Infrastructure Services the way we do it
Software Asset Management
SAM Tooling Benchmark
Software Asset Management
SAM Tooling Benchmark
Authors:
Nico Blokland
Maarten Karnekamp
IT Software Asset Management Product Group
Utrecht, October 2014
the way we do it
Preface
The Capgemini Software Asset Management team
strongly believes in advising our clients about the
best SAM tooling available at present.
For that reason the team conducted a benchmark for SAM solutions. With
the input of the invited publishers, the team aimed at identifying a top 3 list.
Contributing publishers for the SAM tool survey were:
•
•
•
•
Snow Software
Scalable
LicenseWatch
Aspera SmartTrack
The survey consisted of 136 questions varying from questions about the
publishers’ organizational size to questions about the product itself and its
roadmap on the short term.
The responses were gathered and each answer to every question was rated.
This report is the result of the outcome of all rating.
Following the survey and its outcome the SAM team aims to invite a selection
of the publishers to show how the product deals with a predefined scenario.
3
A special thanks to our Capgemini colleagues
without whom this benchmark would have been
an even bigger challenge:
Mr.
Mr.
Mr.
Mr.
4
Ruben Badal
Paul Dent
Ruurd Jorritsma and
Marcel Oogjen
Software Asset Management
the way we do it
€
Table of contents
1 Management summary
7
2 The survey
9
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Rating and calculation
3 Responding publishers
11
3.1 Overall scores
3.2 Scores on the predefined knock-out criteria
3.3 General - Overall functionality
3.4 Snow Software
3.5 Scalable – Asset Vision
3.6 LicenseWatch
3.7 Aspera SmartTrack
4 Appendix
20
Company Characteristics
Tool Characteristics
Compliance Reporting
Contract and Financial Management
License Management
License Metrics & Optimization
Application Lifecycle Management
Inventory
Interfacing
Reporting
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Software Asset Management
the way we do it
1 Management summary
This is Capgemini’s first official SAM tooling benchmark following
our 2011 selection roundup. This benchmark is a part of two.
There is also a benchmark for discovery tools which will be
published soon after this report.
This report is a paper execution which will be followed
by a functional showcase in which the top 3 will be
asked to show their practical capabilities based upon the
theoretical possibilities as stated in their answers to the
benchmark survey.
At this moment this summary is a view of Capgemini
SAM specialists on the answers given by the participants.
Combined with their knowledge of the toolsets this is a
reliable view on the SAM tool market today.
Side note: we need to inform you that Flexera Software
as well as License Dashboard refused to participate in
this benchmark for commercial reasons. We regret their
decision but we still think that the outcome of this benchmark is representative.
At this moment we are planning to do this benchmark
annually and hope to get also involvement of the end
users of the toolsets.
You probably wonder why we didn’t enter any “BIG” software publishers with their solutions. Well, we did send out
the survey to them, but up until today (with the exception of
HP) no one replied. Maybe there is a sign for the readiness
of their solutions that CA partners with Aspera and BMC
partners with Flexera for the SAM solution in their portfolio.
HP will surely participate in next year’s survey.
So, later this year we will provide an appendix to this
benchmark with the practical findings against the theoretical
answers of this benchmark.
The outcome of this benchmark shows that the #1 and
#2 are relatively close and that the #3 and #4 are close
together following at a distance from #1 and #2.
This means that overall Aspera SmartTrack ended up as
winner and Snow Software follows closely. LicenseWatch
and Scalable (Asset Vision) ended up in the overall score so
close that we can say that they are ex aequo on third place.
This benchmark did not compare the pricing of the different
toolsets as most clients are capable of negotiating better
prices. This discount can be based on different variables
as logo, size or other purchases or a combination of all. Our
main focus for this survey was on the functional capabilities
of the tools.
This is quite a representative view on the SAM tool market
and the information gathered also helps our specialists to
give you the most valuable advice possible. We hope that
next year’s version contains more participants and even
more end user information.
When you are buying, or planning to buy a SAM tool don’t
only use this document. Get tailored advice from one of our
SAM consultants to make the best decision possible!
Nico Blokland
Product Group lead IT & Software Asset Management
Maarten Karnekamp
SAM consultant
7
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Software Asset Management
the way we do it
2The survey
2.1 Introduction
In May 2014 the Capgemini SAM group sent out a survey
asking about 11 SAM tools software publishers to respond.
The publishers of Snow License Manager, Asset Vision,
LicenseWatch, Aspera SmartTrack and Mexon responded
on the survey and submitted their answers. Flexera
Software was also invited to participate in this survey,
but decided not to be involved. It is unknown whether
this decision is based on commercial reasons or inability
to participate.
In advance, some of the questions in the survey were
marked as a knock-out criterion. Based on the ratings
of the answers and the knock-out criteria a top 5 list was
created.
2.2 Rating and calculation
The survey consisted of 136 questions which were all rated
individually by the members of the SAM guild. All answers
were rated at a scale from 1 to 5, being 1 a very poor
answer and 5 an excellent answer. Within the list of 136
questions 21 were marked in advance as knock-out criteria.
These questions were rated separately based on scoring.
On each question the publisher could score either 0
(answer not satisfactory) or 1 (answer is satisfactory).
The predefined knock-out questions in the survey were
the following:
• What is the average time required to configure and run
the tool optimally for a single software vendor? (including
adding licenses, contracts, install base, assuming this
information is directly available)
• Is application lifecycle management functionality integrated in the SAM tool?
• Is the lifecycle management for discovered software supported in the SAM tool?
• Can the SAM solution alert certain users or roles for (pre-)
defined events?
• Does the SAM solution keep track of changes (does it have
an audit trail)?
• Can the SAM solution deal with all licensing metrics, models,
from the top vendors? e.g.:
• Does the tool support models like RVU/PVU/Concurrent
use/peak usage?
• Does the SAM solution have a SKU database?
• Are the license metrics (metric engines) viewable
and adjustable?
• Is there ability to recognizing if something is a suite,
bundle or sole installation?
• Is the SAM solution capable of recognizing different
versions of the same suite, bundle or sole installation?
• Can the SAM solution identify whether an application
installed requires a license?
• Does the SAM solution provide license intelligence based
on what is discovered? Will it recognize alternative licensing
options which are more suitable for the situation?
• Is the SAM solution able to deal with concurrent usage?
• Is the SAM solution able to report on peak usage?
• Is the SAM solution able to report on average usage?
• Does the tool support virtualization techniques like lpar/
ldom’s /VMware/Oracle VM and is it able to reflect this
properly in the solution?
• Does the SAM solution provide information regarding
license optimization?
• Is it possible to customize lists/tables/views in the GUI?
• Is role based access implemented for the user interface?
• Is it possible to create your own reports?
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Software Asset Management
the way we do it
3Responding publishers
3.1 Overall scores
Each answer of the publisher was individually rated by the
team in a scale from 1 (bad) to 5 (very good) thus weighing
how much the answer complied with the question. The rates
of each team were summed and the average was calculated.
Based on the rating of all answers the total score of all
respondents was as follows:
Average total score - # of points:
3.2 Scores on the predefined
knock-out criteria
Besides rating each answer of the publisher the team also
rated the previously designated answers (in total 21) as
knock-out criteria by either 0 (answer of the publisher was not
satisfactory to the question) or 1 (answer of the publisher was
satisfactory). Also these ratings were totalized and the average
was calculated. The outcome of this score was:
Average total score - # of points:
Snow
143,33
Points
Snow
7,5
Points
Scalable
132,56
Points
Scalable
6,3
Points
LicenseWatch
132,44
Points
LicenseWatch
7,1
Points
Aspera SmartTrack
154,33
Points
Aspera SmartTrack
7,6
Points
6
145.00
5
140.00
4
135.00
3
130.00
2
125.00
1
120.00
0
Scalable
LicenseWatch
Aspera
Snow
Snow
Snow
Snow
Scalable
LicenseWatch
Aspera
150.00
LicenseWatch
7
Aspera
155.00
LicenseWatch
8
Scalable
160.00
Scalable
Average total KO score
Average total score Answers
Aspera
11
Next counts and graphs show how the publishers have scored on
either the knock-out criterion = 1 (Answer is satisfactory) and the
knock-out criterion = 0 (Answer is not satisfactory). Of all questions
predefined as knock-out criterion = 1 the publishers scored:
Opposite to that the publishers scored KO = 0
(Answer is not satisfactory):
# KO = 0 rating Total
%
# KO = 1
Total
%
Snow
9
84
10,7%
Snow
75
84
89,3%
Scalable
15
84
17,9%
Scalable
61
84
72,6%
LicenseWatch
7
84
8,3%
LicenseWatch
69
84
82,1%
Aspera
SmartTrack
8
84
9,5%
Aspera SmartTrack
76
84
90,5%
Greyed KO = 1 rating
Greyed KO = 0 rating
80
20
70
15
60
10
50
5
40
Snow
12
Scalable
Software Asset Management
LicenseWatch
Aspera
Snow
Scalable
LicenseWatch
Aspera
Snow
Aspera
Snow
Scalable
0
LicenseWatch
10
Scalable
20
LicenseWatch
0
30
Aspera
the way we do it
3.3 General - Overall functionality
In general the SAM tools of the participating software vendors
provide a wide range of functions and cover parts of or whole
management areas.
They all for instance support license management combined
with another management area. It is rather striking that application lifecycle management is not or only in a limited form
implemented in the tools.
scale of smaller and enterprise customers. The recent additions of more and more enterprise functions do mean that
the install base is steadily increasing.
Snow focuses primarily on optimization of licensing, governance and control of risk and efficiency of reporting (both
cleansed inventory, usage and licensing). Our solution
focuses on aspects of SAM that directly impact these areas.
Functions available to use out-of-the box: Snow
License Manager, Snow Inventory and the Software
Recognition Service.
3.4 Snow Software
Snow Software Benelux B.V. has its headquarter in
Sweden and subsidiaries in 14 countries. The organization
size is between 50 and 150.
Snow License Manager is the principle solution, with possible
additions from the wider product stack. With a number of
customers of over 3,500 Snow is one of the bigger sellers in
the SAM tool area. Average seat size are as high as 3,500, the
highest was 120,000 seats. Snow mentions that it has a large
Planned developments in the near future are: License optimization, simulation, scenario based measurements and
planning.
The pricing model of the SAM solution is based on pricing
levels and subscriptions. Licenses can either be purchased
or rented as per customer wishes.
Functions
Snow License Asset Vision
Manager
LicenseWatch Aspera SmartTrack
Procurement
X
X
X
X
Financial management (charging)
X
O
X
X
Contract management
X
O
X
X
License management
X
X
X
X
Application Lifecycle management
O/X
O
O/X
O/X
Database containing all products/
articles and metrics/models of, at
least, top 10 software vendors
X
O
X
X
License intelligence, recognition
alternative licensing options
O/X
O
O
X
Reporting
X
X
X
X
SKU database
X
X
X
X
Multi-tier solution
X
X
X
X
Discovery
X
X
X
O
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Overall score comparison
The rates of Snow License Manager - compared to Scalable Asset Vision, LicenseWatch and
Aspera SmartTrack - picted below - shows that Snow scores overall as second best. Also in the
comparison of the knock-out criteria Snow License Manager is the second best SAM tool.
Average total score Answers
160.00
155.00
150.00
145.00
Snow
140.00
Scalable
135.00
LicenseWatch
130.00
Aspera
Aspera
Scalable
Snow
120.00
LicenseWatch
125.00
Strong points
Weak points
• Snow covers most management areas touched
by Software Asset Management with a focus on
optimization of licensing, governance and control
of risk and efficiency of reporting.
• Supported platforms to run Snow: Windows, Linux,
UNIX, HP-UX, Mac and more.
• Oracle and SAP modules are available.
• VMware, MS, Citrix as common virtual environments
are supported out of the box.
• The solution can deal with licensing metrics, models,
from the top vendors: Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, SAP,
VMware, Adobe and Autodesk.
• Extensive number of variables to set user access
rights. Key roles predefined are viewer, admin
and contributor.
• Absence of lifecycle management functionality.
• Ability to present organizational, device, user,
contract, license topologies in a graphical way.
• Absence of a process flow engine or ability to
automate processes and connections to other
tools or information sources.
Conclusion Snow License Manager
Snow License Manager is a strong competitor in the SAM tool area with a large install base. As mentioned in
the list of strong points it supports most software asset management processes and the product is also able
to run on a wide range of platforms.
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Software Asset Management
the way we do it
3.5 Scalable – Asset Vision
The product supports the following areas:
Scalable Software Ltd – publisher of Asset Vision – is
headquartered in the United Kingdom, with subsidiaries in
Germany, United States and Australia. The company with
approximately 125 employees serves clients with its SAM tool
in a variety of sectors.
Scalable has over 800 customers. Asset Vision is not
marketed on the basis of “seats”, but physical and virtual
workstations and servers. Their average use of the product
would be in the 12,000 to 15,000 device range.
The majority of the company’s clients use the usage metering
product, but over 30 customers with an average seat size over
12,000 devices use Asset Vision.
Scalable had a big install base, most of them use Scalable’s
software usage metering product.
• Procurement
• Entitlement
• Inventory
• Optimize
• Compliance
• Retirement
Functions of the solution that can be used out-of-box are:
Discovery and Inventory Usage Metering.
The pricing model of the product is built on two variables:
Contract length and number of physical and/or virtual
devices and servers. The price per device declines as term
is increased and the quantity increases. It is important to
note that Asset Vision discovers everything in the IP range.
Meaning printers, monitors, routers, hubs etc. These are
included in the inventory but are not charged for.
The SAM solution of Scalable is called Asset Vision.
Overall score comparison
Compared to Snow License Manager, LicenseWatch and Aspera SmartTrack, Asset Vision
scores equal to LicenseWatch, but under Snow License Manager and Aspera SmartTrack.
Average total score Answers
160.00
155.00
150.00
145.00
Snow
140.00
Scalable
135.00
LicenseWatch
130.00
Aspera
Aspera
Scalable
Snow
120.00
LicenseWatch
125.00
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Strong points
Weak points
• Cloud based solution and - inherent to cloud/web
based solutions .
• Fast deployment initial setup.
• Fast deployment of new functions.
• Availability based on subscription mode.
• Suitable for short term SAM tooling needs.
• Depends on Amazon hosting services – two parties
to be contracted for single solution.
• Cannot be used without Amazon hosting.
• Special measures/availability SAM data when converting to on premises SAM tooling.
• Absence of the ability to provide information
regarding license optimization.
Usage of scripts provided by the database vendor in order to
read database usage can be viewed both as a strong point
or as a weak point; nothing was mentioned about (ways of
or processes for) validation of these scripts by Scalable.
Contradictions
Looking at the survey results also contradictions occurred:
The question about contract management function was
returned with a No; however elements for this management
area are present in the tool.
Asset Vision scores low on the following predefined knock-out
criteria:
• Absence of application lifecycle management functionality.
• Weakness of audit-trail function.
• Ability to view and adjust license metrics (metrics engines).
• Provision of information regarding license optimization in
• the solution.
Conclusion Asset Vision
There is no silver bullet when it comes to SAM tooling
- we all know that - but Asset Vision has some competitive edges for instance fast cloud based setup.
However for some organizations a cloud based solution
will not be the first choice (e.g. governmental organizations) due to security reasons and WAN connectivity
policies.
Most of the entire product is considered to be weak on
the audit trail function and the ability to view and adjust
license metrics.
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Software Asset Management
3.6 LicenseWatch
The headquarters of LicenseWatch is seated in Denmark,
with subsidiaries in 4 countries.
LicenseWatch, with less than 50 employees, claims to be
the company, compared to industry peers, that it’s the fastest with regard to developing and marketing innovation and
– moreover – that all SAM functionality is available out-of-thebox. Besides that, technical implementation of the tool will
take two days.
With a number of 1,000 customers, with an average seat size
of 1,300, their customers are in all industries.
The LicenseWatch tool supports: inventory collection, data
cleansing, license management, reconciliation and reporting
The pricing model of the SAM tool is per node, per Citrix
XenApp user or per Oracle instance, which includes all
SAM functionality including Hyper-V and VMware ESX
support. Additionally priced are Citrix XenApp users and
Oracle instances.
The license metrics (metric engines) of the tool are not
viewable and adjustable, but custom creation of metrics
is possible.
the way we do it
Overall score comparison
Compared to Snow License Manager, Asset Vision and Aspera SmartTrack, LicenseWatch scores
almost equal to Asset Vision, but under Snow License Manager and Aspera SmartTrack.
Average total score Answers
160.00
155.00
150.00
145.00
Snow
140.00
Scalable
135.00
LicenseWatch
130.00
Aspera
125.00
Aspera
LicenseWatch
Scalable
Snow
120.00
Strong points
Weak points
• Platforms to run the tool on: All current Windows;
agents for all Windows, Linux/Unix, Apple OS.
• Technology based on Windows: MS SQL Server,
MS .NET, MS Windows Server.
• Multi-tier architecture: agent, app server
and database.
• Integrated technology: SCCM and Altiris
connectors Virtualization connectors for Microsoft,
Citrix, VMware.
• The SAM solution does not provide license intelligence based on what is discovered.
• Absence of Recognition suggestions and guidance
on what needs recognizing.
• Limited application lifecycle management functionality.
• Absence of a process flow engine.
• SKU catalog is not open for viewing or adjustment.
• No interactive Help functionality.
Conclusion LicenseWatch
Compared to its peers LicenseWatch has some strong points, but lacks some fundamental functional elements,
especially when it is about license intelligence.
LicenseWatch scores low on the knock-out criteria on the license intelligence based on what is discovered.
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3.7 Aspera SmartTrack
All functions are available out-of-the-box as SmartTrack
is a standardized tool, combining almost all customerdriven developments in one solution.
Aspera SmartTrack is published by Aspera and the GmbH
itself is located in Germany and headquartered in Aachen.
Besides that their affiliate company Aspera Technologies Inc.
is headquartered in the United States of America, Boston MA.
Additionally Aspera runs an international partner network to
provide local support if needed. Aspera also claims to be the
fastest with regard to developing and marketing innovation.
The company has 195 customers in all industries with an average seat size between 25,000 and 33,000; the biggest has
300,000 seats.
Planned developments are: Simulation and Audit
Defense Module as well as dedicated Service
Provider functionalities.
SmartTrack is a web-based application. Therefore all
clients need a browser which is capable of using HTML
(minimal required version not mentioned). Supported
platforms are limited to Windows or Linux (e.g. Windows
Server 2008 R2). Supported databases are MS SQL,
MySQL and Oracle.
Aspera SmartTrack can be found most often in the following
industries:
• Automotive; e.g. BMW with more than 100,000 seats.
• Insurance and pharmaceutical companies (F. Hoffman
La-Roche).
• Industry (Bosch).
• Logistics (Kühne & Nagel).
Overall score comparison
Compared to Snow License Manager, Asset Vision and LicenseWatch, Aspera SmartTrack
scores well ahead of all publishers.
Average total score Answers
160.00
155.00
150.00
145.00
Snow
140.00
Scalable
135.00
LicenseWatch
130.00
Aspera
125.00
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Software Asset Management
Aspera
LicenseWatch
Scalable
Snow
120.00
the way we do it
Strong points
Weak points
• All functions available straight out-of-the-box.
• License optimization and simulation capabilities.
• Changes in models for big vendors are stored sideby- side; changes in the models are added and not
replaced. The metric engine handles old and new
models and is used in parallel to the older model.
• Supported databases: MS SQL, MySQL and Oracle.
• Details on hardware configuration stored are
comprehensive.
• Initial implementation is always (can only be?)
done by Aspera consultants.
• Supported platforms limited to Windows and Linux.
• Possibility to lose track of changes made in complex
customizable licensing options.
• Some parts of the help function consist of general
descriptions.
Conclusion Aspera SmartTrack
Compared to its peers Aspera SmartTrack emerged in this survey as a very strong competitor. As said before
there is no silver bullet when it comes to SAM tooling and also Aspera SmartTrack has some weak points where
further development is needed.
Whilst license models of software vendors sometimes are very complicated it is not easy to provide these models
in the tool and also provide functionality to create custom metrics in a simple and consistent way.
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4 Appendix
In this section all the results of the SAM
Tool survey are grouped by the subjects
as mentioned in the content table above.
Regarding the questions about company
characteristics, tool characteristics,
Inventory, Interfacing and Reporting the
questions were mostly not answered by
simply stating “yes” or “no”, but – in
addition to that – by providing a lot of
text information, so all the complete
answers of the publishers are presented.
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Software Asset Management
the way we do it
Company Characteristics
SAM Tool survey – Company Characteristics
Your Company Snow Software
Name
Benelux B.V.
Scalable Software,
Ltd.
LicenseWatch
Aspera GmbH
In how many different countries
is your company
located?
In what country
is your Company
HQ located in?
14 countries with HQ
in Sweden
United Kingdom Germany
United States Australia
HQ = United Kingdom
4, HQ in Denmark
GmbH itself is only located
in Germany, headquartered
in Aachen.
Besides our affiliate company
Aspera Technologies Inc. is
headquartered in Boston, MA
in the United States.
Additionally Aspera runs
an international partnernetwork to provide local
support if needed.
How many
employees does
your company
employ?
Between 50 and 250
Between 50 and 250
Less than 50
Between 50 and 250
What industry is
your company
active in?
Other
Agriculture, Food,
Beverage & Tobacco,
Accounting, Grocery,
Advertising, Healthcare,
Aerospace, Internet
Publishing, Investment
Banking, Legal,
Apparel & Accessories,
Manufacturing, Banking,
Broadcasting, Newspaper
Publishers Brokerage,
Online Auctions,
Biotechnology, Publishing,
Computer, Consulting,
Retail & Wholesale,
Consumer Products,
Service
Agriculture , Food, Beverage
& Tobacco , Accounting,
Grocery, Advertising,
Healthcare, Aerospace,
Internet Publishing, Investment
Banking, Legal, Apparel &
Accessories, Manufacturing,
Automotive, Motion
Picture & Video, Banking,
Broadcasting, Newspaper
Publishers, Brokerage,
Biotechnology, Pension
Funds, Pharmaceuticals,
Publishing, Computer, Real
Estate, Consulting, Retail
& Wholesale, Consumer
Products, Service
All
Which argument
fits best for your
Company?
Our company, compared to our industry
peers, has the greatest market share in
innovative products.
Our company, compared
to our industry peers, is
the fastest with regards to
developing and marketing
innovation
Our company, compared to
our industry peers, is the fastest with regards to developing
and marketing innovation.
Our company, compared
to our industry peers, is
the fastest with regards to
developing and marketing
innovation.
21
SAM Tool survey – Company Characteristics
Your Company Snow Software
Name
Benelux B.V.
Scalable Software,
Ltd.
LicenseWatch
Aspera GmbH
Implementation
partners
There are many, basically the majority of
LARs, specific integration partners and
a number of smaller
SAM focused consultancy companies.
Lauerlogic, Indigo
Software, Zones Inc.
Crayon and others
The initial implementation
is always done by Aspera
consultants.
Number of
3500+
As a company Scalable
1000
195
Customers
has over 800 active
customers. A large percentage of these use our
heritage software usage
metering product. For
Asset Vision we have over
30 customers.
What is the biggest customer
(seat size) that
has implemented
the SAM solution
completely?
120k seats.
For Device Discovery,
Inventory and Usage
Metering - 40,000+ devices
For Device Discovery,
Inventory, Usage Metering
and License Management
25,000+
> 20.000
more than 300000 seats
In what industry
is your SAM tool
used most often?
(please provide
references and
seat size)
As noted above,
we do not have a
specific industry that
we would call out as
particular.
This is a horizontal
problem and our base
represents this with no
one industry making up
more than 10%. Insurance
- 40,000+ - Aviva Plc
Commercial Finance 25,000 - First American
Mortgage Company
Across all industries!
automotive; e.g. BMW with
more than 100000 seats,
insurance and pharmaceutical companies (F.
Hoffman La-Roche) as
well as industry (Bosch) &
logistics (Kühne & Nagel)
corporations
High-over: What
are the planned
developments on
the SAM solution
for the upcoming
year(s)?
License optimization, simulation,
scenario based
measurements and
planning. The R&D
focus is worth a
separate session to
present and gather
your feedback.
- Add advanced license
allocation with embedded rule management
- Extend licenses and
asset management to
include workplace mobility - License metrics for
SaaS applications
Further automation of license
management; additional
vendor specific functionality
i.e. SAP
Simulation and Audit
Defense Module as well as
dedicated Service Provider
functionalities.
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Software Asset Management
the way we do it
Tool Characteristics
SAM Tooling Benchmark – Tool Characteristics
Your Company Snow Software
Name
Benelux B.V.
Scalable Software,
Ltd.
LicenseWatch
Aspera GmbH
What is the
name of the SAM
Solution?
Snow License
Manager is the principle solution, with
possible additions
from the wider product stack.
Asset Vision
LicenseWatch
SmartTrack
What other modules/segments
are available?
The vendor specific
modules noted
above would be for
Oracle and SAP.
The rest is currently within the core
products.
SQL Inventory, SQL
Usage, Oracle DB
Inventory, Oracle DB
Usage, Mobile Device
Management/Client
LifeCycle Management
Which SAM
solution functionality can be used
out-of-the-box, in
most situations?
Snow License
Manager, Snow
Inventory and
the Software
Recognition Service.
Discovery and Inventory
Usage Metering
All SAM functionality is available out-of-the-box
All functions are available out-of-the-box as
SmartTrack is a standardized tool, combining almost
all customer-driven developments in one solution.
What is the average technical
implementation
time required
for the SAM
solution?
Clearly the average varies per client
but specifically the
technical implementation with Snow is
known to be very
limited. From 2
days (installation
and cusomisation)
in smaller environments, approx. 7
days for larger
as a rule.
The solution is cloud
based so there is no backend set-up required nor
any on-premise hardware,
databases or network
implementations required.
Once a request is submitted via the web to
provision an instance
the user will receive,
within 12 to 24 hours,
log-in credentials.
2 days
Between 25 and 90 man
days on average. It depends
on the complexity of the
customer regarding the
integration into the existing
IT-Environment and processes. The sole installation
of SmartTrack is usually
done in less than one day.
Simulation Module enables
the customer to recalculate
the whole license situation by alternative license
models (on top of just
reporting on the current
situation including over- and
under licensed software),>
The Audit Defense Module
supports our customers
during vendor-audits (currently under development)
Contd to next page>>
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23
SAM Tooling Benchmark – Tool Characteristics
Your Company Snow Software
Name
Benelux B.V.
Scalable Software,
Ltd.
LicenseWatch
Aspera GmbH
This is partly down
to the fact that Snow
works with agents
or out of the box
connectors than that
indepth connections
to customers own
estates.
All functionality is immediately available for the
appropriate Edition(s) that
was/were specified. There
is nothing to configure initially. Once logged in the
use can then begin setting
up the agentless scanning
parameters, the IP ranges
to be scanned and then
deploy the PAD or "listening" element. All this is
generally accomplished
within an hour to two. At
that point it is dependent
on how long one wishes
to wait to ensure complete data collection. In
large installations this is
generally 1 to 2 weeks to
account for various environmental an operational
events. Agent based
scanning takes a similar
amount of time to configure and then is deployed
through the end users current deployment tool.
Which platforms
are supported
to run the SAM
solution?
Windows, Linux,
Unix, HPUX, Mac
etc. The compatibility matrix of
covered platforms
now extends over 3
pages of supported
variants of above.
Asset Vision is a cloud
based solution which
runs on Amazons AWS
platform under EC2
an deployable in all
Geographic Regions of
Amazon.
All current Windows; agents
for all Windows, Linux/Unix,
Apple OS
Because of its ServerClient-Architecture no local
software installations are
necessary.
What technology
/ software are
required to run /
deploy the SAM
solution?
Snow is based on
Windows server
technology for the
core set.
Windows OS & Java An
Agent deployment technology Web Browser
MS SQL Server, MS .NET, MS
Windows Server
SmartTrack is a web-based
application. Therefore all
clients just need a browser
which is capable of using
HTML. The server could
be Windows or Linux (e.g.
Windows Server 2008 R2).
Supported Databases
are MS SQL, MySQL and
Oracle.
24
Software Asset Management
the way we do it
SAM Tooling Benchmark – Tool Characteristics
Your Company Snow Software
Name
Benelux B.V.
Scalable Software,
Ltd.
LicenseWatch
Aspera GmbH
Is the SAM
solution build
on a multi-tier
architecture?
Yes correct.
Yes
Agent, app server and
database
Yes. Aspera's SmartTrack is
an n-tier native web
application, differentiating
between application layer
and data layer.
Does the SAM
solution consist
of a separate presentation, logic
and data tier?
If we understand the
question correctly
then yes. Separate
levels of inventory,
recognition and
presentation to end
users are offered in
the product stack.
Yes
Agent, app server and
database
Yes.
What is the average time required
to configure and
run the tool optimally for a single
software vendor?
(including adding
licenses, contracts, install
base, assuming
this information is
directly available)
As you know, this
depends on the
number and complexity of entitlement.
For core vendors
this can often be
done in a day. The
complexity exits in
calculation based
on multiple buying
centres, allocation
of licenses to multiple levels, bespoke
buying conditions/
licensing metrics
etc. All of this can be
modelled but may
take additional time.
For CG- our focus
would be on minimizing the technical and
functional setup time
so more consultancy
from CG can be
focused on SAM process, license advice,
optimization etc (i.e.
don't spend time on
setup if not necessary, spend time on
what has a benefit for
the customer).
Given a moderately organized environment we
would estimate about a 6
week period.
2 days
Immediately after loading
the data into the system
it is necessary to perform
data-quality-assurance
procedures. After
conducting those, the
software balance is
available. Afterwards
customer-specific configurations like special
downgrade-rights have to
be configured to have an
optimal result. The duration
of these exercises depends
on the vendor’s complexity as well as the available
data quality. E.g. Microsoft
provides automatically
identifiable SKU-information
whereas Oracle does not
feature manufacturer article
numbers.
25
SAM Tooling Benchmark – Tool Characteristics
Your Company Snow Software
Name
Benelux B.V.
Scalable Software,
Ltd.
LicenseWatch
Aspera GmbH
What is the
frequency of
updates/releases
on the SAM
solution?
2 minor and 1 major
per year over the last
4 years as a general
rule.
Monthly with flexibilty
2 releases per year
Aspera provides 6-8 minor
releases and about 1 major
release per year. But our
customers can update the
application based on their
own preferences. "Missed"
update(s) are automatically
including in the next update
process.
What is the
frequency of
updates on the
catalogue / SKU
database, if
present?
Daily, this is part
of the Software
Recognition Service.
Weekly
Continuously - automatic
online synchronization
Aspera provides an SKUbased product catalog
covering technical as well as
commercial data. This catalog is constantly updated
and provided to our customers at least quarterly, usually
on a monthly basis.
How many maintenance windows
will be required
on a monthly
basis, on average, for patch
and upgrade
purposes?
Depending on the
customer maintenance schedule.
most customers
would opt for an
upgrade of Snow
License Manager
once per year and
periodic update
of Snow Inventory
agents based on
functionality need.
One
Twice per year
This depends on the preferences of our customers.
If the solution is hosted
by Aspera, one maintenance window per week is
required (e.g. for backup).
Does maintenance
work like applying
patches, upgrading and cleaning
data require any
down time?
No not specially.
Updates are applied
but then enacted on
the daily update job.
This has minimal time
impact.
Essentially a 3 hour
window. Regularly schedule maintenance will
occur between 9pm and
11.59pm Sunday night. US
Central Time.
No
Updating the Application
requires a downtime
(depending on the databasesize 4hrs max). Data clearing
does not affect the system’s
availability.
Describe how
your technology
integrates and
cooperates with
large scale enterprise systems to
facilitate SAM
processes.
We provide the
supporting toolset
to enforce existing
policies with rules,
alerts and enforcement fields within the
software.
Asset Vision can integrate with IT infrastructure
components, such
as CMDBs, Service
Desks and Procurement
Systems. The integration
is bi-directional.
SCCM and Altiris connectors
Virtualization connectors for
Microsoft, Citrix, VMware
SmartTrack features a
fully-fledged ETL engine
and can integrate with any
source-system using a
MS SQL, MySQL, Oracle,
PostgreSQL or IBM DB2
database.
Contd to next page>>
Contd to next page>>
26
Software Asset Management
Contd to next page>>
the way we do it
SAM Tooling Benchmark – Tool Characteristics
Your Company Snow Software
Name
Benelux B.V.
Scalable Software,
Ltd.
LicenseWatch
Aspera GmbH
We would suggest
tackling this question
in a general session
and presentation.
Data can be imported
from the systems above
by means of the import
engine within Asset Vision.
This import engine can
accept CSV, XLS, JDBC
and XML formatted data.
SCCM and Altiris connectors
Virtualization connectors for
Microsoft, Citrix, VMware
Furthermore the same
functionality can be used to
import pre-filled templatefiles or standardized
reports. Furthermore all
features can be triggered
via web-services.
Does an update/
upgrade of the
SAM solution
require any
downtime?
As above, no not
especially.
During the normal update
process. Regularly
schedule maintenance will
occur between 9pm and
11.59pm Sunday night. US
Central Time.
Limited
Yes, please see above (30)
What is the
default included
in the license
price and what is
excluded ?
Right to use the software and with M&S/
subscription also
right to latest versions and support.
Configuration and implementation services are
not included. Neither
are scanning or general
deployment assistance.
Training is also an optional
service. All of these are
available as Services.
All SAM functionality including Hyper-V and VMWare ESX
support. Additionally Citrix
XenApp users and Oracle
instances
The license includes the
software, MaintenancePlus
includes all major and minor
updates and technical tool
support. Additional services
are offered to cover hosting,
software condiguration and
management of changes
like changes of interfaces,
updates and specific
configuration.
What features
does your product include to
support clients
with multiple cost
centers, geographic regions
and networks?
Combination of
multi-tier and multi
user, combined with
complete application and license cost
imports and reporting. Through this
combination an end
user can accurately
forecast and report
costs per individual
unit, from country
thorugh to individual
cost centre.
The platform allows you
to flexibly define cost
centers and manage them
through the console. Asset Vision provides the
ability to map machine
names or IP addresses to
geographic locations. - A
key advantage with Asset
Vision is that networks do
not need to be connected
to each other but instead
can report up to a single
management console. This
is especially valuable for
global entities or multiple
operating divisions where
the IT infrastructure may
not be well integrated.
Data and license assignment
can be split in what we call
Units. Compliance can be
calculated on Unit level. Units
can be created based on geo
location, IP address, host
name, AD unit and many other
ways.
All data (e.g. entitlements,
software inventory, contract data, devices etc.) is
linked to the organizational
structure with levels such as
enterprise, business units,
legal entities, and cost centres. In parallel, SmartTrack
manages geographical
parameters such as locations, countries and regions
and is able to cross-reference the organizational with
the geografical structure.
This structure can also be
used to define rights and
role concepts, e.g. to define
which part oc data a specific person can access if
responsible for a dedicated
cost center only.
Contd to next page>>
27
SAM Tooling Benchmark – Tool Characteristics
Your Company Snow Software
Name
Benelux B.V.
Scalable Software,
Ltd.
LicenseWatch
Aspera GmbH
A second dimension to
design the rights is the
vendor structure, covered by Aspera. So the
mentioned person may in
addtion be restricted to
Microsoft and Adobe.
The technical network
architecture can also be
refelected in SmartTrack.
Is there a
help function
inside the SAM
solution?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Is the Help function interactive?
Other
Yes
No
Other, The help functions
principle dpends on the
context. Some parts are
general descriptions others
are directly related to the
object they are called from.
Does the Help
function only contain text or also
screenshots?
Other
Between 75% and 100%
Between 50% and 75%
Between 50% and 75%
Does the tool
have a process
flow engine
or is it able to
automate certain
processes and
connections
to other tools
or information
sources?
No
No
No
Yes
Can de-installations be
automated?
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Can installations/updates be
automated?
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
28
Software Asset Management
the way we do it
SAM Tooling Benchmark – Tool Characteristics
Your Company
Name
Snow Software
Benelux B.V.
Scalable Software,
Ltd.
LicenseWatch
Aspera GmbH
Can a RFC be routed
to the tool and report
back if the process
can be continued in
another toolset?
Other
No
No
Yes
Can the SAM solution support Request
Fulfillment Processes?
Yes
Other
No
Yes
Is it possible to customize lists/tables/
views in the GUI?
Yes- standard
Yes it is.
Yes
Yes
Is the menu structure used by the tool
arranged in a sensible
(logical) way?
Yes,Other
Yes
Yes
Yes
Which languages are
available throughout
the SAM solution?
Dutch, English,
French, Other
English, Other
English
En,Fr,ESP, POT, JPN
Is the user interface
all web based or a
combination of client/
server application and
a portal?
Web- based
Web- based
Web- based
Web- based
Is role based access
implemented for the
user interface?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Which roles are
defined and can it be
customized?
There are more
than 50 separate
variables to set user
access/rights. Key
roles predefined are
viewer, admin and
contributor.
The Admin and Users
are defined. Any other
roles can be created or
customized.
Fully customizable based
on unit (data access) and
functionality
Does the SAM solution
has a user interface
for each component
or are all components
integrated in a single
presentation interface?
Other
All Components
All Components
All Components
29
Compliance Reporting
Compliance reporting
Yes
No
Other
Is the SAM solution able to deal with concurrent usage?
4
0
0
Is the SAM solution able to report on peak usage?
4
0
0
Is the SAM solution able to report on average usage?
4
0
0
Can history be tracked of the usage (visually and in tables)
to view when peak usage occurred?
3
0
1
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
Yes
2
No
1.5
Other
1
0.5
30
Software Asset Management
Can history be tracked
of the usage (visually
and in tables) to view
when peak usage
occurred?
Is the SAM solution
able to report on
average usage?
Is the SAM solution
able to report on
peak usage?
Is the SAM solution
able to deal with
concurrent usage?
0
the way we do it
Contract- and Financial Management
Contract- and Financial Management
Yes
No
Other
If your SAM tool is placed in the entire SAM environment,
what aspects of SAM are supported by your solution?
A
0
0
0
What is the pricing model of the SAM solution?
B
0
0
0
Does your SAM solution cope with several user types,
roles and responsibilities?
C
3
0
0
Is a contract module available to manage software contracts and software support contracts?
D
3
1
0
Can contract information be imported from a third party
application or database?
E
4
0
0
Which formats are supported?
F
0
0
0
How does your technology handle Global Agreements,
Local Agreements and Nested or Parent / Child
Agreements or other contracts with dependencies?
G
0
0
0
Can license documentation, like license certificates; purchase orders; invoices, be saved in the SAM tool?
H
4
0
0
Does the SAM solution provide support for financial
charging? If so which charging possibilities can be used?
I
0
0
0
Does it has the ability to create a software compliance
position with financial impact?
J
4
0
0
Contract and Financial Management
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
Yes
No
1.5
Other
1
0.5
0
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
31
License Management
License management
Yes
No
Other
Can the SAM solution alert certain users or roles for
(pre-) defined events?
3
0
1
Does the SAM solution keep track of changes (does it
have an audit trail)?
3
0
1
How and where is documentation and / or meta data
associated with licensing stored?
0
0
0
0
0
0
As example provide insights in a better method of
licensing (license physical environment instead of VM
environment?
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
32
Software Asset Management
How and where is
documentation and / or
meta data associated with
licensing stored?
Yes
No
As example provide insights in
a better method of licensing
(license physical environment
instead of VM environment?)
Does the SAM solution keep
track of changes (does it
have an audit trail?)
Can the SAM solution alert
certain users or roles for
(pre-) defined events?
0
Other
the way we do it
License Metrics & Optimization
License Optimization
Yes
No
Other
Does the SAM solution provide insights in newly
added / imported licenses, contracts, users and other
information?
A
4
0
0
Does the SAM solution have a SKU database?
B
4
0
0
Is the SKU catalog open (able to read/view for error tracking purpose)?
C
3
1
0
Is historical SKU information available in the tool? if Yes,
how many years of historical SKU data is available in the
tool?
D
0
0
1
How are different license types and usage rights managed within the reconciliation process? Think about the
license agreements in place – per user, per processor,
per core, peruse, per year etc.
E
0
0
0
Does the SAM solution provide license intelligence based
on what is discovered? Will it recognize alternative licensing options which are more suitable for the situation?
F
0
1
0
Does the SAM solution provide information regarding
License Optimalization?
G
3
1
0
License Optimization
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
Yes
No
1.5
Other
1
0.5
0
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
33
License Metrics
Yes
No
Other
Can the SAM solution deal with all licensing metrics,
models, from the top vendors? e.g.:
A
0
0
2
Does the tool support models like RVU/PVU/Concurrent
use/peak usage?
B
0
0
2
How does the SAM tool read the usage of database
options?
C
0
0
1
How is the Oracle CPU license demand being calculated?
D
0
0
0
Does the SAM Solution have a database which contain all
products/articles and metrics/models of, at least, the top
ten (10) software vendors?
E
2
1
1
Is the database updated on a regular basis?
F
3
0
0
Can the update be initiated manually?
G
3
0
1
Can the update be scheduled to run automatically?
H
2
1
0
Is it possible to add custom entries to the database and
how can the custom entries be used in the SAM solution?
I
3
0
0
Is it possible to modify existing entries in the database
and how will this impact application/license management
if software exists for the modified ID?
J
0
0
0
Is it possible to delete existing entries in the database and
how will this impact application/license management if
software exists for the deleted ID?
K
0
0
0
Are the license metrics (metric engines) viewable and
adjustable?
L
0
0
1
Is it possible for the customer to add license metrics
themselves?
M
2
0
2
How are changes in models for big vendors stored, will
changes be added or are the models replaced?
N
0
0
0
34
Software Asset Management
the way we do it
License Metrics
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
Yes
L
No
M
N
Other
35
Application Lifecycle Management
Note: this question is not about the lifecycle of the SAM tool itself, but focuses on the application lifecycle
management of the software or applications that are managed as software assets in the tool.
Application Lifecycle Management
Yes
No
Other
Is application lifecycle management functionality integrated in the SAM tool?
0
1
2
Is the lifecycle management for discovered software supported in the SAM tool?
1
0
3
Application Lifecycle Management
3.5
3
2.5
2
Is application lifecycle management functionality
integrated in the SAM tool?
1.5
1
Is the lifecycle management for discovered
software supported in the SAM tool?
0.5
36
Software Asset Management
Other
No
Yes
0
the way we do it
Inventory
SAM Tooling Benchmark - Inventory
Name of the SAM
Solution
Snow License Asset Vision
Manager
LicenseWatch SmartTrack
Does the SAM solution supplement software discovered
with any additional intelligence
(price, category, risk etc)? if so
what intelligence?
This would
generally be
a consultancy
feature of CG.
The recognition
service does
report category
of software,
application type,
downgrade
rights etc.
- End of support date Release date - Pricing
were applicable
price, end of
support, win 7
support, etc.
All usage and/or license data can
be enriched with value information that allows to calculate an
ammount of under- or overlicensing. This information can
be defined manually if internal
chargeback prices are defined or
can be feeded by purchase and/
or contract prices in different
manner. SmartTracks goal is to
allow a monetary risc definition
for alle products used or owned,
In addition individual or standard categories like UNSPSC
or eClass classification can be
used. In required also customer
specific risk classes can be
defined using this functionallity.
Which features are included
to automate the recognition
process whilst maintaining
accuracy?
The entire
recognition
within Snow is
based on an
ongoing service whereby
commercial
application are
recognized
based on a 30
day SLA. The
entire process
is automated.
The most important is
an automatic data normalization process for
software packages.
very smart
agent, combine
tag, file, add/
remove program
and MSI data
to achieve highest possible
accuracy
SmartTrack is implemented to
cover all available data sources
and to import all relevant usage
data. Even if depending on
vendor scope during implementation, the goal is to have a
complete picture of the software
landscape. So within clearing
process SmartTrack interprets
every information and in case
such information is unknown,
the specific detail is handled by
a dedicated, technically defined
process with todo-lists and
escalation, if required. In addition
several functions support the
responsible roles to identify open
topics, create complete recognition and define relevant ruelsets
for interpretation of raw data. All
this is linked to the catalog and
as soon as created available all
over the organisation.
37
SAM Tooling Benchmark - Inventory
Name of the SAM
Solution
Snow License Asset Vision
Manager
LicenseWatch SmartTrack
Does the SAM solution offer
recognition suggestions and
guidance on what needs
recognizing?
Yes, please see
above. This is
part of the central recognition
service.
No it does not.
No
Depending in the customers policy, specific data that
is never relevant e.g. service
packs can be sorted out. The
master catalogs's standard will
cover the products for the most
relevant vendors and training
enables the customer to decide
how to handle "exotic vendors".
In combination with the features
named in question 75 this can be
understood as a system to guide
the customer during clearing
processes.
What features are included to
automate the reconciliation
process?
As above, the
entire recognition service
is automated.
This means we
don't simply add
recognition for
single vendors/
sell recognition packages.
Rather we
understand that
customers what
to understand
their total risk
and not rely on a
static database/
purchase of
more recognition
per vendor.
The most valuable is to
have local/custom data
normalization.
ISO tag
The reconciliation process
depends on data completeness
and quality. SmartTrack supports
monitoring and alerting of these
two aspects during the whole
process. If the data provided by
customers systems is without
relevant gaps or quality lacks, the
reconcilliation can be done automated completely. So each user
can define compliance reports,
reflecting different apsects like
organisational level or product
family and this manually creaded
report can be used as blueprint for automated, periodical
reporting.
Does the tool support virtualization techniques like lpar/
ldom’s /VMware/Oracle VM
and is it able to reflect this
properly in the solution?
Yes this information is gathered
from Snow
inventory for key
vendors.
lpar = Yes VMWare = yes
ldom = under development Oracle = this and all
KVP solutions are under
development
yes: MS
Hyper-V,
VMWare ESX;
Citrix XenApp,
MS App-V
Yes
38
Software Asset Management
the way we do it
SAM Tooling Benchmark - Inventory
Name of the SAM
Solution
Snow License Asset Vision
Manager
LicenseWatch SmartTrack
Which common virtual
environments are supported
by the SAM solution?
VMWare, MS,
Citrix are supported out of
the box. Other
technologies
would require
some integration
with third party
systems.
MSFT HyperV VMWare
ESX
MS Hyper-V,
VMWare ESX;
Citrix XenApp,
MS App-V
VMware ESX, IBM LPAR,
Oracle Zone/LDOM, Microsoft
Hyper-V, all other hardware-/
software-partitions.
Are there any third party
dependencies for the SAM
solution to work properly on a
virtual environment?
Please see
above. For
example IBM or
Oracle.
VCenter KVM Control
Center HMC for lpar's
no
No
Does the SAM solution track
and manage the existence and
usage of virtual platforms, virtual operating systems or web
based applications?
Virtual platforms,
Virtual operating
systems, web
based applications, Other
Virtual platforms,Virtual
operating systems,Web
based applications
Virtual
platforms,Virtual
operating
systems,Other
Virtual Platforms, Virtual
Operating Sysytems, Web based
applications
How does the tool handle new
information discovered by a
discovery/inventory solution in
regard of a CI, is this automatically processed or is a control
mechanism in place for that?
Alerts can be
setup as necessary to track
changes.
New information is processed automatically
through a merge function
that is inherent in the
Asset Vision system.
automatically
processing of all
data
For each type of data imported
to SmartTrack an import and
update policy is defined.
Following this definition, many
alternative options are available to handle such situation.
New imports may replace old
data completely or just update
the old information. New items
within may be imported or in
case a difference is identified the
whole i,mpport can be stopped
to decide what to da. In addition
monitoring is available to avoid
updates containing data quality
issues of source system, e.g. an
device import is stopped if the
numer of devices is more than 5%
smaller than expected or smaller
than actual number of devices
within SmartTrack system
39
Interfacing
SAM Tooling Benchmark - Interfacing
Name of the SAM
Solution
Snow License Asset Vision
Manager
LicenseWatch SmartTrack
Does the SAM solution use
open standards, specifications or stack and if so what
standards, specifi-cations are
used?
Other
Yes, Other
No
Yes
Is the SAM solution able to
export data in open standard
format?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Is scheduling of jobs possible in the SAM solution?
For example jobs regarding:
license reconciliation, data
cleaning or import discovery/inventory results can be
scheduled
Yes- standard
- It is not possible to
schedule license reconciliation. - Data cleaning
happens automatically. It is possible to schedule
the importing of discovery or inventory data.
yes - setup
possibility
Literally the whole functionallity
of SmarTrack can be scheduled.
Aspera's goal is a maximized
automation of all data import and
processing tasks to reduce the
manual efforts for customers to
a minimum.
Is the product open for interfacing using different methods
and solutions? Import /
interface options? Which
technologies?
Yes. Snow
can integrate
easily with other
systems. The
work is rather
in defining what
fields should
be imported/
exported. We
have an API,
SQL view/direct
SQL integration,
import/export
with CSV, XML,
XLS.
Yes it is. Asset Vision can
integrate with IT infrastructure components,
such as CMDBs, Service
Desks and Procurement
Systems. The integration is bi-directional. Data
can be made available
to the systems listed
above via an Asset Vision
REST API. Data can be
imported from the systems above by means of
the import engine within
Asset Vision. This import
engine can accept CSV,
XLS, JDBC and XML
formatted data.
yes - BI solutions for
data mining;
automatically
import files; MS
SCCM, Altiris
Deployment
auto import
SmartTrack features a builtin ETL engine which allows
interfacing with and extracting
data out of any source-system.
Furthermore web-services can
be used in order to interface
witht the solution.
40
Software Asset Management
the way we do it
SAM Tooling Benchmark - Interfacing
Name of the SAM
Solution
Snow License Asset Vision
Manager
LicenseWatch SmartTrack
Is the SAM tool able to interface with procurement and
finance applications?
Yes, please see
above.
Yes it is. Asset Vision can
integrate with IT infrastructure components,
such as CMDBs, Service
Desks and Procurement
Systems. The integration is bi-directional. Data
can be made available to
the systems listed above
via an Asset Vision REST
API. Data can be imported
from the systems above
by means of the import
engine within Asset Vision.
This import engine can
accept CSV, XLS, JDBC
and XML formatted data.
yes - automatically import and
export data
Yes via the above described ETLengine and/or web services.
Does the SAM solution have
a customizable logging function and can the log files be
exported to third party software (like SPLUNK or a SIEM
solution)
Yes
No
Other
yes
Is the SAM tool compatible
with data from other SAM tools
(using open stack/standard)?
Yes
Yes
No
Other,Basically SmartTrack
can use data from any type of
system. If SAM data from other
systems can be used depends
on type and quality as well as
level of aggregation. Technically
it is possible to import calculated results from other systems,
e.g. IMB ILMT, but a detailed
examination is required to decide
if an import of a balance of a
e.g. SNOW system is a useful
approach.
Data import and integration:
Is the tool able to collect or
import data collections from
other tools (migration)?
Yes correct,
please see
description
above. THis is
standard.
Yes it is.
yes
Yes, but again: If SmartTrack
can use data always depends
on the quality and structure. As
SmartTrack ist the "source of
truth" for the future and complex
situations like audits, it is not a
technical question if we could
use data from other tools but if
the data from other tools meets
the requirements.
41
SAM Tooling Benchmark - Interfacing
Name of the SAM
Solution
Snow License Asset Vision
Manager
LicenseWatch SmartTrack
Can the SAM tool interface
with a contract management/document management
system or can references be
linked between the systems?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Can the client gain access
to raw data to use with other
technology? If so how? You
might want to integrate or synchronize your SAM database
with a CMDB, Servicedesk
System or Systems
Management Tool.
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Can the client import / synchronize data from other
systems? If so how? ERP?
HR? Security? How does your
technology harness the clients
existing systems or infrastructure? Active Directory?
Document Management
Systems? CMDB?
Servicedesk?
Yes,Other
Yes
Yes
Yes
Can the SAM solution be integrated with security systems
for authentication such as
LDAP and SSO?
Yes
No
Other
Yes
Can resellers’ sheets be
imported into the SAM
solution?
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Does the SAM solution combine a portal with reporting
services?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Can the SAM solution export
data in for example vendor
statements (like Oracle
Worksheet)?
Yes
Yes
Other
Yes
42
Software Asset Management
the way we do it
Reporting
SAM Tooling Benchmark - Reporting
Name of the SAM
Solution
Snow License
Manager
Asset Vision
LicenseWatch SmartTrack
Is the SAM solution able
to present organizational,
device, user, contract,
license topologies in a
graphical way?
Other
Yes
Other
Describe the reporting
capabilities of your technology to support SAM
processes?
Snow License
Manager can
report on an individual user, device
(not only computer
but also ipad, thin
client), datacenter, contract,
license level. Of
course customized reports can
be made directly
in the interface by
users themselves.
Without moving the
question we would
strongly suggest
a presentation
of the reporting
possibility.
It is important to state our philosophy
on ‘reporting’. We have deliberately built
Asset Vision to enable our field support
folks to implement reporting and views in
response to customer demands. Our real
aim is to enable our customers to create
these views easily. What we have learned
is that no two customers are alike. If
we were to aim to create a superset of
reports that satisfied the needs of all our
customers the number of views would
be overwhelming, and our development
team would spend all their time coding
data views. For this reason we have
elected to make it possible to build the
data views “in the field” thus freeing up
the development team to do the work on
discovery and metering that can only be
developed in the lab. With that said there
are a number of existing Data Views in
each Asset Vision Edition Each of these
reports can be filtered, changed (add/
remove columns) and sorted. They are
graphical as well, showing columnar
views, pie charts and linear representations. Additional views can be created
and additional fields added as desired.
Asset Vision’s power is in the ability to
represent data in a meaningful, actionable way. These views can be saved for
your viewing or made available to others
through scheduled emails. Analytics
are inherent in the Asset Vision solution.
No additional tools are needed. Ad hoc
reports can be run at will. Pie charts,
graphs and data grids are included with
the Asset Vision solution. Widgets can
be created as desired to depict data
representations.
fully customizable report
engine based on
GridViews
Other, Topologies
and contracts available todya, more to
come.
43
SAM Tooling Benchmark - Reporting
Name of the SAM
Solution
Snow License
Manager
Asset Vision
LicenseWatch SmartTrack
Does the SAM solution
include a dashboard?
Yes, Other
Yes
Yes
Yes
Does the dashboard allow
for (customized) alerting
based on thresholds?
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Does the dashboard allow
for (customized) alerting
based on thresholds?
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
At what level can reports
be created in the tool?
Please see above,
multi tier and orgs
menas that reports
can be set at any
organizational
level.
Reports can be created at any level of
data and using any data in the database.
standard
Wizard, fully
configurable and
SQL statements
other,Reports can
be created on every
level defined in the
system. Basically
Group, Business
Unit, Legal Entity
and CostCenter. In
Addition geographical and individual
reporting definitions
can be used,
How much time does it
take to create a report?
Less than 1 hour
Less than 1 hour
Less than 1 hour
other, It depends
on the reports
type: User defined
ad-hoc reports 10
minutes, complex
BIRT based reports
may need up to 4
hours incl. testing
and optimizing
How many out-of-the-box
reports does the SAM
solution contains?
More than 20
More than 20
More than 20
More than 20
Is it possible to create
your own reports?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
44
Software Asset Management
the way we do it
45
About Capgemini
With almost 140,000 people in over 40 countries, Capgemini is one of the world’s
foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services. The Group
reported 2013 global revenues of EUR 10.1 billion.
Together with its clients, Capgemini creates and delivers business and technology
solutions that fit their needs and drive the results they want.
A deeply multicultural organization, Capgemini has developed its own way of working,
the Collaborative Business Experience™, and draws on Rightshore®, its worldwide
delivery model.
More information about our services, offices and research is available at
www.nl.capgemini.com
The information contained in this document is proprietary. ©2014 Capgemini. All rights reserved.
Rightshore® is a trademark belonging to Capgemini.
Capgemini Nederland B.V.
PO Box 2575 - 3500 GN Utrecht
The Netherlands
Tel. +31 30 689 00 00
www.nl.capgemini.com
Email: [email protected]