ASAP Cashes In On Software Asset Management Opportunities

In 2001, the Microsoft large-account reseller (LAR) launched eSmart, a subscription-based, hosted service that allows companies to quickly manage and track their software holdings.

In the four years since its launch, eSmart has become more sophisticated, offering advanced discovery and license-tracking services for software, hardware, mobile devices and other IT resources connected to the network or via the Internet.

"Asset management is not a point solution, but a process," said Harry Zoberman, ASAP's senior vice president of marketing and operations. During that process, customers often uncover too many or too few software licenses, licenses for software they haven't deployed, and even licenses for products they didn't know they have, Zoberman said.

But eSmart isn't all that's evolved. As it built and enhanced its SAM service, Buffalo Grove, Ill.-based ASAP has also taken on the additional roles of software developer and hosting services provider.

"ASAP Software has stepped up to the opportunity to address today's licensing models and customer demand for information," said Margo Day, vice president of the U.S. partner group at Microsoft. "Their e-business solution for asset management is an example of innovative value-add that complements Microsoft licensing programs."

In the United States, ASAP Software is among seven LARs and 98 service partners providing SAM services for Microsoft. The field includes ASAP's direct competitors Software Spectrum, CompuCom, EnPointe Technology Sales, Hewlett-Packard, Softchoice and Software Plus.

Mark Hickling, director of SAM services at Microsoft, said 250 partners worldwide offer SAM tools and services, such as Systems Management Server 2003 and Baseline Inventory Analyzer, a free utility offered to SMB customers.

According to IDC, IT asset management revenue is expected to grow to $1.25 billion in 2008 from about $900 million in 2003.

Clearly, the SAM market offers new sales opportunities for Microsoft partners. Such opportunities do not come cheap, however.

Zoberman said eSmart represents a significant investment. ASAP, for instance, has patents pending for its license-tracking software technology. It also runs a full network operations center that serves the SAM needs of more than 5,000 customers in 89 countries.

"It's a market that's immature, but when we go to a customer today, they recognize the need for it," Zoberman said, citing HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley monitoring requirements as two key catalysts promoting SAM demand. "When we talk about compliance and deployment issues, we're getting a warmer audience at higher levels of IT departments and executive management than ever before."

ASAP is not standing still. During the first half of 2005, ASAP plans to offer new modules that offer tighter integration with Microsoft Active Directory, user-defined asset management tracking features, asset reallocation functionality, a new dashboard for reporting and a richer software deployment toolkit.

Microsoft also has ramped up efforts on the SAM front to prove its value over Linux. In December, the vendor started pilot-testing a Web-based tool, called Customer Connection Center (C3), intended to help business customers keep track of their licensed software.

Such SAM technologies could help the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant deal with its shelfware problem—or customers not installing the software they've bought. Such idle software complicates Microsoft's efforts to re-sign Software Assurance and volume-licensing deals.

Microsoft executives said C3 was not designed as a license enforcement measure, but a way to match under-deployed customers with a VAR such as ASAP.

"ASAP is in tune with what our customers need to manage their diverse computing environments," Day said.