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Software Asset Optimization

Overview

The software asset optimization pack helps you optimize your license costs of Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Project, and Adobe Acrobat DC. In many Organizations, these applications are often left on machines when the employee moves on to a new role and no longer needs them for active use. As they are licensed individually this can be a significant waste of money.

The pack will identify the devices that have one or all of these programs installed and evaluates when they were last used.

In addition, Remote Actions are provided to remove these programs from devices where they have not been used for some time. There are Campaigns included with each remote action which will ensure that the employee is prompted for their agreement to an uninstallation, to account for any situation where in fact the employee does want to keep the applications - they just use them infrequently.

The Software Asset Optimization dashboards will also allow you to calculate how much money these licenses are currently costing and how much you can save, and finally, how much you have saved by removing the software.

Adobe Acrobat Campaign

As Adobe Acrobat Reader cannot be installed on a PC when Adobe Acrobat DC is present, it is possible that employees could be using the full version of Adobe Acrobat DC simply for reading PDFs, unaware of its full functionality or cost. In this case, the scores and metrics in this pack that identify uninstallation candidates through a lack of usage may not provide the full picture. For this reason, a usage survey is included in this pack which is designed to be sent to those employees known to be running Adobe Acrobat DC. The first question will ask the employee how they use PDFs. Those employees who only read or annotate PDFs will be asked a follow-up question asking for permission to remove the Acrobat application and replace it with Adobe Acrobat Reader. They can then be targeted for the implementation of the Adobe Acrobat removal remote action.
The responses to this campaign are shown in a dedicated dashboard, with key actionable KPIs for “read-only usage” and “permission to uninstall.”

Configuration

Scores: Software Asset Optimization scores

  • The cost of each license must be configured inside both Software Asset Optimization, and Software Asset Optimization Saved Costs scores. Once the values have been adapted to your environment, you should update both of these scores. The default values for the licenses are:

    • Microsoft Project (360$ - Project Plan 3, please adjust this if you are Project Plan 5)

    • Microsoft Visio (180$)

    • Adobe Acrobat DC (170$ - this is the average of the prices for Standard and Pro license versions)

To do this, open the Nexthink Score Creator and load the pack in. Here you will find a score relating to the financial cost, and you can adjust the unit cost of each application according to the actual price your Organization pays:

In the above case, we have suggested 360 as the cost (in your local currency, whatever it may be) for the application. If it is more, or less, you should change this figure accordingly. The same approach for the Visio and Acrobat leaf scores can be followed.

Category: Software Asset Optimization Binaries

  • The keywords in this category are used to identify the executable we want to track in a more readable manner.

Category: Software Asset Optimization Packages

  • The keyword in this category is used to define the name of the software regardless of the different versions available in your environment.

Remote Action: Uninstall Microsoft Office Visio and Project

  • This Remote Action should be executed to remove unused Microsoft Project and Visio licenses. The Remote Action parameters allow you to choose between the three options for program deletion (Project, Visio, or both) and the necessary campaigns to ask the user to close all other Microsoft Applications (necessary for any kind of uninstallation of a Microsoft product).

Remote Action: Uninstall Adobe Acrobat DC

  • This Remote Action should be executed to remove unused Adobe Acrobat licenses. No Remote Action parameter changes should be required. Please note that there are three campaigns associated with this remote action; the main one will ask the user to close the Adobe Acrobat application, should it be running when the RA is triggered.

Troubleshooting

Last Executed Calculation

There are some metrics and also leaf scores that refer to how long it has been since Visio, Project, or Adobe Acrobat were executed. These rely on an NXQL query looking at the “number_of_executions” of the binary files for the applications. They are set at both 10, 15, 30, and 60 days.

The outcome of these queries will depend on how much history you have configured in your Engine(s) in your Nexthink infrastructure. If you only have 15 days history, then you may get incorrect results for the 30 and 60 days checks as these will no longer be present. Please make sure that if you do not have this length of history in the Engine(s), then you adjust the scores accordingly (and the metrics that refer to how long it has been since the applications were executed) to only reflect those results where the calculation is accurate.

To alter the score, you change it for each leaf node that you need:

 

Change log

  • V1.0.1.0 - Adobe Acrobat functionality added, documentation updated

  • V1.0.0.1 - Added keywords and more text to the pack description

  • V1.0.0.0 - Initial release

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