US Federal Budget cuts have produced a new policy of software procurement within government agencies. This strategy is nicknamed the “Shared First” policy, and is at the base of some major changes in Federal software license procurement and maintenance.
The “Shared First” policy requires agencies to share IT systems, acquisition and expertise. US Government agencies are required to consider using existing software, both inside their agencies and across government before turning to further purchase of software. This policy has manifested in enormous cuts in IT expenditure.
Increased sharing of software assets is one of the central pillars of this policy. Federal agencies have reported saving many millions of Dollars by using enterprise-wide (“floating”) license agreements over the passed two years. Being a software that specializes in the monitoring of floating licenses, OpenLM fits in this capacity perfectly. It is ideal for monitoring enterprise-wide licenses over WAN or LAN networks, and over different time zones.
Moreover, Following President Obama’s executive order from last November to take inventory of Federal agencies’ software assets, there has been a growing need for monitoring license usage and pointing out weak spots in software license utilization. These weak spots are non-compliance with license agreements and under-utilization of existing software licenses. Again: circling out such weak spots is what OpenLM is for. OpenLM may be configured to alert for such conditions, and actively improve license utilization.
