University of the Sunshine Coast streamlines software licensing, reduces excess certificates

The University of the Sunshine Coast has moved to streamline its software licensing, reducing thousands of unwanted certifications for its software applications.

Speaking to Computerworld Australia, customer service manager at the fastest growing university in Australia, Perry Dixon, said having excessive licensing agreements was wasting university funds.

“Having discretely licensed [software] across a broad set of design models became problematic,” he said.

“While we had spreadsheets that were capturing information for us, these didn’t include the information on how long the product was being used for.”

Dixon said the main challenge in upgrading the university’s licensing systems was maintaining the growth of the organisation while keeping costs low. After going to market, the university chose to partner with Flexera Software.

“Being so small, we wanted to engage a vendor who would be a strategic partner going forward,” he said.

“So they could help us with service.”

Check out our guide to virtual machine management and complying with software licensing requirements

The rollout of enterprise licence optimisation software, FlexNet Manager, took less than a day, with Dixon saying there have been a number of benefits.

“To implement FlexNet Manager itself was a matter of days,” he said.

“That was a transition from a standard operating environment to a managed environment, so you’ve moved away from having people who could do whatever they want on their computers.”

While unable to give a definite ROI, Dixon said the rollout has provided additional benefits not initially anticipated, with the University now moving toward deploying a number of new software packages.

“Outside of my group it has created a store repository, a place where a lot of information can reside,” he said.

“We’re in the midst of deploying Windows 7 and Office 2010, we don’t lead in that space - we’re a little conservative.

“We’re looking at SharePoint, replacing our mail system, and in this particular product space, we’re looking to integrate FlexDesk Manager into these rollouts.”

Macquarie University earlier this month announced that it planned to virtualize many of its student computer labs from the second semester of this year, in a ploy to better utilise licensed software both on-premise, at the university and remotely.

Follow Lisa Banks on Twitter: @CapricaStar

Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAu

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