I am sure you have read the press release last month “Flexera to Acquire BDNA, Reimagining How Data Powers the Software Supply Chain.”

The combination of Flexera and BDNA creates the world’s largest technology asset data platform, transforming how software is bought, sold, managed and secured.

Next week is the annual Fusion 17 service management event, the most comprehensive annual conference for IT service management professionals. Fusion is the one place to learn and network with the very best in service management—and leave with the tools, knowledge, and contacts to develop an ITSM strategy that will inspire your customers and grow your business.

For the first time, Flexera and BDNA are sponsors at Fusion, together.

There are numerous synergies between ITSM processes, a comprehensive Software License Optimization solution, and the largest and most comprehensive repository of market intelligence on technology assets on the planet. You can improve operational efficiency, increase end-user satisfaction, minimize license compliance risk, reduce costs, improve service quality, decrease incident rates, reduce resolution times and increase first call resolution rates.

Here are some of the benefits of the combination of Flexera Software License Optimization, the Flexera + BDNA Data Platform, and IT Service Management:

• Facilitate the creation of a standard software product catalog by making a normalized list of software titles available to the CMDB
• Enhance Change Management by identifying the machines that are candidates for update when new versions of desktop or server software are released
• Support software Request Management by implementing an app store for IT self-service; the app store can check for an available license to fulfill that request
• Improved user satisfaction due to faster request fulfillment
• Automate the software license reclamation process to reduce software costs
• Support Capacity/Demand Management by enabling IT to determine the impact on license position of adding or virtualizing servers, or adding processors to a server (‘What If’ Analysis)
• Improve resolution times (MTTR)
• Reduce incident rates by accurately mapping products to knowledge base articles
• Detect problems from incidents faster by accurately grouping and aggregating incidents
• Avoid outages and unnecessary escalations with intelligent routing and service-based ticket prioritization
• Improve first call resolution rates by providing Level 1 technicians ready access to data, such as versions and editions of installed software, needed to triage and resolve tickets

Want more information? Be sure to read BDNA Solutions for Service Desk/IT Service Management and the White Paper Integrate Software License Optimization and IT Service Management to Increase Efficiency and Reduce Costs.

And if you are going to Fusion 17 (#SMFusion), be sure to stop by Booth 800 and 801 and say hello! And we will not let you leave without taking home some cool Flexera swag!

When we announced our new Flexera Solution Exchange, one of our early partners was Astute Licensing, a Software Asset Management (SAM) focused software company based in Liverpool, UK.

We are happy to report that last week, Astute Licensing won the “Innovation of the Year Award” at the 2017 ITAM Review Excellence Awards Gala!

Their offering, AstuteLDM, is a unique enterprise-focused License Demand Management technology that integrates directly with FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises and App Portal from Flexera. AstuteLDM leverages the powerful data in these Flexera solutions to allocate spare licenses directly to user requests, call out current validated license position counts, predict future noncompliance risks before they happen, and much, much more.

Martin Thompson, owner and founder of The ITAM Review, said in his blog that AstuteLDM is a “new innovative offering [that] is a natural extension to SAM tools and App Portals. It does for Datacentre SAM what App stores and good SAM tools do for desktop.”

The AstuteLDM technology, connected with Flexera SAM solutions, aims to stop expensive audits and license compliance risks in the Server and Cloud estate, while reducing software spend. It achieves this by empowering teams to control and validate all software demand before and during its entry into the estate, thus stopping risk. And AstuteLDM leverages future demand to produce consolidated reports to empower better deals, predict non-compliance, identify optimization opportunities and ultimately help to save up to 10 percent on capital spend each year.

Upon receiving the award, Chris Morgan, Director of Astute Licensing said:

“It’s a great honour to be recognised by the best and brightest of our industry for our innovation with AstuteLDM. Our goal of ending audit risks permanently, predicting and reducing future software spend is a huge goal, so to have that vision validated by our peers is amazing. Flexera has supported us through our whole journey so far in bringing our innovation to market. Without support from some key Flexera people, we would not be here today. This is testimony to the relationship we have. By combining FlexNet Manager Suite from Flexera with AstuteLDM, users can truly control the whole software lifecycle, end risk permanently, and reduce future capital spend.” 

We are proud to have Astute Licensing as a Solution Exchange partner, and we want to congratulate them on their impressive Innovation of the Year Award.

Great job Chris Morgan!

You can learn more about Astute Licensing on the Flexera Solution Exchange.

For more information about the Flexera Solution Exchange, be sure to view our on-demand webinar Be Connected. Be Faster. Expand Your SAM Capabilities for Better Business Insight.

It is Thanksgiving week here in the United States, and for our American readers, that typically means spending time with family, turkey, Black Friday, watching football and old movie marathons.

But instead of watching “Miracle on 34^th Street” or “March of the Wooden Soldiers” again, I have a suggestion.

How about enriching your knowledge and getting the latest insights to the most important topics facing IT and business executives today?

“Tom and Ray Talk About….,” is an 8 part series of executive videos featuring Tom Canning, Vice President of Strategy at Flexera, and R “Ray” Wang, Principal Analyst, Founder, and Chairman of Constellation Research, Inc. These videos bring you right into the conversation on topics vital to your career.

IT and business executives face many challenges in today’s complex technical environments. The complex and highly dysfunctional software supply chain can greatly impact your business. You may be exposed to the risks of software vulnerabilities and security breaches. If you are an SAP customer, indirect access may be an important topic to understand. And for all of you, managing cloud costs is not something you can ignore.

Here is an introductory video with Tom and Ray talking about the software market and its impact on new business models.

The 8 videos in the “Tom and Ray Talk About….” series are short, entertaining, and packed with insights and information on a variety of topic vital to today’s IT leaders:

• Reimagining the Way Software is Bought, Sold, Managed and Secured
• Digital Transformation and the Challenge of Managing Complex IT Environments
• Software and Cloud Optimization
• Cybersecurity and Software Vulnerability Management
• SAP Software Licensing and Indirect Access
• The Role of Open Source Software
• IOT – The Internet of Things
• Managing Software and Cloud Services Costs

Be sure to check out the “Tom and Ray Talk About….” series today. And you don’t need to be escaping the crowds at the mall to enjoy!

Were you impacted by the Yahoo data breach? Regardless if you had one of the 500 million Yahoo email accounts, you were impacted if you were a stockholder, as the sales price to Verizon was reduced by an estimated $350 million.

Target had a data breach in 2013 where the credit card and contact information of an estimated 110 people was compromised. This breach resulted in the resignation of both the CIO and the CEO, and an estimated cost of $162 million.

There have been many data breaches that made the news over the past few years including eBay, Equifax, TJX, JP Morgan Chase, US Office of Personnel Management, The Home Depot, and Adobe.

All these breaches have something in common….they are very costly. There are the technical remediation costs, and lost productivity. Companies need to prepare the appropriate notifications to stakeholders and regulatory bodies. Fines and penalties can be costly, not to mention additional security measures to prevent future breaches. In fact, the average cost of a data breach is more than $3.6 million. The U.S. has the highest per capita cost at $225, according to the Ponemon Institute 2017 Cost of Data Breach Report.

And besides these costs that we can calculate, there are also “hidden” costs which can equal 90 percent[i] of the total business impact. Hidden costs include intangibles such as damage to reputation, business operational disruption, or loss of proprietary information.

How can you become better informed about the business impact of a breach?  Be sure to join Flexera and special guest Heidi Shey, Senior Analyst at Forrester, for the webinar “Business Impact of a Breach and What You Can Do About It.”

In addition to learning how you can estimate the cost of a data breach for your organization, you will also learn about 2 key breach prevention strategies:

• Reducing the “Attack Surface” (aka your software footprint), which is something your Software Asset Management (SAM) team can help drive, and
• Closing the “Risk Window,” which requires you to be faster at knowing about vulnerabilities that can affect your organization, and then remediating them before they’re exploited.

Be sure to join us on the following dates and times:

November 30 – 10:00 am (US Central Time)

December 5 – 2:00 pm (Australia)

December 7 – 10:00 am (United Kingdom)

Register Here
And if you cannot join us on one of the dates above, register for the on-demand webinar recording.

[i] Beneath the Surface of a Cyberattack: A Deeper Look at the Business Impacts. 2016 Deloitte Advisory

As a leader in the IT Asset Management and Software Asset Management community, Flexera leverages a global network of partners to help deliver value to our customers.

We are thrilled to report that SoftwareONE, a Solution Provider partner, just won the “Partner of the Year Award” at the 2017 ITAM Review Excellence Awards gala!

What makes this award particularly noteworthy is that SoftwareONE was chosen by the public for this award. As a result, this award is a true reflection of the value and return on investment that they bring to their customers.

SoftwareONE helps clients manage all aspects of their software portfolio, with the objective of reducing complexity, costs and risks for the client, while increasing the flexibility of their IT landscape to adjust to changing business needs. Its proprietary Software Portfolio Management (SPM) approach covers all aspects of the client’s software lifecycle, which includes:

• Translating their business needs into a software portfolio strategy
• Optimizing both the procurement process and the software licenses
• Managing clients’ demand, utilization and deployment, as well as compliance with contracts

Darryl Sackett, Global Director at SoftwareONE said on winning this award, “SoftwareONE is honoured and humbled to be awarded the Partner of the Year 2017. It’s a reflection of the value and return on investment we realise for our customers, and our tireless work to constantly improve. It’s great to be recognised as the leader in this field and we look forward to an extremely productive year ahead with our customers, partners and colleagues.”

Martin Thompson, owner and founder of The ITAM Review, said of the Partner of the Year award, “SoftwareONE stood out head and shoulders above other nominations in terms of positive feedback from their customers.”

SoftwareONE is no stranger to “Partner of the Year” awards. On May 30, we announced that they had taken top honors at the 2016 Flexera Partner of the Year Awards during our annual Partner Summits. SoftwareONE, was recognized as both the Emerging Partner of the Year in North America and Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) for rapidly establishing themselves as a significant Flexera partner.

Globally headquartered in Stans, Switzerland with a footprint in 82 countries, SoftwareONE has 3,000 technology consultants to help customers optimize all aspects of their software portfolio, leveraging extensive technical and commercial expertise and strong knowledge of and relationships with all  major publishers, such as Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, VMware, Oracle, Citrix, Symantec, McAfee, and many more. You can learn more at www.softwareone.com.

SoftwareONE offers SAMSimple, an end-to-end Software Asset Management (SAM) managed service that enables organizations to more quickly realize the full value of their investment, mitigate compliance risk and reduce the cost of their entire software portfolio. SAMsimple leverages SoftwareONE’s unparalleled in-house software licensing expertise and is powered by FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises by Flexera.

SAMSimple addresses the most common SAM pain-points including gathering an accurate inventory, contract / license complexity, understanding entitlements, publisher audits, resourcing, and cost optimization.

And if you want to learn more about how Flexera and SoftwareONE are working together to serve the SAM community, be sure to view the on-demand webinar “Show Me the Value! Accelerating Time to Value for Your Software Asset Management Practice.”

Presented by subject matter experts Kevin Hooton, North American SAM Lead for SoftwareONE and Jim Griffin, Senior Solution Engineer from Flexera, you will learn how to realize value for your SAM practice and the quickest route to get there.

When implementing a Software Asset Management solution, only one thing REALLY matters…how fast you can start demonstrating a return on investment (ROI).

Demonstrating ROI is a critical aspect of any IT project, but perhaps even more so in Software Asset Management (SAM).  Demonstrating the value of your SAM program requires you to be nimble and flexible so you can accelerate the ROI and make a positive impact to your organization’s balance sheet.

As we all know, there are a number of components that make up the SAM process, including:

• Hardware and Software Discovery and Inventory
• Software Identification and Data Normalization
• Software License Entitlements (POs and Contracts)
• Business Data, including User and Organizational Data
• License Reconciliation and Optimization

Not to mention negotiation with various lines of business, as you work to integrate your solution across the enterprise.

The challenge is— how do you navigate the deployment of new technology – at WARP SPEED!

To achieve this, you may need to adjust your mindset.

How many times do we venture into a project – fully aware of the various elements needed to be pieced together and integrated, but are stymied by “analysis paralysis” or wanting things to be perfect, so that we only do it once?  In this era of instant social media, a 24-hour news cycle and easy access to the internet, we’ve grown accustomed to having instant access to information.  And…in most cases, it takes several iterations of that news cycle to get an accurate picture of the headline or item of interest.

This is the model we should adopt in our Software Asset Management deployment strategies!

So, why wait for things to be perfect?

Some people call this methodology Agile or Conference Room Pilot (CRP).  It’s anything but the traditional waterfall (SDLC) method.

Vendors don’t come to the table with a pre-configured system due to the varied complexities found in each customer’s IT environment.  We also can’t come with a blank slate and start from scratch formulating requirements leading to a functional and technical design then building your solution. And, we understand that you have dependencies that enable other aspects of the solution to be achieved.  In deploying a Software Asset Management solution, you should leverage components and concepts from each of these methodologies to find the best approach.  You may not reduce the effort, but the goal is to reduce the time to ROI.

It used to be… a chain of serial steps, with each step addressing a dependency that feeds into another phase of the project:

Gather Requirements –> Discover Software and Hardware Inventory –>  Import Business Data (Contracts & Entitlements, Users, Locations, Enterprise Groups, Assets, Suppliers) –> Once Inventory is complete and Business Data is imported, start your license reconciliation process –> Optimize Your License Position –> Integrate with the CMDB –> Implement Additional Use Cases (Software Reclamation & Automated Software Request & installation) …

Figure 1: SAM Serial Process (where each step has “perfect” data)

In this scenario, you may not really see anything come together for at least 12-14 weeks.

Now…adjust your mindset and philosophy to understand that you do not need perfection to deliver value in an accelerated manner.

1. Gather all of your Software Asset Management program requirements. Engage multiple stakeholders to get their input into this process.
2. Have advanced discussions involving the deployment of technology and environmental requirements. A series of these technical discussions, leading up to a Design Workshop, serves to address concepts and questions ahead of a face-to-face meeting with the SAM vendor, so that you are then confirming both tool requirements and infrastructure requirements and streamlining the discussion.
3. Start working parallel work streams so that your plan represents several parallel tasks all converging at the first “business value point”—an initial license position for one or more of your target vendors. This could entail integrating to existing inventory tools and 3^rd party applications, compiling and loading software license entitlements, contracts and other business data.

Figure 2: Parallel SAM Process with Data Improvement Iterations

4. At this point you have incremental software inventory with software license entitlements. You perform a license reconciliation and begin to compile license compliance data.  It’s not complete yet, but you can start showing early results.  As inventory continues to improve, so does your compliance picture.  You will get to an Effective License Position after a few iterations of the process. All the while, you can be socializing results with the Executive Steering Committee – demonstrating a path to ROI, which was the basis for investing in your SAM Project in the first place.

Of course, you have to be prepared to work collaboratively with your SAM tool vendor to gather the data in a proactive manner and address difficult technical issues early in the engagement.

Being able to show the end-to-end Software Asset Management process as early as 4-5 weeks into the project and being able to socialize this with senior management helps with engagement across the organization. It also speeds sustainability of your SAM program, and leads to more rapid Return on Investment.

To learn more about how you can achieve faster ROI with your SAM program, view our on-demand webinar:

Be Faster! SAM Best Practices that Drive Business Value

Since January of 2013, we have taken a look at the top 10 Software License Optimizations Blogs from the previous year. This list includes the most read blogs, regardless of when they were published. Two years ago, we added a second “top ten” list of those blogs that were written only in the previous year. Having the two lists to compare show both the overall topics that are important to our readers, along with those subjects that were more timely in the previous year.

This year, we are adding something extra, a list of those blogs that have made multiple top ten lists since we began this annual review.

Most popular blogs in 2017 (published any time):

1. An Introduction to Microsoft SQL Server Licensing
2. Why a SKU is important to Software Asset Management
3. Track These Software Asset Management Program Metrics for Success
4. How will Microsoft licensing for Windows Server 2016 affect you?
5. Oracle Database Licensing in a VMware Virtual Environment (Part 1 of 3)
6. Congratulations to SoftwareONE for Winning the ITAM Review Partner of the Year Award!
7. Should I be using a Triad License Server Configuration?
8. You’re Getting Warmer—License Management for Hot, Warm, and Cold Backup Servers
9. Microsoft SQL Server Licensing – A Deeper Look
10. Congratulations to Astute Licensing for the ITAM Innovation Award!

Our top blog for 2017 is a terrific piece that provides an overview of the complex topic of Microsoft SQL Server Licensing. This is vital information for any organization. Not surprising, 5 of these top ten blogs in 2017 are either specifically about Microsoft licensing, or refers to Microsoft in the piece. For instance, our #2 blog “Why a SKU is important to Software Asset Management” is one of the most popular we have ever posted. Published in 2010, it has made 6 consecutive top ten lists since we began this annual review, and uses specific examples from Microsoft. The #5 blog on Oracle Database licensing is another one that has appeared in every top ten list since inception, and is one of the most read pieces of all time. Be sure to schedule time to read these blogs!

A pair of blogs in our 2017 top ten need to be mentioned because they review the achievements of two of our valued partners. “Congratulations to SoftwareONE for Winning the ITAM Review Partner of the Year Award!” was published just in early December, yet still was the 6^th most read blog of the year. “Congratulations to Astute Licensing for the ITAM Innovation Award!” was published in November, and still made the top ten list. Both SoftwareOne and Astute Licensing are members of our global network of partners that help deliver value to our customers.

Most popular blogs in 2017 (published in 2017):

1. An Introduction to Microsoft SQL Server Licensing
2. Congratulations to SoftwareONE for Winning the ITAM Review Partner of the Year Award!
3. Microsoft SQL Server Licensing – A Deeper Look
4. Congratulations to Astute Licensing for the ITAM Innovation Award!
5. Beware of SAP Indirect Access
6. A Letter to a New Software Asset Manager
7. The Year Ahead for Software Asset Management
8. Visibility into the Cloud
9. Fusion, in More Ways than One
10. Dealing with Complex Licensing and Software Request Workflows

The standout blog published in 2017 in terms of potential impact is “Beware of SAP Indirect Access.” This piece reviewed the court decision in the SAP UK v Diageo Great Britain case, where SAP received a ruling that user license fees also apply to Diageo’s 5,800 indirect users, with a potential liability of £55 million. This blog is an essential read for anyone that leverages SAP data in an external system.

And for the first time, here are the blogs that have appeared in multiple top 10 lists, including the year and position on that list:

1. Oracle Database Licensing in a VMware Virtual Environment (Part 1 of 3) 
   (2017 – 5, 2016 – 2, 2015 – 1, 2014 – 1, 2013 – 1, 2012 – 5)
2. Why a SKU is important to Software Asset Management 
   (2017 – 2, 2016 – 3, 2015 – 2, 2014 – 4, 2013 – 4, 2012 – 10)
3. How will Microsoft licensing for Windows Server 2016 affect you? 
   (2017 – 4 , 2016 – 1)
4. You’re Getting Warmer—License Management for Hot, Warm, and Cold Backup Servers 
   (2017 – 8, 2016 – 6)
5. Should I be using a Triad License Server Configuration? 
   (2017 – 7, 2016 – 10)

Did you know that in almost every SLO blog, we include links to more detailed and in-depth information? Whether a white paper, webinar, or analyst report, our blogs give you an easy way to learn related information from authoritative sources.

For 2018, we plan on bringing you practical information, industry trends, tips and tricks, and thought leadership on topics and important issues you can leverage in your company or organization. Please subscribe to the SLO Blog by using the link on the top of this page or by using the Software License Optimization subscription link.

And we love comments! Be sure to add your thoughts or questions to every blog.

To close out this first Software License Optimization Blog for 2018, I want to share two other channels where you can get the latest info from Flexera. First, you can follow SAM Insights on Twitter. This is the Flexera Twitter feed dedicated to #SAM, #ITAM, and #SLO. Also, be sure to subscribe to the Flexera YouTube Channel with over 600 product, education, and thought leadership videos where you can learn how Flexera is reimagining how software is bought, sold, managed and secured.

On behalf of everyone at Flexera, we would like to thank you for reading our blog and we look forward to engaging with you across all our social media channels in 2018!

By
Osa Kouta-Lopatey

Every computer in the world has unused applications. In your personal computer, these may have been bundled with the new machine purchase, or free trials that you never tried. This unused software probably has not been patched or upgraded, meaning that your PC is vulnerable to exploits.

A large organization or enterprise can have thousands of computers, many or all of which may have unused software. Now, the vulnerability risk is compounded exponentially. Besides the threats to potential exploits, unused software can be expensive.

Many companies have no defined process to determine if the existing installed base of applications are being u

sed. When a user requests an application, additional licenses are purchased and the software

installed. Some of these users only need the application for a specific project or a period of time. When the software is no longer needed, the lack of usage monitoring and reclamation process results in a large installed base of unused software. Constantly buying more software in the absence of a well-defined SAM program constitutes a huge unknown risk and expense for an enterprise.

This is a risky business.

Updating software though the deployment of patches can be a massive undertaking in so many organizations.  It is a time-consuming and repetitive task that can just add additional issues.

Often, an enterprise will not first analyze the environment to determine the relevance of the applications that require patches on each device. They are reactive, continually pushing out patches to all applications including any that are unused, because it just easier to patch everything. This really just shifts the risks and creates additional burdens to the Help Desk, as they are now tasked with troubleshooting any issues caused by the deployment of those patches.

A far more effective method is to take a proactive approach towards vulnerability management. This begins by first, reducing the attack surface by uninstalling unused applications from devices in the environment. Next, IT can deploy software patches for the applications that are currently in use. But even a proactive approach can be a resource intensive process without the right tools.

Fortunately, Flexera has two solutions, App Portal and FlexNet Manager® Suite for Enterprises that integrate with a deployment system such as Microsoft® System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMrg / SCCM) to effectively address the unused-software-uninstall challenge. The solution provides two methods for software reclamation:

1. User driven – a user is notified to uninstall or keep software that has met an unused software threshold, for instance 90 days or 120 days. After a grace period for the user to respond the policy can be configured to force uninstallation.
2. Admin driven – the administrator can configure the solution to immediately and silently uninstall the software from a user’s computer when the unused software threshold is met

A manual software reclamation campaign is possible, but it is time-consuming and resource intensive. Streamlining and automating a software reclamation process is just one of the many benefits of the Flexera Software and Cloud Optimization Solutions.  Other benefits include software license optimization, and self-service software request with license reservation, approvals and procurement.

For more information about how you can reduce the risky business of not managing your applications be sure to read the White Paper Best Practices for Governance and Compliance using an Enterprise App Store.

One of my favorite learning resources is none other than something I am sure you have seen…YouTube. It’s hard to believe that YouTube only started in 2005. Today, about 1.3 billion people use YouTube, with 300 hours of video uploaded every minute.

Regardless of the subject, you can find education and thought leadership videos from industry experts. Granted, there is a lot of fluff videos, including celebrity gossip, cute cat antics, and people attempting to do dangerous stunts in the hope of becoming famous. But if you want to learn something or gain insight on a topic, YouTube is a terrific resource.

For many years, Flexera has actively shared software knowledge and licensing expertise in our YouTube Channel. Our content includes case studies, insights from industry analysts, market trends, product demos, and technical information.

Here are some examples of the software asset management videos you can find on the Flexera YouTube channel from a few of our subject matter experts:

Nicolas Rousseau – Principal Strategy Consultant
SAM: The Best Technology is Necessary, but Best Practices Make it Successful – Part 1
Understand the Benefits but Also the Risks of Enterprise Agreements – Part 1

Greg Holmes – Director, Presales
The Business Challenges of Licensing Software in the Datacenter – Part 1

Cyndi Tackett – Vice President, Presales
Best Practices in Software License Optimization
Leveraging Integration between Software License Optimization and IT Service Management (ITSM)

Brent Pietrzak – Vice President, Producer Solutions and Strategy
Software License Optimization Becoming Strategic Business Function Tied to Finance

Richard Northing – Senior Vice President, Customer Success
Addressing the Broken Software Supply Chain – Improving Software License Compliance Management

The Flexera YouTube Channel has over 600 product, education, and thought leadership videos where you can learn how Flexera is reimagining how software is bought, sold, managed and secured. Be sure to subscribe today!

Good project communication is critical. Without it, a good project is susceptible to difficulties and struggles that can be prevented. For a challenged project, the level of communication can mean the difference between recovery and demise. These are universal truths which are certainly applicable to all projects irrespective of the type of the project.

It seems that communication should be easy enough since we tend to interact with experienced professionals in our careers. However, stakeholder literacy and skill-set does not always translate into a project with good communication. Complexities of geographical distance, technology, and multiple stakeholders who must interact with each other along with corporate politics create additional strain on project communications and can add to the communication challenges. For instance, a project sponsor may have concerns on meeting the planned delivery date due to a perception that project activities are not being completed in a timely manner. In reality, the client project manager may not be regularly sharing project status with senior leadership.

Here are several concepts that can be useful in managing communications on a project:

Basis for Project Interaction

Develop a communication plan that reduces the risk of project interaction issues. Consider what plan elements to include based on these two goals:

1. Will this process help the project constituents do a better job of sharing information and getting things done?
2. Will this process be productive for the stakeholders without over burdening already heavy workloads?

If both of these questions can be answered “yes,” then consider implementing the idea. Otherwise, always consider the potential negatives of a process that might not be beneficial.

Projects, Politics, and People

Relationship building is always a work in progress; it will never be fully-finished. There are several important elements that should always be remembered when building and maintaining business relationships:

1. Respect – The ability to hold another in regard, to value the contribution an individual makes and to treat another with curtesy. For some people, respect comes easy because you value their abilities and they reciprocate, in kind.
2. Resonance – The way in which you harmonize with other people’s working styles, goals, and points of view. When you have a high resonance with another, there is an easy sense of cooperation.

Effective interpersonal communication cannot occur using short emails and brief interaction with stakeholders. Good communication is the result of sound working relationships. Good relationships are slowly developed through consistent interaction, and honest behavior.

Take the time to always assess which of your working relationships could use some attention and seek to improve both respect and resonance in all of interactions with stakeholders.

Project Vision

Clearly define and communicate the high level objectives for the project with the following items:

• Business Vision – the specific business strategy that the project must align with.
• Problem or Opportunity – the current state and present conditions.
• Mission Statement – future state or end results expected to be attained.
• Success Criteria – defined in terms of cost, time, and performance factors.
• High Level Scope – expected deliverables and out of scope items.
• Assumptions and Constraints – define assumptions and known impositions that could affect the execution of work.
• Risks – Identify potential threats to the project success.

Stakeholder Analysis

Determine how a stakeholder should be engaged during the project. The strategy for involvement and communication should be developed after an analysis is completed. Key attributes that should be considered:

1. Impact – How direct of an impact does this stakeholder have upon the project’s deliverables and outcomes?
2. Influence – What is the level of influence that this stakeholder has upon the actions and opinions of others?
3. Inclination – What is the stakeholder’s expected view of the project?

Each stakeholder should be measured for these three attributes as a method for developing a strategy for their inclusion into the project effort.

In summary, good project communication is a critical core component to the successful delivery of projects as well as many other situations that involve the interaction among team resources and stakeholders. Keep these concepts in mind and they should become another valuable tool within your tool set.

Did you find this information useful? Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to the Software License Optimization Blog!

And for the latest insights to Software Asset Management and IT Asset Management, be sure to follow SAM Insights on Twitter!

And if you need help with your Software License Optimization project, be sure to check out the comprehensive consulting, implementation and training offerings from Flexera Global Consulting Services. Our experts in license compliance services are fully versed in software asset management (SAM) best practices as well as the functionality of our solutions. They apply proven methodologies that result in thorough planning, sound design, and smooth implementation and configuration of your Software License Optimization solutions.

Project Risks

Risk Management within a project or a program is essential and contributes to the success and failure of projects and/or programs. There are numerous ways to identify and mitigate risks associated with each project.

Identifying and monitoring project risks is a pre-requisite for the success of any project. It is also important to understand that each risk should be identified only once. This must be done to allow for proper monitoring, mitigation and managing the risk for the project. Many times, the same risk is identified multiple times within a project, which can create confusion and subsequently can add additional overhead from a risk management perspective. This will make it harder to track the risks and create the illusion of more risks than truly are related to the project.

Additional Risks Add to Project Timeline

Projects will always have risks such as market risks, capital risks or execution risks. When not managed and identified properly, risks can multiply and add unbudgeted scope to each project resulting in wasted resources. Each project must identify the risks through qualitative and quantitative assessment. One way to achieve this is by using brainstorming sessions with all project participants, so that risks are identified, and controls can be put in place for mitigation. This will allow all stakeholders to understand the risks, what is accepted and how the mitigation applies to the risk and the project. In some instances, the risk may impact the budget and or the timeline based on the probability of them occurring. In this instance, the risks cannot be ignored but used for management to make decisions for the next course of action on each risk identified. If fatal risks such as lost market opportunity due to delay in execution are identified, higher level of controls can be put in place to protect the project from a disaster.

Risks Can Provide Opportunities

You may have heard how weaknesses can create potential opportunities during a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis. Risks in a project can also help pave the way for additional opportunities. Projects are based on requirements and deliverables that are driven by the Project Sponsor and Stakeholder goals and objectives.  This forms the basis for project initiation and project planning. A thorough review of the requirements and deliverables during the planning process, with an emphasis on the challenges and roadblocks for fulfilling the goals and objectives, will help in identifying the associated risks.. Focus on the end goals and objectives is crucial here, as the goals and objectives typically do not change during the project. This process may add additional tasks and or activities due to identified risks.

Within each risk identified there can be an opportunity to deliver additional services, or an opportunity to identify additional projects and/or additional phases to the project.  This helps in looking at a project as a program with a holistic view thereby augmenting value realization for the customer or stakeholder.

Be sure to read the blog Project Stakeholder Communication for additional tips about project management.

You can learn more valuable information as soon as it is published. SUBSCRIBE to the Software License Optimization Blog!

And for the latest insights to Software Asset Management and IT Asset Management, follow SAM Insights on Twitter!

If you need help with your Software License Optimization project, check out the comprehensive consulting, implementation and training offerings from Flexera Global Consulting Services. Our experts in license compliance services are fully versed in software asset management (SAM) best practices as well as the functionality of our solutions. They apply proven methodologies that result in thorough planning, sound design, and smooth implementation and configuration of your Software License Optimization solutions.

I was in a meeting recently and a discussion came up around using software, and what could happen if purchase records could not be proven during a vendor audit.

One of my colleagues made a statement that I have heard before but have not really connected to Software Asset Management:

“It’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission.” Do you know who originally said this? More about this at the end of this blog.

This statement made me think. Do companies really do this in practice with software vendors? Do they routinely just install software without a proactive approach toward license compliance? In other words, are they more concerned about asking “forgiveness” during a software vendor audit than reviewing their “permission” of product license rights?

If this sounds familiar, you could be spending far more money than you need to, and setup yourself up for a huge disruption due to an audit at some point in the future.

Here are some examples of potential negative impact if your SAM Program is reactive, not and not proactive:

1. Risk of software audits

Software audits are expensive. In a survey by Flexera, 65% of organizations were audited at least once in the past 12 months, and 23% were audited more than three times. Those license true costs were expensive. 44% resulted in a cost of over $100,000, with 20% over $1 million. [i]

Remember that any money spent as a result of an audit is an unbudgeted expenditure that must be diverted from other strategic projects.

2. Overspending on software.

In the same survey, 62% organizations said that at least 10% of their software went unused. 30% said that over 20% of their software was unused. For many companies, that is the equivalent of wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Software licensing costs account for a significant portion of the typical IT budget—as much as 25 percent. This is a substantial cost for today’s enterprise.

3. Exposure to malware and security risk

According to the Business Software Alliance (BSA) recent Global Software Survey, 39% of all software installed globally is not licensed. In addition, 25% of the software used in the banking, insurance, and securities industries was unlicensed.  And there is a high correlation between the use of unlicensed software and encountering malware. The threat of software vulnerabilities can be expensive, with the average cyberattack costing an organization $11 million. [ii]

So the key takeaway is that unlicensed software can be both risky and expensive.

Sometimes, “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission” might work for you when borrowing a car, scoring tickets to the big game and not taking your significant other, or eating that last piece of delicious cake. When it comes to software licensing, however, “asking for forgiveness” is quite risky and potentially costly. A proactive approach towards Software Asset Management with the right processes and solutions will enable continuous license compliance and the peace of mind that comes from the fact you will not need to ask for forgiveness from a software vendor.

So, how can you learn more about a proactive approach towards Software Asset Management? I would like to share with you three on-demand webinars that cover this in more depth. Whether you are in an IT Procurement, IT Asset Manager, or IT Finance, or IT Security role, you will learn some tips and insights to avoid having to ask for forgiveness.

How Software License Optimization Empowers IT Procurement

Be Faster! SAM Best Practices that Drive Business Value

Do You Manage Software? Understanding Your Role in Cybersecurity Defense

Finally, “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission[iii]” is generally attributed to Rear Admiral Grace Hopper. She was a pioneer of computer programming, and at the time of her retirement, was the oldest active-duty commissioned officer in the United States Navy.

Did you find this information useful? Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to the Software License Optimization Blog!

And for the latest insights to Software Asset Management and IT Asset Management, follow SAM Insights on Twitter!

[i] The State of the (Software) Estate: Waste Is Running Rampant in Enterprises. 2016 Key Trends in Software Pricing & Licensing Survey Report. Flexera. January 2016.

[ii] Seizing Opportunity Through License Compliance. BSA Global Software Survey. Business Software Alliance. May 2016.

[iii] Only the Limits of Our Imagination. Exclusive interview with Rear Adm. Grace Hopper. Chips Ahoy, The Department of the Navy’s Information Technology Magazine. July 1986.

It is Super Bowl weekend in the States, and the big game means many things to different people.

For some, it is cheering on their favorite team, whether the New England Patriots or the Philadelphia Eagles.  Others make friendly wagers on the game, often in office pools. The television commercials have been popular for many years and often become legendary in their impact. For example, Apple launched what many consider to be the modern information technology era with their iconic commercial “1984.” It aired once during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII. And many people around the world see the Super Bowl as a celebration of all things American.

American Football was first played in 1869 and is now arguably, the most popular sport in the United States. In all those years, the rules of the game have not remained constant. In many cases, they have varied dramatically over time.

Here are a couple of examples:

The goal posts were originally at the back of the end zone. In 1933 the NFL wanted to make field goals easier so the number of tie games would be reduced. They moved the goal posts 10 yards to the goal line. The result was a doubling in the number of field goals, and tie games dropped dramatically.

Over 40 years later, the NFL moved the goal posts to the back of the end zone, again. The reasoning was that kickers were more specialized and field goals had become too easy.

In 2006, the NFL cut down on “touchdown celebrations” in an effort to reduce gaudy displays and the taunting of opponents. The rules were amended to include an automatic 15-yard penalty against any player who left his feet or used a prop, like a towel, the goal post, or even the football itself.

Prior to the start of the 2017 season, the league reversed course and loosened restrictions on celebrations. Now, for the most part, players can dance or play around with the ball before spiking it, without penalty.

Football rules may have changed, but the game goes on.

Software licensing is like football in that the rules may change, but the “game” goes on.

Two years ago, Microsoft changed the licensing for Windows Server 2016 from the previous “per-processor basis” to a “per-physical-processor-core,” with a minimum of 16 core licenses per server.

Last year, Oracle changed its licensing rules for a set of “authorized cloud environments” including Amazon Web Services – Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), and Microsoft Azure Platform. The new license rules could mean a doubling of fees to run Oracle software in AWS, according to an article in The Register. See our blog “Oracle Changes Licensing Rules for Authorized Cloud Environments” for more details.

SAP made changes in their “indirect access” licensing policy as outlined in a July 2017 White Paper. Indirect access has become a controversial topic since last year’s £55 million court decision SAP UK v Diageo Great Britain. I wrote a popular blog about this last year titled “Beware of SAP Indirect Access.” Now under very specific criteria, exported SAP data may no longer need to be licensed.

Software vendors may change their licensing rules, but the principles of compliance – the “game” if you will – goes on and remains as important as ever.

So how do you keep up with the constantly changing software licensing rules? Flexera can help.

Flexera + BDNA has built the largest repository of Technology Asset Data. Built and maintained by teams of expert, subject-matter researchers, it’s the industry’s most comprehensive software asset, vulnerability and open source repository – containing more than 150 million software and hardware asset data points.

We help buyers purchase only what they need, manage what they have, and use what they bought.

Want more information about software licensing best practices? Then be sure to catch our excellent on-demand webinar Be Faster! SAM Best Practices that Drive Business Value. You will learn about entitlements, contracts, license models, and calculating an effective license position.

Did you find this information useful? SUBSCRIBE to the Software License Optimization Blog!

And for the latest insights to Software Asset Management and IT Asset Management, follow SAM Insights on Twitter!

When you are in the implementation cycle of your Software Asset Management (SAM) solution, it is critical that each process, operating procedure and role in an organization is reviewed. Technology can help automate processes to save time and effort. For a successful project, however, it is important that processes are updated to ensure the asset management life cycle is sustained, and software data within the SAM tool remains current. This allows for sound business decisions and proper actions to be taken when renewing and reallocating software license entitlements, and is a vital step in setting up any SAM program.

Multiple Stakeholders Necessitates Role Clarity

SAM crosses many organizations within an enterprise. SAM is impacted by software procurement, contract/agreement negotiations, installation requests, hardware deployment/refresh, etc. With all of these functional stakeholders as part of the lifecycle, it is important to have role clarity. During an implementation phase, a role and feature matrix can assist with feature assignment. And when evaluating SAM tools, there are specific capabilities you should consider to help in creating a transparent environment

• The capability to create roles based on the responsibilities defined in the SAM processes and RASIC/RACI documentation.
• The flexibility for data to be maintained by those who have the responsibility across the enterprise.
• The capability to for role based access. This allows users to have access to only those areas that they are required to read and/or edit the data that is specified by their role within the SAM processes.

Revisiting Processes May Also Require Role Re-Definition

SAM processes and procedures are not solely impacted by the implementation of a SAM program and tool. The way software is handled in each organization across the enterprise may be required to change.

• The SAM team should meet with each stakeholder organization (i.e. procurement, contract, hardware asset management, request management, etc.) to outline new processes as well as document roles and responsibilities.
• Each organization needs to understand the impact, role, and effort in maintaining software asset management data. RASIC or RACI matrices can assist in documenting which organization will own the tasks and activities that are needed for each process.
• Once the processes have been documented, roles and responsibilities clearly defined and organizational stakeholders have agreed and approved, a SAM tool can be updated accordingly.
• There are times where a role must be divided up across regions and, at times, even by countries.
• It is of the utmost importance to ensure that all parties are in agreement with the roles and responsibilities to support SAM going forward. Do not underestimate that this can be a challenging task.

Reporting Can Assist with Adherence to New Processes and Roles

In an effort to ensure that the processes and procedures to support SAM are being adhered to and are functioning correctly (no adverse effects), there needs to be reporting and dashboards put in place to measure success.

• The SAM team will need to monitor and report the percentage of success to all business stakeholders. This will ensure that the SAM team and data within their SAM tool is maintained and accurate across the enterprise and the success of the SAM program.
• If available, leverage the out of the box reports to assist with providing a holistic view of your data health.
• Create custom reports to meet the needs of stakeholders. Be sure to distribute the reports on a regular cadence to support process adherence.

In summary, revisiting your stakeholder role definitions in concert with your SAM processes and operating procedures will ensure that you have a team “rowing in rhythm” and enabling you to harvest optimal benefits from your SAM program.

For more information about roles, stakeholders, and a successful Software Asset Management program, be sure to download our White Paper “Human Change Management – the Overlooked Aspect of a Successful Software Asset Management Program.” You will learn how human change management enables organizations to keep SAM projects moving forward to realize business value at each stage of maturity.

If you need help with your Software License Optimization project, check out the comprehensive consulting, implementation and training offerings from Flexera Global Consulting Services. Our experts in license compliance services are fully versed in software asset management (SAM) best practices as well as the functionality of our solutions. They apply proven methodologies that result in thorough planning, sound design, and smooth implementation and configuration of your Software License Optimization solutions.

Did you find this information useful? SUBSCRIBE to the Software License Optimization Blog!

And for the latest insights to Software Asset Management and IT Asset Management, follow SAM Insights on Twitter!

Clouds come in many types. Cumulus clouds are the big puffy white clouds you see on sunny days with a beautiful blue sky visible around them. Stratus clouds are a uniform layer of grayish cloud resembling fog that overcasts the sky and blocks out the sun. Cirrus clouds are thin white strands that streak across the sky at high altitudes, letting a lot of sky visible from below.

As this is a technology asset management blog, you know we are not here to talk about the sky. The IT environment is very different today than just a few years ago. The traditional IT environment consists of a datacenter that offers services through a corporate network or via remote workers through a VPN.

The modern IT environment, however, in addition to the traditional IT offerings, includes a multitude of cloud services that are accessed by people inside or outside the firewall. Basically, if you are not yet using the cloud, you will be, and this shift brings enormous challenges due to the lack of visibility.

Some of the impacts around lack of visibility include:

• Security breaches
• Increased cost of support
• Reduced performance
• Compliance risk
• Reduced productivity

If you are a professional in the areas of IT Asset Management, Vendor Procurement, Datacenter, or ITSM, then maintaining transparency into virtual and cloud assets is vital to your role. So how can you learn more about why improving cloud visibility is crucial?

Join Flexera for a live webinar featuring Cyndi Tackett, Vice President of Pre-Sales for an exciting new webinar “From Cloudy to Transparent, Managing Assets in the Sky.” In under an hour, your will learn how to:

• Leverage new processes and technology to effectively manage your assets in Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Azure
• Control the costs of your cloud infrastructure as a service – IaaS
• Reduce risks as you install software licenses in the cloud – BYOSL
• Manage and optimize Software as a Service – SaaS

Register Here
Be sure to join us at the following dates and times for this informative session:

• Thursday, March 1^st – 10:00 am CT (Chicago, USA) Show in my time zone
• Tuesday, March 6^th – 10:00 am AEDT (Sydney, Australia) Show in my time zone
• Tuesday, March 6^th – 10:00 am GMT (London, UK) Show in my time zone

Flexera is extremely pleased to announce today that our investment partnership with TA Associates, announced on December 19, 2017, has closed.  TA Associates is a leading global growth private equity firm.  TA acquired equity from existing investors, and will work in partnership with existing lead investor Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan to continue to grow the company.

There has been a lot of buzz lately around the Flexera Ecosystem. We wanted to find out more about this and talked to Tom Canning, Vice President of Strategy for Flexera.

What is the Flexera Ecosystem?
TC: Flexera is opening up our platform to partners, developers and customer who want to integrate and expand the value with existing Flexera products. We are adding partner solutions that integrate natively with Flexera products.

Why is this important to Flexera?
TC: Flexera has been working to reimagine the software supply chain. Customers have varying business needs that no one solution can address. We know we can’t do this alone. We need partners that have complementary solutions to add business value to address the business needs.

What is the Flexera Solution Exchange?
TC: Flexera Solution Exchange is the market place to find applications that are complementary to Flexera solutions. The solutions published to the Solution Exchange are products developed by partners in the Technology Alliance Partner program. These have been vetted to ensure they integrate with Flexera solutions following the guidelines laid out by Flexera.

I’m a Flexera customer. How can I access the Solution Exchange ?
The “Find a Partner” web page allows you to browse the Solution Exchange.

What can you tell us about the Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) Program?
TC: This program is available to any partner that wants to integrate their products with Flexera products. Flexera provides the software development kits (SDKs) and technical assistance to integrate with Flexera products. When customers buy Flexera products and partner products, they get access to the integrations out of the box and will reduce the time to value.

Who are the TAP program partners?
TC: We have eight partners in our TAP program today. They are:

Partner Name	Integrated Solution Offering
	Airtrack Software:  Data quality analysis for inventory.
	Anglepoint:  The Anglepoint FlexNet Manager Suite Autodesk Script extends the capabilities of the FlexNet Manager Suite agent to collect additional Autodesk data necessary for accurate measurement.
	Astute Licensing:  Demand management for data center software. It integrates with AppPortal or FlexNet Manager Suite.
	Binadox detects new software installations and SaaS subscriptions, and captures their license agreements and terms of services.
	Infraware:  Effective management of Software Asset Management program.
	Ray Allen:  Hardware asset management for network devices with specialization on Cisco. Provides software license management for hardware devices.
	Tribal Knowledge:  Specialized license management advice and services for FlexNet Manager Suite. Mobile app for instant license management assistance.
	UnifyCloud:  Cloud migration assessments, migration and spend management for Microsoft® Azure®.

Why should I care about Flexera’s ecosystem and TAP program?
TC: Customers have multiple challenges in procurement, deployment, management and security of software in the enterprise. With Flexera’s ecosystem and solutions from partners in the TAP program, you will be able to get the broadest value available in the market.

Where can I learn more about the Ecosystem and partner programs?
TC: Learn about our partner programs on the Explore Flexera’s Partner Programs web page.
If you are interested in becoming a partner, please fill out the form on the Become a Partner web page.

For an in-depth interview with Tom Canning, be sure to watch the 8-part video series “Tom and Ray Talk 2018’s Top IT Business Issues.” Featuring R “Ray” Wang of Constellation Research, you will learn the most important topics facing IT and Business Executives today.

All of us at Flexera are incredibly proud to announce that Flexera has been named as a Leader in the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Software Asset Management Tools!

In this first ever SAM Magic Quadrant, Gartner positioned Flexera as a market “Leader” (upper right quadrant) because of our superior ability to execute and completeness of vision.

But as proud as we are for being a Gartner MQ Leader, we are even prouder of the customer reviews we received on Gartner Peer Insights from customers and users of our solutions.

The Voice of the Customer
Gartner Peer Insights are reviews written by actual Flexera customers and users of our solutions. Our solution, FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises, scored highly across all product and service categories, and 100% of reviewers said they’d recommend FlexNet Manager Suite to others. What did these Flexera customers have to say?

• “The Cadillac of SLO tools”
• “FlexNet Manager one of the best Asset Management tools out there”
• “Quick implementation with rapid cost avoidance opportunities”
• “A great SAM tool that will ensure ROI”
• “Flexera is your one stop shop for Asset Management”
• “Awesome tool and Technical support is second to none. Really matured our SAM capability!”

These customer reviews illustrate a common thread. They demonstrate Flexera’s excellent product quality, innovation, customer service and support. They also illustrate how FlexNet Manager Suite delivers software cost savings, value and return on investment to customers of all sizes and in all types of industries.

Our leadership among SAM suppliers is not by accident. We’ve always led through innovation. For example, we were the first to look at Software Asset Management through an optimization lens. We innovated the optimization technology that enables customers to move beyond simply understanding what software they have. Optimization lets customers actually spend less and minimize waste. And Flexera’s reporting and analytics capabilities deliver visibility into usage and consumption, and lets customers buy only the software they need, use what they have, and negotiate smarter contracts.

Fueling Software Asset Management
While we take a quick “celebratory lap” in honor of being named a Gartner MQ Leader, we are not resting. Flexera is doubling down on our culture of innovation.

We’re reimagining how access to great SAM and technology asset data can change the game, not only for the Software Asset Manager but other functional groups like security, IT Service Management, IT Financial Management and Enterprise Architecture teams.

All these roles have one thing in common:  the need for comprehensive and accurate technology asset data.

Data is the “oil” fueling software license optimization. And our Data Platform that underpins FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises houses the world’s largest and most accurate technology asset data repository:

• Powered by 150 Million data points
• More than 223,000 price list-normalized applications from more than 16,000 software vendors
• More than 1.36 Million Stock Keeping Units (SKUs)
• More than 2,000 Product Use Rights Templates

Our Data Platform will change the SAM industry again, so that every customer will be able to optimize all their technology assets – from software and hardware to cloud and Internet of Things devices.

Want to learn more about the importance of data to Software Asset Management? Be sure to register for our webinar “Data – Fuel for the Enterprise.” You will learn how:

• To get data out of the organizational silos and into the hands of the groups that need it
• Accurate, immediate and actionable data aligns organizations and fuel enterprise decisions for years to come.

Register Here
Be sure to join us at the following dates and times for this informative session:

You can attend this free webinar on the following dates and times:

• Wednesday, April 25 @ 10 am CDT (Chicago, USA)  Show in my time zone
• Thursday, April 26 @ 10 am BST (London, UK)  Show in my time zone
• Wednesday, May 2 @ 10am AEST (Sydney, Australia)  Show in my time zone

We’re very pleased to announce that we’ve just extended our global Software Asset Management (SAM) leadership by acquiring Meta SaaS, the developer of the most advanced software as a service (SaaS) spend management solution on the market. The solution is being rebranded as Flexera SaaS Manager.

Why have we made this acquisition?  The game has changed for companies everywhere.  Customers are finally demanding more from their technology assets and suppliers.  They expect – and deserve – faster time to value, more complete solutions and trustworthy data to drive better business outcomes.  We’re delivering on our promise to meet these needs by rapidly building or buying the best technology, like Meta SaaS.

SaaS is becoming a very expensive and risky venture for our customers.  The number of SaaS apps in use is skyrocketing – especially if you’re a small or mid-size company.  You may be surprised to know that as much as one third of the SaaS applications running in your environment aren’t even being used. Why?  If you’re organization is like most, you don’t have clear visibility into the SaaS apps in use across the enterprise. That means you can’t effectively manage them, so your costs and risk spin out of control.

At Flexera, we’re all about optimizing technology assets and minimizing risk.  With Flexera SaaS Manager, now we can help you rein in your SaaS spend and minimize risk.

Best-in Industry: 32,000+ SaaS Apps in Catalog & 250+ Direct SaaS App Integrations

The SaaS spend management tool you select needs to have both depth and breadth.  Flexera SaaS Manager has got them both.  With a catalog of more than 32,000 SaaS applications, you can intelligently manage contract renewals through proactively generated, easy-to-read reports.  Flexera SaaS Manager can also monitor license utilization for more than 6,200 of those SaaS applications. But the secret sauce lies with deep, direct product integrations.  Flexera SaaS Manager has more than any other SAM Provider – more than 250 direct integrations!

True SaaS Spend Optimization

By integrating directly with the most widely used SaaS applications in the world – from Adobe^® to Zoom^®, we can deliver business intelligence about when and how users interact with them.  That means understanding true SaaS ROI and the true impact of SaaS application usage for your high-spend SaaS apps like Salesforce^®, Office 365^®, Slack™ and Box^® just to name a few.

To get to optimization, Flexera SaaS Manager does all the foundational work for you. For example, you have to know which SaaS apps are running in your environment, and who’s using them.  The tool will give you instant visibility – regardless of whether those apps were procured through official channels or unofficial ones (Shadow SaaS).  We can securely connect with expense, accounting, and payment systems to identify and consolidate all SaaS apps in use into a single dashboard – shining a light on Shadow SaaS.

Once you know what SaaS apps you’re running, you can take the next step of optimizing them. For example, one telecommunications company leveraged Meta SaaS (now Flexera SaaS Manager) to scan just one year’s worth of Concur expense reports.  They discovered $10 million worth of Shadow SaaS in their environment – 295 unsanctioned products from 266 different vendors.

Minimizing SaaS Risk

If your company is like most, as employees come and go and roles change you struggle with securing corporate data from the people that shouldn’t have access to it.  A lot of companies use tactics like checklists, emails and single sign-on (SSO) technology.  But SSO only works for the SaaS apps it’s connected to.  Most organizations don’t deploy SSO for all their SaaS vendors – especially when Shadow SaaS is rampant and employees are using SaaS apps IT doesn’t even know about.

In addition, most people don’t realize that a SSO system can be out of sync with the HR system and/or user account information in the SaaS application itself.  This happens all the time, for instance, when employees have been given direct access privilege outside of your SSO processes.  Having this blind spot exposes you to regulatory compliance risk like GDPR, which requires you to understand the systems containing personally identifiable data, and who has access to them.

Flexera SaaS Manager will help you resolve the SaaS management and security blind spot.  Augmenting current SaaS security processes, it will connect your HR record to SaaS vendor records, producing intelligent, accurate checklists identifying exactly what each employee truly has access to.  This lets your IT team compare its records against hard data when creating secure SaaS accounts.

We think every customer needs to understand exactly how much waste and risk their SaaS investments expose them to.  Only a tool with true depth and breadth can get you there.  As the global market leader in SAM – we can now offer you the best SaaS spend management capability on the market. For more information about Flexera SaaS Manager, check in with your Flexera account rep, Or just contact us.

We’re very pleased to announce that Flexera has acquired the Switzerland-based Software Asset Management (SAM) and endpoint management provider, Brainwaregroup.  The deal significantly expands our presence in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH).  It also extends our global leadership as the SAM provider of choice for large and midsize enterprises.

This is a great fit for both companies.  Brainwaregroup shares our philosophy of delivering competence, quality and value.  As a company, we’re extremely committed to Europe – and their extensive European customer base allows us to quickly build on their successes and, together, expand customer value in this important region.

Flexera’s best known for our leadership in the large-enterprise space.  But, we also know from our successes in the mid-market that companies of all sizes demand a high-quality SAM solution from a supplier with deep experience and expertise.  Brainwaregroup has strong ties to both large and mid-size enterprises in DACH. Those relationships, combined with our broad vision and global reach, will help us accelerate plans to deliver high-value solutions to customers of all sizes.

Committed to quality and excellence

The game has changed for companies everywhere.  Customers demand more from their technology assets and suppliers.  They expect – and deserve – faster time to value, more complete solutions and trustworthy data to drive better business outcomes.  At Flexera we’re achieving our promise to meet these needs by rapidly building or buying the best technology through M&A, such as today’s acquisition and others including Meta SaaS and BDNA.

Brainwaregroup offers a suite of SAM and other solutions, with a strong following of 500+ customers.  They’re an award-winning supplier focused on quality and competence.  With ‘end-to-end’ capabilities in software lifecycle management, they partner with customers over the long term with solutions and technical expertise across disciplines, from SAM to software and operating system deployment, security patch remediation and multi-platform datacenter inventory.

Brainwaregroup’s commitment to quality and excellence aligns with ours.  In fact, Gartner just recognized Flexera’s excellence, designating us as a SAM market Leader in its Magic Quadrant for Software Asset Management Tools report.  In Gartner’s Critical Capabilities for Software Asset Management tools report we also scored highest among all suppliers in intermediate and advanced SAM,   But, we’re most proud that with an overall score of 4.4 out of 5 in Gartner’s Peer Insights product reviews, customers rate Flexera highest among Gartner’s SAM Magic Quadrant Leaders.

Expanding the definition of SAM

As Flexera continues to drive consolidation in the SAM space we’re not resting on our laurels.  We’re proud to offer a broad vision unifying SAM with other essential functions like security, IT Service Management, IT Financial Management and other disciplines – all powered by common data.

Practically speaking, this means the underlying technology asset data powering FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises is the most accurate and comprehensive in the world.  As a result, customers have immediate access to actionable intelligence to simplify integration, improve decision-making and accelerate business transformation.

We’re proud to include our colleagues at Brainwaregroup in this expanded vision.  And we’re thrilled to welcome our new customers to the Flexera family.