Flexera Software Announces New Version of FlexNet Manager Suite With Enhanced Software License Optimisation Capabilities

New release helps enterprises achieve financial control, continual compliance and license spend optimisation in increasingly complex user-centric environments

Maidenhead, UK – January 9, 2012 - Flexera Software, the leading provider of Application Usage Management solutions for application producers and enterprises, announced today a new release of FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises.  This release delivers new functionality further empowering organisations to move beyond basic software asset management to achieve greater financial control, savings and efficiencies through software license optimisation.

“The discipline of software license optimisation is growing ever-more complex because new licensing models are proliferating in order to accommodate virtualisation, the cloud, and mobile devices,” said Fred Broussard, research director, enterprise system infrastructure software at IDC.  “Flexera Software continues enhancing FlexNet Manager Suite to help organisations maintain continual license compliance and optimal software spend across this increasingly complex licensing environment.”

Highlights of the new release, which touch upon virtually every component of the FlexNet Manager Suite, include:

- Additional Virtualisation Support: To better help organisations manage software licenses for virtual applications, FlexNet Manager Platform now includes a Citrix XenApp/EdgeSight Connector to collect information on what applications users have access to, and to collect data on actual software usage. These enhancements extend Flexera Software’s broad virtual environment coverage that already includes license optimisation support for software running on hardware partitioning technologies (i.e. LPAR, vPAR, Solaris Zones, etc.), VMware vSphere/iESX Server and Microsoft Hyper-V environments.

- Improved Workflow Manager Integrated with Application Readiness Processes: Enterprises can now create business workflow processes – from software request to software packaging and license re-harvesting – that span Application Readiness and Enterprise License Optimisation and automate essential processes. The workflow capabilities for FlexNet Manager Suite and AdminStudio, Flexera Software’s market leading Application Readiness solution, have been merged into a single Workflow Manager product. Additional enhancements to Workflow Manager include automated task assignment to users during the execution of the workflow process, eliminating the need for manual assignment of each task; and user interface improvements, such as direct access to a task completion form from an email.

- ISO 19770-2 Software Tagging Support: Organisations can now leverage the value of software identification tags in their software asset management and license optimisation processes. FlexNet Manager Platform now provides discovery and inventory support of software tags that adhere to the ISO 19770-2 standard. This capability augments the Platform's Application Recognition Library that recognises more than 100,000 applications from 11,000 software vendors. Flexera Software is the only vendor delivering end-to-end software tagging support for creating, editing/maintaining and leveraging software tags via its InstallShield, AdminStudio and FlexNet Manager Suite solutions.

- New License Model Support: FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications has been enhanced to support token-based and product tier concurrent licensing models. Customers can now view their token usage behavior for Cadence Design Systems applications and product tier usage for Autodesk products, allowing better control of software costs and improved planning for future product purchases. Tiered license reporting for Autodesk matches the vendor’s bundling of products and requirements for license compliance reporting.

- FlexNet Manager Platform & FlexNet Manager for IBM Enhancements for IBM License Optimisation: The new release of FlexNet Manager for IBM provides support for two new license types - the User Value Unit (UVU) and Resource Value Unit (RVU). The IBM Product Use Rights Library (PURL) will deliver the point tables associated with these metrics. This further expands the broad set of license models supported by FlexNet Manager Suite solutions, including - IBM PVU, Authorised User, Floating User and Concurrent User; Oracle processor and Named User Plus; SAP Named User, and many more.

- Moreover, the FlexNet Manager Platform Application Recognition Library (ARL) now contains nearly 11,000 IBM software titles that can be inventoried and cataloged for license optimisation.  The FlexNet Manager Platform Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) library now contains more than 28,000 IBM application SKUs, enabling enterprises to accurately determine what software has been purchased and automatically match that to installed software.  Finally, the IBM Product PURL now includes support for a sizable number of IBM applications, including Cognos, DB2, FileNet, ILOG, Informix, InfoSphere, Lotus, Maximo, Rational, Tivoli and WebSphere.

- SAP Chargeback Reporting:  FlexNet Manager for SAP Business Suite  has new chargeback reporting that shows how licenses are distributed across cost centers or cost center groups. The results can be used to charge back license costs to individual cost center groups.

“Enterprises want confidence that they can maintain license compliance for their business applications when migrating to virtual environments, minimising the risk of costly software audits,” said David Moxey, senior director of marketing at Citrix Systems.  "Flexera Software’s announcement today of its support for Citrix XenApp ensures that companies can effectively manage licenses for virtualised applications to optimise software spend and reduce license liability risk.”

“The broad set of new capabilities in FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises helps our customers meet the challenges of continuous license compliance and optimised software spend in today’s increasingly complex IT environments,” said Alan Swahn, vice president of product management at Flexera Software. “Support for a wide range of virtualisation technologies and license models are key requirements of next generation software asset management and license optimisation solutions.”