Organizations can get much greater business value from their software budgets by eliminating waste, more intelligently allocating entitlements, and negotiating more effectively with vendors. These Enterprise License Optimization (ELO) strategies pay particularly big dividends when applied to high-value applications. This white paper explains how ELO works—and offers practical advice about how to implement ELO in the real world.
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Stretching the Software Budget: A Practical Guide to Enterprise License Optimization
1. W H I T E PA P E R
Stretching the Software Budget:
A Practical Guide to Enterprise License Optimization
2. Stretching the Software Budget:
A Practical Guide to Enterprise License Optimization
Organizations can get much greater business value from their software budgets by eliminating waste, more
intelligently allocating entitlements, and negotiating more effectively with vendors. These Enterprise License
Optimization (ELO) strategies pay particularly big dividends when applied to high-value applications. This white
paper explains how ELO works—and offers practical advice about how to implement ELO in the real world.
Executive Summary IT departments t herefore need a partner capable of providing
Software is of tremendous importance to today’s IT-intensive t he tools, expert ise, and human resources necessary to fill t he
organizations. In fact, the appetite of organizations for software “ELO gap.”
is growing at a faster pace than software budgets—especially in
light of current economic conditions. It is therefore more critical Flexera Software is such a partner. By providing a complete
than ever for software buyers to get maximum value out of every turnkey solut ion—including advanced ELO tools, proven
dollar they spend on software. ELO expert ise, and rapidly deployable ELO teams—Flexera
Software enables organizat ions to quickly and painlessly
To successfully stretch their budgets, software buyers have to: pinpoint over-spending, mit igate compliance risks, opt imally
allocate exist ing ent it lements, improve budget planning, and
• liminate spending on unnecessary “shelfware” licenses and
E negot iate much more effect ively. As a result, Flexera Software
maintenance fees customers consistent ly achieve substant ial cost savings and
• itigate the risk of under-licensing and negative audit
M reap significant ly greater value from t heir software spending.
outcomes
• llocate software entitlements where they provide the most
A
value
• nify purchases and contracts across the enterprise
U Enterprise License
• ccurately forecast and plan future spending
A Optimization
Software Asset Management Maturity
Enterprise License
• onduct smarter, fact-based negotiations with software vendors
C
Optimization
These budget-stretching best practices are known collectively
as Enterprise License Optimization (ELO). ELO advances the
Management
Management
Management
maturity of existing Software Asset Management operations
Monitoring
Discovery/
Entitlement
Installation
Inventory
Security
by bringing more insight and rigorous financial discipline to
Usage
Patch
Patch Management
software acquisition and ownership. By implementing ELO best
Management
Monitoring
Discovery/
Entitlement
Inventory
Usage
practices, organizations of all kinds can achieve substantial cost
savings while greatly improving their ability to use software to
achieve their strategic objectives.
Unfortunately, most organizations lack three things necessary to
ELO advances the maturity of existing Software Asset Management
do ELO: operations
1. ELO tools t hat provide visibility into how high-value
applicat ions are being used across t he enterprise—and
how t hat usage compares to complex software ent it lements
2. ELO subject-matter expert ise necessary to make t he best
possible decisions about spending, contract negot iat ion,
and t he allocat ion of ent it lements based on t he
Enterprise License ion provided by ELO tools
informat
3. LO staff t hat can perform required tasks in an efficient
E
Optimization t imely manner
and
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3. Stretching t he Software Budget: A Pract ical Guide to Enterprise License Opt imizat ion
Stretching the Enterprise Software Budget More vendor audits. Tight markets have led vendors to become
Software is a major business expense, typically represent ing more aggressive about auditing customers. Gartner indicates
more t han 30% of total IT budgets in Nort h American that more than 50% of their clients have been audited by at
businesses.1 Software also cont inues to become more and more least one software vendor in the past 12 months, up from 30%
crit ical to t he business. High-value applicat ions in part icular— to 35% from previous years.4 These audits raise the risk of
such as t hose offered by Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, and SAP—are fines and can disrupt operations as software deployments are
a primary means by which IT departments enable t he business thoroughly inventoried and compared to purchasing records.
to execute core processes more quickly, easily, and accurately.
More complex licensing models. In their pursuit of more
Current economic condit ions, however, put severe constraints revenue, vendors are implementing more complex usage and
on software budgets. Gartner, for example, recent ly revised its subscription-based pricing models—and defining more complex
project ions for annual worldwide enterprise software spending contract terms and conditions. They are also bundling functional
downward by $8.8 billion.2 modules in different ways to incent IT departments to buy more
software licenses. This complexity presents software buyers
So, to ensure t hat an organizat ion can successfully compete with new challenges when it comes to negotiating contracts,
in today’s technology-dependent marketplace, software buyers allocating budget resources, and projecting future requirements.
must squeeze t he greatest possible business value out of every
dollar t hey spend. A good place to start is among vendors The growth of virtualization and cloud computing. By creating
where t he majority of spending occurs. more instances of servers, virtualization also creates more
instances of applications and databases. This “virtual sprawl”
2008-2009 creates the potential for non-compliance and much higher
2008 2009** licensing costs.
% change
Microsoft* $44.55 $42.19 -5% A persistent shelfware problem. When budgets were less
Oracle $23.53 $22.90 -3% constrained, many companies got into the habit of buying more
IBM $22.07 $21.69 -2% licenses and support contracts than necessary because they
lacked the tools to accurately determine user demand. These
SAP $16.91 $15.36 -9% habits have led to millions of dollars in unnecessary spending on
EMC $6.21 $6.11 -2% shelfware licenses and maintenance that are no longer tolerable.
* Forrester forecast As a recent research report from Gartner explains:
** Excludes revenues from sales to consumers
No enterprise has escaped the scourge of shelfware, but few
Largest Software Vendors by Sales to Business and Government are aware of the scale of the problem and the significant
(US$ billions)3 amount of budget waste attributable to it. IT budget is too
precious to fritter it away on solutions that do not deliver
Several market factors make it particularly important for appropriate value.5
organizations to apply more rigorous financial discipline to their
software spending: Responsiveness to organizational change. As businesses respond
to changing market conditions through mergers, acquisitions,
Greater disparity between demand growth and budget growth. As and divestitures, they have to restructure their software
noted above, economic conditions are severely limiting software entitlements accordingly. If they don’t, they can easily wind
budgets at the same time as organizations are becoming up over-spending on redundant licenses or lapsing into non-
increasingly technology-dependent. Buyers must therefore meet compliance with
escalating demand for software without increasing their budgets existing contracts.
proportionally.
The bottom line is that software buyers have to be savvier than
Rising licensing costs and maintenance fees. In the face of they have ever been before. The practices and policies of the
tightening markets, software vendors are raising prices to extract past simply won’t suffice in a market environment where cost,
more revenue from existing customers. SAP, for example made its complexity, and risk continue to escalate.
customers move to a premium support service that costs 22% of
their base licensing fee—compared with the previous standard
service, which cost 17%. Oracle, for its part, increased the cost
of certain options for its database by as much as 40 percent.
And processor licenses for its diagnostic and tuning packs went
from $3,500 in 2008 to $5,000 in 2009. 1
IDC, 2008,
2
Forecast: Enterprise Software Markets Poised for Recovery in 2010, Gartner, 2009
3
Global and US Software Market 2009-2010, Forrester Research, Inc., July 2009
4
Polls and Surveys Show an Increase in Software License Audits, Gartner, 2009
5
Shelfware Is Stealing Your Budget: Spot It and Stop It, Gartner, May 15, 2009
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4. Stretching t he Software Budget: A Pract ical Guide to Enterprise License Opt imizat ion
ELO: The Savvy Software Buyer’s Response
Savvy software buyers are responding to the new challenges A leading global consumer products company lacked clear
they are facing by enhancing their Software Asset Management visibility into its usage and compliance position relative to
(SAM) programs with Enterprise License Optimization Oracle and SAP. By implementing ELO best practices, the
(ELO) capabilities. company was able to reduce its spending on Oracle alone
by $3.3 million over three years by moving to a named user
The maturity of SAM programs varies widely among license model and buying application-specific licenses for the
organizations. Often, such programs are focused primarily Oracle databases supporting its SAP implementation.
on making sure that the number of software licenses
purchased matches the number of copies installed in order
to ensure compliance.
But mere avoidance of non-compliance does not prevent 2. The ability to accurately understand complex license agreements.
overspending, nor does it help ensure that software budget Contracts for high-value applications often specify entitlements
dollars are allocated where they will provide the most value for many diverse software components. A vendor like SAP
to the organization. To achieve these objectives, software may also specify multiple types of named users in its
buyers must be able to answer more difficult questions such licensing model.
as “What separately licensed components of the software are
being used?”and “How can we structure a licensing deal so that In addition, organizations may have multiple contracts for
we get all the functionality we really need—and don’t pay for multiple departments or business units. ELO requires the
functionality that we don’t really need?” ability to understand both the letter and the intent of these
complex agreements.
To answer these questions—especially for costly back-office
application suites such as SAP and Oracle, which have complex 3. The ability to map usage to complex license agreements. To
entitlements and usage characteristics—IT departments and optimally structure a licensing agreement with SAP, a software
procurement teams have to enhance their SAM operations buyer needs a precise understanding of each user’s role
with ELO best practices. Several key characteristics distinguish and behavior. In the case of Oracle, a software buyer may
mature, ELO-capable SAM programs: have to carefully consider the comparative advantages and
disadvantages of a processor-based license vs. a named user
license. ELO provides this essential insight. Conventional SAM
1 Insight into does not.
usage data
• Cut waste
4. The ability to perform trend analysis for usage of software
• Maintain compliance components across the enterprise. To pinpoint potential
3 Ability to map use 4 Trend • Optimize use savings, IT departments need to be able to track usage trends
for software components across the enterprise. For example,
and entitlements Analysis
• Consolidate purchases they may need to be able to see that usage of an especially
expensive component of a high-value application is declining
• Plan accurately
in one area of the business while it is increasing in another
2 Understanding of • Negotiate effectively area. The ability to perform this type of analysis differentiates
complex license terms mature, ELO-capable SAM from less mature programs.
From this perspective, ELO enablement can be viewed as
significant enhancement to conventional SAM—since it brings a
1. The ability to capture relevant usage data from high-value new level of insight and financial discipline to the ownership of
applications. Existing SAM programs may be able to detect business software.
the installation of basic desktop software, but they are
typically unable to provide full insight into the usage of the
various components of back-office applications that may be
itemized in a complex vendor contract. ELO, on the other
hand, requires the ability to easily extract more sophisticated
usage data—including such subtleties as indirect access—
without subjecting software managers to “information
overload.”
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5. Stretching t he Software Budget: A Pract ical Guide to Enterprise License Opt imizat ion
ELO Benefits Unify purchases and contracts across the enterprise
Software buyers reap a variety of highly compelling benefits All kinds of inefficiencies arise when organizations acquire and
when they enhance their existing SAM programs with ELO. manage software entitlements in a fragmented manner. One
These benefits become even more compelling as the demand for department may not have enough licenses, while another has
software across the organization continues to outpace software more than it needs. Licenses on multiple individual processors
budgets—and as the consequences of inadequate software may each be under-utilized, even though it would be more
governance, such as over-spending and non-compliance, efficient to consolidate some of those instances on a single
become less tolerable. multi-processor machine. ELO helps eliminate these common
inefficiencies by providing an enterprise-wide view of licenses,
As IT departments and procurement teams gain ELO capabilities, contracts, deployments, and usage—along with reporting that
they are able to: highlights opportunities for budget-stretching re-allocations
and consolidations. ELO reports can also be used to structure
Eliminate unnecessary licenses and maintenance fees chargebacks, so that costs can be fairly distributed as software
By providing precise insight into which software entitlements are resources are more flexibly shared between different groups.
being used and which ones are not, ELO helps software buyers
quickly pinpoint and eliminate unnecessary spending. ELO is Accurately forecast and plan future spending
especially useful for moving away from expensive enterprise IT departments that underestimate their licensing needs can find
license agreements—which many organizations bought into as themselves unable to fulfill key business requirements in a timely
a way of avoiding the difficulties of tracking usage, negotiating manner. If they overestimate their needs, on the other hand,
contracts based on that usage, and then monitoring ongoing they may wind up unnecessarily withholding funding from some
compliance with the resulting agreement. ELO overcomes these other worthwhile IT project. ELO reporting provides software
difficulties so that organizations can avoid enterprise licenses decision-makers with the trending data they need to align
wherever they are not cost-efficient. budget projections as closely as possible with future business
demand, so they can avoid either over-funding and/or under-
Mitigate the risk of under-licensing and negative audit outcomes funding critical IT initiatives.
Conventional SAM implementations typically only track
inventories of installed titles on desktops and, in some cases and Conduct smarter, fact-based negotiations with software vendors
in some rudimentary ways, on servers. This basic inventorying Negotiators who don’t know exactly what their companies
is not sufficient for maintaining compliance with the complex need and don’t need can’t press for the concessions that will
licensing agreements and usage models that characterize be most financially advantageous—or make concessions that
high-value back office applications. ELO extends visibility into will have little bottom-line impact. The insight that ELO provides
these more complex applications to address these potentially can thus be extremely valuable when it comes to negotiations
significant compliance exposures. with software vendors. Using this insight, negotiators can
press for deal structures that align well with their actual usage
Allocate existing software entitlements where they provide the requirements. They can also gain leverage by bringing the full
most value potential sales revenue represented by the entire organization
When budgets are limited, it is essential to allocate software to the table, rather than negotiating multiple small contracts for
entitlements where they can provide the most value. An each business unit.
organization that can only afford to buy 40 administrator-
level licenses for a given software title, for example, has to ELO can provide many other business benefits as well. It can,
make sure that those license are allocated to the top 40 users for example, help prevent the disruptive “fire drills” that typically
of that software—instead of wasting them on users who only take place when a major vendor audit looms—since the data
need occasional access to administrator-level entitlements. ELO necessary to respond to such an audit is collected on an ongoing
provides the kind of granular usage reporting that is essential basis. By providing granular visibility into the usage of high-
for this kind of decision-making. value software across the organization, ELO also makes it
easier to calculate chargebacks—and to make sure that those
chargebacks are fair. These chargebacks can improve P&L
accounting and help secure additional IT funding from business
units as appropriate.
After discovering discrepancies in an audit of its SAP These benefits make the implementation of ELO a very
licensing during a manual audit, a $4 billion mechanical worthwhile undertaking for any organization that spends a
contracting company decided to implement mature ELO significant amount of money on high-value software. With ELO,
practices. As a result, the company was eventually able to organizations can make much better use of limited software
avoid purchasing 2,872 SAP licenses for a total savings of budgets and free up financial resources for other strategic
$4.3 million. business requirements.
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6. Stretching t he Software Budget: A Pract ical Guide to Enterprise License Opt imizat ion
The ELO Gap: Tools, Expertise, and Human Bandwidth The expertise gap
Despite the fact that organizations can substantially benefit ELO is a unique discipline that falls between multiple domains
from ELO, a relatively small percentage are actually doing it. of expertise. On the technical level, it requires application and
Considering how attractive a 15%-25% reduction in high-value database administrators who understand how complex, high-
software costs would be to any organization, it is natural to ask value software is architected—including the components of that
why this is the case. software, the functionality those components provide, and how
that functionality is used on a day-to-day basis.
On the management level, ELO touches IT, procurement, and
finance. As a recent research report from Gartner explains:
Tools gap
IT can’t operate without budget information from finance.
Procurement needs accurate data that reflects the installed asset
Expertise gap Enterprise
Today base and how those assets are being used. Finance also needs
License
accurate inventory information, with regard to future technology
Human Optimization
requirements, to set realistic financial goals and budgets. Without
bandwidth gap this information sharing, procurements may be less than optimal.6
The report adds that “Siloed behavior of the groups will create
potential process gaps within each group and among them.”
Finance managers focus on determining which spending is truly
Maturity of SAMPrograms
Maturity of SAM Programs necessary and which is not. Procurement managers focus on
figuring out the best way to structure a deal. IT managers focus
Even the most cursory review of the typical enterprise reveals on making the best use of whatever software assets they have.
three factors that prevent the further maturation of SAM These differences can make it difficult to collaborate to the extent
programs required to reap the full benefits of ELO: that is required for effective ELO.
The tools gap Also, the personal experience of these process participants is
Most organizations have acquired SAM tools in order to typically limited to the few companies where they have worked.
inventory desktop applications, administer support agreements, This limited range of experience limits their expertise in key ELO
and perform other core software asset management tasks. These issues—such as the allocation problems commonly found in
conventional SAM tools, however, are insufficient for ELO. To do enterprise environments or the idiosyncrasies of certain vendors’
ELO, software buyers need tools that can: negotiating tactics.
• iscover the various modules and components of high-value
D The human bandwidth gap
software suites Time may be the scarcest resource of all for today’s
• rack usage of those modules and components
T organizations. IT staffs, for example, are being pushed to their
• orrelate software instances to server configurations (such as
C limits as they try to deliver more services, prevent downtime, and
number of processors and number of processor cores) fend off cyber-threats. Few IT departments therefore have time to
• aintain information on all vendor agreements, regardless
M evaluate ELO tools, learn how to use whichever tool they choose,
of their structure or complexity and then manage communications with finance and procurement
• rovide the reporting and analytics necessary to pinpoint
P so that the data generated by that tool can be properly used to
opportunities for savings, consolidation, and re-allocation— fully optimize software licensing and maintenance budgets.
as well as any potential compliance issues.
Finance and procurement managers don’t have much time to
Gathering this information manually is not an option. For one spare, either. They are unlikely to invest much time in learning
thing, manual processes are too error-prone and time-consuming. the complexities of high-value software or the historical
For another, manual inventories are not likely to be performed in negotiating patterns of multiple enterprise software vendors. Nor
a consistent manner by technicians working in entirely different are they likely to pore over detailed ELO reports in the hopes of
areas of the enterprise. This further compromises any resulting finding cost savings that will make it worth their while to do so.
data. An automated ELO toolkit is therefore essential for reaping
the benefits of ELO best practices. It stands to reason, then, that most companies need an ELO
partner who can provide them with the right tools, expertise,
and out-tasking services on an on-demand basis. To obtain the
benefits of ELO without diverting limited resources from other
critical tasks, these companies will need to offload the burdens
of both their initial ELO ramp-up and their ongoing
6
The Finance, Procurement and IT Connection Is a Three-Way Street, Gartner, 2008 ELO processes.
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7. Stretching t he Software Budget: A Pract ical Guide to Enterprise License Opt imizat ion
Flexera Software’s Turnkey Solution 3. Optimize
To help companies overcome the ELO gap, Flexera Software Once a consensus has been reached on which
has developed a full-service solution that delivers the tools, recommendations to pursue, Flexera Software supports
expertise, and services they need to reap the business benefits their implementation. This may include reviewing license
of true enterprise license optimization. re-allocation, providing counsel during active negotiations
with vendors, and/or helping to establish new business
The technology foundation for Flexera Software’s ELO solution is processes that engage IT, procurement and finance. These
FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises™, which collects detailed process improvements augment immediate cost savings with
license usage data for enterprise software from vendors such sustainable ELO best practices.
as SAP and Oracle—as well as the nearly 20,000 high-value
applications licensed with Flexera Software’s FlexNet® Publisher 4. Manage
technology. FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises unifies Flexera Software can continue to perform ongoing ELO
the data required to analyze usage trends by business unit, activities over time on an out-tasked basis. These activities
geography, and other parameters across the organization. include the ongoing monitoring of changes in application
usage and the identification of potential compliance issues,
Flexera Software’s solution also enables companies to leverage as well as more intensive short-term activities associated
the expertise and experience gained from over 20 years of with preparation for contract renewals and audits. By
specialization in software licensing. With their unmatched providing out-tasked services, Flexera Software can cost-
wealth of knowledge, Flexera Software professionals can quickly effectively keep ELO processes on track while enabling
and effectively analyze license usage data from even the largest organizations to avoid new hiring and training burdens.
companies in order to discover shelfware, assess compliance
risks, and make intelligent recommendations for license re- Flexera Software’s flexible engagement terms allow
allocation and improved procurement. organizations to adopt whatever model best meets their needs.
They can engage Flexera Software for all four lifecycle phases
Using this technology and expertise, Flexera Software provides or just the first three. They can opt to engage for all four on a
complete ELO lifecycle services that help companies to rapidly temporary basis, while pursuing transfer of expertise in order to
achieve their ELO objectives without diverting internal resources take on ongoing ELO processes internally in the future. They can
that are needed for other critical tasks. This ELO lifecycle is also opt to acquire and implement FlexNet Manager Suite with
comprised of four phases: only minimal logistical support from Flexera Software.
1. Assess Whatever engagement model they choose, organizations that
Flexera Software guides the implementation of FlexNet work with Flexera Software can quickly fill their ELO gap. Any
Manager Suite so that usage data from across the current lack of tools, expertise, and/or human bandwidth can
enterprise can be accurately correlated to current be overcome to reap the full benefits of proven ELO
licensing agreements. Flexera Software also creates usage best practices.
projections based on the gathered data to determine where
current licensing may become inadequate in the near term.
2. Recommend
Leveraging its unmatched expertise in vendors’ licensing
rules, policies, business practices and negotiation
strategies, Flexera Software provides specific, unbiased
recommendations for optimizing license and maintenance
spends. These recommendations take into account technical
requirements, current contractual obligations, corporate
policies, and other relevant factors. Flexera Software also
quantifies potential cost savings and may provide multiple
alternative approaches as appropriate.
When a multi-national chemical manufacturer went into its
first contract negotiation with SAP, its IT and procurement
teams did not know exactly what types of licenses its users
would need for their diverse roles and responsibilities. Using
ELO, the company pinpointed users who didn’t actually need
licenses—as well as those who could be downgraded to less
expensive licenses. This allowed the company to purchase
30% fewer total licenses than it had originally estimated.
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8. Stretching t he Software Budget: A Pract ical Guide to Enterprise License Opt imizat ion
An Optimized Path to Optimization Greater long-term adaptability. While ELO represents an
The benefits of ELO are well-documented. They include important step in the ongoing evolution of SAM, it is certainly
substantial cost reductions, reduced compliance risk, better not the final step. Organizations that plan on continuing to
allocation of software assets, consolidated software agreements, evolve their SAM processes in response to constantly changing
more accurate budget planning, and more effective negotiation business conditions need a partner with a proven ability to
with primary IT vendors. respond to the radical changes that have taken place in the
industry over the past quarter-century.
A working relationship with Flexera Software greatly enhances
the outcome of any ELO initiative by providing the following High-value software is likely to become even more critical to
additional benefits: organizational performance in the coming years. It is also likely
to become increasingly expensive and complex as leading
Faster time-to-benefit. Few organizations can afford to invest time software vendors seek to fulfill the demands of their shareholders
and money in an ELO initiative without seeing some concrete, in a difficult global economy. Software buyers therefore need
near-term results. Flexera Software’s expertise and experience to take reasonable steps to defend their organizations against
help companies avoid project delays and pitfalls so that the unnecessary spending and unacceptable risk. ELO offers a
benefits of ELO are realized sooner, rather than later. proven way of doing so. And Flexera Software uniquely offers a
proven way of achieving ELO excellence.
Higher ROI. By taking advantage of Flexera Software’s
sophisticated ELO technology and unmatched knowledge about About Flexera Software
software licensing, companies can uncover opportunities for Flexera Software is the leading provider of strategic solutions
more cost savings and can negotiate even more effectively with for Application Usage Management; solutions delivering
software vendors. The result is greater long-term total returns on continuous compliance, optimized usage and maximized value
their ELO investments. to application producers and their customers. Flexera Software
is trusted by more than 80,000 customers that depend on
Reduced project risk. Any IT initiative has its share of risks— our comprehensive solutions- from installation and licensing,
including project delays, cost over-runs, and inadequate results. entitlement and compliance management to application
A partnership with Flexera Software helps neutralize these risk readiness and enterprise license optimization - to strategically
factors by leveraging the lessons learned from a broad range of manage application usage and achieve breakthrough results
ELO implementations. realized only through the systems-level approach we provide. For
more information, please go to: www.flexerasoftware.com
Greater industry credibility. With more than 20 years of
experience delivering market-leading solutions such as
InstallShield and FlexNet, Flexera Software is well-known
throughout the industry as a pioneer in software licensing and
management. Because of this, companies that partner with
Flexera Software will have a significant credibility advantage
with vendors when it comes to audits and negotiations.
Minimized disruption of existing operations. With internal
resources already stretched thin, few organizations can afford
even a short-term diversion of too many internal resources for an
ELO launch. Flexera Software helps minimize such disruptions
by allowing much of the initial “heavy lifting” to be offloaded—
and by keeping ELO projects focused on the most lucrative
opportunities for cost savings.
Easing of potential political conflicts. Anyone who has been
involved in an organization of any size knows the potential
political pitfalls that can results when an initiative requires
collaboration across departmental lines. The objectivity and
impartial authority that a third party like Flexera Software
brings to the table can help prevent these territorial issues from
undermining the progress of an ELO initiative.
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