A creative industry without Adobe would be unthinkable: Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign are just a few of the essential applications used by creatives worldwide. However, with Adobe’s push to the named-user licensing method, you may ask the question: why should I monitor my Adobe Cloud licenses? The answer is pretty simple: control. With a monitoring solution such as OpenLM you have control over your software assets, and, based on the insights you get, it’s easy to see if you are getting value out of your investment and where you can cut costs.
Adobe is unable to provide usage data
The report you get from Adobe is pretty limited: you get license manager data only for the organization’s license assignment, so you can track the number of assigned licenses versus the purchased quantity.
But how do you know if your end users are actually using those licenses? You don’t. Because Adobe Cloud doesn’t help you monitor software usage. That’s what OpenLM does to help you understand how your software assets are being used.
OpenLM provides you three critical insights
- Actual usage.
- Usage behavior.
- Software preference patterns.
These insights are key for data-driven decisions. Below, we will detail the benefits you get from using OpenLM.
Actual usage
End users do not always use the licenses they are allocated via the Adobe Admin Console. They may have opened the application and left for a coffee break or left the workstation on for the whole weekend by accident. By installing lightweight software – the OpenLM Agent – on your end users’ workstation, you can track the actual usage of Adobe software. Simply put, you’ll will always know whether the allocated software is actively used by the designer to its maximum capacity.
Usage behavior
With the Agent running on the workstation, OpenLM can tell if the application you are tracking is in use or is idle, so you as a SAM manager will have access to software usage information such as number of sessions, session duration, and total accumulated usage. Plus, it also keeps track of software idle time. This information stream is sent to OpenLM Cloud, and our solution compiles the data into actionable insights based on the filters you set.
In the OpenLM EasyAdmin interface, you have the option to filter the reports by user. OpenLM will list the license utilization time of every user who has the Agent on his or her workstation. If a user’s name is missing from the list or has a very low (e.g. a couple minutes/hours per month) software usage appearing in the report, you will immediately know how to address that situation: reallocate the license to someone who needs it, or cut that license from the software budget and save money.
Identify the end user’s preferred application
You can also use OpenLM in conjunction with other applications. For example, Photoshop is one option, but some designers might use other applications such as Solidworks. Configure OpenLM to monitor the other applications the designer may want to use, and you can easily identify their preferred application. After analyzing application usage, you can decide which license to drop and which to renew when the time comes.
Are you ready to better understand how your Adobe assets are used within the organization and start managing your applications? Sign up with OpenLM Cloud today!
Featured image: Pixabay
