Configuring Group Assignments for a License

FlexNet Manager Suite 2022 R1 (On-Premises)

The first time you use the Group assignment tab for each license, you may wish to configure the way that group assignments will work for this license. Thereafter, you can add group assignments at any time.

To configure group assignments for a license:

  1. From the Assign license entitlement to group type drop-down list, choose the kind of enterprise group to which you want to assign entitlements under this license. Each license may be assigned to only one kind of enterprise group. Should you need to assign the same entitlements, say, to locations and cost centers, you will need to create two otherwise similar licenses, and provide assignments to different types of enterprise groups for each of them.
    Important: If you change the group type in this tab, you also reset all your existing group assignments on this license to zero. For this reason, if you just want to inspect license consumption across various enterprise groups, it’s preferable to use the Licenses by Group Assignment report.
  2. In the Groups are at risk drop-down list, select the condition when license consumption by groups is at risk of breaching their delegated license management responsibilities:
    • Never means that you do not want to apply management disciplines in this way. Group assignments do not affect compliance calculations, and the system will not highlight when groups consume more that they were assigned or purchased. This is convenient if you use the Group assignment tab only to review the spread of license consumption across groups as it occurs naturally through software use by group members. (Choosing this value also hides further controls in this section.)
    • When consumption exceeds purchases means that a group is at risk when its consumption of license entitlements (commonly, installations of linked software) exceeds its own purchases of license entitlements. With this setting, direct assignments to groups are ignored, and only their local purchases are regarded as amassing license entitlements. Use this option only when both of the following are true:
      • Your corporate policy is for exclusively local purchasing of software, so that there is no central purchasing/assignment, and no cross-assignment (transfers) between groups to track
      • Purchases are linked to the appropriate groups to allow automatic tracking of purchased quantities (in the Ownership tab of the purchase properties).
      Tip: If you set Show risks For each local group, these are local consumption and purchases specific to each group. However, if you Show risks Summarized at higher group levels, the figures are rolled up totals for a group and all its descendent sub-groups.
    • When consumption exceeds assignments means that a group is at risk when it consumes more license entitlements (commonly, through installations) than have been assigned to it. Use this option when any of the following apply:
      • You are managing by assigning central purchases to groups
      • When you combine local purchases with central purchasing and assignments
      • When you allow cross-assignments (or transfers) from one group’s purchase to cover another group’s consumption.
      Tip: If you set Show risks For each local group, these are local consumption and assignments specific to each group. However, if you Show risks Summarized at higher group levels, the figures are rolled up totals for a group and all its descendent sub-groups.
  3. Assuming that your last choice was When consumption exceeds... either purchases or assignments, choose how to Show risks.
    Choose whether to show any groups at risk:
    • For each local group (at all levels)
    • Summarized at higher group levels. When you choose this option, the Summarize to level control displays, enabling you to set the level where groups at risk are first displayed.
  4. If you chose to summarize, use Summarize to level to select the lowest level of the group hierarchy that reports group compliance status.
    The highest (most summarized) groups in your hierarchy are called level 1, their children are level 2, and so on down to the ‘leaf nodes’ of your hierarchy (those that have no further children). The maximum value for levels here is 20 (a very low level for summarizing!). Any groups at risk for levels lower than the summary one you specify are not displayed.
    Note: Group assignments only 'summarize up'. They do not 'inherit down'. This means that if you assign 100 license entitlements to North America (and do nothing else), that assignment does not automatically justify installations in Chicago. With nothing assigned directly to Chicago, any license consumption in Chicago is considered to be at risk for the Chicago location. (A manager in the North America location may transfer entitlements to Chicago.)
Note: You do not need to click Save after entering these configuration details: they take effect immediately. You may continue working on this (and other) tabs, and remember to click Save when you are finished.

FlexNet Manager Suite (On-Premises)

2022 R1