Featured Article from Software Licensing

Do you really know what software is running on your systems, and how much of it is paid for? Do you know how much software you've bought that never gets used? If you’ve answered “no” to either of these questions, you’re in the majority, as most companies struggle to maintain control over their software licenses.

Software represents a major expense for any organization—and a significant risk if it’s not deployed, licensed, and managed effectively throughout its lifecycle. The heart of the matter is simple: it’s difficult to manage what you cannot see.

One Fortune 500 insurance company was met with these exact challenges; issues with vendor management, overspending, and relying on manual processes to manage the software estate. Rather than continue on with the inefficient methods to control and maintain software, the organization turned to software asset management (SAM) via Flexera Software.

Relying on software from Adobe, Oracle (News - Alert), Microsoft, and others, this Fortune 500 insurance organization needed a solution to help manage not only licenses, but spending, deployment, and inventory. It’s normal to procure software from a wide range of partners, manufacturers, and software licensing companies, but this makes it difficult to accurately manage contracts and associated licenses.

The FlexNet Manager Suite was able to optimize all the facets of license management, offering a better view of usage and spending, leading to audit cost savings and software reuse.

Strategic actions in license management dramatically reduce risks and liabilities for organizations. Concrete provisions can significantly improve the performance of any software budget administration. A well-documented plan reduces future software expenditures and keeps businesses compliant.

Software licensing is a complicated issue. There are many challenges associated with software management, but the right software asset management program can help decision makers meet these challenges and address them.