Supernova Award Category

The Problem

The department faced a number of challenges with delivering applications to 13,000 users around the world. Their users did not know what software was available or what the license costs to the organization were, the manual process for requesting applications often took 4 to 8 weeks, and the manual license reclamation process they adopted to help control costs, was costing over $10,000 per year, and only covered a few of their most popular software assets.  Craig Pavia, the Deputy Director of Business Process Engineering and Solutions, and his team were charged with architecting a solution to streamline the business process of getting applications to end users and reducing the manual tasks that were consuming valuable IT resources. The evaluation of the business process identified big challenges:

• Users were unaware of what software was available to them
• Users did not know the cost of software to their organization
• Application requests could take a month or longer to fulfill
• IT had no visibility into application usage or license availability
• The “install it and forget it” approach meant challenges in tracking licenses

The Solution

The Department uses Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) to manage a very distributed network with approximately 174 locations world-wide.  When considering an enterprise app store, it was mandatory that the product not duplicate SCCM functionality or generate additional wide-area network (WAN) traffic. Only two products met that criteria; Flexera Software App Portal and a competitor. In the end the major deciding factor was that App Portal supported application reclamation out of the box and t he competing product required other related products at additional cost to do the same thing.The department selected Flexera Software App Portal to improve service delivery to their users and governance over their software asset management processes.

The results

In just over six months, the department has reduced service delivery time for applications from 8 weeks, to the same day and users often get what they need in 30 minutes or less. User satisfaction is up. The reduction in IT visits to workstations to install software is equivalent to 320 days of work per year (full-time work for more 1 1/3 employees), allowing them to focus more resources on improving the quality of other services they deliver. Automated license reclamation has been the biggest and quickest win for the department with over 4,000 software titles reclaimed, at a value of $1.24 million in license costs in less than a year.

Metrics

App Portal now helps limit business and legal risk related to the ownership and use of desktop software and is leading to a culture shift within the Department. Instead of relying on IT professionals to acquire andinstall software on their workstations, users now play a proactive role in acquiring the software they need to perform their work.

• Stocked the app store with 30 certified applications valued at $2.25 million
• Reduced software delivery time from 4-8 weeks, to less than one day
• Reduced IT visits to user desktops, saving over $150,000 the first year
• Reclaimed 4,000 licenses at a value of $1.24 million in less than a year

The Technology

Using App Portal, the department launched apps@DFATD, a service that allows staff across its international network to shop for software applications using a self-serve interface without the need for any training given the familiar consumer experience. The app store is available in French and English, supporting the Government of Canada’s Policy on Official Languages, and in the first six months, over 35% of self-service software requests were generated from an office outside of Canada.

Disruptive Factor

App Portal also helped transform DFATD’s Software Asset Management (SAM) program by providing asset managers with a tool for governance of software assets that fully automates the processes of monitoring software inventory and reclaiming unused licenses to ensure financial accountability.  In the past, DFATD tracked and reclaimed four applications every 3-6 months using a cumbersome process that involved running three SCCM metering reports over a 90-day period. The process would take about three weeks to complete. The cost exceeded $10,000 per year, and only covered four of the most popular software assets. Without apps@DFATD, it would have cost the Department more than $60,000 per year to reclaim the 11 applications that apps@DFATD currently reclaims. Each additional application would have cost $5,000 per year. Although this costly and laborious process led to major cost savings and better overall software management, the Department needed a tool that would reduce the time required to reclaim licenses, while increasing the number of applications being reclaimed. With the introduction of App Portal, it now takes software managers only 15 minutes to set up and enable reclamation for software. Now it automatically tracks and meters the 11 most popular software applications used by Departmental staff and adding a new application to the list takes only 15 minutes. Over 4,000 software titles have been reclaimed, saving $1.24 Million in license costs in less than a year.

Shining Moment

apps@DFATD has helped us to transform the business of government through improved oversight, management, and control of the complete software lifecycle, from the requirements phase through to acquisition, stewardship and disposal.