Time to Optimize E&P Software Licenses

Image for Time to Optimize E&P Software Licenses blog

One of the hardest hit sectors during this Coronavirus pandemic is the Oil and Gas industry.

With travel and shipment restrictions, as well as a general slowdown in manufacturing and production in many significant parts of the world, the demand for oil has sharply declined since the beginning of the year.

Schlumberger has projected a reduction in shale oil production from 1 million barrels per day (bpd) to 600,000 to 700,000 bpd in 2020, and further down to 200,000 bpd in 2021.

As Oil and Gas companies prepare to ride this downturn, most would look for ways to optimize their existing infrastructures and get rid of any unnecessary expenses to mitigate business losses.

And since E&P and other technical software licenses eat up a significant chunk of their IT budget, it is high time for companies to maximize the use of these assets.

There are several levels in optimizing E&P software licenses, and each of these levels brings about more cost optimization opportunities.

Runtime Usage Optimization

The first level would be awareness of how many licenses are being checked out at a time.

A single dashboard that can provide an enterprise-wide overview of all license checkouts for each product and/or feature would be helpful in monitoring and keeping license usage under control.

Are there any license servers that are down?

Are there any denials?

Is there an increase or decrease in license usage across the organization?

Are there licenses that are not being used and can be cut? Which licenses have been checked out by which user?

How long have they had those licenses?

By analyzing real-time and historical reports, the answers to these questions could help organizations determine which licenses could be cut without sacrificing productivity and which products may need additional licenses.

True Active Usage Optimization

The next level of software license optimization is distinguishing between active and inactive usage.

There are times when users check out licenses only to leave the application running without actually using them. This practice locks in idle licenses that could be used by other users who need them, and could cause denials and an artificial increase in demand of licenses.

By metering the activity levels of an application and comparing it with the elapsed time of license checkout, True Active Usage can be measured.

And by identifying an application’s true active usage, further optimization measures may be implemented on the software licenses.

Managed Usage Optimization

The peak level for any software license optimization program is automation.

By actively discovering checked out licenses that have been idle for a certain amount of time, based on predetermined thresholds for inactivity, a powerful software management tool could suspend or terminate the applications that are not in active use, thus automatically releasing the idle licenses back to the pool for redeployment to other active users.

With automatic license harvesting, the organization is assured of efficient and optimized use of each valuable software license.

The Open iT Solution

Open iT® LicenseAnalyzer2020™ is a flexible, highly customizable, robust, and complete software management solution especially suited for E&P, engineering, and other technical software.

With three (3) levels of functionality, where each level extends and builds on the functionalities of the preceding level, LicenseAnalyzer2020 is designed to address the organization’s requirements based on specific initiatives and unique challenges.

Learn more about Open iT LicenseAnalyzer2020 and other products and services from Open iT.

Let's talk

We’ll show you how your business can benefit from Open iT solutions.
Please note:
By submitting this form you are agreeing to receive additional communications from Open iT. Your information will be processed in accordance with our Privacy Notice.