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License Reclaim

Software Asset Management Guide
Daily Tasks

License Reclaim

License reclaim is the cost-optimization counterpart to closing under-licensed gaps. It finds capacity that is allocated but not actually being used — software on machines that no longer need it, licenses on disposed assets, named-user assignments to people who left. For most organisations the savings from a quarterly reclaim sweep cover the cost of the SAM tooling several times over.

What Counts as Reclaimable

Three patterns produce reclaimable capacity:

  1. Stale installs. A product on a machine that nobody uses. The asset is still active, but the software has not been launched in 6 months — uninstall it and free the seat.
  2. Disposed-asset assignments. A direct assignment to a machine that has been physically retired but whose record still has the assignment. Remove the assignment.
  3. Departed users. A per-user license tied to a custodian who has left. Reassign to the replacement or release.

Each type has a different signal in the data.

Detecting Stale Installs

The discovery system tracks two dates per asset:

  • Date Last Audited — when this asset was last seen by discovery
  • Date Last Seen for each installed title — when this title was last detected on the asset

If a title's Date Last Seen is significantly earlier than the asset's Date Last Audited, the title was uninstalled or stopped being detected.

To find these systematically, build an xAssets query joining assets to their installed software titles, surfacing both Date Last Seen (per title) and Date Last Audited (per asset), with a calculated column for the gap in days. Filter to assets that are still in service and titles where the gap exceeds your threshold (typically 90 days). Save under the Software menu as "Stale Installs - Reclaim Candidates" so it can be re-run quarterly.

Each result row is a likely uninstalled title. Confirm with the user; if confirmed, the consumption can be marked as ended.

Detecting Disposed-Asset Assignments

To find direct assignments still pointing at retired machines:

  1. Open Licensing → Licenses.
  2. Use the License Allocations menu on each license to list its assigned computers, then check whether any are marked Disposed.

For a more efficient sweep, build an xAssets query that joins Software License records to their related-asset dependencies and filters to where the related asset has a Date Disposed Of value. Save under the License menu as "Direct Assignments to Disposed Assets."

Each row is a license still tied to a retired machine. The grant has long since reversed (the consumption ended at disposal), but the assignment relationship remains. Remove these assignments quarterly. See Allocation: Reallocating After Disposal.

Detecting Departed-User Assignments

For per-user / named-user licenses, the custodian field on each license indicates the assigned user. To find licenses still assigned to people who have left:

  1. Open Licensing → Licenses and add the Custodian columns (name and leaver flag) to the view.
  2. Filter to where the custodian is flagged as a leaver or has a Date Left set.
  3. Sort by leaver date.

Or build an xAssets query joining Software License records to People, filtered to where the custodian's leaver flag is set. Save as "Licenses Held by Departed Users" under the People menu.

For each: either reassign the license to a new user or release it (clear the Custodian field, let affinity reallocate, or change Status to Out of Service if the seat is no longer needed).

A Quarterly Reclaim Sweep

A practical quarterly workflow runs over a couple of weeks:

  • Week 1. Run all three queries (stale installs, disposed-asset assignments, departed-user assignments). Triage by license cost — highest-value products first. Open tickets to uninstall stale installs, remove disposed-asset direct assignments via the Related Assets editor, reassign or release departed-user license seats.
  • Week 2. Re-run all three queries to confirm cleanup completed. Recalculate the licensing position. Compare before / after and report capacity reclaimed (in dollars where possible).

A typical quarter recovers 5-15% of license capacity for active SAM teams.

Direct vs Affinity Allocations After Reclaim

After reclaim, freed capacity is available for affinity-based reallocation. The next calculation will pick up the freed seats and may use them to cover deficit consumptions on the same product.

Direct assignments do not auto-rebalance — if you removed a direct assignment from a disposed machine, the freed capacity is available for any affinity-matching consumption, including but not limited to a replacement asset for the same role.

Relating Reclaim to Renewal

The most valuable reclaim is just before renewal. If you reclaim 10 seats of a 100-seat license one month before renewal, and procurement renews 90 instead of 100, the reclaim pays directly. Time reclaim sweeps to support upcoming renewal evaluations.