Flexera Software, the leading provider of next-generation software licensing, compliance and installation solutions for application producers and enterprises today announced a new release of FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises, the industry-leading Software License Optimisation solution. The latest release offers streamlined functionality and robust new administration tools helping deliver rapid time to value and ROI while also extending product depth and breadth.
"As the need for Software License Optimisation grows and the market for solutions matures, organisations are increasingly focused on realising its benefits more quickly. Yet they don't want light-weight products with limited features, functionality or investment protection as a trade-off for ease of use," said Ed Rossi, Vice President, Product Management at Flexera Software. "There's a consensus among industry analysts that FlexNet Manager Suite is the most comprehensive Software License Optimisation solution on the market offering best-in-class features to ensure continual software license compliance and optimisation. And as this release demonstrates, we are also committed to delivering the fastest value to customers and providing an unparalleled user experience."
FlexNet Manager Suite 2015 R2 contains myriad enhancements designed to accelerate ROI and ensure that teams of all sizes and experience levels can implement the system easily and deliver savings and operational efficiencies with it. Those enhancements include tools to simplify what could otherwise be complicated, manual processes to discover software asset and inventory data from other systems and leverage it for compliance and optimisation purposes. Examples include:
Simplified and more efficient direct Oracle database discovery via the FlexNet Manager inventory agent, used to collect critical information on each database - such as usage for options and management packs or E-Business Suite applications. The ability to interrogate Oracle databases using only operating system credentials means administrators no longer have to provide credentials to each Oracle system, saving substantial time and resources to achieve Oracle license compliance and optimisation.
A new out-of-the-box Hewlett Packard Universal Discovery Adapter (HP-UD) providing efficient import of software and hardware inventory data for license compliance and optimisation purposes.
FlexNet Manager Suite 2015 R2 also offers a number of enhancements designed to simplify administration, ensure that data is correctly imported into the system, and improve ease of use - further accelerating ROI. Examples include:
Improved system monitoring capabilities for a range of critical activities - discovery, inventory, data import and license reconciliation, to name a few - that allow operators to see all the details of background processes to help ensure data traceability and demonstrate the accuracy of the results. Automated alerts are triggered if a data import operation stops working, for example, ensuring that these errors do not escape attention.
Enhanced automation around license exemptions by device role, making it easy, for instance, to exempt devices like backup and test (QA) servers from consuming software licenses. This means that organisations can automatically leverage their role based license entitlements to reduce ongoing costs for expensive server software.
Automated "inheritance" of custom contract terms, enabling unique "product use rights" that may be negotiated by an organisation with a vendor to be automatically incorporated into all of the licenses under that contract in the FlexNet Manager Suite repository. These contract terms are applied when arriving at an optimised license compliance position. As a result, license compliance and optimisation reports generated by FlexNet Manager Suite have the highest degree of accuracy for each customer's unique situation, using the most automated process in the industry today.
"Flexera Software prides itself on delivering the best Software License Optimisation solution on the market - and we define ‘best' as meaning the broadest functionality, with the deepest capabilities, delivering more value and ROI, faster, reliably and more efficiently," said Rossi. "FlexNet Manager Suite 2015 R2 is further evidence that outstanding functionality can deliver meaningful business value quickly."
