A good place to start with your desktop support and software licensing strategy is to get a snapshot of what your users are doing with their desktop computers.

Most employees see a personal computer as precisely that, a personal appliance for personal productivity. While this is true, it is also true that the PC is a corporate asset and you, as IT manager, have a vested interest in that asset. These include:

• Software Licensing: Unlicensed software on your corporate network is a legal liability. Also, knowing the exact number of users of given software can help with the brokering of volume discounts and site licensing deals.
• Desktop Support: In establishing service obligations (for example, under a departmental service level agreement), you need to know what business processes are being run by which individuals using what software. You can't support software (and people) that you do not...