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”. 

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Small- to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) don’t have it particularly easy when it comes to implementing IT solutions; they’re cursed by their need for capabilities similar in sophistication to those delivered by larger enterprise-oriented solutions.  However, because of their smaller size, they generally can’t dedicate the same level of resources, whether financial or human, to investing in and managing complex framework products.  The discipline of software asset management (SAM) is no exception to the SMB dilemma. 

In our ten years of focusing on software asset management, we’ve observed that small- and mid-sized companies have been perpetually underserved by the vast majority of SAM products.  The tools market is comprised primarily of:

1) Large enterprise-oriented solutions that are difficult and costly to deploy and manage, and tend to “bolt” SAM features on to a broad suite of functionalities such as help desk, deployment, and/or configuration management.  These products are offered by some of the biggest software titans (Microsoft, BMC, CA, etc.) who endeavor to deliver entire portfolios of IT solutions to their customers.  Because SAM is typically secondary to these companies’ more profitable areas of focus, such solutions frequently lack the domain expertise and dedicated support required for SMB customers to be successful in their SAM initiatives.     

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For most IT pros, it’s a constant struggle to manage their organization’s software licenses. In fact, just getting an accurate inventory of what’s installed requires a Herculean effort. But here’s the dirty little secret: software license management doesn’t need to be such a challenge.

This month, we’re offering a series of free webinars that can help you get a better handle on your organization’s software licenses, so you know exactly what’s installed, how it’s being used, and whether it’s legal. Don’t miss out!

1)  Software Identification: Understanding the Various Methodologies (And Why It Matters)
Wed, October 13: 11am Pacific, 2pm Eastern  (*** REGISTER NOW ***)

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Here’s an interesting article about the relationship between CIOs and CFOs, written by Scott Rosenberg of Miro Consulting.  In the column, Rosenberg asserts that CIOs and CFOs frequently don’t see eye-to-eye not because of competing agendas, but because budget is typically prioritized and allocated based on the profitability of any given division. Ironically, therefore, CIOs often find themselves with inadequate budget to effectively accomplish the initiatives intended to support those very groups.

What does this have to do with software license management?  Well, one issue that compounds the problem is that all too often, organizations are vastly over-licensed on software. However, CFOs, who are preoccupied with opportunities to reduce unnecessary spending, don’t have the expertise or tools to identify such problem areas.  If CIOs can bring this problem to light, they can strengthen their partnership through a shared agenda and free up precious funds by renegotiating license agreements that more closely reflect actual software usage.   

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Ouch!  A New York-based brokerage company, Euro Brokers, is being sued by IBM for an undisclosed amount for allegedly downloading unlicensed software valued at more than $1.7 million.  According to an InformationWeek article, Euro Brokers was once a legitimate IBM customer, having purchased licenses for Informix database software. But a software audit performed by KPMG revealed that over the course of several years the company had installed additional copies that it hadn’t paid for. 

Here’s the chronology of events as described by IBM in the lawsuit: (more…)