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…)

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

(more…)

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.                                                        

(more…)

We often field questions from prospective customers about the different methodologies that can be used for software identification, along with their relative advantages and disadvantages, so I thought it might be helpful to devote a blog post to the topic.

First of all, why is accurate software identification important?  Well, without it, it’s virtually impossible to effectively manage your organization’s software.  Just a few examples of areas impacted by the strength of your software identification are:

• Tracking software licenses and managing license compliance
• Ensuring end users are equipped with the appropriate software, versions, and patches
• Identifying unauthorized or harmful software on the network

So, what exactly do we mean by “software identification”?  Software identification, at the most basic level, refers to the ability to recognize installed software applications by their known titles.  Sounds pretty straightforward, right?  Unfortunately, it’s much easier said than done.  That’s because there exists no standard methodology for identifying installed software; there’s no one single file attribute or machine location that can be consistently relied on for proper identification. (Many believe software identification will eventually become much more standardized–and therefore simplified–with the introduction of the ISO/IEC 19770-2 standard for software identification tagging – but that’s another blog topic in and of itself.)

(more…)

This is the final post in my blog series addressing the many myths and misconceptions about agent-based IT asset management technology.  The four parts to the series are as follows:

1. Intro: The Great Debate
2. Agent Deployment
3. Data Collection
4. Network and End-User Impact

(more…)