Software Asset Identification

The first step in any software asset and license management process is to determine what software is installed throughout your enterprise.  While simple in concept, this can be a monumental task.  It requires collecting and examining many different kinds of evidence of application installation, on laptop, desktop and server computers in your IT environment.  Even if you have a configuration management system such as Microsoft SMS or SCCM in place to collect the raw data, all of that evidence must be translated into a set of proper application titles, versions and publishers, for accurate software asset identification.

Flexible, automated inventory data collection
ManageSoft’s Enterprise Compliance Manager^® (ECM) and solution includes comprehensive software and hardware asset discovery and inventory.  ManageSoft allows a choice of:

• ManageSoft’s zero-touch (“agent-less”) inventory data snapshots, or
• A fully deployed ManageSoft agent for ongoing inventory collection and application usage tracking, or
• Use of third-party inventory and usage data collection tools such as Microsoft SMS or SCCM.

Fast, accurate recognition
and comprehensive reporting

Once the inventory data is collected, Enterprise Compliance Manager processes all of the application evidence with its Application Recognition Library (ARL) to determine the actual application titles, versions, editions, and publisher names.

With your resulting ECM enterprise-wide IT asset database you can:

• Get on-demand reports for both hardware systems and software installed throughout the enterprise. Generate reports by publisher, computer, user, business unit, and more.  
• Receive alerts when unauthorized changes occur.
• Create an audit trail of authorized changes—useful for Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulatory compliance reporting requirements.

Installed versus Used

Many organizations install a standard set of software packages for entire departments, regardless of what is really needed by each individual.  With ECM you can track actual usage of applications to identify installed software that is never used, uninstall it, and reclaim the licenses.  With the ManageSoft Enterprise Deployment Suite you can even automate the removal of unused software from PCs, laptops and servers throughout your enterprise.

Hosted IT asset identification service

Perhaps you don’t need, or are not in a position to implement, a full enterprise compliance solution. ManageSoft (NA market) and select partners (EMEA market) offer a hosted solution for IT asset recognition called AI SaaS (Asset Identification Software as a Service). To accurately identify all of your hardware and installed applications simply use the AI SaaS wizard to set up automatic uploads of your ManageSoft or Microsoft SMS / SCCM inventory data to the AI SaaS web server.  Choose from a wide variety of available software and hardware reports to gain a comprehensive view of all of your IT assets. You are notified automatically by email when your reports are ready.