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Software Recognition

Software Asset Management Guide
Recognition

Software Recognition

Recognition turns the raw software title strings reported by discovery into classified entries that can be licensed. xAssets maintains a centrally curated recognition database, and your installation receives updates from it; the local engine matches discovered titles against the database whenever new discovery data is loaded.

This page covers what recognition does, where its accuracy comes from, and what you need to do (and not do) to keep it working.

What Recognition Produces

For each discovered software title, recognition assigns:

  • A classification — Primary, Secondary, Free, Banned, or Unknown
  • A cleaned name — normalised so that minor variations of the same title (different version strings, slight edition differences) collapse to one canonical name
  • A product link — the catalog entry the title belongs to, if known

Only Primary titles are licensable. The other classifications are explained in the Glossary.

Where Accuracy Comes From

Recognition is database-driven, not algorithmic. The accuracy of recognition on your installation depends on:

  1. The recognition database having seen the title before. xAssets curates the database from every customer's submissions. A new product reaches recognition by being submitted at least once.
  2. Updates being applied regularly. If your installation is not pulling updates (lapsed support subscription, no internet, blocked proxy), the database is frozen at whatever was current when updates stopped flowing.
  3. Discovery picking up the title. Recognition only sees what discovery feeds it. If a title is missing from discovery, recognition cannot classify it.

The first point is the central one: when a title goes unrecognised on your network, the right action is almost always to submit it (see Unrecognized Software). xAssets will classify it centrally and the result flows back to your installation and to every other customer's.

What Happens Automatically

The recognition step runs as part of the Load Now process after every discovery. For each title:

  • If the title matches an existing recognition record, the classification and product link are applied.
  • If not, the title goes into the Unrecognised Software list for follow-up.

Once a title is classified as Primary and linked to a catalog product, the calculation engine treats it as licensable demand on subsequent calculations.

What Requires Your Attention

Scenario Action
Title is in the Unrecognised list Submit to xAssets (see Unrecognized Software)
Title is internal / custom software xAssets cannot know about Create a manual recognition record (see Creating Software Titles Manually)
Recognised count is dropping or unrecognised count is climbing Updates may not be flowing — see Software Updates

DIY Recognition is the Exception

Local recognition records you create on your installation do not flow back to xAssets and do not benefit other customers. A future recognition update from xAssets may classify the same title differently, and your local override may need to be re-applied.

For commercial software the central recognition service is the right path. Reserve manual recognition records for genuinely internal software (in-house tools, custom builds, software with intentionally obscured names) or for cases where you need the title classified now and cannot wait for a centrally-applied update.