ScalePad, formerly known as Warranty Master, this week made available a free preview of a software asset management service to a platform that many managed service providers (MSPs) currently employ to track warranties on hardware they or their customers have deployed.
The Software Asset Management service from ScalePad makes it simpler for MSPs to now also identify software that is either no longer supported by the vendor for free or is nearing its end of life, says ScalePad CEO Dan Wensley.
Armed with that data, MSPs can proactively alert customers about the need to upgrade software or purchase an extended warranty or support contract, notes Wensley.
“You can have that critical conversation beforehand,” says Wensley.
Some MSPs are even going so far to employ the data collected by ScalePad to automatically upgrade software assets based on the terms of a service contract they have set up with their end customer, adds Wensley. That approach makes it possible for MSPs to generate additional revenue without having to engage a customer each time a warranty is about to expire, adds Wensley.
ScalePad, which currently supports more than 8,000 MSPs operating in 76 countries, plans to charge for its Software Assets Management Service once it becomes generally available. The company this week changed its name to better reflect its ability to enable MSPs to manage both hardware and software. All told, the combined services track more than 100 million assets.
Those services can also be integrated with a wide variety of remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools as well as professional services automation (PSA) platforms.
There’s obviously a massive amount of hardware and software being relied on today that is well beyond its useful life. In some cases, that hardware or software might still be employed for a legitimate reason, such as compatibility with other application software. Most often, however, it’s because far too many organizations are unaware that warranties for hardware have expired or that a specific version of a software component is no longer being supported for free.
Regardless of the reason, it’s usually falls to the MSP to clean up the mess that inevitably ensues unless they are able to apply an ounce of prevention to prevent an inevitable pound of cure that will be required later.
Be First to Comment