January Report of the Month: Am I Compliant?

Happy New Year from all of us at Express Metrix!  We hope you had a terrific holiday. 

As I think about our blogging efforts in 2011, I’d like to address some of the suggestions we’ve received from customers to incorporate more product-centric content into our posts.  To that end, I’m happy to introduce a new blog series which will feature a different report found within Express Software Manager each month.  My hope is that it will be useful for our customers, both current and prospective, in extracting as much value as possible from the product to assist with their IT asset management efforts. 

So let’s dive right in.  We’ll start with one of our most critical reports relating to license compliance, entitled  “Am I Compliant”. 

At the highest level, this report tells you which installed application titles don’t have enough licenses.  The pie chart in the screen shot below indicates that the organization represented has 240 applications which are not compliant (representing 60% of its deployed software).  This does not include the 54 applications for which no license details have yet been added.  Under the pie chart, we can look at the “Not Compliant” portion of the report to see exactly which installed software titles require more licenses.  In one column (highlighted in yellow), we can see the license deficits, and in another (highlighted in orange), we can see the associated costs of truing up. 

Click to Enlarge

Although the scenario for this particular organization looks extremely daunting, it’s the first step toward ensuring they’re properly licensed and able to avoid steep fines in the event of a software audit.  (In fact, they will likely find they can offset the true-up costs by examining Express Software Manager’s software usage reports to identify areas where the organization is over-licensed and paying for software that’s not being used.)

The “Am I Compliant” report can be found in the Express Reports Console within the collection of “License Management” reports.

Article written by Jeff Kelsey, VP of Products+

Jeff is responsible for defining how Express Metrix products will evolve to meet customer needs. He oversees the development and implementation of the product roadmap and manages the technical support staff that help customers get the most out of their investments in Express Metrix technology.