Reducing Consumerisation of IT risks, new enterprise app store provides employee tools for reducing shelfware and ensuring software licence compliance

Maidenhead, UK – January 22, 2014 - Flexera Software, the leading provider of Application Usage Management solutions for application producers and enterprises, announced a new release of App Portal, the industry’s leading self-service enterprise app store.  Among other enhancements, this new version offers ‘My Apps,’ a first-of-its-kind dashboard giving employees visibility into the software licences on their devices and tools to identify and eliminate shelfware and non-compliant software use.

“Enterprises are committed to strict cost control and waste reduction, as well as giving users greater freedom with the latest Consumerisation of IT technologies, such as enterprise app stores. But with this freedom comes responsibility – employees often don’t realise the cost impact of the software they have installed, and whether or not they use those applications,” said Maureen Polte, Vice President of Product Management at Flexera Software.  “App Portal enables users to take responsibility and return unused applications.  It is the first enterprise app store on the market to give employees the tools and information they need to download and use applications responsibly and cost effectively.”

App Portal Reduces Consumerisation of IT Risks
While enterprise app stores provide employees with tremendous freedom in accessing business apps in a familiar, iTunes®-like environment, IT departments fear that loss of accountability and control could result in software licence non-compliance (audit risk) and over-purchasing (shelfware).  For instance, applications downloaded by users frequently fall into disuse, such as in instances when a target project is completed, or when the application does not prove as useful as intended.

App Portal already provides robust approval workflow functionality, and industry-leading software licence checking capabilities through integration with FlexNet Manager Suite, Flexera Software’s market-leading Software License Optimisation solution. Further reducing Consumerisation of IT risk, App Portal’s ‘My Apps’ feature gives employees greater visibility into their software use and new tools to further eliminate waste.

A new customised dashboard lets employees view software licence cost and usage information for applications installed on their devices, helping them better understand the cost of using or not using software:

Consolidated Dashboard: A single comprehensive view of all apps installed on employees’ devices, including those obtained outside the app store, allows them to see at a glance their installed apps, along with the cost, usage and compliance status of each.  This consolidated view raises employees’ awareness of software licensing and compliance issues, facilitating greater partnership in optimising software use and spend.

Compliance Alerts & Workflow: App Portal empowers IT to interact with users to promote licence and policy compliance. Alerts notify users of policy infringements such as when an application hasn’t been used for a specified period of time, or if there is no record of a licence associated with software found on an employee’s device. Employees then respond to the alerts enabling IT to take appropriate action, creating an ongoing dialogue between IT and users around improving Software License Optimisation.  Alerts also ensure better corporate control when implementing Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies.  Users can both easily access the software they need and demonstrate that their applications, even if purchased outside the corporate procurement process, are properly licenced and being used in compliance with licensing terms.

Software Policy Score™: To encourage ongoing employee efforts to optimise their software licence usage, a new Software Policy Score indicates how closely applications installed on the user’s device comply with corporate policy. Users can keep their scores high by aggressively resolving the policy alerts they receive.

“My Apps demonstrates the powerful possibilities when you integrate an enterprise app store with Software License Optimisation technology capable of governing software licences and product use rights enumerated in the licensing agreement,” said Polte.  “No other enterprise app store is able to solve the very real problem faced by enterprises adopting consumerised IT environments – the loss of accountability and control over enterprise apps.  Now we’re able to combine real-time licensing and entitlement data and present it to users to raise awareness of software licensing and encourage them to reduce costs.”

The new release of App Portal also provides support for SCCM 2007, SCCM 2012, and Symantec Altiris Client Management Suite, enabling IT to present a single App Portal instance to business users, even when multiple deployment systems are managing client devices across the enterprise.  This allows for a seamless App Portal end user experience even as enterprises are supporting multiple deployment systems or migrating from one system to another.