License Compliance

The importance of License Compliance

Software costs currently represent an average 20% of an organization's IT budget – and the figure is steadily rising. It is important therefore for every organization to have an effective software management policy. PS'Soft provides a comprehensive solution that lets you effectively manage your software assets and apply a consistent license compliance policy. The solution comes with a set of methods that ensure your software and license management policy will be up and running in next to no time.

PS´Soft License Compliance lets you manage each stage of the software life cycle, from purchase to retirement, using a single repository. Collecting and integrating inventory data is the first step in an effective software and compliance management policy. To cater for the specific needs of each organization, PS´Soft License Compliance comes with a standard capability for integration with the various inventory and remote software distribution tools on the market (Microsoft® SMS and System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), LANDesk, Symantec, Tivoli, etc.).

PS´Soft License Compliance lets you integrate and reconcile the technical data collected by inventory tools and turn it into useful data, capable of supporting a consistent policy of software license management.

An Enterprise Compliance Dashboard

PS´Soft License Compliance provides a license compliance dashboard. Once information is presented in summary form, it is easy to identify software that is not compliant or has reached a critical threshold, and obtain details of the workstations installed and usage levels. This information facilitates decision making and re-allocations of under-used licenses. PS'Soft License Compliance also offers numerous reports and analyses to help you manage your software assets. A standard feature of the solution is a list of reports on the status and costs of licenses, the level of compliance and the level of usage. The reports are very easy to customize and update to cater for the organization's specific needs.

Monitoring Rules tailored to the Types of Licenses

Understanding license contracts and the associated rights is a key step in monitoring software compliance. Once the software has been listed and all of the contracts entered, the managers need to compare the information to assess the level of compliance and take any corrective measures necessary.

There are a variety of difficulties in this task:

• license contracts vary enormously from one vendor to another and even for the same vendor over time
• the different types of license are difficult to grasp and change rapidly (for a given installation, by single-user or simultaneous access, by server, in OEM mode, in token mode, ASP, etc.)
• It is sometimes impossible to piece together the history of any one item of software without knowing the details of the vendors' mergers, acquisitions and/or restructuring operations.

PS'Soft License Compliance takes account of the different types of licenses on the market. Managers have appropriate management and monitoring rules for each type of license. Managers also enjoy real support for license management, making them more efficient, accurate and productive.

A Library of Software References

PS'Soft License Compliance comes with a library containing thousands of software references capable of rapidly identifying the raw data of inventoried software, classifying it, accurately renaming it and finally turning it into clear, actionable information. It is then easy to compare the installed software with the license contracts and establish the level of compliance. This option can also manage the organization's specific line-of-business applications, using a customized library.

Key Features

• Predefined reports – on software usage levels, Top 10 software items, Top 10 vendors, etc.
• Quick startup tools – reducing the time required to get the solution up and running
• A detailed view of software licenses – consolidating financial data about purchases and contracts, and technical data to do with installation and usage levels
• Turnkey integration with inventory solutions on the market – Microsoft® SMS and System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), LANDesk, Altiris, etc.
• Detailed management rules – to define the list of priority or banned software, and adjust the types of management
• Change monitoring – maintains a change history for a given software item (installation, upgrades, etc.), compiled from inventory data
• Management by cost centre – by automatically matching software items to workstations, users (last log on) or departments in the repository