Tier 2 Vendor Licensing Expertise

Adobe, particularly the Creative Cloud Suite, is used by most large and fast-growing organisations but it comes with the risk of overspend and needs to undergo regular review of usage requirements to ensure that unused licences are recycled. We work with you to ensure that your workforce has the correct licences applied on the basis of your requirements, and that you are not at risk of heavy financial penalties or settlement figures. We help you navigate the complexity of Adobe systems for region, usage, licence numbers and more.  

• Be careful with old perpetual on-premises licences as they are still valid but no longer supported
• There is often a wild growth of rogue applications when users buy licences on their credit card or separately by department. This can be dangerous in case of an audit but almost certainly wasting money if they are not on the company scheme.
• Do you know whether your workforce are actually using the licences, if they only need PDF reader, there are lower cost alternatives

Autodesk software is expensive and apparently minor non-compliance issues can result in large financial exposure and hefty bills. Many customers have a subscription-based licensing model but there are still complicated licensing restrictions and you can be at risk if you receive an Autodesk audit request. We work with you to ensure that you have an accurate and up-to-date inventory of installed products and a thorough understanding of user agreements as part of your Autodesk licence management programme. Regular internal audits are important and help you with Autodesk software optimisation and compliance risk reduction. 

• Understanding network versus standalone licences is important. It can be difficult to keep track of standalone licences as individuals may install these themselves
• A wild growth of Autodesk licences can get out of control, especially for standalone licences. Network licensing can eliminate compliance issues, but it is difficult to analyse usage and identify cost saving opportunities
• Organisations should be careful of remote working rights, especially when they allow suppliers to use the company’s licences or when suppliers bring their own licences. Territory or company restrictions could be in place.

If you have BMC systems not being widely used throughout your organisation, then they can fall down the SAM priority list and result in your organisation becoming non-compliant. FisherITS helps with the management of BMC licences and usage by helping you with capacity and user number assessments. 

• Big server software, licensed per user, can present a risk. Organisations should check their user requirements on a regular basis.

Thanks to multiple acquisitions, it can be hard to track Broadcom CA Technologies products. To manage these product licences correctly, it is important to understand the application product user rights, to ensure the discovery of software installations that are reconciled against purchases, and the optimisation of compliance and return on software investment. We help you tick all these boxes, perfectly.  

• For CA Technologies, this can be old legacy software that needs to be under support. It can be very difficult to get out of old CA contracts as their software usage declines
• CA Technologies also have complicated licensing metrics which most SAM tools will struggle to reconcile
• CA mainframe technology still exists in a lot of organisations. Organisations should check their mainframe usage

Due to a merger and later demerger with Veritas and then acquisition by Broadcom, managing Symantec products can be confusing. Understanding the subtle variation between Symantec licensing types as well as managing consumption is important.

• Organisations need to be on top of user based and device based metrics to correctly manage and optimise Symantec installations.
• Due to Symantec’s history and demerger with Veritas and the  acquisition by Broadcom, are you aware of which products now come under the Symantec brand?

Organisations that are reliant on SAM tool platforms to ensure licence compliance and to protect against software overspend can end up experiencing issues with their Citrix licensing. Understanding user access is notoriously difficult and often benefits from expert reviews on a periodic basis. We help you protect against just that, and against Citrix non-compliance by identifying all important cost-saving and optimisation opportunities. 

• Saving opportunities can be found by understanding how much users are accessing Citrix software
• Understand which users should be a ‘named-user’ versus a concurrent user licence is important and can present cost savings
• Citrix does not cover Windows licences so users also require Windows RDS licences on top, organisations should take care to check this

FisherITS works with you to fully optimise your Corel software investments and to ensure you’re aware of the most cost-effective purchasing framework for your organisation. 

• As with many instances of desktop software, rogue installations of Corel software can cause issues. Any rogue installation is hard to track and monitor usage
• WinZip applications for example can pose both compliance and overspend risks. It is easy to install as a free trial, however it is paid software. Free, third-party software may be a better alternative

Most SAM tools don’t provide the full functionality you need to correctly manage high-value design and engineering applications. Dassault Systems licence management is based on licence availability and an understanding of precise user requirements. It is not straightforward to observe the highwater usage mark using DSLS (Dassault Systems Licence servers). We ensure that you’re aware of installing more licences than you’re allowed and help you to periodically review your licence status to ensure compliance. 

• All Dassault Systems software is licence server managed e.g. concurrent users, token licences etc. Are you aware of how much software is actually being used?
• Dassault contracts have heavy workplace restrictions on where software can be used. Organisations should track and manage these restrictions and understand the locations of their users.

Dell EMC customers have to be in a position where they can accurately report up-to-date status of software and hardware deployments, licence availability, usage and enterprise agreements. Proper management is critical and can benefit you in terms of optimisation gains and in reducing licence compliance risks. We can help you with cost reductions and audit protection and any Dell EMC baseline review, optimisation report or audit defence. 

IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat means that future audits will likely focus on moving customers to their cloud platform and Red Hat customers, especially those not using Satellite Server to deploy software, need to be aware of the complexity of their licence management, especially as IT networks become targets for transition to the cloud. 

FisherITS assists with IBM and Red Hat baseline reviews, optimisation reports and audit defence.  

• If you have a Red Hat subscription you are required to licence everything to the same level. Are you aware of the full scope of your Red Hat installs?
• Red Hat employs per-socket licensing, virtual environments should not be counted in the same way as a physical deployment

Infor focuses on business applications that are delivered via cloud computing and the company performs audit reviews on an ongoing basis across their customer base. As a result, you need to be prepared to provide an up-to-date licence position to minimise impact to business as usual activities, reduce any potential penalties or settlement fees, and provide a platform for licence optimisation and cost savings. 

FisherITS can assist in your review of Informatica software and licence entitlement status by helping you to fully optimise your software investments and ensure you are aware of the most cost-effective purchasing framework for your organisation.

Micro Focus has a history of buying software titles and then auditing the users. Micro Focus licensing language can be complex and can lead to the mismanagement of Micro Focus licensing and increased risk. This results in overspend and potential compliance issues that can slip under the radar. We will undertake a review of your Micro Focus licensing to uncover over-deployments that are wasting money and to ensure entitlement documentation and proof of purchase for compliance and usage rights are fully understood.  

• As an active auditor, customers should be careful as Micro Focus require customers to have the same level of support across all products in a family.In the event of an audit, back-maintenance  can cost multiple times the  price of the original software
• HP has restrictions for site vs area vs global licences. Are you aware of where your users are located as the HP licence console will not monitor this
• Software such as the Attachmate and Cobol product families can be easily left behind in your environment. Micro Focus can charge you if you do not have access under control.

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Formerly Symantec Consumer Security, Norton Lifelock customers can benefit from FisherITS’ expertise in identifying cost savings and optimisation opportunities. We work with you to conduct a baseline review of your software installations and licence usage entitlements.  

• It can be difficult to manoeuvre between Broadcom, Symantec and Norton Lifelock. Users should be aware of which organisation they procured their software from.

FishterITS will work with you in a review of your deployments of OpenText licences to determine your current licence count. While OpenText does include an optional Event Monitoring Client that can be enabled and configured, you remain responsible for installing and maintaining the server and retaining snapshots in the event of an audit. 

• OpenText desktop software like Exceed or Host Explorer can be left behind within your environment. Make sure access to this applications is limited to only those who need it
• Multiple acquisitions made by OpenText can make tracking software deployments difficult

Quest actively audits customers so you need to pay attention to your licences and usage. Defending against a Quest audit can be risky with difficulties in establishing exact numbers of users and licences. We can conduct a baseline assessment with our Quest licensing experts to help you correctly count the usage of your Quest products and validate this against your licence entitlement.  

• Toad is often installed by developers who may not be aware of the full licence requirement. If it is installed on a server, every administrator with access will require a licence
• Ambiguous metrics can catch organisations out. Do you know the difference between a managed user, a managed user account or an enabled user account. Quest knows!
• All products within a family require the same support level. Back-maintenance remediation costs can be more expensive than then original software

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As one of the most widely used CRM and enterprise application tools on the market, Salesforce licence management is essential. We can help you to accurately track and measure your Software-as-a-Service licences, to correctly identify user access, and to prevent unauthorised indirect usage.  

• In cloud usage, organisations can buy licences but not always track usage. This can often present a savings opportunity for Salesforce users. When was the last time you verified your actual usage?

A leading suite of data management and advanced analytics tools, SAS licence management is critical. FishterITS can help you protect against non-compliance as well as in identifying cost savings and optimisation opportunities. 

• Older desktop software can easily be left behind and go unused. Managing access is important and periodically checking usage is beneficial.

If you’re unsure of your Software AG licence position, we can help you conduct a baseline assessment to correctly identify and count the usage of your licences and validate these against your licence entitlement.  

FisherITS can assist you in reviewing your Tibco software and licence entitlement status by working with you to fully optimise your software investments.  

Veritas drives important revenue from its audit programme and complicated licence entitlement is made more difficult due to their demerger from Symantec. We offer expert advice to help you understand licence rules and metrics, to reduce spend, and to help you prepare for a Veritas audit. 

There are numerous licence types for VMware and tracking them can be challenging. Geographic restrictions often catch out users resulting in compliance issues. Features of VMware ESX server can also be switched on and off making it difficult to keep track of changes that can effect the entire compliance status of your installation.

We ensure that you don’t experience non-compliance issues, waste budget on overspend, or run any risks during a VMware audit.