Achieving a 'Single Source of the Truth'
Global insurance provider digitally transforms IT operations with real-time asset intelligence from Certero
One of America’s largest and oldest publicly traded insurance providers, with more than 9,000 employees across more than 600 locations in North America, Mexico and Europe, partners with Certero to manage software assets across 10,000 desktop devices and 5,000 servers.
No single source of truth
Like many of their peers, the global insurance provider increasingly relied on having a good understanding of its IT infrastructure to be able to support its international business operations. However, also like many IT teams, they had a hard time piecing together information from disparate systems in an attempt to really understand what assets were deployed and being consumed across the organization.
Trying to create a picture of IT assets by triangulating data from Active Directory, SCCM and Anti-Virus tools was proving not only slow, but gave the IT leaders little or no confidence that the results were accurate.
Thankfully, leadership recognized the need for a dedicated Software Asset Management solution, made all the more pressing by both an upcoming multi-million dollar Microsoft renewal and a major IT migration project.
Finding Certero
One option would have been to outsource the SAM project around the Microsoft renewal to a services partner. But understanding the wider uses for rich SAM and inventory data, the insurance provider decided instead to invest in bringing on technology in-house, with additional external skills as required.
With its ability to discover and inventory devices across their global IT estate, using both agent-based and agent-less auditing, Certero was a great fit for the insurance provider’s complex environment.
IT leadership at the insurance giant describes two teams of users for the Certero Platform: first, the IT management team that takes care of making sure the Certero platform is running optimally. Then a group of consumers from across the organization including end user computing, data center, information security and cyber-security. This wider consumer group ensures that the Certero platform delivers much more value than a traditional narrowly-focused SAM tool.
While the Microsoft renewal was a key driver for the original purchasing decision, the insurance provider has a multi-platform network and didn’t want a SAM tool that was Windows-centric, so its ability to effectively find and audit Linux devices was critical.
Getting Windows 10 on track
Aside from inventory and licensing, one of the major projects that’s already benefited from the introduction of Certero is the insurance provider’s move to Windows 10. With 10,000 desktops around the world, it’s a major project and is being run by its Infrastructure Project Manager who says that the previous method of getting inventory and employee data from Active Directory and SCCM had hampered, rather than helped, initial Windows 10 migration efforts.
Since deploying Certero, the team has found it much easier to target the machines that need refreshing, to see the status of the migration and to track the roll-out of associated applications like Office 2016. In a short space of time, they’ve been able to complete the refresh of over 4,000 desktops, as well as identify an additional 2,000 that are running Windows 10, but not Office 2016.
Thanks to its ability to understand locations and users, Certero also helps the team plan the upgrades and migrations around the priorities and working practices of different groups, minimizing the disruption to the business.
Creating a mature SAM & ITAM program
What the insurance provider had managed to achieve with Certero is just the beginning of a longer-term vision for maturing their ITAM and SAM practices.
To date, they have identified over $5m in license optimization opportunities and the IT leadership already has an ambitious plan for the months and years ahead, which will see the Certero platform play a pivotal role in hardware life-cycle planning, end of life planning for software, creating standard images and blacklisted software and support disaster recovery planning.
The insurer also plans to integrate Certero with its ivanti service management platform.
A successful start to a long-term partnership that still has a lot more benefits to deliver.
Ready to Speak to the Team that Makes Our Customers So Happy?
Certero’s [software-as-a-service] Solution
Certero help organizations transform their outdated operations and technologies in days and weeks not years. All of Certero’s solutions can be delivered as SaaS with no loss of functionality.
Certero Unified Platform
Learn more about Certero’s truly unique ‘unified’ platform.
Digital Transformation Edition
Transform in days and weeks, not months and years, start your journey now.
Verified Oracle LMS/GLAS Solution
Verified LMS (License Management Services), now GLAS (Global Licensing & Advisory Services) solution.
Cloud Management
Manage Visibility, Cost and Governance of your Cloud Resources
Enterprise Standard Edition – ITAM / SAM for Wintel
Default solution to manage ITAM/SAM for a Wintel environment.
Enterprise Premium Edition – ITAM / SAM for Wintel
All you need in one place to manage your ITAM/SAM for a Wintel & Citrix environment.
Datacenter
Stand-a-lone or holistic solutions for IBM, SAP and Oracle.
Software License Compliance
One Stop Shop, products and services for any solution – all in one
Business Intelligence Solution
See how to turn DATA into INFORMATION then transform into KNOWLEDGE, all in a few clicks.
IT Asset Visibility
Find out: What do I own? Where is it located? Who is using it?
ITSM & CMDB Integration
Populating the CMDB with ‘Quality’ asset information is more critical than ever
SaaS Subscription Management
Discover, manage and optimize your SaaS investments.
Everything in One place, True Unification
Certero for Enterprise ITAM
Networks, printers, routers, Wintel, Mac, Linux, zLinux, Unix, all virtualizations and much more….
Certero for Enterprise SAM
Focused on Wintel software vendors, including automated solutions for Microsoft, Adobe and much more…
Certero App Centre
Enterprise ‘Application Portal’ for Self-Service application provisioning.
Certero for Mobile
Go beyond standard MDM and deliver full management and security for your mobile workforce.
Certero SRDB (Software Recognition)
Transform raw software inventory data into actionable intelligence about application usage and licensing.
Certero for Oracle
Optimize your Oracle Database, Middleware and E-Business Suite applications.
Certero for IBM
Discover and manage all IBM software & entitlements across the network. Dual Inventory, ILMT and Certero.
Certero for SAP Applications
Managing and automating the analysis of complex SAP named user and engine licenses across your estate.
Passworks
An intuitive self-service password reset solution that can reduce service desk calls by 30%.
PowerStudio
PC Power Management solution. Save money and reduce your carbon footprint.
See, Manage and Eliminate Over-Spending with your SaaS Subscriptions.
Certero
Technology Led
Services
Strategic Services
Tactical Services
Certero Channel Partner Program
Our Partner Program opens up Certero solutions to a global network of partners – enabling customers to work with the trusted solution and service providers that know them best.
Join the Partner Program
Information on tiers and ease of doing business.
Deal Registrations
Submit your deal-registrations.
Launching the Program
Highest-rated major SAM vendor on Gartner Peer Insights, launch global Partner Program.
Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice
Rated #1 for SAM Customer Satisfaction year after year, after year
Blog
For the latest in ITAM, SAM, Cloud and SaaS Asset Management
White Papers and eBooks
Download the latest white papers and eBooks for key insights and guides.
News
Read the latest news from Certero and the industry.
Events and Webinars
Keep up to date with Certero’s latest webinars and events.
Videos
View our range of product videos, webinars and customer case studies.
Data Sheets
Download our datasheets which highlight the key benefits and features of our world class products and services.
Case Studies
See how organization around the globe change they way they [Do IT].
We think [and do] IT Differently
About Us
Get to know us more
Our Story
See how our approach is different
Our Journey
A timeline of events
Our Vision, Mission and Purpose
Mission, Purpose and Values
Careers
Browse our current roles
Locations
Find our nearest location