Peregrine Systems, Inc. today announced the availability of the Peregrine Expense Control solution at Synergy04, Peregrine’s fifth annual global users conference. This solution is the first of seven asset management solutions to help organizations improve the value of their IT investments as they implement effective asset management practices within their IT organization.

A recent survey of Peregrine customers revealed that nearly 90 percent of today’s businesses are either in the chaos or reactive stages of the Peregrine Evolution Model. This model defines five stages of organizational maturity for asset and service management (chaos, reactive, proactive, service and value), allowing organizations to determine where they are and how they can move up the value chain. The Peregrine Expense Control solution is designed to help companies evolve from the reactive stage to the proactive stage.

Organizations in the reactive stage typically have implemented a system for asset tracking and now need to improve their access to financial and contractual information about their IT expenditures, implement a process for attributing expenses to the appropriate business unit and better manage the process for requisitioning and distributing IT assets throughout the organization. Using the Peregrine Expense Control solution, IT managers can capture, manage and track all costs associated with any IT asset as it moves throughout the asset lifecycle, from acquisition to maintenance and disposal. They are also able to evaluate their IT assets holistically and determine which are the most productive, where costs can be reduced or eliminated, and how to invest in and deploy future assets.

“All businesses, regardless of size, face financial and business pressures to manage assets and control costs effectively,” said Patricia Adams, principal analyst, Gartner. “As organizations’ evolve, asset management becomes increasingly crucial because the number of IT assets will change, both in number and complexity. Approaching asset management from an evolutionary perspective will help companies identify opportunities for improvement thereby ensuring that the IT infrastructure will adapt to meet the organization’s changing business needs.”

Most organizations interested in deploying Peregrine Expense Control have implemented department-level or enterprise-level asset tracking capabilities, enabling the IT department to understand more clearly how their IT assets are distributed and used. The Peregrine solution takes organizations to the next level, extending their capability to capture and analyze the financial data associated with every asset, such as software license and hardware lease contracts, warranties and maintenance renewal schedules. By providing greater insight to the total cost of ownership, this Peregrine solution helps IT organizations make better decisions about their IT investments.

Peregrine Expense Control, which is based on AssetCenter® and optional Desktop Inventory technologies, enables organizations to control expenditures, make intelligent budgeting and purchasing decisions and maximize the value of what they own already. Using Peregrine Expense Control, businesses can implement asset-based budget management and planning as well as track asset costs of each business unit, enabling executives to ensure their operations are on track with financial goals. In addition, the solution simplifies the management of software assets, software license to ensure compliance, IT contracts, leases and maintenance agreements. Through robust software license compliance, organizations are able to optimize software expenditures while minimizing the risks associated with software audits or regulatory non-compliance.

“We have received positive feedback about the Peregrine Expense Control solution because of the overwhelming need for IT organizations to track and manage IT costs throughout the enterprise,” said Craig Macdonald, Peregrine’s vice president of product marketing. “We are excited about the impact of Peregrine Expense Control within Global 2000 companies as they make the most of their IT investments. We are continually enhancing our asset management solutions to meet the needs of our customers.”

Reinforcing its customer-focused, solutions-based approach, Peregrine also introduced a flexible “desynchronized” pricing structure for the Peregrine Expense Control and its other asset and service management solutions are targeted to meet the needs of customers at the various stages of the Peregrine Evolution Model. This new pricing allows organizations to purchase the specific number of licenses of each application within the Peregrine Expense Control solution.