The Test
To test Express 2000 Software Manager, I collected information about the software installed on each of my client systems. I also wanted to check for Y2K hardware compliance. The software collected the appropriate data and told me that my laptop's hardware is ready for Y2K (as Screen 1 shows).
To collect information about product installation on client workstations, or to meter application usage of products installed on a central application server, you must tell the system configuration about the applications. To report an application to the software, you add the application to the Application Library. Express 2000 Software Manager includes an extensive application knowledge base you can automatically add to the Application Library. WRQ includes over 7000 products in the application knowledge base. (WRQ maintains an updated application knowledge base on its Web site.)
After you add an application to the Application Library, you can double-click on the application from the Express Console window and the system will bring up the Application Properties screen, which Screen 2 shows. From this window, you can manage the product's licensing, determine what support files are present, meter usage, restrict specific users' access, and view Y2K information.
Express Meter lets you meter both local and network-installed copies of software packages. If you intend to share licenses between application libraries, you need to activate Express Enterprise. For concurrent licenses, you can automatically shut down the application and recoup the license after a predetermined period of usage or idle time. This functionality is particularly useful in large environments in which users run an application and then minimize it rather than closing it.
The Results
Overall, Express 2000 Software Manager is easy to use and includes several helpful capabilities. This functionality is great, but the product is so feature rich that learning what features the product contains, without even attempting to figure out how to use them, might take weeks. Although the learning curve is long, you will not need a great deal of time to figure out how to use the basic features.
The product's inventory, usage tracking, and metering components are indispensable to a network administrator in a busy shop. However, WRQ needs to offer the product in smaller user quantities, which would complement the NT user-license structure Microsoft offers. The minimum 25-seat pricing structure discriminates against smaller shops in which software metering and license compliance are as important as in enterprise environments.