If you’re an Express Metrix customer planning to upgrade to Windows 7, don’t forget that Express Software Manager has rich hardware and software asset management functionality that will help you plan, budget for, and manage your migration.  One principal area of focus for your pre-migration planning relates to determining which of your existing applications will work with the new OS, and whether your PCs have the capacity to support the upgrade.

From a hardware readiness standpoint, Express Software Manager can inventory all your PCs to determine their CPUs, amount of memory, disk space, and any other hardware attributes that may be important to your migration.  With this information, you can determine whether you need to upgrade your machines, free up space, or replace them altogether.  Here’s just one of Express Software Manager’s hardware inventory reports you may find useful for your upgrade planning (click the thumbnail to enlarge): (more…)

If you have IT asset management software deployed within your organization (particularly if it’s Express Software Manager!), be sure to participate in the ITAM Review’s 2010 Tools Census, an independent analysis of ITAM technologies.  It takes less than 5 minutes to complete:

Take the 2010 Tools Census Now

According to Martin Thompson, creator of the survey, “Published results will be anonymised–individual responses will be in the strictest confidence.”

You can view early results of the census here.

We’re always interested in hearing different ways our customers use Express Software Manager’s computer inventory and software metering reports to make their jobs easier. And believe me, over the last couple of years as budgets have been stretched thin, our end-users have been especially creative in identifying alternative uses.  The one we most commonly hear is to aid in the process of troubleshooting issues on remote PCs. While we certainly don’t claim to be a dedicated help desk tool, customers often provide access to Express Software Manager’s reports to their technical support staff.  Here are a couple of common issues our users are able to identify and tackle using Express Software Manager’s IT asset reporting.

Application Conflicts

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Over the last few months, I’ve come across several LinkedIn Groups with great discussions taking place about asset management technology and best practices.  The “IT Asset Management – Global” Group (3,500+ members), the “Software Asset Management” Group (1,500+ members), and the newer “ITAM Review” Group (400 members) have some illuminating posts (and at times, heated debate) regarding such topics as software recognition databases, asset discovery, license reconciliation, and software tagging, to name just a few. 

If you’re a LinkedIn member, be sure to join these groups to access and weigh in on the discussions.  If you’re not a registered member, it may be worth taking five minutes to do so.

In one corner we have the “do-everything” enterprise asset management suite that competes based on its heavyweight status—dripping with functionality and desktop management features that accompany its software license management capabilities.  In the other corner we have the slender, agile point product that delivers swift punches with a narrower set of capabilities.  So who wins the match? 

I will start this post by saying that I’m biased. This blog exists to accomplish more than to satisfy my desire for celebrity and to impress my friends.  I work for a company that has spent 10+ years cultivating a software license management point product that meets a targeted set of customer needs. But still, I will try to be objective.                                                        

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