Flexera earns its US federal defense stripes

Application Usage Management company Flexera Software has been added to the US Department of Defense (DOD) list of approved providers for IT Asset Management.

US federal defense agencies can now use FlexNet Manager Suite to help implement new Software License Optimization provision in the National Defense Authorization Act.

As a specialist provider to enterprises and governments, the firm is no doubt pleased to find that its FlexNet Manager Suite is now the only solution on ESI’s approved-vendor list that provides Software License Optimization capabilities.

NOTE: ESI is a joint initiative sponsored by the DoD Chief Information Officer and is designed to save time and money on commercial software, IT hardware, and services by lowering procurement costs and gaining greater visibility into IT assets.

Flexera Software partners DLT and Immix Group were awarded rights to sell FlexNet Manager Suite under the ESI contract.

As a result of this award, federal military agencies have access to the leading solution that will enable implementation of Section 937 – the Software License Optimization provision – of the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

The law mandates the DOD’s CIO to conduct a department-wide software asset inventory – an examination of current license utilisation rates, and an assessment of the means by which the DOD can achieve the greatest possible economies of scale and cost savings in the procurement, use and optimisation of selected software licenses.

“Section 937 reflects bi-partisan congressional recognition of the tremendous savings the DOD can enjoy by implementing industry-recognized best practices around software license management and optimization,” said Jim Ryan, Flexera Software’s Chief Operating Officer.  “The ESI contract awarded to FlexNet Manager Suite now makes it possible for the government to leverage the most trusted solution on the market to help it comply with the law and significantly reduce waste in software spend.”

NOTE: Overspend on software occurs when the government buys more software than it actually uses – so-called shelfware; when it doesn’t fully utilize the software it has a right to use based on its license entitlements; and when the government uses more software than it is entitled to, throwing it out of compliance with its contract and subjecting it to financial penalties from software vendors.

According to the 2012 Key Trends in Software Licensing and Pricing Survey Report prepared by Flexera Software with assistance from IDC, 38% of organisations surveyed indicated that 11% or more of their application spend is associated with applications that are overused, and therefore out of compliance.  Moreover, 56% of respondents said that 11% or more of their application spend is associated with shelfware.