How-to

How to monitor software licensing compliance

You can manage the full lifecycle of software licenses through the integration of Alloy Navigator Express with Network Inventory. During the computer audit, Network Inventory collects information on software installations. This information is imported into Alloy Navigator Express, which serves as the storage and analysis center for all information related to software licensing (software licenses themselves, their compliance rules, allocations to devices, and discovered installations). The comparison of the actual usage of the software provided by Network Inventory with information on expected usage contained in Alloy Navigator Express enables making conclusions on the compliance or non-compliance of software licenses.

Software licensing compliance integration:

For example, you can monitor software licensing compliance as follows:

  1. ACTION: Perform the hardware and software inventory:

    1. In Network Inventory, organize the audit process to detect installed software. For details, see User's Guide: Configuring Sites and Setting Up the Audit.

    2. In Network Inventory, use the Software Catalog to classify software products and manage the list of software manufacturers. For details, see User's Guide: Managing the Software Catalog.

    RESULT: You have an accurate record of what software products are used in your company and where these products are installed.

  2. ACTION: Optional: Customize the Network Inventory synchronization:

    RESULT: The Alloy Navigator Express database is automatically and regularly updated to reflect changes in software installations.

  3. ACTION: Achieve and maintain compliance by organizing tracked software and software licenses:

    1. In Alloy Navigator Express, create Tracked Software for each software product you want to track.

    2. Create Software License records for each software license that your company owns.

    3. Specify license compliance rules for each Software License record. For details, see Organizing Tracked Software and Software Licenses.

    4. Allocate the Software Licenses to Computers and Hardware devices. For details, see Allocating Software Licenses.

    RESULT: You can monitor software license compliance in your company. For example, you can configure Alloy Navigator Express to generate license compliance reports or trigger e-mail notifications when a violation of license compliance rules is detected.