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Lesson 4: Track Your Licensing

With all the policies and organization in place, it's time for the software manager to track your licensing.

Baseline Assessment

The first time you try to organize your licensing, you will need to start with a baseline assessment. In lesson one we learned that almost all licenses allow a software product to be installed or used by a specified number of clients. Therefore, in doing a baseline assessment we will start by tracking the licenses owned and the client needs. Later we will look at auditing the actual usage of the software.

When finding the licenses owned, the first step is to find them. Generally, boxed software comes with a seperate paper or cardboard license. If the software was purchased over the internet there was probably a digital copy of the license given to you. If you can't find the license, then you can't use the software. Track them down, and store them in a centralized location that is easy to find, but safely out of the hands of anyone who does not need access to them.

Once you have these licenses you will want to enter them into a database. We produce the DGard Software Compliance Manager for the purpose of tracking software licensing, and will use it in our examples, but if you use a different license tracking software, the principles should be the same and you can still follow along. In the software management application enter the software products you have licensed, and add the licenses. Be sure to select the client type that the license uses when adding the software.

The second item necessary for the baseline assessment is the licensing needs. In a small business your software manager might know what software you purchase and who uses it. This is a good point to look back at educating the users. While the software policy made it clear to them that they cannot use unauthorized software, asking the users what software they do use and what other software, if any, they might benefit by wouldn't be a bad idea. First, this gives the employee a chance to let you know if they feel other software is needed, and that is a better alternative than them just downloading it. Second, and probably more important to you, it can save you money. By surveying the employees you might find that they do not use all the software provided for them. In this situation you can remove it from some machines and cut back on your licensing needs.

In your software management application, you can now add your clients and link them to the software they need. In DGard Software Compliance Manager you can import your users and computers from Active Directory. This will allow you to simply select the software you previously added. With all this information you now have enough information to see how what you own compares with what you need. Don't rush out to order any licensing yet though, we still want to go a little farther before we jump to any final conclusions.

Continuing Tracking

Before we go on with the initial assessment, I just want to mention that tracking licenses and clients is an ongoing task. If maintained as employees come and go it takes very little time to accomplish. However, if not maintained, it can get more tedious. A good practice is to make tracking a continuous process to keep your clients and their needs up-to-date. Additionally, at regular intervals double check your tracking data for clients that might be missing. Also, a periodic survey of software usage and needs will help you keep track of any software employees might no longer need.

Quick List

  • Assign one person the task of software management to reduce the risk of over purchasing licenses or over installation of software.
  • Do a baseline assessment of your licenses owned and software needs.
  • Survey the employees for what software they use, and additional software they feel they might need.
  • Use a software management application like DGard Software Compliance Manager to manage your software and licensing.
  • Keep tracking data up-to-date to keep it simple and quick.
  • Periodically double check your tracking data to make sure no clients were missed and find out about any changes in software needs.