Usage-tracking software on tap from Tally Systems

LEBANON, N.H. - Tally Systems this month will add a software usage-tracking feature to its asset-management tools designed to help IT executives discover software they are paying for but not using.

The company is also adding support for automating inventory of software and hardware assets on Unix and Linux systems.

The company's new TS.Census Usage Module, an add-on to TS.Census 2.0 that will ship later this month, can document which corporate applications are being used, by whom and how often. That data can help IT executives identify applications that are not being used or are rarely used but for which the company is paying a licensing fee.

"We do a lot of recycling of licenses and now we can better track what we have," says Richard Smith, certified software manager for Excel Communications, a marketing firm in Dallas. "We spend $300 per license for Microsoft Project, so if we can discover the folks who use the program very seldom we can cancel or transfer those licenses," says Smith, who now tracks 3,500 licenses using a spreadsheet and data collected from an earlier version of TS.Census. Now he plans to do all that within TS.Census 2.0.

Experts say usage-tracking software is an improvement over only creating an inventory to match licenses and software.

"An inventory system can tell you what software you have installed, not what is in use," says Patricia Adams, an analyst with Gartner. "When you can track what is actually used, you can use that data to go back and renegotiate licensing deals."

Adams says companies that deploy usage-tracking software initially can save 2% to 5% in licensing costs after discovering just what isn't being used. "Also, when you review maintenance fees you may find you are paying to maintain software that you no longer use."

To that end, Tally also has added a mechanism to track software license purchases, which can be compared against installed software to ensure license compliance.

Tally's usage-tracking software competes with offerings from Tangram Enterprise Solutions and Cognet.

In the era of tight IT budgets, licensing is a major issue, especially for those companies that rely heavily on Microsoft software. In July, the software giant is expected to institute a program called Software Assurance, which could dramatically increase the cost of software licensing for many corporations.

In addition to usage tracking, Tally is adding support for inventory collection on Unix and Linux machines.

The inventory system can collect the manufacturer, product, model and version of installed operating systems and other software.

The system also inventories hardware including manufacturer, product, serial number, workstation machine name, IP address, CPU details, total memory and installed components, such as CD-ROM, LAN adapters, monitors, serial ports, sound cards and video adapters.

TS.Census 2.0 also features integration with Crystal Reports for creating custom reports that can be stored within the Tally software.

TS.Census is scheduled to ship March 25. It costs $21 per seat for 1,000 users.

The TS.Census Usage Module costs $4.20 per user.