SOURCE: BigFix, Inc.

 

EMERYVILLE, CA--(Marketwire - January 13, 2009) - BigFix, Inc., a leader in high-performance enterprise systems and security management solutions, has released BigFix Decision Support System - Software Asset Management (BigFix DSS SAM). BigFix DSS SAM leverages the BigFix unified management platform to bring deep, continuous visibility and automation to software asset management, enabling enterprises to manage software licenses, deployment, and usage with greater speed and accuracy than other approaches. By bringing new levels of visibility and efficiency to software asset management, DSS SAM can help enterprises cut IT costs stemming from unused software licenses, license misallocations, rogue and non-standard software installations, software under-licensing penalties, and expensive software audit and true-up processes.

"Studies indicate that companies misspend an average of 30 percent on software licenses and maintenance. With approximately 38 percent of IT budgets directly attributable to software applications, this can be a huge waste of money," said Jeff Spitulnik, director of product management at BigFix. "Furthermore, IT managers have learned to dread the software vendor 'gotcha' game that kicks off at license renewals and true-ups. BigFix DSS SAM revolutionizes software management by giving the IT department and asset managers comprehensive visibility and control over software assets throughout the enterprise -- even on mobile endpoints. The key here is that we have transformed the software asset management process from a labor-intensive 'special project' to a routine status monitoring and adjustment activity."

"During economic downturns software vendors have added incentive to make up for lost revenue by auditing their customers," says Patricia Adams, Research Director at Gartner. "As a result, software customers need to be proactive about software license compliance. To do this, IT organizations need cost-effective means to gain visibility into installed software asset inventories. These tools should be used to actively manage software inventories and spending. Enterprises require up-to-date inventory counts, usage analyses, comprehensive software catalogs, license compliance measurements all supported by low-cost, easy-to-use tools to perform these functions."

DSS SAM Solution Overview

Leveraging the BigFix Discovery 7 unified management platform, BigFix DSS SAM continuously reports detailed information on all system and application software installed on servers, PCs, mobile computers, and virtual images in infrastructures ranging from 100s to 100,000s of managed systems. BigFix DSS SAM also integrates a wealth of sophisticated analytical tools that track license utilization, costs, and compliance with license terms and conditions. BigFix DSS SAM delivers several breakthroughs in software asset management technology, including:

--  Software Asset Inventory Tool - Provides users with a hierarchical,
    detailed view of the software titles in their inventory using a reference
    catalog containing thousands of software vendors and products on the
    market. It uses multiple data points from each endpoint to provide a
    precise picture of software on each endpoint and in various aggregate
    views, and allows for custom filtering and column editing.
--  Software Identification Catalog - Allows users to cross reference
    software discovered on their systems with a customizable database of over
    15,000 software titles, from which customers can monitor installation and
    usage compliance.
--  Application Metering - Reports highly accurate information about when
    an application was first and last used, usage frequency, and the total
    amount of time it was used, enabling IT operators to allocate licenses to
    the most productive users.
--  Contracts Module - Enables users to correlate license population
    counts with license contract terms and conditions information to ensure the
    company is paying for the correct number of licenses. The module provides
    financial modeling tools to support audit events, prepare for license
    renewal cycles, and back up license reclamation claims for cost savings.
--  Computer Attributes Reporting - Provides sortable and filterable views
    of systems asset information, leveraging the deep and wide inspection
    capabilities of the BigFix platform. Computer properties are the basis for
    configuration management reporting and organizing computer groups as units
    of analysis for software license management and other fundamental asset
    management analytics.
--  Role-Based, User-Friendly Report Access - The Web-based application is
    elegantly designed with non-IT job functions in mind, providing ease-of-use
    for 'need to know' information distribution based on the various corporate
    roles involved in enterprise IT asset management. The user-friendly
    interface is designed to be accessible based on job functions: finance,
    procurement, asset management, legal, business unit managers, purchasing
    agents, and auditors.
    

Pricing and Availability

DSS SAM is available in a bundle with the BigFix Systems Lifecycle Management pack, which includes patch management, power management, remote desktop for Windows, software distribution, software inventory, software usage monitoring, and asset discovery for $20 per desktop or mobile computing device, $52 per Windows Server, and $84 per Unix/Linux/Mac Server. DSS SAM is also available a la carte at $10 per endpoint and as an add-on to existing BigFix SLM or Asset Management customers for just $4 per endpoint.

About BigFix

Founded in 1997, BigFix®, Inc. is a leading provider of high-performance enterprise systems and security management solutions that revolutionizes the way IT organizations manage and secure their computing infrastructures. Based on a revolutionary architecture that distributes management intelligence directly to the computing devices themselves, BigFix is radically faster, scalable, more accurate and adaptive than legacy management software. Today, BigFix provides real-time visibility and control for over 8 million computing devices for 900 customers worldwide. The BigFix customer list counts many of the world's largest and most prestigious organizations in every industry including financial services, retail, education, manufacturing, and public sector agencies. More information can be found at www.bigfix.com.

© 2008 BigFix, Inc. All rights reserved. All company and product names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.