Achieving continual control and optimisation of its SAP software estate

Maidenhead, UK – January 8, 2014 Flexera Software, the leading provider of Application Usage Management solutions for application producers and enterprises, announced today that Vallourec, the leader in premium tubular solutions in the energy markets, has implemented FlexNet Manager for SAP Applications to optimise its SAP software estate and help ensure continual software licence compliance.  FlexNet Manager for SAP Applications is part of the FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises.

“FlexNet Manager for SAP Applications enables us, in a highly reliable, comprehensive and automated approach, to reconcile our actual SAP licence use with the user-types we purchased, enabling us to optimise SAP spend and pay for only what we are really using,” said Christine Hardelin, Department Manager, ERP, at Vallourec.  “With a clear and reliable view into our licence position, we are now very confident about licence management and controlling costs – not only when preparing for an SAP software licence audit, but on an ongoing basis.”

Vallourec previously employed a manual process for managing its software estate that did not provide a clear or centralised view into their actual SAP licence usage, causing undue stress especially during preparation of their annual SAP audit report.  The company went live with FlexNet Manager for SAP Applications in late 2011 and reports achieving the following benefits:

Reconciling Actual SAP Usage with SAP Licence Types: The system easily and automatically analyses how employees actually are using SAP applications and recommends the appropriate SAP licence type for that user – reducing the chances that Vallourec purchases and allocates a more expensive licence type than necessary.

Retiring & Reharvesting Unused Licences: The system identifies unused or idle SAP licences, allowing Vallourec to retire or re-harvest licences, ensuring the company is only buying the licences it needs and using the licences it has.  With such clear visibility into usage, Vallourec is lowering overall SAP software spend by appropriately allocating licence types it does own to the users that need those licence types, and by reducing the number of new licences it needs to purchase overall.

Reducing Risk Via Continual SAP Licence Compliance: By continually tracking, managing and optimising SAP licences on an ongoing basis across all sites and departments within the company, the system enables Vallourec to significantly reduce corporate risk associated with software licence non-compliance, and financial risk associated with paying out unbudgeted software licence true-up fees to their vendor.

“Increasingly organisations are recognising that optimising the software licence estate significantly reduces corporate risk while slashing overall software spend by as much as twenty five percent,” said Jim Ryan, Chief Operating Officer of Flexera Software.  “We are thrilled with the return Vallourec have achieved on their investment in FlexNet Manager for SAP Applications. We have seen organisations of all sizes and types realise similar results, regardless of whether their optimisation goals focus on SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe, Symantec, IBM or other types of software, such as engineering applications.”