Software Metering

Applications to meter?

The first step to software metering is determining what applications are installed. SofTrack's Quick Inventory technology gives you the ability to quickly inventory your user workstations and find all applications installed.

With SofTrack's Quick Inventory Reports you will know what applications are installed on each workstation throughout your enterprise. The Quick Inventory reports provide you with a baseline of what applications are installed.

You can meter any application. Software metering helps you determine what software is being used versus what is installed, this can help you justify your further investment of upgrades, additional licenses, and even if it is time to discontinue the software's use and support.

An installed Application is an in-use application?

Many applications installed on your workstations are in-use by merely being installed versus being actively used. For instance, most applications by Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk, Symantec and McAfee incorporate this license type.

SofTrack's Quick Inventory reports may reveal applications being installed on workstations where you do not expect any use. If the application in question is licensed by being installed you may find that you need to remove the un-used application as its being installed is counted by its manufacturer as a consuming a license. This could expose your organization to a risk of a software audit with potential fines that can be court-enforced.

Important: When re-purposing workstations, as occurs when upgrading certain users to higher powered machines and giving their machines to other users, it is very important to remove any licensed (i.e. purchased) applications that the workstation's new user does not require. By doing so, you reduce your risk of non-compliance if your application licenses are ever audited by the manufacturer or its representative.

Concurrent Software Licenses

SofTrack was initially developed (in 1987) to provide software metering for concurrent application use. Because software can be served by a remote machine (such as a server, terminal server session or other workstation) to multiple users there is a need to limit simultaneous use to a maximum number of licenses owned.

Even software that is individually installed on separate machines can have concurrent use control. By recognizing individual software use on physically separate workstations in aggregate (across a network), concurrent control can be achieved.

SofTrack provides complete support for metering of concurrent software use. There are no prerequistes on the software being metered as SofTrack's Local Workstation Agent technology recognizes software use by the individual application filename(s).