Business Continuity Services updates licence tracking tool

Business Continuity Services (BCS) has released an update to its Software Organiser tool for tracking licenses. It includes numerous improvements asked for by customers, plus a new dashboard feature for an at-a-glance view of compliance.

Software Organiser 4.1, available immediately, adds over 80 enhancements and fixes, according to the firm. Chief among these is a "compliance eye" graphic showing which applications are compliant, and which not. This helps customers to focus on priority areas such as Microsoft licensing, according to BCS business development director Andy Fisher.

Another improvement is an import wizard that can accept audit discovery data from any source, such as spreadsheets.

"More and more customers are auditing using a discovery tool, but won't let them near their servers, so these are still audited manually," Fisher said. This is because server licenses are often complex, especially with today's multi-core processors, and administrators also prefer to keep non-essential software, including discovery agents, off their servers.

Software Organiser's key strength against more generalised asset management tools is its ability to recognise when the same software has been reported more than once, as can happen if an application is part of a suite, according to Fisher.

"We give a truer picture of a company's software compliance situation," he said.

Software Organiser 4.1 is a free upgrade for existing customers from version 4.0. For new customers, licenses start at £1,795 for s single administrator seat. Maintenance is free for the fist year, but charged at 20 percent of the licence fee afterwards