Macrovision Raises Profile as Provider of Software Compliance Tools

Macrovision is a long-time player in the market for software asset management (SAM) and compliance tools. Perhaps best known for InstallShield, used by many publishers to automate installation of Windows applications, the company gets 75 percent of its business from providing control and distribution programs to software and hardware manufacturers.

Macrovision’s end-user product lines, roughly 25 percent of its revenues, are popular with big users of electronics design and automation (EDA) software. Such large customers as Boeing, Ford, Siemens, Motorola, HP and BMW, with their enormous software portfolios, use FLEXnet Manager to maximize the value of their EDA software licenses, which can cost $10,000 and up per seat. On the downside, many end users have balked at integrated license control technologies for their desktop computers, considering it too limiting.

With a more robust license management and reporting system, FLEXnet's administration module allows administrators to manage and maintain software licenses and servers from a single console across the enterprise. Administrators can monitor license servers, set alerts and view real-time license usage. The reporting module uses the license servers to capture usage data for each vendor, which is organized in a repository and available for analysis. FLEXnet works best with “FLEX-enabled” applications, although the technology allows other products to simulate a FLEX-enabled application.

Macrovision’s list of software-publisher customers reads like a who’s who of desktop software: Adobe, Microsoft, Cognos, Business Objects, Autodesk and more. These companies enable their products with FLEXnet license management technology, integrating it in their applications to offer more flexible licensing models such as trialware, subscription, rental, metered use, instant upgrade and usage-based pricing.

The company’s products enable software manufacturers to control—depending on how they configure their applications—unauthorized usage and copying between computers. Using a combination of encryption, machine binding and other security technologies, publishers can thwart hacking, counterfeiting and unauthorized modification of licenses. The implications are significant: This technology can eliminate manual software compliance and audits with electronic enforcement of license agreements. So why isn’t it widely used?

ECP believes that a majority of end-user organizations view license control technology as too restrictive and cumbersome when managing an enterprise’s computers distributed across the country and the world. In many cases, the trade-off for flexibility is a combination of self-imposed controls to manage compliance, and tools that block access and downloading or prohibit launching of applications. Organizations with centralized control over software distribution and more advanced software asset management programs are in a better position to take advantage of integrated license control technology, assuming that the industry behemoths Microsoft, Adobe and others were to offer it.

Daniel Greenberg, Macrovision's vice president, asserts that if customers ask for it, software publishers will enable more extensive electronic license management in their products. However, until customers develop SAM programs (i.e., consisting of tools and processes) capable of managing compliance, and until vendors enable applications with flexible license management technology, there will be no end in sight to externally imposed software audits, manual compliance processes and complicated license management. We polled a number of large-company software asset managers responsible for desktop and midrange software, and they were skeptical. They didn’t think those responsible for technical operations and support would endorse such controls. Technology, or the lack of it, isn’t really the inhibitor, it’s the organizational resistance to embrace a rigorous approach to SAM.

Peregrine Improves AssetCenter

Peregrine Systems' latest edition of AssetCenter features several enhancements that should entice users to upgrade. Released in March, version 4.4 of the IT asset management suite continues five previous modules (portfolio, contracts, financial management, procurement and cable & circuit) and adds a new software asset management (SAM) module and a repackaged charge-back module.

The SAM module includes a series of wizards to automate setup of software contracts and license-entitlement tracking, as well as predefined best practices, to ease the way for nontechnical users such as procurement and contract managers. Since version 4.3 included the charge-back component in the financial module, users upgrading from that version get the component at no extra charge. However, new users pay extra for the function.

The San Diego–based Peregrine packs other improvements into version 4.4, such audit-trail documentation, security re-authentication, lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) authentication via SSL encryption, custom performance dashboards, tracking of radio-frequency-identification tagged assets (see article "RFID Electronic Pedigree: The Likely Antidote for Counterfeit Drugs") and software usage. A new software application library improves automation and speeds up reconciliation of newly discovered and repository software data. Better software counters allow for easier tracking and reporting of license entitlements (see January 2005 Tools Manager for the end-user assessment of AssetCenter).

AssetCenter 4.4 is designed to work with Peregrine Enterprise Discovery. Version 2.0 of the discovery suite, due in early summer, will include the handy new feature of software usage tracking, which provides AssetCenter with important data for software compliance and license management. The suite will combine desktop and network discovery in one tool with an updated data-collection agent. Current users of the desktop tool will receive the new version at no additional charge when they upgrade to version 2.0 of the suite.

AssetCenter 4.4 improves usability by allowing business users to create three dashboards to display real-time information on number of contracts, total cost of contracts, and license status, on any part of a company's asset management infrastructure. Later this year Peregrine plans to add asset management reporting to its business intelligence portal, based on Business Objects technology.

Version 4.4 also beefs up security to protect your data. eSignature protects and tracks changes in status on valuable assets by unauthorized personnel. Expanded password management makes it possible to define all password-related variables.

Users planning to upgrade to the current release have more reason to do so with these incremental enhancements in AssetCenter 4.4.

ePlus Offers Solid Value in an Evolving Market

ePlus Inc. is a technology services and leasing company best known for its suite of supply-chain management tools and also offering Web-based business-to-business sourcing and financial management software. With headquarters in Herndon, Va., the company is a solid, well-funded contender in a market filled with new ventures and start-ups. Its 2,000-plus customers include the blue-chip operations Hitachi Ltd. and Georgia-Pacific, which signed agreements last year, and Towers Perrin, Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation and PepsiCo.

In 2000, the company, on revenues of $260 million, began making acquisitions to bolster its computer sales and professional software and technology services. The acquisition of DigitalPaper in October 2003 brought a Web-accessible document management solution, and Manchester Technologies last May added to the IT fulfillment and technology-sales business. In all, ePlus added five companies and $75 million in new revenues. Although the bulk of profits and sales still come from the leasing branch, software and services are now kicking in with a significant share. ePlus is well on its way to establishing itself as a provider of enterprise cost-management tools.

The company's product suite includes catalog content management, e-procurement, asset management, document imaging, document management and distribution, as well as electronic bill presentment and payment. All these components can be integrated with ePlus’s financing and leasing programs.

ePlus's strength is the flexibility to tailor a package of several of its point solutions to meet a customer's requirements. Although it would be difficult to squeeze ePlus's wide range of offerings into one category, current and prospective customers looking for an e-procurement solution will find that the company offers a robust catalog management system accessible via the Web interface with Ariba and other sourcing solutions.

Customers looking for an integrated leasing and asset management solution will find ePlus's package a strong contender. As a whole, the company has no clear direct competitor, although it faces competition in each of its product segments. ECP believes organizations looking for an integrated offering, whether a large organization with many locations looking for a single source for e-procurement or a medium-size one looking for flexibility of software delivered as a service, will find much to like about ePlus.

The company has deep pockets, is profitable and has a committed executive team, making it a good alternative in a market of venture-funded and start-up companies. Getting its patchwork of products to work together will be challenging, and it seems likely that ePlus will face rewriting its applications over the next few years to reduce complexity and improve functionality. This a common challenge for a software company that grows by acquiring best-of-breed technology. So far, ePlus seems to be delivering on its value proposition.