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Managing software inventory and metric utilization
Learn how to classify the discovered software so that reports in BigFix Inventory reflect your entitlements and properly show utilization of license metrics by particular products.
Reports
Reports provide detailed information about the computers in your infrastructure and the software items that are installed on these computers. You can decide what type of information you want to display by choosing the appropriate type of report. You can also customize the type and amount of information that is displayed in a report and save the report settings to reuse them.
Scheduling report notifications
You can configure report notifications to be sent to a list of recipients regularly or when a specific number of items appears on a report. For example, when the number of computers that have not reported to BigFix Inventory within the last seven days exceeds five. Thanks to the automatic notifications, you are always up-to-date with changes in your environment.

Managing software inventory and metric utilization
Learn how to classify the discovered software so that reports in BigFix Inventory reflect your entitlements and properly show utilization of license metrics by particular products.
- Software catalogs
  To correctly identify components of software products in your infrastructure, ensure that your software catalog is always up-to-date. Periodically import a new catalog that contains the most recent software products. Also, manually add products that are installed in your infrastructure but do not have corresponding entries in the catalog.
- Enterprise applications inventory
  Software components are discovered by software scans. The scans correlate data that is collected from the computers with the content of the software catalog, and thus determine whether a component is installed. However, software scans do not discover details of some enterprise applications, for example licensable options of Oracle Database or editions of Microsoft Exchange. The details are discovered by dedicated fixlets. If you are interested in discovering additional details of enterprise applications, run the dedicated fixlets apart from scheduling software scans. Otherwise, running the fixlets is not required.
- Software classification
  After new components are discovered, they are assigned to products based on bundling rules. If the initial assignment does not reflect your entitlements, work with the software inventory until it matches the entitlements. To make metric calculation accurate, assign each component to a product, exclude, or suppress the instances that should not be included in the calculation, and confirm your actions. After you confirm the actions, the classification is complete, and the metric calculation is accurate.
- License metrics
  BigFix Inventory provides two types of information about license metrics utilization: aggregated utilization and raw utilization. The former shows utilization of the assigned license metric by all instances of a particular product within the reporting period. However, it is limited to a subset of license metrics. The latter shows data that is collected from .slmtag files. It shows raw utilization of all license metrics that can be used by a particular product. The data is not aggregated and requires further processing.
- Software license optimization
  BigFix Inventory helps you optimize your software licenses. You can analyze the software inventory in your environment and maximize the utilization of your assets. Learn how to minimize the costs of acquiring and maintaining licenses and track license compliance for the software products that are installed in your environment. You can verify the needs and requirements of your environment and then apply the most appropriate license model.
- Reports
  Reports provide detailed information about the computers in your infrastructure and the software items that are installed on these computers. You can decide what type of information you want to display by choosing the appropriate type of report. You can also customize the type and amount of information that is displayed in a report and save the report settings to reuse them.
  - Available reports
    Reports are the primary source of information about computers in your infrastructure and software that is installed on these computers.
  - Report columns
    This glossary provides a brief description of every column that can be found in the reports that are available in BigFix InventoryBigFix Inventory.
  - Adding and removing tags
    Available from 9.2.14.BigFix Inventory allows you to tag certain elements on the reports. You can tag software components, and whole report rows and thus mark them to meet your individual business needs.
  - Applying report filters
    The type and amount of information that is displayed on the reports is set by default. You can apply filters to narrow down the scope of the report to information that meets specific criteria.
  - Exporting reports to a file
    If you need a hardcopy of a report that is generated in BigFix Inventory you can export the report to a CSV or PDF file. You can also use the CSV file to create charts and statistics that are based on the information from the report.
  - Creating saved report views
    Saved report views are derived from base reports and provide quick access to information that you use frequently. Some saved report views are delivered with BigFix Inventory and are available for you immediately. You can also specify filters and parameters of any report and create your own saved report views.
  - Scheduling report notifications
    You can configure report notifications to be sent to a list of recipients regularly or when a specific number of items appears on a report. For example, when the number of computers that have not reported to BigFix Inventory within the last seven days exceeds five. Thanks to the automatic notifications, you are always up-to-date with changes in your environment.
    - Configuring the server to send mail notifications
      To be able to schedule report notifications, you must first configure the BigFix Inventory server to send mail notifications.
    - Scheduling report emails
      You can schedule reports to be emailed to the specified recipients. This option is especially useful if a person does not work with BigFix Inventory, or is not familiar with the application, yet must have access to the reports.
- Contracts
  You use contracts to track license compliance for the software products that are installed in your environment. When you purchase a software license, you create a contract that contains information about the cost of acquiring and maintaining the license, and the period of entitlement. You use that information to track spending that is associated with software licenses and manage costs of extending or downsizing licenses for the software products. You can also avoid costs that are related to license non-compliance by ensuring that enough software licenses are purchased.

Scheduling report notifications

You can configure report notifications to be sent to a list of recipients regularly or when a specific number of items appears on a report. For example, when the number of computers that have not reported to BigFix Inventory within the last seven days exceeds five. Thanks to the automatic notifications, you are always up-to-date with changes in your environment.