General Tab

AdminStudio Inventory and Rationalization 2015 | Rationalization Manager

The General tab of the Application Properties page consists of two sections:

•

Identification—Use to fully identify the application.

•

Details—Use to track both your management of the application, and its projected support life from the publisher.

Note that the Source: Local indicator at the top right of the General tab indicates that you are editing an application record that has been created in your enterprise and can therefore edit any of the properties on this tab.

General Tab of Application Properties Page (Application Recognition Service)

On the General tab, specify the following properties:

Usage Tab of Application Properties Page

Property

Description

Product

The basic name of the application, excluding references to versions or editions, and without mentioning the publisher.

Product names supplied by the Application Recognition Library are not editable. Where you create your own application record:

•

You should reuse existing product names where these are already defined (this helps define upgrade and downgrade rights). To do this, use the Search control to identify existing product names.

•

You can also update any product names previously created by operators in your enterprise.

To create a new product for this application:

Enter a new name in the Product field, and click Search.

If no existing products are displayed, click Create product.

The new product is added both to the application's properties and AdminStudio Inventory and Rationalization.

Publisher

The name of the publisher of this software, responsible for its development and distribution. You can define a new publisher as you edit the application properties.

To create a new publisher for this application:

Enter a new name in the Publisher field, and click Search.

If no existing publishers are displayed in the search panel, click Create publisher. The new publisher is added to the application properties.

Version

The release number (or release identifier) of an application. Enter the version, or release number, of an application.

Important: You cannot edit the value of a version. If a version is already displayed, and you modify its value, you are effectively adding a new version. If you are modifying existing application entries, you might need to adjust version priorities because they control automatic upgrades and downgrades for licenses that convey the product use rights. To associate a different version with the application, click the Browse (...) button and select the upgrade or downgrade version you need.

When creating a new application record, any entry in the Version field is automatically copied into the Name field. However, if you are editing an existing application record, this does not happen: remember to synchronize version changes with the application's name when necessary.

Tip: While you can enter any text you want in the Version field, it is best practice to restrict its use to release numbers. The reason is that a version number is used to manage automatic upgrades and downgrades that may be applicable under purchasing agreements or maintenance contracts.

Edition

Enter the edition of this application. If you type in a value that did not previously exist for this product, a new edition entry is created, and is given the highest priority among the editions of this product. You might need to adjust editions' priorities because they control automatic upgrades and downgrades for the licenses that convey the corresponding product use rights. To do that, click displayed next to the Edition field and choose an edition you need.

Note: Any application must have a unique combination of a publisher, product, edition, and version.

If you are creating a new application record, any entry in the Edition field is automatically appended to the Name field (however, if you are editing the existing application’s properties, automatic update no longer occurs). The Edition field is used less often to manage automatic upgrades and downgrades that may be applicable under purchasing agreements or maintenance contracts, and therefore it is best practice to add any necessary remaining attributes of the application to this field. For example, if your licensing requires you to separately track the language of the interface, the platform (application's operating system), or a system type (such as 64-bit), you can include a brief description in this field.

Important: An edition has to be assigned to an application: any unused editions are deleted from AdminStudio Inventory and Rationalization.

Name

Enter the name of an application.

Source

The source for this application will be Local.

Classification

To indicate how this application is classified, select an option from the list, for example:

•

Beta—A pre-release application (covers such items as beta releases, alpha releases, or release candidates) that you have under some special arrangement.

•

Component—The item is used or installed as a component of another application or suite, and is not licensed as a standalone item.

•

Commercial—The application requires a license to be purchased for use in a commercial setting.

•

Freeware—Licensed for use in a commercial environment free-of-charge.

•

Malware—A potentially harmful application (a virus, Trojan, and the like), and should be treated as malware — if installations of this application are identified, you need to address the corresponding incidents or security issues.

•

Shareware—The application is available for downloading from web sites, and typically uses a “try-before-you-buy” licensing model that might include reminder messages, functional limitations, or other restrictions until a full license is purchased.

•

X Rated—The application contains potentially objectionable or sexually explicit material. You might want to consider whether corporate policies require any action.

•

Update—The application represents an update, for example, a service pack, to another application, and is issued for free to all customers regardless of purchasing agreements or support contracts (a “minor” update). If the original application is still recognized as installed after the update installation is completed, you can ignore the evidence for this application, and hide this Update. However, if the update modifies the inventory data, you may need to ensure that this Update application is recognized separately, but is linked to the same license as its predecessor. Then the presence of either the original application or its update will trigger consumption of a license entitlement.

Note: Do not use the Update classification type for major releases of a Commercial-type application (an “upgrade”). Upgrades and downgrades are significant licensing practices, whereas an Update classification is considered to have little licensing impact.

Application category

The default list of software categories is taken from the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code standard (http://www.unspsc.org/).

To assign an application category, click Search, select a category you need, and click Add category.

Tip: To add new categories, navigate to Enterprise > Categories.

Status

From the Status list, select one of the following:

•

Authorized—The application that you have marked as authorized for your enterprise. The application can be associated with a license. This status indicates that the installation of this application on computers in your enterprise is allowed. If the application is also associated with a license, then those installations can be reviewed to determine if they comply with the license terms and conditions.

•

Deferred—The application that you intend to manage in due course, but not now. This status is intended to be a temporary state that you will change later.

•

Ignored—The application that has been flagged as irrelevant for software asset management. While you can recover an application from this state at any time, this status, unlike Deferred, is generally applied only to those applications that you do not intend to manage at all.

•

Inactive—The application that is defined in AdminStudio Inventory and Rationalization, but not installed. These are normally applications loaded from the Application Recognition Library.

•

Unauthorized—Unauthorized applications should not be installed on computers in your enterprise. It is best practice to uninstall such applications.

•

Unmanaged—A new application discovered in your enterprise, but not yet assigned any of the above status values.

Tip: If you do not have the time to process the new records, you can assign the Deferred status to an application, and review it later.

Release date

Select the date when the application's support agreement expires.

Supported until

Select the date when the application's extended support agreement expires.

Extended support until

Select a release date that is used to calculate whether you are entitled to upgrade to this release under an existing agreement with an end date.

For example, if you purchase a license that states “free update until December 15, 2019”, you could record this time limit in a contract. AdminStudio Inventory and Rationalization would continue to provide automatic processing of upgrades of all releases until a date after “Dec 15, 2019” (after that date the automatic upgrade rights would be terminated). If you do not specify a release date, a series of updates cannot be terminated.

Tip: You might need to check the terms of your release agreement. Some agreements require that an application should be both released and purchased prior to the end date, while others grant only perpetual use of applications that were released, purchased, and installed before the end date. AdminStudio Inventory and Rationalization only compares the end date of the agreement with the release date of the application. Other factors, for example, the linked purchase date, or the first use date, are not considered automatically.

Information

Type in additional details about an application, if any.

Open topic with navigation

General Tab

AdminStudio Inventory and Rationalization 2015 Help Library

July 28, 2015