CEO & Founder of Open iT
Many industries around the world continue to feel the effects of slower economic activity and shift to working from home due to the global pandemic. Consequently, businesses must rapidly adopt new technologies and solutions that would allow them to maximize their assets and improve productivity while cutting down costs. Since IT assets comprise a large percentage of the annual corporate budget for many multinational companies, it is advantageous to seek solutions to optimize the usage of these costly assets and avoid unnecessary expenditures.
We caught up with Eistein Fosli, CEO and Founder of Open iT, in this Q&A of how software usage metering can be used to effectively manage and optimize corporate IT assets.
Q: Can you please tell us about Open iT? How did it start and what are its goals?
A: For more than two decades, Open iT has been helping companies around the world in reducing the cost and complexities of managing corporate IT assets. Open iT was founded in Oslo, Norway, providing solutions that helped Oil & Gas companies to meter, analyze, and optimize their software portfolio, as well as other IT assets. Due to the fast development of our technologies, we also began catering to the needs of other industries, such as Engineering, Manufacturing, Aerospace, Defense, Automotive, Government, Education, and Electronics, among others.
We focus on optimizing usage efficiency by metering and analyzing how individuals or groups use applications, servers, Cloud and SaaS services, etc. across a global enterprise. Open iT solutions allow better control in managing and optimizing license resources by discovering and suspending inactive applications and releasing the unused licenses for redeployment to other active users.
Open iT aims to help companies in achieving global IT efficiency through effective out-of-the-box solutions that address the specific software license management challenges of each organization so that they can keep track of critical junctures in the foreseeable future.
Q: How does software usage metering help companies gain better control in managing and optimizing their software assets?
A: As companies grow, so does their software portfolio. It could become virtually impossible for them to manage the entire portfolio manually and properly monitor the license usage. Some companies develop in-house tools, but they soon find it difficult to maintain and even more cumbersome to update continuously. However, without effective and accurate software usage metering, companies may find themselves spending more on software that they are not actually using because they have no visibility on their real active usage. They may also find themselves in trouble for non-compliance during vendor software audits, which could carry hefty penalties.
Software usage metering allows companies to have constant visibility on how users and user groups within the organization utilize their software assets. Real-time usage reports allow administrators to stay on top of any potential issues. Historical usage reports, on the other hand, allow them to analyze usage patterns and trends for better planning and budgeting, as well as recognize possible optimization opportunities.
Q: What sets Open iT apart from other software usage metering tools?
A: Open iT is not just a software usage metering tool; it is a complete experience!
We offer a complete solution that provides software usage visibility from an enterprise level down to the fine details. It meters any application (desktop, network/license manager-enabled, or web apps) by collecting and comparing resource usage from a wide variety of sources. It allows you to distinguish between true active and inactive software usage, and it provides detailed usage and denial analyses. Easy integration with your preferred BI tools provides a real-time dashboard with quick views to historic trends, correctly handles concurrency and groupings, and simulates the best combination of license agreements that would be best for your organization.
Open iT LicenseAnalyzer2020, our primary solution for software usage metering, analysis and optimization for all business and technical applications, offers three levels of optimization:
Level 1: Runtime Usage includes real-time monitoring and historical reporting on a wide range of on-premise and Cloud applications. It also includes proactive alerts and customizable dashboards.
Level 2: True Active Usage includes all the features and capabilities of Level 1, and it also meters activity levels of all kinds of applications (standalone or server-based, Cloud or on-premise) to determine whether the applications are truly being actively used.
Level 3: Managed Usage expands on the capabilities of Levels 1 and 2 to provide better control in managing license resources by uncovering and terminating or suspending the applications that are not being actively used.
Aside from these features and capabilities, Open iT offerings also include reliable 24/5 global customer support, online or on-site training workshops, customized report and dashboard building, vendor analysis, Managed Services, and Consulting Services. With Open iT, you do not just get a tool; you get a solution that works and addresses the specific needs of your organization so that you get to see a return on your investment as quickly as possible.
Q: What are Open iT’s plans for future updates?
A: Following the general trend of increased usage of AI, Open iT is applying cutting edge AI techniques to all the data that has been collected over the last 2 decades to improve predictability of usage patterns, catering for different scenarios enabling our customers to be prepared when it comes to the future. Our AI and Machine Learning algorithms are contained in our LicensePredictor plug-in.
About Open iT
Open iT provides advanced software usage metering, analysis, and optimization solutions to help companies and institutions make smarter decisions in managing their software assets. With offices in the US (Houston, Texas), Norway (Oslo), and the Philippines (Lucena), as well as various partners all over the world, Open IT caters to various Global Fortune 500 customers and other corporations and institutions worldwide from different verticals, including Oil & Gas, Engineering, Manufacturing, Aerospace, Defense, Automotive, Government, Education, and Electronics.
Learn more about Open iT Products, Solutions, and Services.
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