Beyond.com adds license tracking

Beyond.com recently released the latest version of its Enterprise Download

Manager with a new license-tracking feature.

The feature enables agency network administrators or purchasing agents

to perform queries by user, machine or product, to find the latest software

licensing data for that agency.

"The license-tracking database can be queried using basic [World Wide

Web browsers] to find information — like you have 500 licenses and have

used 489, or you have 500 and have used 512 and need an upgrade," said John

Gaudin, product manager for government services at Santa Clara, Calif.-based

Beyond.com. "Users can go to a URL and generate reports on certain products,

which users have which products."

EDM 3.1 enables automatic and secure delivery via the Internet of software

including applications, updates, service packs and bug fixes. It has been

used by the federal government for three years, including the departments

of Defense, Commerce and Treasury.

Other new features in EDM 3.1 include enhanced access management that allows

administrators to form groups of users and products; a remodeled Web-based

user interface for easier navigation; a new search engine; multiple browser

support; Extensible Markup Language-based architecture that enables fast

additions of new features; the ability to save in a variety of formats,

such as Microsoft Corp.'s Excel, HTML, plain text and XML; department

name management; and the ability for administrators to add their own products.