By James Baker
Today’s digital business is run on software, and ensuring employees have access to applications that work as expected on the devices they choose is critical. Preparing applications that are risk free and ready for the latest deployment methods is essential to being application ready. However, the Application Readiness process is more than just packaging applications for deployment; consideration must be made for managing the full application lifecycle and dealing with what happens after your applications are deployed. Making sense of deployed software in the enterprise is a challenge; without software identification and rationalization it is difficult for Software Asset Managers to report on and optimize software licensing.
Typical Software Asset Management (SAM) solutions identify software installed in the environment through a variety of discovery and inventory technologies. ISO 19770-2 Software ID tagging assists in identifying business applications, but is only as good as the inputs which are used to generate the tags. Missing, inconsistent, or inaccurate tags inhibit software recognition. Ideally, vendors create their own ISO 19770-2 tags, but surprisingly, only a limited number of major software vendors produce tags today. Creating custom tags does not ensure that the team responsible for software license compliance will see or understand them.
Application Readiness solutions such as Flexera Software's AdminStudio prepare software tags as part of the packaging process. The consistent tagging of applications deployed into the environment ensures software asset identification, and when enterprise customers leverage Flexera Software AdminStudio with our Software License Optimization solution - FlexNet Manager Suite - 100% software recognition can be achieved.
As part of the Application Readiness process, the application is tagged, packaged and tested for compatibility, then recognition is verified through FlexNet Manager Suite prior to deployment to the Flexera Software App Portal enterprise app store and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM). If there is no match, a workflow is initiated for the Software Asset Management team to ensure that the title is added for recognition.
This ensures 100% application recognition, enabling a true and accurate view of applications deployed in your environment and actionable information about your real software license position for all of your application titles.
To learn more about Gaining Visibility and Control of Your Hardware and Software Assets, please view our on-demand webinar.