Software identifier based correlation

• US 20090276269A1
• Filed: 05/05/2008
• Published: 11/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: APTE, Umesh Madhav, ALONZO, Jason Aron, YEE, John Leong
• Granted Patent: US 9,953,143 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products

Abstract

Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with software identifier based correlation are described. One example system includes an identifier data store to store a first identifier that uniquely identifies a discovered instance of a software title installed in an enterprise. The first identifier is discoverable from the discovered instance and may be provided by a discovery logic. The second identifier identifies a known instance of a software title associated with the enterprise and is provided from an enterprise resource planning (ERP) data store by an ERP logic. The example system may also include a correlation logic to identify a correlation between the discovered instance and the known instance based on a relationship between the identifiers. The example system may also include an update logic to selectively update a value in the ERP data store based on the correlation.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an identifier data store to store a first identifier and a second identifier, where the first identifier uniquely identifies a discovered instance of a software title installed in an enterprise, where the first identifier is discoverable from the discovered instance by a discovery logic, and where the first identifier is provided by the discovery logic; and

where the second identifier identifies a known instance of a software title associated with the enterprise, where the second identifier is provided by an ERP logic from an enterprise resource planning (ERP) data store;

a correlation logic to identify a correlation between the discovered instance and the known instance based, at least in part, on a relationship between the first identifier and the second identifier; and

an update logic to selectively update a value in one or more of, the ERP logic, and the ERP data store.

2. The system of claim 1, including the discovery logic.

3. The system of claim 2, where the discovery logic has access to the enterprise but is hosted external to the enterprise.

4. The system of claim 2, where the discovery logic is an automated logic that crawls the enterprise.

5. The system of claim 2, where the discovery logic comprises a set of cooperating logics distributed to two or more computing components in the enterprise.

6. The system of claim 2, where the discovery logic provides the first identifier in response to detecting an installation of a software title.

7. The system of claim 1, where providing the first identifier includes locating the discovered instance and examining a software header associated with the discovered instance.

8. The system of claim 7, where the software header is an ISO 19770-2 compliant header.

9. The system of claim 7, where the first identifier is an ISO 19770-2 compliant identifier.

10. The system of claim 1, where the first identifier is a read-only identifier.

11. The system of claim 10, where the first identifier is one of, an SKU, a registration number, and a license number.

12. The system of claim 1, where the ERP logic is an asset management logic that maintains an inventory of software titles, where the second identifier identifies an entry in the inventory, and where the update logic selectively updates the inventory based, at least in part, on the correlation.

13. The system of claim 1, where the ERP logic is a software license logic that maintains a set of compliance states for a set of software titles, where the second identifier identifies a member of the set of software titles, and where the update logic selectively updates the set of compliance states based, at least in part, on the correlation.

14. The system of claim 1, where the ERP logic is an accounting logic that maintains data associated with a set of purchase orders and data associated with a set of invoices, where the accounting logic relates an invoice entry to a purchase order entry, and where the second identifier identifies one or more of, a purchase order entry, and an invoice entry.

15. The system of claim 1, including the ERP logic;

and

where the ERP logic comprises;

an asset management logic that maintains an inventory of software titles;

a software license logic that maintains a set of compliance states for one or more members of the inventory of software titles; and

an accounting logic that maintains data associated with a set of purchase orders and data associated with a set of invoices and where the accounting logic relates a member of the set of invoices to a member of the set of purchase orders;

and

where the second identifier identifies one or more of, an entry in the inventory, a purchase order entry, and an invoice entry, and

where the update logic selectively updates one or more of, the inventory, and the set of compliance states based, at least in part, on the correlation.

16. A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving an identifier that uniquely identifies a software instance installed in an enterprise, where the identifier is retrieved from the software instance, and where the identifier is provided with the software instance;

comparing the identifier to a member of a set of enterprise resource planning (ERP) data;

identifying a correlation between the identifier and the member of the set of ERP data; and

selectively providing a signal based on the correlation.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, where retrieving the identifier includes locating the identifier in a software header associated with the instance, where the identifier is a read-only value permanently installed in the software header.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, where the signal controls an asset management logic to manipulate a value in an asset inventory, where the manipulation is based, at least in part, on the correlation.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, where the signal controls a software license logic to manipulate a value in a software license data store, where the manipulation is based, at least in part, on the correlation.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, where the signal controls an accounting logic to manipulate a value relating an asset inventory value to one or more of, a purchase order, and an invoice based, at least in part, on the correlation.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, where comparing the identifier to the member of a set of ERP data includes querying a database in which the set of ERP data is stored.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, where identifying a correlation between the identifier and a member of the set of ERP data includes determining that the software instance is known to the enterprise based, at least in part, on the correlation.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 22, including controlling a software compliance logic to issue a software compliance notice.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, including controlling an order logic to issue a purchase order.

25. A system, comprising:

means for discovering a unique identifier associated with an instance of software installed in an enterprise, where the unique identifier is provided with the software instance;

means to produce a correlation identifier by comparing the unique identifier to a set of stored identifiers associated with an ERP logic associated with the enterprise; and

means for selectively controlling the ERP logic based, at least in part, on the correlation identifier.