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Flexera Software has announced the findings of a new survey, jointly prepared with International Data Corporation (IDC), on global software vendors. The survey reveals that nearly half of enterprise software vendors are looking at new licencing models to accommodate changing market needs, as perpetual licencing models come under fire.

The "Internet of Things" is a phrase used to describe how the internet will link traditional smart devices, and a wide range of additional physical assets to allow these endpoints to generate and share data. Nearly every product will have an IP address and communication capability — not just networking and telecommunications devices, but also industrial equipment such as buildings, medical devices, test and measurement systems, construction equipment, and oil and gas machinery, to name a few — that will link to other devices and services via the web. Gartner forecasts there will be more than 30 billion permanently connected devices by 2020 and more than 200 billion intermittently connected devices by that time.

Interesting study published recently, the company Flexera. Research on how much and how companies are spending on software, and most importantly how they manage software, licenses and rights to it. At the request of the researchers interviewed 334 respondents from the U.S., Europe and Australia, among whom more than half working in companies with annual revenues of more than a billion dollars. 41% of companies plan to increase spending on software in the coming years, an average of 20-30% of the budget for the purchase of the software license. (This article has been translated to English from Russian by Google Translate)

Most companies go bust within the first five years of operation. Either nothing comes of them, or their founders struggle to win much business and much of an income from their brainchild.But software companies, it seems, never go bust. Many may have been started but never emerged from the bedroom in which they were founded. Yet once established, even software vendors like Novell can limp on in seeming perpetuity

The company Comparex, IT solutions provider in Russia, completed the project implementation methodology and software asset management system for the St. Petersburg Energy Retail Company "Energy Holding." In order to optimize process management software, it was decided to use a specialized tool and methodology of Software Asset Management (SAM) based on the international standard ISO-19770, CNews reported in the company. (This article has been translated to English from Russian by Google Translate)

Although businesses are currently investing heavily in software, a significant portion of that new technology investment is being wasted and even mismanaged, according to a new study by software license optimisation vendor, Flexera Software.

The proliferation of enterprise software over the last twenty years has contributed more to accelerate efficiencies and cost savings within companies than nearly any other innovation. Indeed software has been so successful in transforming organisations into lean competing machines, that many organisations credit automation and efficiencies gained through software as helping them weather the downturn and emerge stronger than before.

On behalf of the DoD Enterprise Software Initiative (DoD ESI), the Department of the Navy SPAWARSYSCEN Pacific Code 55390 and the Naval Supply Systems Command, Weapon Systems Support, Mechanicsburg, Pa., have awarded blanket purchase agreements (BPAs) with DLT Solutions and Immix Group for Flexera Software's IT Asset Management software. Flexera Software provides technology that supports application producers and enterprises in increasing application usage and the value they derive from their licensed software.

A significant percentage of organizations will increase their software budgets for the indefinite future, according to a recent survey from Flexera Software. However, there's also an alarming rise of "shelfware," indicating that too much money is spent on tools that end up under-utilized, or get abandoned. Given that the total market for packaged software has been estimated at $325 billion, under-utilized software is getting to be an expensive problem.

Have you purchased software on a whim or according to company policy, even when you didn't need it for a particular use, and it has just ended up on a shelf gathering dust?

Businesses spending big on new software could be wasting a significant portion of their tech investment, with many left holding unused software.

Companies are investing heavily in software systems designed to increase efficiency. Nearly half (44 percent) of businesses recently surveyed said their software budgets will increase over the next 18 to 24 months. But a significant portion of that new tech investment is being wasted, the survey found.

Businesses are wasting more than 10% of their software budgets on products that are never used.

Supporting growth and innovation during times of economic uncertainty means CIOs are under pressure to do more with less. Investment in technology, specifically software, has been a failsafe way to ensure that their businesses continue to be lean, but remain efficient. However, a new Flexera Software Survey, prepared jointly with IDC, highlights that over 56% of the enterprises polled said that 11% or more of their software spend in the last 12 months is associated with un-used software, commonly known as 'shelfware'.

In our last two features, we looked at the range of cloud-based services now available, and then focused on the implications of these cloud services for enterprise storage. With corporate IT provision being so much about managing hardware and license assets, the move towards the cloud has had a significant impact on keeping track of what your company has at its disposal, and ensuring you use your assets economically is key to keeping your costs low and your productivity high. This is where Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) comes in, which is the primary topic of this third and final feature in the series.

Peter Prestele will be focused on accelerating growth and scaling business within software vendor, intelligent device manufacturer and enterprise markets across the EMEA region.

The "consumerization of IT" movement is causing concern for IT professionals. Employees are looking for their company to provide them with access to the technology they use at home. Some of the biggest concerns IT professionals have surrounding this trend is with cost and the loss of control over company assets.

Peter Prestele has joined Flexera Software as Senior Vice President & General Manager, EMEA. Before Flexera, he was EMEA General Manager for SuccessFactors and previously with HP, Mercury Interactive, and IBM Europe.

Although virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is well recognized, up until now, the technology has over-promised and under-delivered. Many IT departments, lured by better resource utilization and cost savings, have had their fingers burnt as a consequence of adopting a 'lock stock and barrel' approach to VDI projects. For many companies, the project has actually negatively affected users' ability to do their jobs, in turn resulting in outright rejection of the implementation.

Consumer demand for intelligent devices and components based on embedded software shows no signs of slowing down. The challenge for manufacturers is to produce families of these devices in a variety of market-specific configurations, without increasing production costs. In these situations, the use of embedded licensing to distinguish product configurations provides a means for doing just that.

Gartner made headlines recently with its prediction that 25 per cent of organisations will have their own 'app store' by 2017. While this forecast is not outside the realms of possibility, will these app stores be a success? Delivering an iTune-like experience in the enterprise will require a lot of preparation, planning and stringent controls for execution and management.

Analyst house Gartner's recent prediction that 25 per cent of organisations will have their own 'app store' by 2017 has caught the attention of many, but IT professionals and executives have a lot to prepare before they can successfully roll out their enterprise app stores. This perhaps hasn't been highlighted enough.

Application Usage Management company Flexera Software has been added to the US Department of Defense (DOD) list of approved providers for IT Asset Management.

US federal defense agencies can now use FlexNet Manager Suite to help implement new Software License Optimization provision in the National Defense Authorization Act.

Software license compliance audits are an established industry practice by which vendors are allowed to investigate customers' actual software usage, and seek additional compensation in the form of a "true-up" penalty if use exceeds licensing terms. According to Flexera Software's 2012 Software Pricing and Licensing Survey, prepared jointly with IDC, software vendors are continuing to exercise their rights to audit their customers and true-up. 64% of enterprises reported that they have been audited over the last 18-24 months. And large enterprises (those with greater than $1billion in revenue) were audited three times or more over the same period. Moreover, 24% of enterprises said their total true-up paid over the past year was more than $1 million.

Gartner thinks enterprises are headed for a world dominated by apps stores but there are pitfalls along the way. The news that 25 percent of enterprises will be relying on corporate apps stores by 2017 is a strong indication that the world of work is going to be very different in future.

With global corporate spending on software reaching unprecedented levels, businesses are increasingly facing the challenge of how to manage software assets effectively. Many are failing to meet this challenge, resulting not only in wasted expenditure on too many or the wrong type of software licence, but also in increased charges and penalties levied by software vendors for breach of licence terms.

Companies are clamoring for new and flexible software licensing models, such as subscription-based licensing and usage-based licensing, to replace outdated models, according to a new survey from Flexera Software. For years, enterprises have been growing increasingly dissatisfied with traditional models, such as perpetual licensing with annual maintenance fees. The good news is enterprise software vendors are beginning to listen, and have started giving customers what they ask for.

A recent survey reveals that both software producers and buyers think that the cost of their software licenses do not indicate their true value. Producers tweak licensing policies to earn more revenue in tough times, but this does not make many CFOs smile as they grapple with often complex licensing terms.

It goes without saying that sound procurement policy requires agencies to purchase only what they need and use only what they have. Anything more equals waste and cannot be tolerated in this time of austerity and budget cuts. But how can the government procure effectively if it doesn't know how much of a particular mission-critical asset it needs, how much it has and how much it uses?

The value perception gap that exists between software buyers and sellers could explain, in part, the growing diversity of software pricing and licensing models being demanded by enterprises – and offered by software application producers. Nearly one quarter (24%) of software application producers surveyed (in Flexera Software's 2012 Software Pricing and Licensing Survey, prepared jointly with IDC) believe that their licensing and pricing strategies are either ineffective or very ineffective in capturing the true value they deliver in their products. In contrast, enterprises indicated most frequently they are either unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with the price-to-value of their ERP software (25%), database software (22%) and CRM software (20%).

The value perception gap that exists between software buyers and sellers could explain, in part, the growing diversity of software pricing and licensing models being demanded by enterprises – and offered by software application producers. Nearly one quarter (24%) of software application producers surveyed (in Flexera Software's 2012 Software Pricing and Licensing Survey, prepared jointly with IDC) believe that their licensing and pricing strategies are either ineffective or very ineffective in capturing the true value they deliver in their products. In contrast, enterprises indicated most frequently they are either unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with the price-to-value of their ERP software (25%), database software (22%) and CRM software (20%).

The "consumerisation of IT" movement is exploding - fueled by the rising expectations of employees who want access to the same types of technology at work as they get at home. We're in the early, 'wild west' days of this trend, however, which is worrying many IT professionals who are concerned, among other things, about costs and the loss of control over IT assets.

Shipping and logistics giant Møller-Maersk says it has now got its IT asset management (ITAM) in order and has saved "millions of dollars" in the process.

Møller-Maersk has signed a new multi-year contract with Flexera Software
Shipping and logistics giant Mller-Maersk says it has now got its IT asset management (ITAM) in order and has saved "millions of dollars" in the process.

Agency IT managers know all too well the complexity of managing thousands of PCs, mobile devices, servers, network nodes, and all the attendant software licenses and upgrades. The task can be overwhelming, but asset management tools such as BDNA's Technopedia and Flexera Software's FlexNet Manager Suite give agencies the ability to collect, categorize and assess any software, hardware or virtual device attached to their networks.

Møller-Maersk has signed a new multi-year contract with Flexera Software.
Shipping and logistics giant Møller-Maersk says it has now got its IT asset management (ITAM) in order and has saved "millions of dollars" in the process.

Waste in software license procurement and management is well documented. The recent 2012 Key Trends in Software Pricing and Licensing Survey, prepared by Flexera Software with assistance from IDC, shines a light on some of the true costs of software-spending waste. According to the survey, 38 percent of organizations indicated that 11 percent or more of their application spend was associated with out of compliance use, up from 26 percent one year ago. Likewise, 56 percent of organizations said that 11 percent or more of their application spend was for under-used software (shelfware), up from 49 percent last year.

What if you were able to try out driverless features in your car for one month at no charge? If you liked it a lot, you could buy an annual subscription. When your subscription runs out, you could renew it through your smartphone. On a weekend, you might want to upgrade the driverless feature from "commuter style" to "race track style", and be driven at breakneck speeds on a racetrack.