Flexera Software Announces Industry's First End-to-End Software Asset Management Strategy Leveraging Software Tags

One challenge around software asset management has been the difficulty of accurately identifying and cataloging what software is currently installed on an organization's systems. The ISO 19770-2 application tagging standard enables the authoritative identification of applications on a device through the inclusion of a tag file with the application. The tag file contains accurate descriptive information on the application (publisher, name, version, etc.) and simplifies the software asset management task by enabling the collection and analysis of the tags to provide an accurate application inventory. Adoption of the ISO 19770-2 tagging standards has been lackluster, largely because of the absence of automated tools for creating software tags. By enabling application producers to easily create tags as part of the software installation process and enabling enterprises to create, edit and use tags for software asset management purposes, Flexera Software will significantly advance software asset management best practices.

"The industry was caught in a chicken and egg scenario. Enterprises couldn't leverage ISO standards to improve their license management capabilities because there was no easy and automated way to create software tags, so they haven't been widely used," said Randy Littleson, senior vice president of product management at Flexera Software. "We're breaking that logjam and further assisting companies to realize software asset management benefits by delivering the tools needed by both application producers and enterprises to fully leverage the power and promise of software tagging."

Simplifying Tagging for Application Producers

Ultimately, application producers must massively adopt the ISO 19770-2 standards for tagging to go mainstream. Flexera Software is paving the way for this to occur. On August 23, 2011, Flexera Software announced enhancements to InstallShield 2012, including tools to create ISO 19770-2 software identification tags as part of the installation development process. Implemented by thousands of software vendors globally on more than 500 million desktops - InstallShield 2012 is used nearly ubiquitously by application producers, and it is now tooled to enable them to quickly and efficiently add software tags to their applications. Support will also be extended to applications developed for Unix, Linux, Mac and IBM iSeries in Q1 of 2012 with an upcoming enhancement to InstallAnywhere , Flexera Software's market-leading multi-platform installation development solution.

"Application producers want to help improve customers' overall experience with their products - and software tagging will certainly do that," commented Littleson. "But producers had no quick and easy way to automatically generate ISO-compliant tags. Now that automation exists, facilitating a better customer experience by including software tags is a no-brainer for producers."

Solving the Repackaged Application Identification Dilemma

Today when applications are repackaged, deployed, and installed on client computer end-points within an enterprise, the identifying evidence, or fingerprints, are lost or obfuscated. The backend software asset management tools then struggle to properly identify the installed applications. Flexera Software will solve this industry problem with its Q1 2012 release of AdminStudio 11 - Flexera Software's market-leading Application Readiness solution for automated software packaging, Windows 7 and virtualization compatibility testing. AdminStudio 11 will allow enterprises to automatically add ISO 19770-2 compliant tags to repackaged applications and preserve the original publisher information that will enable applications to be identified after installation.

"We're now empowering enterprises to enhance their software asset management and license optimization efforts immediately without having to wait for software vendors to adopt the ISO 19770-2 standard," said Littleson. "The long standing industry problem of identifying repackaged applications after deployment and installation has finally been solved through the application of software tags in the repackaging process and 'tag-aware' software asset management solutions."

Better Software Asset Management and Optimization Through Tagging Support

Ultimately, enterprises benefit when software tags can be used to support their software asset management and software license optimization efforts. To ensure this, Flexera Software's FlexNet Manager Platform will be enhanced for its next release in December, 2011, to provide software tag discovery and inventory support that adhere to the ISO 19770-2 standard. This capability augments the Platform's Application Recognition Library that already allows it to recognize more than 100,000 applications from 11,000 software vendors. Organizations employing the FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises to manage and optimize their software estates will be able to leverage the value of software tags in their software asset management and license optimization processes.

"The ultimate vision of the ISO 19770-2 standards body was to improve the accuracy and reduce the difficulty around software identification," said Littleson. "While the standards provide the path to improved accuracy, we're providing the vehicle - automated tools - to get organizations to the goal line."

Resources:

• Learn more about SoftSummit
• Learn more about Flexera Software AdminStudio
• Learn more about FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises
• Learn More about InstallShield
• Related Flexera Software Webinars
• Related Flexera Software White Papers