The following bylined article can also be found in the April issue of IAITAM’s ITAK Magazine and the April edition of FAST IiS Kaleidoscope.

Since the dawn of the desktop era, IT departments have struggled to keep track of software installed across their corporate networks.  Accurate software inventories are crucial to ensuring installed applications are properly licensed, understanding whether or not they’re being used, and budgeting for future software purchases.  Unfortunately, no standard methodology exists across applications and manufacturers for correlating installed program executables with actual application titles.  This leaves asset managers and the software discovery tools they utilize with any number of half-complete approaches to application recognition.

Driven by licensing challenges stemming from inaccurate and incomplete software identification, the ISO/IEC 19770-2 software tagging standard has been developed, providing publishers with guidelines for “tagging” their applications in a standard way that makes identification straightforward, automated, and virtually foolproof for discovery tools.  Yet despite the technical ease with which software tags can be implemented, publishers have been painfully slow to adopt the standard, and end users have not pressed vendors hard enough to spur them to action. 

(more…)

When asked about our company’s products, most people immediately think of Express Software Manager^®, our flagship product offered to businesses for IT asset inventory, software usage, and license reporting.  What many (including our long-standing customers) don’t realize is that we also separately license our software catalog, one of the key components of Express Software Manager, to a very different “customer”—asset management vendors themselves. 

Today we are proud to add Numara Software to a growing list of OEM partners, which includes IBM, LANDesk, New Boundary, BMC, and Amando Software.   The Express Software Identification Database (ESID)^® will power the software recognition for Numara’s Asset Management Platform, strengthening the accuracy and reliability of its existing capabilities such as asset inventory, software deployment, patch management, and license tracking.  Read the press release here.

(more…)

I wanted to notify existing customers that we’ve added some new topics to our webinar series.  These presentations are intended to help customers get the most out of their investment in Express Software Manager and take advantage of special features they may not be familiar with.  Below are the abstracts for our three most recent customer-centric webinar offerings. 

What’s New in Express Software Manager?
Friday, 8-Mar-2011, 10:00AM (PT), 1:00PM (ET)  — REGISTER NOW

In this live demonstration, we’ll discuss new feature enhancements made to our asset management software within the past year. The webinar will focus primarily on the Express Purchasing Module, a new IT purchasing system that transforms your ability to track and manage the countless details related to your hardware and software purchases.

(more…)

For anyone planning to attend the IBSMA’s SAM Summit this June in Chicago, be sure not to miss Kris Barker’s (Express Metrix’s CEO) presentation on application recognition, entitled: “Software Identification: What You Need To Know.”

The focus of this year’s event is “mastering software license management“.  According to the event web site, attendees will “…learn what it takes to be the best at managing contracts, ensuring compliance and running the latest tools.”

Kris’ presentation ties perfectly into this year’s theme, in that it will address the critical role software identification plays in your software asset management efforts.  Topics will include: why accurate application recognition is so important, the existing methodologies for identifying apps(along with their pitfalls), the current state of software tagging, and the role technology plays in application recognition.

(more…)

The following article was authored by Grant Brierley, Express Metrix’s VP of EMEA Sales & Marketing, for GovToday, the UK’s premier online resource for the public sector.  The column relates to the UK National Health System’s (NHS) recent decision to abandon its massive Microsoft Enterprise License Agreement in favor of decentralized purchasing among individual agencies.  Mr. Brierley outlines five practical steps for the NHS to optimize its license agreements, and will be delivering a master class on this topic jointly with FAST Ltd at an NHS event on 15 February in Westminster.  We believe his advice can be applied to any organization looking to “right-size” its volume software purchases and implement an effective software asset management program.  Enjoy!

(more…)