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Software Licensing: Apptria's Software Recognition Catalog Selected by Managed IT Services Providers

By Rajani Baburajan, TMCnet Contributor

Apptria Technologies, a provider of software recognition capabilities to independent software vendors (ISVs) and other technology providers, has formed a partnership with Specialist Software Services (SSS), a provider of managed IT services.

Under this partnership, Apptria will integrate its proprietary software recognition database, the Apptria Software Catalog, into SSS’ managed IT services offering and enhance the value of its software license management services.

There are several challenges associated with software recognition services. These challenges stem from the lack of standardized software identification methodology that can provide an accurate and consistent means of correlating what’s discovered on desktops with licensable application titles. This scenario leads to compromised ability to manage licensing risk and escalating software costs, as well as rising development costs.

Specialist Software Services delivers IT managed services to leading business and technology service providers. The company expects an unprecedented growth of customers – from a current 200,000 to approximately 500,000 by the end of 2012.

"IT service providers, in an attempt to differentiate themselves, have been adding software license management services to their portfolios at a rate we've never before seen," said Kris Barker, Apptria Technologies' co-founder, in a statement. "However, many underestimate the difficulty and complexity of obtaining accurate software data that serves as the foundation for this discipline.”

“Specialist Software Services recognizes the important relationship between quality software identification and its ability to deliver first-rate license management services to its customers,” Barker added. “We look forward to helping them achieve this goal."

The Apptria  Software Catalog enables accurate identification of software for over 15 million corporate and public sector PCs worldwide. The database has been licensed by leading asset management vendors including IBM (News - Alert), BMC, Numara Software and the like.

The database enables solution providers to adopt critical steps toward meeting and exceeding their customers' expectations for reliable asset management capabilities and reporting. The database is developed and maintained by a dedicated team of researchers using data "crowd-sourced" from its growing network of OEM partners and end users.

Jason Allaway, CEO of Specialist Software Services, said, "Our license management services represent a strategic value-add to our entire portfolio of offerings. It is far too important not only to our own success, but also to that of our customers, to have utmost confidence in the data used to drive critical license intelligence. We are very happy to partner with Apptria Technologies to provide the software recognition capabilities needed to accomplish this."

In other industry news, Flexera Software –a provider of software licensing solutions – recently delineated tips for effective software licensing management strategies. According to the company, software licensing management requires administrators to know what software is installed on which devices, the properties of the hardware on which the software is installed, if they are used from a local installation, or if they are a virtual application.