Flexera Software enhances FlexNet Manager Suite

Flexera Software has announced enhancements to FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises, its market leading Software Licence Optimisation solution. Among other things, the new release significantly broadens the capabilities of its SaaS-based FlexNet Manager Suite On-Demand, the industry’s most comprehensive cloud-based solution.

Broadest SaaS-based Software Licence Optimisation in the Market
FlexNet Manager Suite On-Demand, the industry’s first and most comprehensive SaaS-based Software License Optimisation solution, now provides optimisation capabilities for SAP applications, further extending leadership in the cloud for enterprises seeking an alternative to on-premises software licence management. With new optimisation capabilities for SAP named user licence and package licence management, FlexNet Manager Suite On-Demand now provides a full range of capabilities including application discovery and inventory, purchased-versus-installed reconciliation, optimisation, and reporting for the major application providers including Adobe, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and Symantec.

“FlexNet Manager Suite is without question the leader in the Software Licence Optimisation space with the broadest and deepest capabilities in the industry, said Shawn Bennett, Director, IT Asset Management & Procurement at Hearst Corporation. “Flexera Software’s offering of a robust, cloud-based version of their solution exemplifies the company’s philosophy of staying ahead of the curve by innovating to simplify deployments and ongoing management, which is exactly what customers want. We are very impressed with FlexNet Manager Suite On-Demand and view it as a strategic tool in our arsenal to reduce software spend and risk of audit penalties.”

New Tools for Customers Facing Aggressive SAP Audit Practices
In addition, FlexNet Manager Suite provides new capabilities for SAP customers facing aggressive software licence audits to help them ensure continual compliance, including:
· Visibility into Licence Ratios: Some SAP contracts stipulate a minimum ratio of Professional versus Limited Professional named user licenses. FlexNet Manager for SAP Applications now calculates both an optimal licence position based on real usage data and also a contractual licence position that takes into consideration SAP’s licence ratio requirements. Now SAP customers can optimise their named user licences while staying in compliance. It also allows them to understand the financial impact of their current contractually required licence ratios, giving them a stronger position in future SAP contract negotiations.
· Indirect Access Licence Management: SAP has been cracking down on indirect access usage of SAP systems whereby a user accesses the system through a third party application. In these indirect access cases, the user is still required to have an SAP named user licence. Indirect access is notoriously difficult for enterprises to identify, track and account for, making indirect access a huge potential liability for many SAP customers. FlexNet Manager for SAP Applications helps organisations discover instances of indirect access, and optimise the licence requirements of non-SAP system users.
· Improved Business Reporting: FlexNet Manager Platform’s Cognos business reporting model has been extended to include a range of SAP licensing concepts such as SAP systems, user accounts, roles, users and much more. This enables FlexNet Manager for SAP Applications customers to build business reports that meet the needs of their organisation.

“We see many enterprises running SAP confronted with audits and questions surrounding indirect access licences,” said R "Ray" Wang, Principal Analyst and Chairman at Constellation Research. “SAP’s licensing rules remain quite complicated and extremely difficult to track and optimise without the aid of automated tools. Enterprises running SAP applications should consider implementing Software Licence Optimisation solutions capable of tracking direct and indirect access in order to reduce risk of SAP audit penalties and to identify opportunities for cost savings to fund innovation.”
FlexNet Manager Suite also includes the following additional enhancements:
· Licence Change Review Alerts: Software vendors frequently change their licensing rules, creating software licence compliance risk and/or new opportunities for potential cost savings. FlexNet Manager Suite now provides alerts and recommendations when changes to a software vendor’s licensing rules (e.g. changes to an application’s product use rights) may have an impact on existing software licences, helping ensure that the organisation’s licence position is always optimised.
· Support for Dassault Systems License Server: FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications adds support for the Dassault Systems Licence Server (DSLS). Dassault is moving away from IBM’s LUM licence server to their own DSLS in 2014. Support for Dassault now allows customer testing of the new DSLS licensing technology to begin. FlexNet Manager for Engineering Apps allows customers to track licence usage and optimise licences for Dassault applications, such as CATIA and SOLIDWORKS, which use DSLS.

“In delivering our software licence optimisation managed services to our clients, it is essential that the technology solutions we use are flexible, robust and reliable while offering the deepest set of capabilities to reduce software spend across the vendor landscape,” said Michael Adams, Director at KPMG LLP. “FlexNet Manager Suite is without a doubt a highly capable and functional solution. The enhancements announced today will help drive further value for our clients by making it easier to uncover potential compliance risk and unneeded software spend.”

“Software licensing is extremely complex, so managing compliance and spend is a huge challenge for enterprises. Customers want assurances that regardless of how software licensing rules may change in the future, and regardless of how the technology changes, they are protected and will still be able to reduce their licence compliance risk and control software costs,” said Alan Swahn, Vice President of Product Management at Flexera Software. “The latest release of FlexNet Manager Suite provides a range of new capabilities that no one else in the industry can match to help our customers ensure they’re buying only the software they need, and using what they have.”