Not all metering solutions are created equal. Many solutions tout impressive usage gathering capabilities. However, Eracent is the only solution on the market to provide the following advantages with minimal infrastructure and the ability to scale to hundreds of thousands of endpoints:

Scalability

• The module runs on end-user systems at all times that the system is in use and executes automatically when the system is powered on. The module only needs to connect to the server periodically to upload the collected software usage data.
• When not communicating with the server, or when off-line, the module caches the software usage data locally in memory and to disk. When the end-user computer is operating, the module monitors the running software, and records the start and stop time of each application, calculating the total time each application was run by the user and the total time the application was in use for each hour the computer was running. The solution also tracks the foreground time, CPU time, I/O Bytes, keystrokes and mouse clicks.
• Collected software usage data is sent back to the server provided that the module can make a connection. In between reporting intervals the data is stored in memory, or cached to a file.
• CPU percentage use consumed by the metering software remains essentially 0% while the software is active. Memory usage ranges from 1.4MB to 1.6MB.
• By default the data is sent back to the server multiple times daily, but only if data is available. If there is no new data to send then the client will not attempt to connect and no data will be sent. Null sets are not transmitted.

Configurability

• The software records the data on a user-defined reporting interval, which may be set via the web interface by an administrative user. The default setting is hourly recording on a 00:00 to 24:00 clock.
• Reports can be aggregated to match the customer's organizational structure.
• The metering tool can be configured to track usage of all software with exceptions, or to track no software except those specifically designated. There are also settings to only track keystroke and mouse interacted (window based) applications. These settings are done via the web interface by an administrative user.
• Reports can be organized according to the client's organizational structure and can be designed by the organization. Default aggregation of data is by User, Groups and the Enterprise .
• Usage rules can be configured to only report the specific usage data information desired.
• Reports can be configured to only display the usage fields desired.

Detailed Usage Information

End users typically run many different applications at the same time on their workstations. This is important to get an understanding of what “windowed” applications are being utilized. But what if the application is minimized all the time? It is not enough just to know that the application is running. It is imperative to understand the level of “interaction” end users have with their applications. The Eracent Software Usage option provides the followed detailed usage metrics to understand and answer your critical utilization questions:

• Total Running Time
• Launch Count
• Foreground Time
• CPU Time
• I/O Bytes
• Total Mouse Clicks
• Total Keystrokes

But the list does not stop there. Many organizations purchase concurrent usage licenses. Eracent provides real time concurrent usage statistics such as:

• Real Time Number of Concurrent Users
• Real Time Maximum Number of Concurrent Users
• Timestamp of Maximum Concurrent Users