Report for software harvesting!

arbleb asked a question.

October 16, 2017 at 7:00 AM

How are you harvesting/recycling software?

More specifically, how are you getting the report from Snow?

Typically I find a report that gets me close to what I want, then filter the heck out of it.

However, in this case, I can only find an "unused" software report, that only gets me 1/2 way home.

I need a report that shows me "unused" for a specific software title along with a list of computers that haven't used that software title in X days. Oh - and make sure the Snow client has been on for at least Y days (so the "unused" software doesn't incorrectly identify a new computer as not using the software). In other words, if I just got the computer last week, don't uninstall Visio on me because I haven't launched it yet.

Right now, I go to the Application, to the Computer tab. Filter by date used, right-click and export.

Then I go to All Computers and Export.

The do some VLOOKUP in Excel to get the client install date over to the application tab to come up with a list of software that is unused.

I feel like a much easier answer is waiting for me in the Reports section somewhere that I can't find!

Software & License Management

Community Manager (Flexera Software)
9 years ago
Hi Brenda, The best way to get the report you are after is using the "Applications Per Computers report. Yo will be able to get last run date, first run, agent install date, and agent update date. You can then use the "Less than" filter to get dates that go back a cretin time frame. 1) 2)
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- Community Manager (Flexera Software)
  9 years ago
  Good Call Marc, I discounted that report because of the need to detect when the Snow Agent was deployed, however on investigation the report I suggested also doesnt have that data, so yours is a better option
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- arbleb
  9 years ago
  Thank you Marc and Mark! Great information. That report seems to be the closest to the potpourri of application reports. Only thing I can't find is the agent install date. There is an "install date" field, but I think that is for the application in question because it shows a lot of dates years before we put in Snow. Am I officially blind?
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  - Community Manager (Flexera Software)
    9 years ago
    Hi Brendan, There is not currently. I have used this post as a feature enhancement request with development to add that field. So we are on the right track to get this done. We do have our Professional Services Team here at Snow that can create this for you. I am not sure what charges apply but I have been involved in the customization of any report in Snow. We can deliver this to your platform in short order. Please email your sales rep or support contact for a statement of work for this. Should not be that hard. Thanks Marc
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Community Manager (Flexera Software)
9 years ago
Hi Brendan, An interesting question, and one I have spent quite a bit of time solving. I must admit In our environment I have designed and build an automated Software Reclaim Process using Snow Automation Platform, to do this I created a number of custom fields that allowed our SAM team to specify the options at a per application level, these included for example the number of days "non usage" that should trigger a removal, and if the user should be notified. On top of that I have a bunch of custom reports, including one which is a "report only" mode so rather than uninstalling anything it just shows you what would be uninstalled. If you are not hosted and have database access I may be able to share something that you can use. In the meantime, I think the closest you will get with the out of the box reports is the "Unused Applications Per Computer" Report, this won’t give you exactly what you need, but it will show any applications with no recorded usage (within the defined usage history period). So you can’t control the x days part during the report run. But using the Criteria and adding an "Install Date" before xxx date, and Last Scanned after xxx Date, you should be able to get the list of applications, excluding new software, and only on machines with up to date inventory scans. Hope that helps Mark.
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