Pegasus Technology Pty. Ltd.

Effective software asset management is vital to compliance and smart purchasing. “Effective” is the operative word here. Simply put, many asset management tools do not provide accurate data. For example, many inventory products rely on file header data. This leads to overcounting, overspending and the risk of noncompliance. Novell ZENworks Asset Management uses intelligent asset recognition. Our patented technology has been proven for more than 14 years on more than 10 million desktops. And our Endpoint Management solutions, supported by Novell ZENworks, provide an integrated asset inventory with reliable software usage and license reconciliation.

Customer Situation A The IT staff at a large telecommunications firm was struggling to keep a handle on what hardware and software assets the company owned. The parent company negotiated global software licensing deals with major vendors and relied on its subsidiaries to report accurate monthly license usage figures to get the best possible pricing. To keep costs low, the company wanted to ensure that it was not paying for software it was not actively using. Without an accurate count of how many licenses were actually in use, the company might pay for expensive software that was sitting unused on many desktops and laptops. Moreover, the company wanted to speed the preparation of monthly license reports, which was a time-consuming process that required several people in different departments to gather and aggregate data from multiple systems. Making IT Work As One

The Solution The firm engaged Novell and one of our partners to review its license management tools and processes and design a new solution. Today a single Novell ZENworks server gathers data from nearly 2,000 client devices—mostly notebooks—producing a precise summary of all installed software, including data on versions, hot fixes and operating system updates. The ZENworks server maintains up-to-date reports indicating who is using the various types of licensed software and how often. Consequently, the firm has the information it needs to reclaim licenses that aren’t being used. The firm can also consolidate purchase and contract information to reconcile what it owns with what it uses. Moreover, it is positioned to negotiate software maintenance contracts based on actual usage, which has reduced its overall costs. Before implementing ZENworks, it took nearly three days each month to compile licensing reports. The firm now produces more accurate, detailed reports at the touch of a button. As the next stage in its asset management initiative, the firm will add a second Novell ZENworks Asset Management environment to manage 400 servers, bringing increased control and better management of its server environment.