Licensing Position
The Licensing Position report is the central compliance output of Software Asset Management. It compares the number of software installations (consumption) against the licences you own (entitlement) for every managed software product. This page explains how to run the calculation, read the results, and take action on compliance issues.
Viewing the Licensing Position
Navigate to Licensing > Licensing Position to see the compliance summary for all managed software products.
The report shows the following for each product:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Software Product | The software title being tracked |
| Publisher | The software vendor |
| Installations | Number of devices or users consuming this software |
| Licenses | Total licence entitlement (seats, cores, or processors depending on licence type) |
| Compliance | The difference between entitlement and consumption |
| Status | Compliant (green), Over-licensed (blue), or Under-licensed (red) |
Interpreting the Results
Understanding what the compliance statuses mean and how to respond:
| Status | What It Means | Recommended Action |
|---|---|---|
| Compliant (green) | Entitlement equals or slightly exceeds consumption | No immediate action. Review periodically to catch drift. |
| Over-licensed (blue) | You own significantly more licences than needed | Evaluate whether excess licences can be reassigned, allowed to lapse at renewal, or sold (if the licence type permits transfer). |
| Under-licensed (red) | More installations than licences -- this is a compliance risk | Either purchase additional licences to close the gap, or identify machines where the software can be uninstalled. Use Assigning Computers to a Licence to determine which specific machines are uncovered. |
Warning: Being under-licensed exposes your organisation to audit risk. Software vendors (particularly Microsoft, Adobe, and Oracle) conduct licence audits and can impose significant penalties for non-compliance. Address under-licensing promptly.
Calculating the Licensing Position
Important: The licensing position is not updated automatically. You must run the calculation manually (or schedule it) to reflect recent changes to installations or licence records. Viewing the report without recalculating may show stale compliance data.
Running the Calculation
- Navigate to Licensing > Calculate Licensing Position
- Click Calculate to start the batch process
- The calculation runs as a batch job -- check Admin > Batch > Batch Jobs for progress
What the Calculation Does
The calculation process follows these steps:
- Counts all software installations discovered on managed assets (consumption)
- Counts all licence entitlements from active licence records (grants)
- Applies licence metric rules (per-computer, per-user, per-core, per-processor)
- Processes upgrade and downgrade rights where configured
- Allocates rights to cover installations
- Produces the compliance position for each product
When to Recalculate
Run the calculation after any of these events:
- A new discovery has been loaded
- Licence records have been added, modified, or removed
- Software product associations have changed
- Upgrade or downgrade relationships have been updated
License Dashboard
Navigate to Licensing > License Dashboard for a visual summary including:
- Overall compliance percentage
- Top under-licensed products (the ones requiring the most urgent attention)
- Licence expenditure trends
- Products with no licences assigned (software in use that you may not have purchased at all)
Understanding Licence Metrics
Different licence types use different metrics to measure consumption. It is critical that your licence records specify the correct type, because this determines how compliance is calculated:
| Licence Type | Metric | How Consumption Is Counted |
|---|---|---|
| Per Computer/Server | Rights | One right consumed per device with the software installed |
| Per User | Rights | One right consumed per user assigned to the software |
| Per Physical Core | CPU Cores | Total physical cores on servers running the software |
| Per Physical Processor | Processors | Total physical processors on servers running the software |
Tip: If a product shows an unexpected compliance position, check that the licence type on the licence record matches the actual licence agreement. A per-user licence set to per-computer (or vice versa) will produce incorrect counts.
Common Questions
Q: Why does the licensing position show zero installations for a product I know is installed? A: The most common cause is that the software product is not associated with any software titles, or the titles are not classified as "Defining". Check the product's title associations (see Software Products).
Q: Why does the installation count seem too high? A: Check whether secondary or non-defining titles are being counted. Also verify that disposed or decommissioned machines are not still counted as having the software installed.
Q: Can I schedule the licensing position calculation to run automatically? A: Yes. The calculation is a transformation that can be scheduled like any other (see the Configuration Guide for scheduling transformations).
Related Articles
- Software Products — the products that appear in the licensing position
- Software Licences — the licence records that determine entitlement
- Assigning Computers to a Licence — allocating licences to specific machines
- Reports — generating printable compliance reports
- Upgrade Licences — how upgrades affect the licensing position