SCHAUMBURG, IL and MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA--(Marketwire - Jun 25, 2012) - Flexera Software, the leading provider of Application Usage Management solutions for application producers and enterprises, announced today that CitiPower and Powercor Australia have selected FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises as their Enterprise License Optimization solution of choice. FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises provides entitlement based license management and optimization to enable organizations to reduce ongoing software licensing costs and maintain continuous license optimization and compliance.
CitiPower supplies electricity to more than 310,000 distribution customers in Melbourne's CBD and inner suburbs. Powercor Australia is Victoria's largest electricity distributor, which supplies electricity to 700,000 customers in regional and rural centers in central and western Victoria, and Melbourne's outer western suburbs. Previously, CitiPower and Powercor had been trying to manage their software estate by reconciling software inventory data from widely disparate systems including their CMDB, spreadsheet data and physical purchase orders, to derive a report on its software compliance position.
With more than 2,000 devices running in excess of 2,000 applications, the situation became untenable, requiring tremendous time and manpower simply to prepare for and defend against the regular onslaught of software license audits coming from software vendors. "You don't anticipate the sheer volume of work that comes from having to manually assemble and combine data to get accurate reports," said Paull Charman, software asset management specialist at CitiPower and Powercor Australia. "Our decision-making was too manual and subjective, and relied on people having to make decisions without the facts. We needed live statistics that could give us continual insight into what's happening with our software licensing."
CitiPower and Powercor undertook a formal search process to find a comprehensive solution, and ultimately selected FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises. Key to CitiPower and Powercor's decision was Flexera Software's market leadership position in enterprise license optimization. Moreover, FlexNet Manager for Enterprise's stock keeping unit (SKU) library, application recognition library and product use rights library, which together enable CitiPower and Powercor to go beyond simply inventorying their deployed applications and obtain clear visibility into actual usage -- enable reconciliation against the application use rights found in CitiPower and Powercor's licensing agreements. "There is a tremendous amount of intellectual property in those libraries," said Charman. "They represent work already done that we don't have to do ourselves and are the key to unlocking insights that help us ensure continuous compliance and realize savings."
CitiPower and Powercor engaged with Flexera Software's professional services group to handle the implementation. Their goal was to ensure the system covered all applications used on ten or more machines, which amounted to optimizing software spend for 160 applications. They also wanted insight into unused applications that would allow them to "re-harvest" those licenses for more productive use -- rather than purchasing new, unneeded licenses. And while CitiPower and Powercor generally have not had significant compliance issues -- they wanted a more efficient and less costly process to prove the company's good faith. "It was critical that we're able to pull this information together quickly, and to defend ourselves with confidence in an audit situation," said Charman.
Understanding its "optimized" position would also make it easy to see where CitiPower and Powercor have over-utilized (out of compliance) and under-utilized (shelfware) its software. "FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises is so customizable, and gives you so much information that decisions are now simple. We get data instantly and know if we can re-harvest or need to acquire new licenses. It's much easier to make buying decisions."
As CitiPower and Powercor expands use of the solution to cover all of its targeted applications, Charman is also looking to see how FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises' contract management and workflow capabilities can provide additional value to the company. "We're looking for even deeper benefits, such as moving our contracts and budgets away from spreadsheets to a more managed environment where we can stay on top of payment schedules, expirations and the like," added Charman. "Currently, I'm also bound with day-to-day approvals and inconsistencies with how we process requests -- so I'm looking to add automation into workflow for decision-making."
The company has also taken special interest in Flexera Software's recent launch of App Portal for an employee self-service app store. "This is very appealing to us because we're looking for a one-stop shop that drives workflows and installation," said Charman.
While CitiPower and Powercor have not done a formal ROI analysis on the significant cost-cutting and efficiency savings enjoyed to date -- the impact of their enterprise license optimization efforts is high-profile and has been recognized by management. "We're a privatized former government utility. We need to ensure we're in compliance -- there's a big push to get software asset management and license optimization going," said Charman.
Resources:
FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises includes the following components:
- FlexNet Manager Platform
- FlexNet Manager for Microsoft
- FlexNet Manager for Adobe
- FlexNet Manager for IBM
- FlexNet Manager for Symantec
- FlexNet Manager for SAP Business Suite
- FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications
- Workflow Manager
- Learn more about App Portal
- Read our Blog on Enterprise License Optimization
- FlexNet Manager Suite Success Stories
- Related Flexera Software Webinars
- Enterprise License Optimization White Papers
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About Flexera Software
Flexera Software is the leading provider of strategic solutions for Application Usage Management; solutions delivering continuous compliance, optimized usage and maximized value to application producers and their customers. Flexera Software is trusted by more than 80,000 customers that depend on our comprehensive solutions -- from installation and licensing, entitlement and compliance management to application readiness and enterprise license optimization -- to strategically manage application usage and achieve breakthrough results realized only through the systems-level approach we provide. For more information, please go to: www.flexerasoftware.com.
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For more information, contact:
John Lipsey
+1 (224) 465-9139