Blazent Brings Order to the Chaos of Software License Management; Compliance, and ''Just Plain Visibility'' Increasingly Critical for Global IT Organizations.

SAN MATEO, Calif. -- Blazent Inc., the pioneer of a "new math for IT", today announced the availability of a new module for their increasingly popular IT Intelligence Software suite that offers IT organizations unprecedented assistance in their growing efforts to achieve total compliance in the management of software licenses. In an era where enterprises struggle to keep track of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of licenses, the issue of compliance is becoming increasingly important to both software vendors and end users alike.

"Software license management is in a state of chaos, particularly in Global 2000-class enterprises," said Gary Oliver, president and CEO of Blazent. "Half of the time, organizations are inadvertently running hundreds or thousands of copies of unlicensed software, or out-of-date software, or unapproved -- perhaps security-weak -- software. This sets them up for severe fines from the software vendors, who are significantly increasing audits, or system downtime due to version incompatibility. The other half of the time, organizations are paying for large numbers of licenses that are not even being used, or are used so infrequently as to not justify the cost. With all the attention on cost control and the 'lean enterprise', such inadvertent excesses must be quickly eliminated."

The difficulty, said Oliver, is that existing asset management systems are insufficient to accurately reflect what software -- and versions -- have been licensed, and what is actually being used. And the problem is exacerbated, he said, by the ease of downloading software over the Internet, or duplicating and passing on CD-ROMs. "It is vital that all IT organizations achieve 100% compliance to avoid fines and negative publicity -- as well as 'just plain visibility' -- to avoid unnecessary spending," he said.

"Software license management and compliance is one of the key IT issues facing companies today," said Patricia Adams, senior analyst with the Gartner Group. "Software is such a major part of today's IT budgets that it must be managed with the same relentless efficiency and accuracy as has historically been applied to hardware or physical assets."

According to Adams, there are several key problem areas:

--Asset management systems don't easily reflect which licenses and versions of those are installed.

--The true utilization of much installed software -- licensed or unlicensed -- is poorly understood, and typically not rationalized with specific projects or business goals.

--Few executives understand their firm's true legal and financial exposure due to unlicensed software, and

--Proving compliance and reconciling usage can be an expensive, protracted, and complicated process.

According to Oliver, the new Software Optimization module for Blazent's IT Intelligence suite is designed to help eliminate these problems by providing IT managers a real-time, comprehensive view of the complete state of all software assets in terms of license compliance, version installed, actual usage statistics, location of installation, responsible department, user, and other important data. In addition, any and all assets can be related to cost centers, procurement data, human resource data, and so forth, so that the revenue and cost contributions -- as well as the operational and strategic contributions of the software asset -- can be assessed and evaluated with standardized business metrics.

The Software Optimization Module is particularly useful in preparing for a "true-up" with a vendor. Color coded reports highlight out of compliance installs -- with compliance costs computed -- as well as potentials for cost savings -- with computed amounts -- for matching purchased licenses to actual usage.

Other highlights: security holes from installed but non-operational virus protection software, or out of date virus definitions can be exposed; breakdowns of software usage by application, by department, by job title, or other breakdown are simple to prepare. And for all of the above, data can be drawn from existing financial systems and existing asset management systems. Concluded Oliver: "These new capabilities are completely consistent with Blazent's mission to provide a 'new math for IT' -- that is, a complete analytical foundation equal to the complexities of today's IT organizations -- to IT managers the world over."

Blazent's Software Optimization Module is available now.

About Blazent

Blazent is the pioneer of a "new math" for IT, a sophisticated analytical foundation that gives Global 2000-class IT organizations an unprecedented ability to conceptualize, manage, and optimize IT in the 21st century enterprise. Against a backdrop of IT as an increasingly complex ecosystem with far reaching strategic implications for business, Blazent is the first business-intelligence software to be truly rationalized to the dynamic, multi-dimensional complexity of the IT equation today.

Blazent's first product, IT Intelligence, provides decision makers with a closed-loop IT optimization process that combines real-time visibility into all relevant variables, broad-based analytics and decisioning support, actionable directives, and continuous performance measurements. The result is that CIOs can quickly optimize their entire IT operation to meet widespread, changing business demands, and can operate with unparalleled efficiency and effectiveness. In addition, IT Intelligence integrates easily with and can substantially magnify the benefits of an IT organization's pre-existing tools. This has the impact of immediately lifting the veil of complexity from an IT operation, rather than adding to it.

Blazent's software has been designed for the most complex IT deployments typical of global enterprises, and Blazent's customers include a growing list of high-profile companies including Andrew Corporation, EFW, New York Life, Qwest Communications, RR Donnelley & Sons, Warner Bros, and others. Blazent is located in San Mateo, California. Investors include Bain Capital, Benchmark Capital, Dali Hook Partners, Pequot Ventures and StarVest Partners. Additional information is available online at www.Blazent.com.

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