When using Microsoft Intune with Hector, it is possible to synchronize software licenses as well as devices. This can help you track installations against your purchases, in order to be compliant with terms and agreements, as well as any contracts that cover software use.
Getting Started
In order to synchronize software licenses with Hector, you’ll need to make sure that your Intune integration is activated and configured. You can find out more from our Intune integration setup guide.
Once Intune has been setup, you’ll want to check the “Import Applications” checkbox in the Options Tab > Import section.
Synchronizing Apps
Once you’ve turned on importing applications, you’ll need a full app synchronization to occur. You can manually trigger this step from the Integrations page, or simply wait until the next day, as all integrations run once a day during the evening.
You can check how many records have been synced so far using the Counts tab in the Intune integration settings.
Once the apps have been synced, you will need to associate them to software. This step is necessary to prevent unnecessary apps from being created and associated to devices, polluting the software list with licenses you are not looking to track. In other words, you’ll be creating the list of software you want to track, and Hector will only look for those software when creating licenses.
Creating Software
If you haven’t already, you’ll need to create the list of software you want to track. In our example, we’ll use Adobe Acrobat, as it is a pay to use software, and knowing which devices have licenses will be important to manage budget and costs.
We’ve filled out the form with three information.
- Publisher : Adobe
- Title : Acrobat
- Keywords : Pro
- The keyword is optional, but it can help pull in extra results from the Intune App synchronization.
Click on the Save button. The rest of the fields can be ignored for our example.
Associations
Once you’ve created the software, you can edit and navigate to the Associations tab. Depending on the Publisher, Title and Keywords, the number of available associations will be shown the tab. In our example, we have 32 matches based on the information we provided.
For Hector to create software licenses, click on the Associations tab, and then find the corresponding apps that match the software you created.
In the grid, you’ll see different apps, their versions, their corresponding licenses, and the number of installations for each line. If an App corresponds to the software, click on the Assign checkbox in the first column. After saving, Hector will create the versions and licenses for each of these apps.
It is important to note that there will be matches that don’t correspond to the software. We can ignore these by simply leaving the Assign column unchecked. You can choose to assign all the Apps now, or progressively assign them.
Once you’re finished, click on the Save button.
Hector will create the versions and licenses based on what was selected. You will now be able to track all the Adobe Acrobat licenses in your environment, by device and by version.
You can also create purchases to record each time you purchase licenses for a specific software or even by version over time. This will help you report Licenses Used versus Licensed Owned in order to stay compliant with each publisher.
Maintenance and Data Cleansing
New apps will be assigned automatically to the devices as they are installed. It is not necessary to navigate to the software card once your associations have been configured.
Uninstalled apps will be removed from the device’s asset within two calendar days. This is also automatically done so there is no need to individually perform maintenance on software licenses.
If new App associations are discovered after a synchronization, a tile will show on the home page, showing the number of software that needs to be reviewed. It it not necessary to perform this task each day, but time should be set aside to review this list. If the tile is hidden, there are no missing associations.
Recap
In this guide, we’ve seen how to setup Software synchronization with Microsoft Intune, as well as creating a list of software that is important for your organization to track, as well as associating the imported apps with each software.
If you want to learn more about how this feature can benefit your organization, please reach out to our sales team for more information.