Serco Group plc Signs Global Agreement with ManageSoft for Software Asset Management and Compliance

ManageSoft's Enterprise Compliance Manager™ to enable centralised software procurement, reduce risk of non-compliance

BOSTON, MA, September 22, 2008 – ManageSoft, the leading provider of desktop to datacenter software asset management solutions, today announced that Serco Group plc (Serco), an international service company, has chosen its Enterprise Compliance Manager™ (ECM) for software asset management across Serco’s global IT estate including the UK, North America, and Asia-Pacific geographies. Serco has licensed ECM for 25,000 seats to enable the company to centralise enterprise-wide software procurement, better utilise existing software assets, reduce the risk of vendor license non-compliance, and achieve cost savings.

ECM combines asset inventory, software usage, contract terms, purchase order data, and license compliance management. This will enable Serco to optimise its software investment and ensure enterprise-wide license entitlement.

In addition, Serco has also purchased 25,000 licenses for Software Deployment Manager and Patch Manager. This will enable its IT teams to install software and operating systems in office sites across its geographies, even with very limited IT support. Patch Manager will automatically alert IT to new patches and streamline the process of deploying them to vulnerable devices across its global enterprise.

Gordon Paterson, Director, Information Risk, Serco, commented, “For a company of our size, there are huge business advantages to be gained from centralised procurement and management of IT, including cost savings, better control of the IT estate and time efficiencies. Having a single tool for managing licenses and their usage across the global enterprise is now a business-critical requirement. Also, by adopting this type of application, we significantly reduce the risk of unintentional non-compliance. Our selection of ManageSoft’s ECM is based on a thorough evaluation of the software asset management solutions market, including both the large international brands, as well as niche providers. In addition, we put ECM through its paces with a rigorous model office testing process and it scored very highly for ease of use, technical robustness, and functionality. Its capabilities in the areas of software asset discovery, recognition, and license reconciliation were also key in the overall selection process.”

ECM will assist Serco to make informed decisions where the company is over licensed, provide alerts to renew maintenance contracts, negotiate better terms, reharvest licenses or even eliminate vendors. Further, managers will be able to ensure that the enterprise is following corporate policy and that it is audit ready at any point in time.

Patrick Gunn, ManageSoft’s vice president of EMEA sales, added, “We are delighted at securing Serco as our customer and partner. Our solution will not only streamline license procurement and management, but will also provide critical business intelligence for running of day-to-day operations and strategic IT planning. We look forward to a mutually beneficial partnership.”

About Serco Group plc
Serco is an international service company, which combines commercial know-how with a deep public service ethos. It improves services by managing people, processes, technology and assets more effectively. The company advises policy makers, designs innovative solutions, integrates systems, and - most of all - delivers to the public.

About ManageSoft
ManageSoft is the leading supplier of Enterprise Software Management solutions for asset recognition, license entitlement, contract management, and software/OS deployment. We enable a quick asset, contract, and entitlement baseline to be established, immediate notification of compliance drift from policies and terms, and recommendations for resolution. Our products are based on open industry SAM, ISO and ITIL standards and ManageSoft contributes to defining future standards with membership in FAST, IBSMA, IAITAM, itSMF, BSA, and Microsoft SAM. ManageSoft has developed key business partner relationships with Microsoft (Gold Certified), Siemens services, and VMware. Our European headquarters is based in Maidenhead, UK. Websites include: ManageSoft.com, Desktop2Datacenter.com, and ManageSoft.co.uk.

ManageSoft and Enterprise Compliance Manager are trademarks or registered trademarks of ManageSoft, Incorporated. All other companies and products referenced herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.