In the course of developing a software license compliance reporting program, the objective of optimization will uncover the need to review and measure data quality. The attributes that impact a license position are typically not controlled by a Service Management program or Security initiatives. They are attributes that are specific to software license metrics. The mitigation of gaps uncovered usually involve systemic changes to service management processes. Knowing and therefore measuring these attributes allows the required time, effort and funding to improve the quality of the data that will enable the optimization of a license position.
IT Asset Management
It all starts with knowing what’s in your IT ecosystem. Flexera One discovers even the most elusive assets whether on-prem, SaaS, cloud, containers and more.
Here are 12 key inventory and asset performance metrics to consider during the implementation of your a Software Asset Management solution. Getting these 12 metrics right takes you to the state where you can begin to “trust the data.”
| Metric | Action | |
| 1 | Assets “active” without inventory | Review service management processes to reduce the time between when assets are created and updated with the time inventory is started and stopped. Also review the procedures that update the asset attributes for all asset categories and that license impacting data is filled in and accurate |
| 2 | Assets “inactive” with inventory | |
| 3 | Assets without enterprise groups (reporting) | |
| 4 | Assets without lifecycle status (“In use” versus “Retired”) | |
| 5 | Assets without roles (environments) | |
| 6 | Inventory without assets | |
| 7 | Inventory older than say 60 days consuming a license | |
| 8 | Inventory missing IP address, domain, operating system, CPU, or a MAC address | Review inventory for accuracy, completeness and saturation. |
| 9 | Serial numbers that are bad (blank, duplicate, blacklisted) | |
| 10 | Inventory of user-based applications with no user or inactive user | |
| 11 | Virtual machines with no host information | |
| 12 | Software installation evidence without an Application | Establish procedures to review inventory after ARL updates, adapter updates and platform updates for new or expanded product counts |
It is important to consider what metrics are important right from the start, which will establish a baseline and determine revised processes to mitigate each gap. The SLO Practice Guide found at Flexera’s Learning Center (login required) suggests the implementation steps related to metrics as follows:
| Stage | KPI Actions |
| 0: Pre-engagement | KPI selection. Are the dozen selected enough? |
| 1: Initial Insight | Manually collect the data. Establish the KPI baseline. Determine a hosting platform for the metrics. Determine the routing of tickets to mitigate each data quality incident. |
| 2: Initial Position | Begin collecting the KPI data via scheduled scripts and posting to the dashboard. Begin the KPI gap analysis and ticket creation. |
| 3: Refined Position | Automatically create tickets for incidents related to gaps in the KPIs. |
Want to learn more about metrics? Be sure to read Chris Grinton’s blog post: Track these software asset management program metrics for success.
