Glossary of SAM Terms
Software Asset Management uses a number of terms that have specific meanings in xAssets. This glossary collects them in one place. Many of these terms also appear as columns on the Licensing Position and Licenses queries.
Catalog and Recognition
| Term |
Definition |
| Software Title |
An individual installed program as discovered on an asset (e.g., "Microsoft Excel 2019"). Classified by recognition into Primary, Secondary, Free, Banned, or Unknown. |
| Primary Title |
A title the recognition engine has identified as significant, commercially available software. Only Primary titles drive licensable consumption. |
| Secondary Title |
A title that is recognised but does not represent licensable software in its own right — typically a component, plugin, or runtime distributed alongside a primary product. Secondary titles do not generate consumptions. |
| Free Title |
Recognised software that does not require a license — utilities, free editions, browser plugins. Generates consumption records for visibility but no grants. |
| Banned Title |
Recognised software that your organisation has classified as not permitted on the network. The classification is informational — it appears in reports so you can see where banned titles are installed, but it does not block installation or trigger automated alerts unless you wire that up separately. |
| Unknown Title |
Recognised but not yet classified — usually a holding state for titles awaiting a definitive call. |
| Software Product |
A licensable product (e.g., "Microsoft Office 365") that one or more titles map to. Stored in the Software Catalog. |
| Software Catalog |
The list of software products you track for licensing purposes. The catalog is the bridge between discovered titles and license records. |
| Defining Title |
A title flagged so that its presence on an asset definitively means the asset has the product installed. Each product needs at least one defining title. |
| Product Code |
The short code on a Software Catalog entry. The license import matches the spreadsheet's SoftwareProduct column against this code, not the product description. |
| Recognition Record |
A rule that maps a discovered title pattern to a cleaned name and a classification. |
Licenses and Entitlement
| Term |
Definition |
| License (Software License) |
An asset record for a single license purchase: a specific product, a specific seat count, a specific date and supplier. |
| License Type |
How a license is consumed: per computer, per user, per physical core, per physical processor, etc. The license type determines which metric the engine uses to count consumption. |
| Seats |
The capacity of a license. Means different things depending on license type — number of users, number of computers, number of cores, number of processors. |
| Agreement |
A contract or volume program (e.g., a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement) that one or more licenses belong to. Modeled as a parent record with licenses as children. |
| License Pool |
A logical group of licenses that can be allocated together. Created via Create License Group menu. |
| Upgrade License |
A license that grants the right to use a newer version of a product, requiring a base license to be in place. |
| Downgrade Right |
The right of a license to cover an older version of the same product. Configured per license type. |
Consumption, Grants, and the Engine
| Term |
Definition |
| Consumption |
A record that a software product is installed on an asset. Posted once when the install is first detected; persists with reversals if the install ends. |
| Grant |
A record that a specific license has been allocated to cover a specific consumption. |
| Reversal |
A negative transaction posted when a consumption ends, a license is disposed, or a previous allocation no longer holds. Preserves the audit trail. |
| Apply Date |
The date a transaction takes effect — the asset's date in service for a consumption, the license purchase date for a grant, or the date of change for a reversal. |
| Calculation Period |
The window of time the calculation engine is processing. Recalculating from a date deletes and reposts all transactions from that date forward. |
| Affinity |
A scoring system that prioritizes which license should cover which consumption. Higher affinity wins; capacity is enforced. |
| Requirement |
A hard exclusion. A license that fails a requirement is excluded entirely from consideration for a consumption. |
| Direct Assignment |
An explicit link from a license to a specific computer or user, bypassing affinity scoring. |
| Deficit |
A consumption with no grant — installed software that is not covered by a license. |
Status and Compliance
| Term |
Definition |
| Compliant |
Entitlement meets or exceeds consumption for a product. |
| Over-licensed |
Entitlement significantly exceeds consumption. May indicate wasted spend. |
| Under-licensed |
Consumption exceeds entitlement. Compliance risk. |
| Outstanding Requirement |
The shortfall between consumption and entitlement, in metric units. |
| Allocated as Downgrade |
License capacity used to cover an older version of the product than the license is for. |
- Concepts — the engine's mental model in depth