Voith Group centralizes and simplifies Microsoft Server costs and contracts with USU

Challenge

Voith Group is a global engineering company with a decentralized structure divided into four divisions across over 50 countries. The combination of a large number of employees and their different global activities led to challenges. Software license data was recorded and managed manually by 160 managers, which was resource-intensive and prone to errors. Voith used a wide range of licensing models and metrics, as well as custom installations, and their vendor priority was managing Microsoft Server licenses.

Solution

Voith’s goals in working with USU were license compliance, improved data quality, and a foundation for technical and organizational processes. USU Software Asset Management was used to support the client/server area and integrate Microsoft, IBM and Oracle products. Specific requirements were implemented, with a focus on the Microsoft Server platform, such as a transfer database for SCCM data and compliant data protection. Their Head of IT & Corporate License Management said, “Using the SAM expertise and technology offered [by USU], we could actively implement our ideas for a centralized license management system.”

Result

Voith’s overhead costs of software were greatly minimized through global standardization and automatic analysis of license requirements. Contract and purchasing processes were optimized, and they negotiated significant cost reductions in their Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. A group-wide view of license agreements and software usage was established. Now Voith is able to make faster decisions based on up-to-date software data and automatically generated reports.