IBM Boosts Software Discovery Line by Acquiring Isogon
The Horizon Brightens for Peregrine Systems
CA Readies New Release of Unicenter Argis for Fall
Keep Accurate Invoices to Prove Ownership of Software Licenses
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IBM Boosts Software Discovery Line by Acquiring Isogon
IBM announced in June an agreement to acquire Isogon Corp., a maker of software asset management (SAM) tools for mainframe and UNIX platforms, for an undisclosed price. The deal, expected to close in the third quarter subject to regulatory approval, should allow IBM to expand the software-discovery market share of its huge software unit, Tivoli Software.
IBM has had a marketing relationship with New York-based Isogon since 1997, including a deal to resell Isogon products since mid-2004. IBM already uses Isogon's SoftAudit in its global services business and will now be able to leverage SoftAudit's mainframe discovery and usage technology across many product lines. Demand for SAM tools is strong among Tivoli’s mainframe customers, and this deal significantly strengthens the Tivoli line: SoftAudit for z/OS auto-discovers mainframe software assets and performs usage monitoring and measurement. It will become Tivoli License Manager for z/OS. Isogon Vista, a full-featured contract management tool (reviewed in Technology Asset Manager, January 2005), will become Tivoli License Manager for Contract Compliance. SoftAudit for UNIX will be integrated into Tivoli’s License Manager for Distributed Systems. Isogon’s mainframe tools SPIFFY, TICTOC and InterSession will be absorbed into combined offerings.
This deal demonstrates IBM’s continued commitment to its zSeries, and recognition of growing demand for software usage, monitoring and license-management tools. However, IBM's sales force faces some challenges. ECP's studies of IT asset and software management practices reveal that less than 80 percent of organizations demonstrate a significant maturity level for software asset management. Software usage tools, a basic component of SAM programs, are reported as important or very important by only 45 percent of users. This is probably because such tools are customarily controlled by technical managers and not widely used throughout a company due to perceived difficulty. In addition, usage information is hard to integrate into existing repositories.
Nevertheless, we foresee growth, eventually, in the number of larger-system programs, as technical and IT business managers better understand the business benefits of software asset management. The bigger challenge, for IBM and other tool vendors, is to extract usage information from multiple computing platforms, integrate it into contract and asset manager repositories and present it in a meaningful way to the IT business or contract manager. Few tools do this seamlessly (those that do are limited to a single computing platform), leaving end users wrestling with data from multiple systems and software licensing models.
The Horizon Brightens for Peregrine Systems
The sun is shining again on Peregrine Systems. More than 700 customers and partners attended the company's Synergy global users conference in Las Vegas in June, to get information on new products and industry trends, to network and learn how to get more out of their investments in Peregrine's premium products. Many customers said they planned to upgrade to the latest versions of AssetCenter (v4.4) and ServiceCenter (v6.1), a sign that Peregrine is succeeding in its efforts to hold the line, or better, in the face of strong competition.
The company's prospects are markedly brighter than during the gloomy days of 2002, when the company filed for bankruptcy. To turn the corner, management realized the company needed to maintain its product-maintenance renewal rates and revenue stream, while working on a timetable for new products. To quell customer concerns about its viability, the company leveraged the reputations of high-profile business partners IBM Global Services, IBM’s Tivoli Software unit, BearingPoint, Protiviti and a network of smaller partners and resellers.
“Peregrine will continue to focus on large-enterprise customers, providing tools and services to meet the more challenging and complex demands of this group,” says Jim Zierick, the company’s senior vice president of strategy, marketing and corporate development. Zierick says he wants customers to see Peregrine as the smarter alternative—a company with clear product guidance and industry thought-leadership (e.g., tools built around ITIL® best practices, analytics and software asset management). The company reports success with its maturity-assessment services, focused around helping customers assess their asset, service, risk and software management programs.
With a new release of ServiceCenter under its belt, Peregrine plans a major update to AssetCenter, with version 5 coming in the fall. Peregrine product managers report that AssetCenter 5 (not available for ECP to review at publication time) will have an updated user interface and Web client, allowing it to compete head-on with fully Web-deployed products from MRO Software, Computer Associates and BMC. Also in development, for release in mid-2006, is an advanced reporting analytics and modeling tool dubbed DecisionCenter, to help customers maximize the value of asset and service management data. For example, customers will be able to associate service outages with assets and time-to-fix, helping IT managers determine costs associated with downtime and operating different classes of assets (e.g., laptops, printers or servers).
On the downside, Peregrine's user group program appears to have lost momentum. The success of Synergy 2005 could give new impetus to the program to build on the past year's hard-fought successes, ensuring that customers continue to take note of Peregrine.
AssetCenter (version 4) is reviewed in the Tools Manager™ end user assessment published in January, 2005.
CA Readies New Release of Unicenter Argis for Fall
Computer Associates (CA) has a major update in the works for its asset management suite, featuring significant improvements, and dropping the "Argis" from its name, compared with previous versions. With a new look, functions and technical architecture, Unicenter Asset Portfolio Management r11 is in its third beta release at about a dozen customers and should come out later this year. Preliminary reports indicate that it packs enough enhancements to merit the upgrade.
R11 supports a common management database (MDB), CA’s version of a configuration management database. This makes it simpler to input and share data via standard tables throughout CA’s multi-product family. The other suite products, including software delivery, discovery and service desk tools, must also be version r11 to share data via the MDB.
R11's new Microsoft .Net-based Web client drops the previous Windows client. It offers many significant improvements over previous versions, including full administrative functions and Web deployability. We give the interface high marks for its modern, uncluttered feel, much better than the version 8 Web and Windows clients.
Role-based user profiles (e.g., administrator, casual user, executive and power user) offer built-in capability to filter, present and access data, and customize screen views. Administrators can define and create fields for new asset types and add customizable fields to the repository, all fully upgradeable with future releases.
A common complaint about asset and service management tools is a lack of meaningful reporting. Given the diversity in customers’ needs, it’s almost impossible for vendors to provide standard reports that meet anything but the most general requirements. BMC/Remedy, MRO, and now CA, have jettisoned most report functions, focusing on advanced search and data export. Unicenter Asset Portfolio Management takes this a step further with a data warehouse-type application. Queries can be built, saved, refreshed and published to the Web using the CleverPath Reporter. Any report-writer tool can display the data.
R11 includes new software compliance and reconciliation functions. Customers with Unicenter Asset Management discovery tool and Asset Portfolio Management can prepopulate the software-definitions tables, relieving the end user of much of the task of mapping files to product names. Customers can also set up and save software and hardware mapping rules with a newly designed rules engine. Data import and reconciliation are tricky undertakings. We’ll report end-user testing and acceptance ratings for these new features, once the results are in later this year.
The migration to r11 will be a big one. CA says it will provide a data-migration utility to move data to the new database and that its Advantage Data Transformer (ADT) should ease the task of transforming data in the current release to the r11 release. Due to limits on data and database customization in earlier Argis versions, there is less to convert, although scripts and connections to external systems will need to be reviewed for modification. The .Net platform and ADT should also make future upgrades easier.
Unicenter Argis Portfolio Asset Management (version 8) is reviewed in the Tools Manager™ end user assessment published in February, 2005.
By Robert J. Scott, Scott & Scott, LLP
Many people mistakenly believe that a license agreement, manual and a copy of software media are sufficient to prove ownership of a software product. However, in the event of an audit, trade associations or software publishers do not accept any of these as proof of ownership. To prove ownership, auditors want a dated proof of purchase.Companies should keep dated invoices to ensure passing audits, but sometimes packing slips or other dated documentation will suffice. Additionally, many software resellers (e.g., ASAP Software, Software Spectrum and Softchoice) have online license management capabilities that can be used to demonstrate ownership. If a company presents a proof of purchase in response to a request for a self audit, the date must precede that of the initial audit letter.
In the case of a company with many entities with different names, the proof of purchase should be issued to the named entity that will own the hardware or software. Centralized buying arrangements in which one company entity makes purchases for all the others may present complications when it comes time to demonstrate ownership, if only one entity is audited.
It is also important to review invoices for hardware, because these often do not specifically list all software products pre-installed on computers. Companies receiving incomplete invoices need to promptly contact the vendor for replacement invoices listing all software products, including version.
If a company purchases an upgrade license, it needs to retain the invoice for the underlying product. For instance, if a company buys a copy of Adobe Acrobat 5.0 and then purchases an upgrade to Acrobat 6.0, both invoices must be retained to prove ownership of the upgraded version.
Compiling proper proof of software licenses is the most time-consuming aspect of responding to a software audit. Following these guidelines will reduce audit-response costs and increase the chances of a favorable outcome.
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