similarly, this review is not based on rigorous and exhaustive technical study. The ITAM Review recommends that readers complete a thorough live evaluation before investing in technology.

This is a paid review. That is, the vendors included in this review paid to participate in exchange for all results and analysis being published free of charge without registration. For further information please read the ‘Group Tests’ section on our Disclosure page.

Martin Thompson

Martin is an independent software industry analyst, SAM consultant and founder of The ITAM Review and The ITSM Review. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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