Innovative Software Utilization Data Saves $100K and Spurs Organizational Change

The Customer 

This customer is a Mid-Size Environmental Engineering and Consulting company based in the West of the United States, providing a range of engineering, science, and construction services focused on environmental sustainability across the US.  

Limited by License Utilization Guesswork  

In the past, the company struggled to determine its licensing needs for various purposes during budget cycles. License quantities were questioned based on the lack of data and, therefore, the difficulty of understanding if they were being utilized.  

To solve the challenge, they tried out a software metering platform to track application consumption. However, the data was highly inaccurate regarding software usage, installation status, and user allocation. Their Director of Digital Services Support reported that these struggles led them in search of a SAM platform to give them the data they needed. 

“We became increasingly aware of our license underutilization and started to search for a SAM platform. As most of our services had transitioned to the cloud, we wanted it to be cloud-agnostic and provide usage and metering data irrespective of the cloud provider.” 

Avoiding Unnecessary Software Purchases with Granular Application Data 

The enterprise deployed Xensam company-wide to manage various projects and business units.  

“Now, we have a robust platform that looks at every application we own. It gives us usage and entitlements, plus we can add cost centers and examine the total cost of the computer software as well.” 

With insight into actual consumption down to the minute, licenses can be reassigned appropriately to support licensing optimization efforts as the organization grows. 

“We monitor usage closely. If someone isn't using their license, we reassign it to someone who needs it until the need for a new license is demonstrated. This saves us money by avoiding unnecessary software purchases.” 

Besides utilizing several user seats, the company also facilitates self-service reporting for the finance department so they can access the necessary information. 

Software Cost Avoidance Enables New Investments  

With access to quality usage data, the company has avoided $50,000 to $100,000 in software costs after the initial implementation.  

“This is just the initial impact, and we plan to expand its implementation throughout the business to explore more applications. Now, we’re potentially looking into hiring someone specializing in software asset management to expand our focus in that area.” 

Support Change Management Across the Organization 

Greater insight into utilization information enables data-driven communication around software co-management, co-authoring, and change management across the organization. 
 

“Our team supports all the company's hardware, software, incident management, and ITSM. We work closely with our finance and procurement teams to manage licensing and make informed decisions about when to purchase new licenses and entitlements.” 

The department is also responsible for investigating software provisioning across departments.
  

“Change management is crucial for our organization, and we rely on metrics to support our decisions. Presenting metrics during discussions about software reallocation or licensing adjustments helps to facilitate agreements.”  

Minimal Impact on Device Performance  

Before, the company faced negative impacts from the metering agent's high resource consumption. The CPU and memory demand on the endpoints led to complaints about computer performance. With Xensam’s lightweight agent, they can gather extensive, high-quality data with minimal impact on computer performance.
 

“I initially thought it might slow down once we added all our endpoints, but it still runs fast. We consistently monitor CPU and memory utilization on the endpoints, and Xupervisor has one of the lowest numbers among the systems we have deployed.” 

Swift Support for Custom Development and Application Recognition  

The swiftness of support also stood out when ensuring that their daily use of the platform was smooth.   

“The support team is very responsive and fast to reply to queries. If the web application doesn't exist, you can contact Support, and they will add it for you.” 

The company has also benefitted from the custom development tailored to suit their needs. 

“The engineering team quickly provides custom builds for reporting or other tasks when needed. They're swift to get things done.” 

Conclusion

With reliable and extensive software intelligence, this organization has comprehensively optimized its licensing position and significantly cut costs on underutilized applications. Beyond operational benefits, the data they get is vital in supporting change management efforts, supporting buy-in on digital initiatives with real-time data, and building bridges between departments.