With the formation of FinOps and its convergence with ITAM, effective software license management is an increasingly critical required capability for organizations of all sizes. It impacts compliance, cost control and overall IT governance. But the complexity of software licensing agreements and the evolving nature of software distribution models make it challenging to maintain compliance while optimizing costs. Product use rights (PUR) and the application of product use right templates are crucial components in software license management that enable cost savings across your IT estate. Let’s learn how to understand them and how to get the most out of your technology investments.
Understanding product use rights
Product use rights refer to the permissions and limitations granted to the end-user or organization in a software license agreement. These rights dictate how your software can be used, installed, accessed and shared—and understanding PUR is a fundamental prerequisite for effective software license management. The terms within a software license agreement can vary significantly between software vendors, so it’s essential that you understand the specifics of each agreement to ensure you are in compliance.
The role of Product Use Rights
Compliance management
One of the primary roles of PUR is to help you maintain compliance with software license agreements. By clearly defining the terms of use, PUR ensure that software is used in accordance with the license agreement, reducing the risk of non-compliance, which can result in legal and financial consequences. These rights often specify the number of installations, users, devices or other usage parameters, helping you avoid license violations.
Cost optimization
Cost optimization is one important benefit of PUR because they act as a crucial tool that enable you to make informed decisions about software procurement and deployment. By understanding the limitations and permissions outlined in PUR, you can avoid over-licensing and unnecessary expenses. You can also leverage PUR to explore cost-effective licensing options, such as downgrade rights, which allow the use of older software versions to save on licensing costs.
Risk mitigation
PUR also serve as a crucial tool for risk mitigation because their clear and specific terms reduce the likelihood of misinterpretation and inadvertent non-compliance. This simplification of license terms ensures you can confidently use your software within the bounds of the agreement and avoid legal or financial risks associated with non-compliance.
In addition to compliance, cost optimization and risk mitigation, PUR are instrumental in streamlining software procurement and deployment processes. They provide a standardized framework for interpreting and applying PUR across your organization’s software portfolio, promoting consistency and efficiency in these critical activities.
Understanding product use case templates
Product use case templates are pre-defined, unique use right combinations that outline common usage scenarios (e.g., venue, configuration) for specific software products. These templates simplify the complex interpretation of the various combinations and permutations of available licensing scenarios, which in turn makes it easier to apply PUR consistently across your organization’s software portfolio. Some of the critical roles of use case templates include:
Standardization
Product use case templates offer standardized, pre-defined terms for common software usage scenarios. This standardization ensures that your organization can consistently interpret and apply PUR across its entire software portfolio. It helps eliminate ambiguity and confusion, making it easier to ensure compliance and avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.
Efficiency
Templates streamline the process of interpreting complex licensing terms. Rather than dissecting each license agreement from different vendors individually, you can refer to templates for common scenarios, saving you time and effort in the process. This efficiency contributes to faster decision-making and software deployment within your complex IT environment.
Consistency
Using templates ensures consistency in software license management. It guarantees that your organizations applies uniform rules and terms across its software assets. This consistency not only simplifies management but also reduces the risk of costly non-compliance and related liabilities.
Oracle DB PUR/Use cases example
How does Flexera automate the application of product use case templates?
License intelligence
Flexera’s solutions incorporate license intelligence, which includes a comprehensive database of software product use case templates from various vendors. This extensive database is regularly updated to ensure accuracy and completeness.
Software recognition
Flexera uses advanced software recognition algorithms to identify and inventory the software assets within an organization. This includes recognizing the specific software products, versions and editions in use.
Template matching
The solution scans the recognized software products against the database of product use case templates. It matches the software products with the appropriate templates based on their characteristics and licensing terms.
Template application
Once the correct product use case templates are identified, the software automatically applies these templates to the respective software products in your organization’s inventory. This automation ensures that the appropriate usage rights and restrictions are consistently applied.
Compliance checks
Flexera continuously monitors software usage and compares it to the applied templates. If any discrepancies or non-compliance issues are detected, the software generates alerts and provides the ability to review and directly apply the recommendations within the solution.
Continuous updates
Flexera continuously updates Technopedia, the most trusted and comprehensive source of hardware, software, SaaS and cloud product information in the world to ensure the library is current with changing software licensing terms and conditions.
PUR and product use right templates are indispensable elements of software license management required to optimize software licensing, without utilizing PUR and product use rights you are paying more money to increase your compliance risk. Flexera is the only software asset management (SAM) tool that optimizes the application of product use rights and use case templates supporting advanced hybrid software license management, making us the market leader in SAM. Our intelligent IT Asset Management (ITAM) solution includes market data points for over 2,000,000 PUR and 5,100 use case templates. Flexera is dedicated to increasing the value of your technology assets, and with our recent acquisition of Snow Software, our superior technology data is even more robust. Talk with a sales representative today and see how much you can save by implementing Flexera One.
