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…)

Any software vendor that’s been paying attention to its customers in recent months will tell you that software licensing preferences are changing–and quickly.  The past year, in particular, has brought about an appetite for more flexible licensing models that are less user-centric and more usage-centric.  As IT organizations continue to chisel away unnecessary spending and take a more strategic approach to software asset management, they’re increasingly demanding “pay-per-use” (i.e. usage-based licensing) and “pay as you go” (i.e. subscription-based licensing) scenarios that are more directly correlated with the benefits received through the use of any given application. And vendors are listening.  

According to a Computerworld article by Eric Lai, vendors are rapidly adjusting their license offerings to accommodate and take advantage of this shift. The article notes that 43% of vendors have changed or expanded their licensing options to include such approaches as usage-based and subscription-based pricing.  (Subscription pricing, which has long dominated the SaaS market, is now becoming commonplace among on-premise offerings). And, according to IDC, these trends are only expected to accelerate. 

(more…)