License Statistics Archives - Page 5 of 7 - Software License Management

Managing Licenses During the COVID-19 Crisis with License Statistics

April 19, 2020| Dawid Tadel| in category License Statistics Comments Off

In this second article addressing license management during the COVID-19 crisis, we show you how to use License Statistics to gain useful insights into your software licenses – and the ability to control how those licenses are being used.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, companies find that settling into this “new normal” has its share of challenges. Tracking changes in license usage is key to maintaining operations and keeping costs down today. Here are a few tips for making the most of your software license investment by using the tools readily available in License Statistics.

As personnel shift or go on furlough, license utilization is likely to vary quite a bit as your company continues to adjust. For example, you’ll probably find that the number of unused licenses will suddenly grow with staff reductions and moves. You’ll find, too, instances where too many licenses are being used by the same user on multiple hosts. Where can you gather this information?In License Statistics, all current and real-time reports give you immediate insight into license utilization. The reports most useful for tracking purposes are:
- Current Users and Usage Per User reports.
- Current Utilization report.
- Currently Borrowed Licenses report.
- Current Usage by Time Range report.
- Current Usage on Multiple Hosts report.
- Current Feature Usage report.
Use the information License Statistics provides to predict future license needs based on historical reports showing real license consumption. For example, if Utilization for a period of time is lower than expected, the Usage History Comparison report can show you where to make adjustments. Other useful reports:
- Feature Usage history report.
- User History report.
- Utilization History report.
- User Usage History report.
The Feature Reservations History report can provide information about unconsumed reservations that could easily be used by other people. Use it in combination with the User Denials report for the same feature and time frame to get complete details.
You can use the Expiring Features report to see an overview of when features are expiring. This allows you to plan for (or even delay) future payments for the licenses until the expiration date gets closer.

We believe that you should remain in control of your business. License Statistics enables you to do just that as you can continuously scale licenses up or down as your workforce changes.

In the light of the current situation we urge everyone to do what is necessary in the situation: Stay home, practice social distancing and cut down on your unnecessary licenses.

Learn More

Managing Software Assets During the COVID-19 Crisis

April 10, 2020| Dawid Tadel| in category License Statistics Comments Off

With the COVID-19 crisis continuing to unfold there is enough to worry about. With License Statistics, managing your software assets doesn’t have to be one of them.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a crisis for many companies as they work to keep business operations moving while at the same time maintaining a safe working environment. Changes in staffing resulting in layoffs, reduced hours, and remote work created new and unexpected consequences and a host of new problems for business owners.

Fortunately, you won’t have to worry about managing your software licenses if you’re a License Statistics customer.

We here at X-Formation, the creators of License Statistics, are here to help you get control of costs by better optimizing license usage. Our full staff is still hard at work on your behalf, ensuring the stability and utility of License Statistics to make sure you get through this crisis with the fewest difficulties possible. We were there in the financial crisis of 2007 to 2009, and are here now for you and your business. While working from home like most others we still stand by our commitment to make a great product which helps you in your daily life. Additionally we’re proud to serve several of the medical companies that are on the frontline of this crisis.

We listen to you and, based on your feedback, have built the tools you need to manage your software licenses. In the next few articles, we’ll show you how you can use License Statistics to know exactly where and when your licenses are being used so you can better track what you need and what you don’t.

We believe that you should remain in power of your business. License Statistics enables you this as you can continuously scale up or down those licenses as your workforce changes.

In the light of the current situation we urge everyone to do what is necessary in the situation: Stay home, practice social distancing and cut down on your unnecessary licenses.

Learn More

Introducing DSLS Restricted Access Mode

March 31, 2020| Dawid Tadel| in category License Statistics Comments Off

License Statistics v6.5 now provides support for DSLS restricted access mode passwords

Many of you have been asking for DSLS restricted access mode support when configuring Dassault license servers. With License Statistics v6.5, you can provide a password for restricted access mode during DSLS configuration when adding or editing a Dassault license server.

Here’s how it works.

Entering a Restricted Access Mode Password When Adding or Editing a Dassault License Server

To enter a DSLS restricted access mode password when adding or editing a Dassault license server:

To edit an existing license server, click the Edit icon in the Action column of the Realtime License Servers grid row for the license server you want to change. An Edit License Server dialog opens to allow you to change the existing settings for that license server
Alternatively, to add a new license server, click Add at the bottom of the Realtime License Servers grid. An Add New License Server dialog opens to allow you to configure the new license server.
As you complete the information in the Add New/Edit License Server dialog’s License Server tab, enter the DSLS restricted access mode password into the “Password” field.
Proceed with configuring the license server.

See sections “Adding or editing a realtime license server” and “Realtime License Server settings” on the Adding and editing realtime license servers page for details.

Get to know License Statistics

How to View Usage History with Heat Maps

March 17, 2020| Dawid Tadel| in category License Statistics Comments Off

With License Statistics v6.5 you can view the Usage History Graph as a heat map in which Usage History values are represented as colors. The Usage History Heat Map provides a graphical representation of the number of licenses used by the selected user/user group for a specified time period.

One of the tools introduced in License Statistics v6.5 is the Usage History Heat Map, part of the User Usage History page. The Usage History Heat Map can help you quickly identify trends in usage history.

Here’s how to use the Usage History Heat Map.

Viewing the Usage History Heat Map

To view a heat map, select a desired grouping in the User Usage History Settings area. The Heat Map for the desired grouping and time frame is the default visible chart. Click the “Show Line Chart” button at the top of the graph to display the line chart instead. (For details see the User Usage History page.)

Using the Heat Map

The Usage History Heat Map allows you to toggle between Used and Borrowed licenses. The value in each block of the heat map is the number of licenses used or borrowed by the grouping and time range selected in the Settings section at the top of the User Usage History page. The map’s X axis represents the grouping you selected, and the Y axis represents the features used by that grouping in the selected time range.

The darker sections reflect heavier license usage, while the lightest sections reflect lower usage. At a glance you can quickly see license usage trends by date range and license feature set. This intuitive display of statistical data can help you better understand how licenses and license features are being used so you can better plan for optimal usage and license distribution in the future.

Get to know License Statistics

Features and Enhancements in License Statistics v6.5

February 19, 2020| Dawid Tadel| in category License Statistics, New releases Comments Off

Features and Enhancements in License Statistics v6.5

Feature and User Reservations, User Usage History heat map chart, new License Servers Usage page lead the list of features and enhancements for License Statistics v6.5.

The v6.5 release of License Statistics brings both new features and customer-requested enhancements to further simplify your software license asset management tasks. Highlights of the new release include the new Feature and User Reservations pages, easy-to-read heat map charts on the User Usage History page, and the new License Server Usage page.

These features are available only with the new License Statistics licensing model.

Let’s dive in.

Feature Reservations Page

The Feature Reservations page provides an overview of all reservations for a selected license server and feature. You’ll find it under the Features section in the left navigation page. (See the documentation for Feature Reservations for more details.)

The Feature Reservations page provides a General Information grid and a Feature Reservations grid.

The General Information grid includes identifying information for the license server and feature. You can set the license server and feature of interest in this grid.
The Feature Reservations grid shows detailed information for the selected license server and feature.

You can add the Features Reservation grid to the dashboard for quick viewing.

Once you’ve selected a license server and feature, click the chart icon under the Action column to see the associated Reservation History graph. If the reservation is active, you can also get more details in the Reservation Details section by clicking the View icon under the Action column.

User Reservations

The User Reservations page provides an overview of all reservations across all features and license servers for a selected user or group. You’ll find the User Reservations page under the Users section in the left navigation pane. (See the documentation for User Reservations for details.)

The User Reservations page, like the Features Reservations page, contains a General Information grid and a User Reservations grid:

The General Information grid lets you select the user or user group to view reservations for.
The User Reservations grid shows detailed information for a selected user or group, based on the pattern gathered from each queried server.

You can add the User Reservations grid to the dashboard for quick viewing.

User Usage History Heat Map

In License Statistics v6.5 you can now view the Usage History Graph as a heat map. Once you select a desired grouping in the User Usage History Settings area, clicking the “Show Heat Map” button at the top of the graph displays the heat map.

The heat map version of the chart allows you to toggle between used or borrowed licenses. The X axis of the heat map reflects the grouping you selected, and the Y axis reflects all the features used by the user or group in the selected time range. Where the axes overlap is the number of licenses used, and the background coloring corresponds with the scale.

Refer to the documentation for details on the User Usage History page.

License Servers Usage Page

The new License Servers User Page allows administrators to monitor statistics about how each license server is being used. You’ll find the License Servers Usage page under the Administration section in the left navigation pane.

Administrators can use the License Servers Usage grid to get details on the number of features, users, and hosts in the database for each license server. Hover your cursor over any number in the grid to see a list of users/hosts/features included in the reported count.

Of course, we’ve also enhanced a few things to improve usability and application behavior. To discover more about the new features and enhancements, consult the Release Notes for License Statistics v6.5.

Get to know License Statistics

Features and Enhancements in License Statistics v6.3 and v6.4

February 10, 2020| Dawid Tadel| in category License Statistics, New releases Comments Off

Customizable branding tools, interactive API documentation lead the list of features and enhancements for License Statistics v6.3 and v6.4.

The v6.3 and v6.4 releases of License Statistics bring both new features and customer-requested enhancements to further simplify your software license asset management tasks. Highlights of the new release include a new User Usage History report, customizable UI elements for branding, and interactive API documentation.

What’s New?

License Statistics v6.3 and v6.4 bring the following new features:

A new User Usage History report that allows you to get usage history for a selected user or group.
The ability to customize UI elements for branding purposes.
Interactive API documentation embedded in the user interface using Swagger (https://swagger.io)
Ability to group by year on the Usage Per User report.
The ability to delete old, unneeded data from the License Statistics database.

Most of these improvements come thanks to your feedback – your success is our success. The new features added in the v6.3 and v6.4 releases are highlighted below. (Refer to the License Statistics v6.3 and v6.4 Release Notes for a complete list of enhancements to existing features.)

Administration Groups

New User Usage History Report

We’ve been busy enhancing the User Usage History Report over the past few releases, starting with v6.2 in which we introduced the ability to view license usage history by Current Usage and Denials. With the v6.3 release, the User Usage History report now gives you the ability to view license usage history by a selected user or group (available only with the new licensing model). The report makes it easy to select the user/user group for which you want to view usage history and specify time intervals to include in the results.

To view the report, select the Usage History page under the Users section in the left navigation pane. Remember, you can also add the Usage History grid and graph to the License Statistics Dashboard for fast and easy tracking.

User Usage History

Customizable Branding of UI Elements

One of the big features you’ve asked for is the ability to apply your organization’s branding to the LIcense Statistics interface. With the new release you can now add your company logo to certain UI elements, display a custom favicon, and make other changes to reflect your corporate identity. Use the Branding section in the Miscellaneous page, located under the Administration section of the left navigation pane. (You must be an Administrator to make these changes.)

You can customize:

The application name displayed in the browser title, footer, exported reports, and email templates.
The logo image displayed on the login page, above the navigation pane, in email notifications, and in exported reports.
The favicon image.
Visibility of the footer containing the X-Formation logo and versions, displayed in the UI and in email notifications.

For details on customizing License Statistics and the requirements for logo images and favicons, refer to the License Statistics documentation.

Interactive API Documentation

For your quick and easy reference, you can now get interactive API documentation directly on the API page using the embedded Swagger application. The interactive documentation is always up-to-date, so you can set up API calls knowing you have the latest information.

The new interactive documentation makes API development even easier thanks to the following features:

Test and run examples directly from the License Statistics UI.
Get immediate access to all return codes and parameters.
See built-in examples of the types of calls you can make.
Simplified authorization requests: The API documentation tool automatically authorizes requests with the current user token.

The interactive API documentation contains endpoints related to all reports, as well as charts including user, license server, and features scope.

API Endpoints

Group by Year on the Usage Per User Report

The Usage Per User Report now gives you the ability to group reports by year. When you limit license usage information to a year, you’ll see usage within the selected year based on daily usage. Doing so gives you a bigger picture of high usage trends, helping you spot infrequent but important spikes in usage.

Delete Old Data from the License Statistics Database

Administrators are now able to remove data older than the previous calendar year from the License Statistics database. To do so, select the Database Management tab from the Administration page.

Data Removal

If, for example, the current date is February 5, 2020, you will be able to select dates starting January 1, 2019 and older only. (You cannot remove data from the current or previous calendar year.)

Things to remember:

Once you confirm deletion, License Statistics will schedule the deletion to occur when you restart it. (You can always cancel any time prior to restarting.)
Plan deletion carefully. The process can take hours to complete, depending upon the amount of data you select. No data is collected during the deletion process, so be sure to schedule the deletion during non-critical hours if possible.

Of course, we’ve also enhanced a few things on the back end to improve usability and application behavior. To discover more about the new features and enhancements, consult the Release Notes for License Statistics v6.3, v6.4, and v6.4.1.

Learn More

Get the Data Your Way: The License Statistics API

November 26, 2019| Dawid Tadel| in category License Statistics Comments Off

Of course you know License Statistics delivers the data you need to control license and license server costs. But did you know you can also display all that great data in the BI dashboards and reports you already use every day?

That’s right: The License Statistics API makes it easy to extract the data you need and integrate it into your own business processes. Display critical license data along with the other key indicators you track daily in reports, dashboards, and other BI tools. Use the API to automate report generation and make it readily available to your manager or a specific department in your organization.

The License Statistics API is an invaluable tool for advanced users and systems integrators who want to create their own views into critical business data. The License Statistics UI shows you just what can be done with the API, as it uses the same API to display data in your web browser.

With the License Statistics v6.3 release, interactive API documentation is now embedded in the UI using Swagger (https://swagger.io/).

Getting Started with the API

The API gives you flexible, on-demand access to License Statistics data in an easy-to-extract format. You can request results in JSON, csv, PDF, or xlxs formats, so you have a wide variety of options for accessing and using the data. Use the API with your custom external applications, off-the-shelf BI tools, and reporting systems.

Getting started with the License Statistics API is as simple as enabling API access, generating a token, and making your first API request. Once you have enabled API access in your License Statistics account, you then generate an access token.

Generating and Using API Tokens

API access tokens are unique identifiers associated with your account that are used to authenticate your data requests in the API. Tokens cannot be shared, so you’ll need to create a token for every user requiring access.

Once you’ve generated an API access token, you’ll add the HTTP header “X-Auth-token” to every request you make. Make requests directly using your web browser, or use an HTTP client like cURL to get the data in a variety of useful formats. Here’s a cURL example:

curl -H "X-Auth-token: token" "http://yourdomain/url-to-api"

Making API Requests

A basic API request uses the GET method to pass report parameters in a query string. The basic API request looks like this:

curl -H "X-Auth-token: token" "http://yourdomain/url-to-api?parameter=value&parameter2=other_value"

(“yourdomain” is the URL on which License Statistics v6.3 is installed.)

Any data you can see in the License Statistics UI can be accessed using the API and brought into your reporting tools. There are 18 API endpoints provided by License Statistics, each of which delivers specific license usage metrics.

Useful Examples

Example: Return a list of all features recognizable by License Statistics

The cURL command:

curl -H “X-Auth-token: token” “http://yourdomain/api/v1/feature/csv”

will return a csv format file containing one row for each feature recognizable by License Statistics.

Example: Return a list of feature information filtered by name and version, output to csv format

The cURL command:

curl --data "filter=[{\"type\"=\"string\", \"field\"=\"fn\", \"value\"=\"abc\"}, {\"type\"=\"string\", \"field\"=\"fv\", \"value\"=\"2.1\"}]" -H "X-Auth-token: token" "http://yourdomain/api/v1/feature/csv"

will return a csv format file containing one row for each feature, filtered by name and version.

Example: Return information in json format for a feature with an ID of “1”.

The cURL command:

curl --data-urlencode "filter=[{\"type\"=\"numeric\", \"field\"=\"fid\", \"comparison\"=\"eq\" \"value\"=\"1\"}]" -H "X-Auth-token: token" "http://yourdomain/api/v1/feature/json"

will return a json file containing the information about the specified feature.

Conclusion

The License Statistics API is an easy-to-use tool for integrating License Statistics data into your own business processes. Ready to get started? Go to the “Using the License Statistics API” section of the online documentation for complete details.

Learn More

Say “Hello!” to License Statistics v6.0

July 4, 2019| Dawid Tadel| in category License Statistics, New releases Comments Off

It’s here: License Statistics v6.0 has arrived, with a crisp, responsive interface, streamlined navigation, and new features based on your feedback. There is also a new license model designed to give you double the features at the same price. Read on to discover what’s new.

Crisp, Responsive Interface

Meet the new sleek, high-resolution interface with a larger viewing area for exceptional usability. It’s been redesigned to look great and works flawlessly across all devices, including tables and smartphones. The interface makes customizing your view of the data easy and flexible, too. Lay out the panels in the Dashboard exactly as you want to see them by dragging and dropping panels from one location to another.

Data presentation now happens quickly and automatically, with no page reloads and no extra wait times. Navigation has been streamlined as well, with a vertical menu that is collapsible, allowing you to maximize the data viewing area.

You can now read and manipulate grids, charts, and forms with ease thanks to the new layout and improved color scheme.

Faster and Easier to Maintain

License Statistics v6.0 has been rebuilt to be much faster than previous versions. The application is now cached in the browser, using local storage for the fastest response possible. There’s no extra wait time and no page reloads.

It’s easier to administer and maintain, too. The user interface is all generated by the JavaScript framework, eliminating HTML generated by PHP.

We’ve also changed how License Statistics v6.0 handles situations in which its license is exceeded or has expired. Rather than shutting down the application, it continues to run License Statistics v6.0 in read-only mode for user convenience until the license issues have been resolved.

Enhanced Notifications and Status Information

We not only completely redesigned the interface for License Statistics v6.0, we enhanced the notifications you receive about different actions to help you make better decisions about your software assets. You asked for more license server information in the interface, and we built it for you. The new License Detail page gives you even more information on license server status – detailed state information and more complete descriptions of exactly what is happening with your license servers.

New License Model

License Statistics v6.0 brings a new license model that gives you double the features at the same price. With the adjusted license model you’ll have access to all product features. You’ll be able to choose whether you wish to monitor your license servers in real time, or use data imported from report logs.

The upgrade to the new License Statistics v6.0 license model costs nothing and is optional — you can either upgrade or keep your existing licensing.

Please contact our customer support team for any questions regarding the license model revision, or about upgrading to License Statistics v6.0.

Read a full list of release notes to stay on top of all changes introduced with each release.

Learn More

License Statistics helps MA Hospitals better forecast their future licensing needs and plan purchasing accordingly

April 28, 2016| Dawid Tadel| in category License Statistics Comments Off

The Business Challenge and the License Statistics solution

The Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA) is a large not-for-profit health organization comprised of hospitals and health systems, as well as related organizations.

Before using License Statistics , MA Hospitals did not use any license management solution. The vendor from whom they purchase software uses LM-X License Manager to protect and license his software applications and this vendor recommended that they try out License Statistics and see how it can help them gain full control over their company’s license usage.

Buying X-Formation’s license tracking solution enabled them to see which licenses were in use, identify licenses that were overused or nearing overuse, and, based on the collected license usage data, establish whether there is a need to add base or functional modules.

Overall, License Statistics proves to be a valuable tool that lets MA Hospitals collect and present data necessary to make smart, intelligent decisions for software budgeting by letting them:

Monitor how many licenses are available

See how often users were denied licenses and when these denials occurred

Check which applications are being used most

The above information allows MA Hospitals to make a solid justification for the need to purchase more licenses and avoid overspending on purchases and software renewals.

Summary

Although they’re still in the beginning stages of data collection, they already define their experience with License Statistics as very positive and say License Statistics is a valuable software license management solution that helps them:

Gain control over their IT assets

Improve the company’s business operations and profitability

Better plan future licensing needs

If you haven’t tried License Statistics yet, try out our online demo or download a free trial to find out how easily you can gain control of your IT assets and avoid the costs and risks of getting it wrong.

Learn More

License Statistics helps BRVZ reduce the number of support cases caused by using up all available licenses

April 18, 2016| Dawid Tadel| in category License Statistics Comments Off

About BRVZ Bau-Rechnen- und Verwaltungszentrum GmbH

BRVZ is an internal IT service provider for all companies of STRABAG SE, a Europe-based technology group for construction services.

The company provides a wide spectrum of services for the construction industry that cover the industry’s entire value chain: building construction & civil engineering, transportation infrastructures, and many more.

The Business Challenge and the License Statistics Solution

Before using License Statistics , they did not use any software license management solution. The main reasons why they chose X-Formation’s License Statistics included:

Its ability to gather usage statistics from FlexNet license servers as well as a number of other servers

Easy installation and configuration

Its competitive price

BRVZ wanted to avoid losing money from both under and over-licensing of software. They also wanted to view usage reports and found them necessary to calculate prices that their IT center charges from other business units based on the number of end users, as well as extrapolate such numbers for the future.

License Statistics provided all the functionalities that they needed, i.e.

Detailed reports that can be exported to Microsoft Excel .

Email alerts informing about license servers going down, feature utilization exceeding a specific percentage, as well as feature expiration.

Visually rich charts and graphs that give a quick, clear picture of license usage and help avoid over-licensing.

The ability to subscribe to receive email alerts enabled BRVZ to manage their licenses in a proactive manner and helped them reduce support cases caused by using 100% of available licenses from the license pool, saving their time, money, and resources.

Summary

License Statistics proved to be easy to handle and provided the functionality they were looking for, i.e. support for all types of license servers. They valued very good, quick support and said that response time to emails was very quick.

In addition, they said that both product documentation as well as knowledge base addressed the issues they were looking for.

Learn More