Data consolidation

In Flexera One SaaS Management, the discovered data is consolidated and presented in a normalized and structured way, to facilitate visibility and optimization. The update frequency of new data depends on the discovery source.

Data discovery and mapping

SaaS visibility is achieved through gathering of data from various discovery sources. For more information, see SaaS discovery. To analyze this often large amount of discovered data, it must be mapped, tied, and consolidated into meaningful data sets and information. This consolidation also facilitates optimization.

The data on applications, subscriptions, users, and user activity, gathered through the discovery sources, is mapped to vendor data on applications and subscription types in Flexera's database. The data is also connected to the billing information added to subscriptions. In this way, the data is consolidated into structured information and data sets, that is presented in Flexera One SaaS Management.

Consolidation of data records

Applications and users are consolidated from multiple discovery sources to show one consolidated record per item. Subscriptions show one record per discovery source, to create visibility of duplicate subscriptions for the same services, giving an overview of optimization opportunities.

User activity is consolidated from multiple sources and data for the latest activity in respective applications is presented in Flexera One SaaS Management. For more information, see User activity.

Update frequency

Data imported from discovery sources is consolidated and updated in indicators, insights, charts, and tables in the Flexera One SaaS Management pages when the system runs an hourly check. However, data is imported to the system at different times, and hence the pages may not show any new information every hour. Import times for discovery sources vary:

  • SaaS connectors import data at the time scheduled in respective settings, or when manual imports are run. Therefore, the data from connectors may be updated on a daily basis or up to an hour after a data import.

    User activity from connectors is collected once per day, with data from vendor APIs for the previous day. Therefore, activity data from connectors is from the previous day or earlier.

    For more information, see SaaS connectors and User activity.

  • Agent-based browser extension data is collected when it happens and sent by the Inventory Agents at 9 AM by default, unless a custom schedule it set. The data is then sent immediately from the Inventory Agents by Inventory Beacons to Flexera One SaaS Management, unless you have it differently configured. Therefore, the latest browser extension usage data is for the previous day.

    For more information, see Agent-based browser extensions.

  • Device application usage information is collected from devices using the ITAM Forwarder and the usage data is exported to Flexera One SaaS Management at scheduled intervals. Flexera One SaaS Management then runs the import on a daily schedule at 20:00:00 for each cluster:

    Cluster Import time (UTC)
    AustraliaSouthEast 20:00:00
    EastUS2 20:00:00
    WestEurope 20:00:00

  • Manually entered information in applications, subscriptions, and users is updated immediately. But the effects on the relationship between users, applications and subscriptions, such as adding users to subscriptions, is updated in an hourly check by the system to show in indicators, insights, charts, and tables. To view the effect of manual updates directly, select Update data at the bottom of a page. You cannot select the button more than once every 15 minutes, so it is recommended that you complete all of your manual updates before selecting Update data or that you wait for the hourly automatic update.

    To select Update data, you require the Administrator role.