Professional license management is required to ensure software compliance. TIMETOACT supports and supervises FUNKE Mediengruppe within the scope of a SAM Managed Service for Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle and IBM (incl. ILMT). Monthly license reporting with Power BI and internal audit checks now enable full transparency, continuous compliance and avoidance of unnecessary costs.
Continuous support through SAM Managed Service Support
TIMETOACT creates transparency and compliance in licensing and license requirements at FUNKE
Note: This reference dates from before the merger and was created by TIMETOACT – now part of ATVANTAGE. Our experience remains the same – only our name has changed. You can find more information about the merger here.
Initial Situation:
- Diverse and extensive licensing models, low internal resources
- No point of contact for licensing issues
- Poor reporting options, risk of negative audits
Solution:
- Managed Service Support by TIMETOACT for optimal license management, transparency and compliance
Added value:
- Permanent overview of license and user inventory, semi-annual recommendations for action by experts
- Simple and intuitive overview of the history of all license and user data to plan license management based on data
- Cost optimization by avoiding unnecessary license purchases and early detection of unused license expenses
We decided in favor of TIMETOACT because the experts convinced us with their expertise and suitable services. We are very happy with this decision, because everything is running as we hoped.
Sven Degenhardt
Head of IT Governance & Services
FUNKE
Professional license management with the help of TIMETOACT Experts
Extensive license models, different terms of use and a multitude of license agreements make it difficult to keep track of software and licenses in use. Since the media group's internal resources were not sufficient to optimally support license management, FUNKE decided to call on the support of TIMETOACT. Among other things, this was to reduce the risk of negative audits. After an open and independent tender, the choice fell on TIMETOACT, which convinced with the best price-performance ratio.
- The core requirement for SAM Managed Service Support was to use appropriate tools to continuously monitor the licenses and obtain more transparency about their use. This should avoid unnecessary costs and ensure compliance at all times. In addition, the media group needed better reporting options and a point of contact for licensing issues.
Continuous SAM Managed Service for Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle and IBM (including ILMT)
After a short onboarding phase of four weeks, regular operation of the SAM Managed Service started at the end of 2022. This comprises two core elements
Insight into the Power BI dashboard (demo data)
Monthly dashboards on license status using Power BI:
Power BI is a tool from Microsoft for data visualization. It provides FUNKE with detailed reporting on license and user data, which highlights gaps in licensing in particular. The great advantage is that Power BI can be used to record historical data in order to observe the development of licenses over time. This gives FUNKE a precise overview of its license requirements, which provides an optimal basis for subsequent license negotiations.
Effective License Position (ELP) twice a year
With the semi-annual ELP, FUNKE receives a comparative report between the license inventory (purchased licenses) and the user inventory (used licenses). The SAM experts summarize this license inventory and provide recommendations for action on how to optimize licenses and resolve incompliance.
Insight into the presentation of license usage in Power BI (demo data)
The media group receives these reports for the manufacturers defined in the scope: Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle and IBM. In addition to this regular operation, the SAM experts also take care of operational SAM by being available to FUNKE as contact persons for questions and problems. The SAM helpdesk communicates primarily via tickets, but exchanges can also take place in person.
We regularly receive an overview of our license balances and are thus much more flexible in our license design. Everything works great - and even outside the line, questions are always answered on time and in full.
Katharina Müller
IT License Managerin
FUNKE
Operation of the IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT)
One of the vendors defined in the scope is IBM. In order to provide the best possible continuous support for IBM licenses, the TIMETOACT experts put the IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT) into operation at FUNKE. FUNKE receives a monthly license status report and quarterly compliance snapshots.
With the monthly reports, FUNKE has full transparency about the licenses used and user numbers, as desired. This ensures that the media group only buys the licenses that are actually needed. License compliance is ensured at all times with the semi-annual internal audit procedures or ELP, which avoids potential costs in the event of audits. FUNKE Mediengruppe also benefits from the SAM helpdesk, which always has experts on hand to answer questions about SAM.
FUNKE is one of the leading employers in the media industry. From online portals to newspapers and magazines to radio and podcasts - the diversity of its titles, brands and genres is unique in the German media landscape. FUNKE employs around 700 journalists and 3,800 media professionals.
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