Software Tagging for SAM Tools Vendors
Until now, providing discovery tools to identify the software installed on computers has been problematic. With no industry standard way of marking software for later identification, building discovery tools has been a process of systematically working out the identifying files, registry entries and so on for particular pieces of installed software, and ensuring the tool can recognize those identifiers. For many tools, this process has been based around an application recognition library, to which additional information can be added, ensuring that a discovery tool can recognize more software over time. Building discovery tools this way has forced vendors to concentrate on recognizing popular or expensive software titles, as these are the ones consumers are most likely to want to recognize.
Each tools vendor has had to construct essentially the same set of information, in whatever format their tool uses.
How Standardization Helps
With the introduction of ISO/IEC 19770-2, tools vendors can finally stop the wasteful investment in building proprietary tools and in each assembling the same set of data and trying to keep it up to date. Certified software identification tags (SWID tags) uniquely identify each piece of software installed on a computer, including information such as whether it's licensed as part of a suite or bundle, its version, language and more. Now SAM tools providers can concentrate on building robust tools that base their identification on SWID tags. Rather than invest large amounts of time in keeping software identification databases up to date, tools vendors can direct that energy towards providing enhanced features to simplify and further automate the SAM process.
Join the Conversation
Join the TagVault.org community to tune into the conversation between all members of the SAM eco-system, and find out real-world needs, such as determining the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code® (UNSPSC) for each piece of installed software and including it reports. Software consumers and government departments have told us this provides value in allowing them to group applications by function, simplifying accounting processes and allowing for intelligent analysis to consolidate the software in use across an organization.
Join TagVault.org to gain information about how different members of the SAM eco-system are using software tagging, what software consumers are demanding and how you can deliver them a cost-effective, compelling option. Download a membership form.
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