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Adobe Creative Cloud and SaaS Portals to be managed in FNMS 2019 (Flexera SaaS integration framework)

Good day All

I have a question in regards to the the Flexera SAAS integration Framework, where we are able to pull the SAAS usage into Flexera via the integration.

Can that be done in FNMS? What products ie Adocbe CC, IntelliJ etc can be integrated?

regards

Manish

(1) Solution
FNMS does not integrate with adobe SaaS offering, SaaS Manager offers SaaS applications entitlements management and usage tracking for lots of publishers. For more information please check https://www.flexera.com/products/spend-optimization/saas-management.html
HTH
Aamer

View solution in original post

(5) Replies
Can you help me to understand, when you say “SAAS usage into Flexera” you mean Adobe creative cloud SaaS application usage imported into Flexera SaaS Manager?
If yes we are working on SaaS Manager and FNMS integration to import SaaS applications usage and license entitlement/s data into FNMS. It mean what ever adobe products usage and entitlement assigned and used imported into SaaS Manager will be imported into FNMS as well.
This integration will be available in 2020 Q2.
Let me know if my assumption is correct.
Thanks
Aamer

@AamerSharif 

Ok maybe i misinterpreted what i was asking, my bad 🙂

So in simpler terms, Can Adobe Creative cloud Saas application usage and others cloud platforms be imported directly into FNMS?

If not do we need to purchase SaaS Manager separately?

FNMS does not integrate with adobe SaaS offering, SaaS Manager offers SaaS applications entitlements management and usage tracking for lots of publishers. For more information please check https://www.flexera.com/products/spend-optimization/saas-management.html
HTH
Aamer

@AamerSharif  - i found the below in the learning centre, apologies if i seem abit un-knowledgeable about this topic. Can you advise on the below and explain what is the SaaS Inventory Framework?

Managing SaaS with FlexNet Manager

SaaS agreements are simpler than On-Premises ones, and often subscription-based. This simplicity can generate a false sense of security, but these licenses and contracts must be optimized.

Usage tracking is provided mainly by the vendor’s desire to support platform adoption and not necessarily cost control and optimization. With SaaS license models, compliance is often less of a concern, but minor compliance risks need to be managed (credential sharing). In some cases, SaaS vendors do not restrict how many licenses are used (see Box or Workday), so tracking the number of licenses used becomes important. But if compliance is not a worry, only focus your efforts on implementing cost control and optimization that provide the usage data needed to quantify costs.

Measuring SaaS is like any other application or service in the data center:

  • Import access and usage data using a custom business/inventory adapter or using our SaaS Inventory Framework
  • Track client application installs and usage through inventory solutions
  • Monitor website access using a web tracking solution (for example, access to post-login landing page)
  • Sometimes a combination of all the above is needed.

In most cases, the only way to get complete information about license consumption is only via integration with vendor’s portals. Access tracking will provide basic usage discovery, but it is unlikely to provide a complete and accurate picture of your overall compliance.

Another important aspect is related to product fees. Fees are based on what has been purchased, not what is used. It is best practice to negotiate contract renewals with real usage data, so that you properly identify who is using which features and negotiate a discount that correlates to value derived.

Before requesting a new login, always check for users that are not using the application to re-harvest unused licenses. Also, always look for duplicate user accounts that inflate license counts (Office 365, Salesforce). Optimize your product mix and look for lower-cost alternatives. To achieve a lower average cost per unit, migrate and/or hybridize. Always take advantage of billing and financial cycles by renewing contracts at times when vendor sales representatives are trying to make quota (usually the end of financial periods). Place new orders at the start of the month because monthly prorated amounts are usually billed at full months.

SaaS Inventory Framework

With Flexera’s SaaS Inventory Framework, you can use a common platform to created integrations with any SaaS application that supports APIs for usage and compliance management. The Framework is designed to allow anyone with programming knowledge to create a SaaS vendor connection and map incoming data into FlexNet Manager Suite. The integration will execute based on a customer-defined schedule from FlexNet Manager Suite. The Framework leverages PowerShell scripting language and created integrations with network management, SSO, financial management and other solutions that can discover and provide SaaS usage insights. This feature is delivered with FlexNet Manager .

 

The SaaS Inventory Framework (version 1.0) was created so that you could create PowerShell scripts and connect to a SaaS Provider API to bring entitlement and usage data for SaaS into FlexNet Manager.  At that point in time, it was the go forward strategy for FlexNet Manager.  We had decided to not create a unique 1-off inventory adapter for every SaaS Provider, like we did for Office 365.

After the Framework was originally released, Flexera acquired MetaSaaS (now Flexera SaaS Manager).  After the acquisition, Flexera's new strategy to help our customer's manage SaaS is with the SaaS Manager product, and FlexNet Manager will remain the way to manage your on-premises software (installed on desktops, laptops, servers, and public cloud server instances (AWS, Azure, Google, etc.)

Therefore, even though the SaaS Inventory Framework v1.0 exists, Flexera is not actively enhancing this, it is supported as is.  For true management of your SaaS Applications, the best way forward is to use SaaS Manager.