A large multinational company wanted to better manage its IT expenditures across multiple global sites. It realized accurate software usage data could yield significant savings, particularly in database licenses where it had approximately 30 agreements but unknown actual usage statistics. The company implemented Open iT LicenseAnalyzer to monitor license usage. Analysis revealed license counts were 60% higher than needed, as actual maximum simultaneous users were lower. This allowed reducing database license costs by 30% by rightsizing agreements based on real usage data.

1. CASE STUDY
www.openit.com
HOW A FORTUNE 500 COMPANY REDUCED ITS
DATABASE COSTS BY 30%
Multi-national company has extra-ordinary IT needs and expenditures.
A large, industrial conglomerate, involved in such diverse activities as oil and gas exploration, fertilizer pro-
duction and light metals, wanted to assess how its computer resources were being used to better manage
its IT expenditures. With a complex IT infrastructure distributed in multiple sites around the globe, getting a
system-wide overview of its resource usage patterns and needs seemed a formidable task.
Perception of software need
vs. reality of software usage
Management was aware that ac-
curate and comprehensive knowl-
edge of IT and usage patterns
could potentially yield enormous
savings in software alone. One
known area of widespread costs
was in database software. World-
wide, the company had approx.
30 different license agreements
with their database suppliers.
These agreements were based
upon estimated usage, while ac-
tual user statistics remained un-
known.
60% more licenses than necessary
The Gartner Group predicts that
companies lacking a reporting
system for their software usage
will have 60% more licenses
than necessary.
Overlicensing in many compa-
nies is due to the fact that pur-
chases are initiated by software
users, who typically over-esti-
mate the time to be spent using
the applications – and they are
made at the local level, robbing
the company of the benefits of
centralized purchasing, such as that its maximum number of si- Why Open iT LicenseAnalyzer?
flexibility and savings found in multaneous database service us- • Identifies application users and
corporate license deals. ers was significantly lower than distributes licenses to the users
had been estimated and paid for. who need them
With this knowledge, the com- • Measures usage continually, so
pany was able to match software
Open iT Software provides ac- license purchases to actual need
trends can easily be seen
curate overview thus reducing li- • Counts the user once, regard-
and reduce license costs by 30%. less of whether he/she is using
cense costs Additionally, with a better under-
Open iT Software was purchased more than one application at a
standing of software user trends time
to measure a variety of IT system through-out the organization, the
statistics, with the Open iT Licen- • Provided by an independent
company was able to save more vendor
seAnalyzer module applied to money by consolidating software
documenting its company-wide • Stores measurements as signed,
license purchases and benefit encrypted, read-only logs,
software license usage. Upon from enterprise discounts.
viewing the license usage reports, preventing data manipulation
the company quickly discovered
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