Group Assignment Tab

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

This tab allows two different things:

It displays how consumption of this license is distributed around various enterprise groups (regardless of its second function)
It lets you assign license entitlements to specific enterprise groups, giving them second priority in competition for scarce license entitlements. These are "group assignments".
Tip: Top priority is given to individual allocations, made on the Consumption tab. Second, consumption from groups given assignments in this tab are calculated. Thereafter, any remaining entitlements on the license are available for consumption by other installations/usage of the linked software.

Restrictions

This tab is not available for the following license types:

CAL Legacy
Custom Metric
IBM Concurrent User
IBM Floating User
Named User
Node Locked
OEM
SAP Named User
SAP Package
Tiered Device.

Purpose

Group assignments are a convenient way to allow local management of license compliance, whether your enterprise allows local purchasing. For example, a central license management authority can 'delegate' management of a distinct number of license entitlements to an enterprise group, with the group's manager responsible for budget, compliance, any individual allocations within the group, and so on. If your enterprise allows direct purchases by enterprise groups (not moderated by a central purchasing group), you can also manage these through the Group assignment tab.

Note: When your organization uses group assignments on licenses without any group level purchases, your license position is calculated based on assigned licenses compared to consumed licenses.

When are groups listed?

Enterprise groups are listed in this tab under the following conditions:

They are of the type selected in the Assign license entitlement to group type drop-down list
One (or more) of the following conditions is also true:
- There is a non-zero value in the Purchased locally (total) column. For example:
```
16 (45)
```
  means that 16 entitlement purchases have been linked directly to this group, while the rolled-up total for this group and all its descendents is 45. Obviously, the local purchases entitle the group to inclusion in this list. As well, a value looking like
```
0 (64)
```
  with a zero before the parentheses means there is no local purchase in this group, but its descendent groups have purchases. For completeness, such a group is also included in the list (repeated all the way up to level 1 group of this type). Purchases are linked to enterprise groups on the Ownership tab of the purchase properties.
- There is a non-zero value in the Assigned locally (total) column, meaning that an operator has previously edited group assignments, or copied the quantity purchased by each group into their group assignment using the Assign purchases button. As for purchases (described above), a group is included for local assignments or for assignments to any of its descendents adding to its rolled-up total.
- There is a non-zero value in the Consumed locally (total) column, once again either for local consumption or for rolled-up total consumption from its descendents. Consumption means that the most recent software inventory showed installations of software linked to this license on computers (or for users) that are members of this enterprise group. Any individual allocations to users or computers within these groups may also count as consumption (if the Allocations consume license entitlements check box is selected on the Use rights & rules tab, under License consumption rules).
Important: If you set both Assigned locally (total) and Purchased locally (total) to zero and Save the changes to the license, the relevant enterprise group is removed because you have effectively said that there is "no group assignment". One or other (or both) of these values must have a non-zero value for a valid group assignment.

Numbers variations

The counts and totals that you see in this tab may be restricted by the settings on System Settings > Licensing tab, under Licenses and license counts:

If this is set to Licenses owned by their groups, with enterprise-wide counts, you are seeing full counts and rolled-up totals for that license.
Any other setting means the figures you see are rolled up only for those groups for which you have access rights to list computers.

Not a reservation

Group assignments are a prioritization, and not a strict reservation in the same way that individual allocations can be. This means that, in any day's compliance calculations, any surplus group assignment not matched by consumption records (through inventory) remains available for consumption by other installations outside the group. Should consumption within the group increase, this is addressed in the next compliance calculation, where their increase is again given second priority against the pool of available entitlements.

Group at risk

When a group consumes more licenses than were available in their group assignment, this is a 'group at risk'. This is a management infringement that you deal with according to your corporate policies; but be clear that this group at risk is quite distinct from the question of whether a license is over-utilized globally within your enterprise, so that it represents a possible compliance risk in a future audit.

For example, suppose you have location A which displays as a group at risk by 10 entitlements, but location B still has 5 entitlements from its group assignment that are not being consumed, and there are another 20 entitlements set aside that were not part of any group assignment. The group at risk is location A that is more than covered by the other surplus positions, so that there is no question of the license being over-utilized based on these installation counts. Keep management convenience and legal compliance quite distinct.

Tasks and columns

Tasks related to group assignments are shown in the table of contents on the left, and also listed at the bottom of this page.

The following columns are available in the lower list of group assignments, and many (as marked) are also available in the search panel for choosing groups to add to this tab. Also included in this list are the input controls for configuring your group assignments for this license.

Tip: The list of groups is a hierarchy. You may need to click the + expander icon on the left of a row to expose its descendent groups.

Name	Notes
Assigned locally (total)	Shows the number of license entitlements related to this group, in two figures: The first figure is the number of entitlements assigned directly to this group (also called 'local' assignments) The second figure (in parentheses) is the rolled-up total for this group and all its descendent groups. Naturally, this figure is omitted for leaf-node groups that have no descendents. Note: If you export data from this list to a spreadsheet (or similar), only the local value is exported in this column. There is a separate Assigned total field in the column chooser to add to the table for export purposes, showing only the rolled-up total for each group and all its descendents, and without parentheses. To change local assignments, see the Modify assignment column.
Assigned total	Rolled-up total of assignments to each group and to all its descendents. Tip: This figure (for each group) matches the figure in parentheses in the Assigned locally (total) column. It is replicated in this separate column (and without the parentheses) for use when you wish to export the table to a spreadsheet or similar. Before exporting, use the column chooser to add this column to the table.
Assign license entitlement to group type	Group assignments can be made to only one kind of enterprise group for each license. (You can switch types at any time, but of course when you switch, you lose any group assignments made to the previous type.) Choose the type (`Location`, `Corporate unit`, or `Cost center`) from the drop-down list.
Consumed locally (total)	Shows the number of license entitlements consumed by this group (as at the last compliance calculation, for which the date and time are shown in the very top right of the page as `Reconciled:`), based on inventory imports. Two figures are shown: The first figure is the number of entitlements consumed directly by this group (also called 'local' consumption). The second figure (in parentheses) is the rolled-up total consumption for this group and all its descendent groups. Naturally, this figure is omitted for leaf-node groups that have no descendents. Note: If you export data from this list to a spreadsheet (or similar), only the local value is exported in this column. There is a separate Consumed total field in the column chooser to add to the table for export purposes, showing only the rolled-up total for each group and all its descendents, and without parentheses.
Consumed total	Rolled-up total of consumption by each group and to all its descendents, as at the last reconciliation. Tip: This figure (for each group) matches the figure in parentheses in the Consumed locally (total) column. It is replicated in this separate column (and without the parentheses) for use when you wish to export the table to a spreadsheet or similar. Before exporting, use the column chooser to add this column to the table.
Group	The name of the related enterprise group. Groups display here in a hierarchy. You may need to click the + expander icon on the left of a row to expose its descendent groups.
Group compliance locally (total)	The read-only result of both the local and aggregated compliance status. Two figures are shown: The first figure is the number of compliant licenses of this group alone, not including any descendent groups (also called 'local' compliance). The second figure (in parentheses) is the rolled-up total compliance for this group and all its descendent groups. Naturally, this figure is omitted for leaf-node groups that have no descendents.
Group compliance total	The read-only result of compliance calculations. Takes into account the group assignments (either made directly, or according to assigned purchases), and compares with consumption (typically from installation records found in inventory). After assignments are first made, it shows blank until the next reconciliation (compliance calculation), and then shows either `Compliant` (consumption is at or below assignments) or `At risk` (consumption exceeds assignments).
Group level	The level of this group in the group hierarchy, starting from 1 at the highest (most summarized) level. Useful when this table is exported to a spreadsheet or similar, when the hierarchy is flattened to a single list.
Groups are at risk	This control has two functions: It is the main switch that turns on (and off) group assignment calculations in the compliance calculation process. For more information, see Impact of Group Assignments on Compliance Calculations. When it is "on", it determines the condition under which groups are considered at risk. Select the condition on which groups will be shown at risk of breaching their 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.
Modify assignment	When you re-enter this tab of the license properties, the value in this column for each enterprise group matches the first number in the Assigned locally (total) column: it is the local assignment of license entitlements to this enterprise group. However, you can click any value in this column, and edit it directly in the table. Click outside the same field to complete the process. After a moment, the values in all affected rows are updated. Tip: There are more facilities available if you use the Assign entitlements button. For example, you can record a comment as an audit trail for your change; and you can do single-step transfers that ensure the same quantities from and to different groups.
Purchased locally (total)	Shows the number of software purchases related to this group, in two figures: The first figure is the number of purchases linked directly to this group (also called 'local' purchases) The second figure (in parentheses) is the rolled-up total of purchases by this group and all its descendent groups. Naturally, this figure is omitted for leaf-node groups that have no descendents. Note: If you export data from this list to a spreadsheet (or similar), only the local value is exported in this column. There is a separate Purchased total field in the column chooser to add to the table for export purposes, showing only the rolled-up total for each group and all its descendents, and without parentheses. To change the purchases associated with each group, see the Ownership tab of the purchase properties.
Purchased total	Rolled-up total of purchases by each group and all its descendents. Tip: This figure (for each group) matches the figure in parentheses in the Purchased locally (total) column. It is replicated in this separate column (and without the parentheses) for use when you wish to export the table to a spreadsheet or similar. Before exporting, use the column chooser to add this column to the table.
Show risks	This control only appears when Groups are at risk is set to a value other than `Never`. 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.
Summarize to level	This control only appears when Show risks is set to `Summarized at higher group levels`. 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.)

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

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