Decoding the FINE PRINT

摘要

You say software licenses give you migraines? Talk to David Fenrich. The senior asset manager at Cingular Wireless oversees more than 700 software licenses for the telecom giant's 42,000 desktops, workstations, and servers. Just doing the annual "true-up" ― inventorying apps and making sure Cingular has the right number of licenses for its users ― was largely a manual task requiring more than 200 people. Today, Fenrich does the job with Peregrine Systems' Desktop Inventory and Network Discovery appliances, using a single administrator and just seven machines. Fenrich says that Cingular has saved millions of dollars on unneeded licenses and has reduced potential liability for unintentionally using more licenses than the company has bought.