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This article provides an overview of the TDX Departmental software Asset Registry and offers guidance for departmental IT support managers looking to get started with the solution.
In This Article:
Overview
Scope
This is not a native TeamDynamix application for software entitlement management.
It is a best-effort customization built on the existing Hardware Asset Management application and is available for use with limitations.
The Departmental Software Asset Registry is a shared, centralized solution available for the departments within the TeamDynamix (TDX) platform at no cost.
It is intended primarily for local ITS support groups seeking to replace informal and inconsistent software tracking practices (such as spreadsheets) with a standardized, auditable, and reportable solution aligned with higher-education software asset management (SAM) terminology and field definitions.
It is not intended for advanced SAM operations such as automated software discovery, vendor portal integrations, software license enforcement, or procurement approval workflows.
Attribute names, definitions, and choice values are intentionally aligned with EDUCAUSE software asset management (SAM) best practices and the ISO/IEC 19770 SAM standard to provide terminology consistent with widely recognized industry practices.
Capabilities
The Departmental Software Asset Registry enables departments to:
- Maintain a single authoritative record for each software entitlement or purchase
- Track software ownership, funding sources, and the person or department responsible for payment
- Manage subscriptions, perpetual licenses, renewals, and expiration dates
- Capture software lifecycle status, from acquisition through active use, renewal, retirement, or replacement
- Record license model, license metric, quantity, and renewal frequency
- Track procurement details, including vendors, procurement methods, references, and costs
- Monitor software risk, compliance, and data protection status for audit requirements
- Securely store license credentials using protected attributes
- Preserve historical context through record activity feeds and modification history
- Create reports and dashboards for visibility into ownership, eligibility, funding, renewals, and risk posture
- Relate Users and Tickets to software records for operational and support context
Limitations
The Departmental Software Asset Registry has the following limitations:
- It does not support automated software discovery.
- It does does not enforce software license usage.
- It does not integrate with third-party ITAM or SAM tools.
- It does not generate automatic notifications or alerts.
- The License credentials attribute is a protected field, therefore, it cannot be reported on, searched, filtered, or audited in the activity feed.
Operating Environment
Visibility and Permissions
Software record visibility within Departmental Software Asset Registry is as follows:
- Only TDX Agents whose Responsible Groups have been onboarded to use this application can view or update software records.
- TDX Agents whose Responsible Groups have been onboarded can view and update all software records, regardless of ownership or support responsibility.
Best practice: Responsible Groups should work only on software they support. The TDX Admin Team can assist in creating reports to identify any unintended updates made to software records supported by one group but modified by another.
- Each onboarded Responsible Group will have one designated member with elevated permissions to create new Publishers (Vendors) entries.
Support
The TDX Admin Team provides support for:
- Onboarding coordination and best-practice guidance
- Training during the onboarding process
- Troubleshooting access or configuration issues
- Maintaining global help documentation
- Assisting with report and dashboard creation
Governance
The Departmental Software Asset Registry follows a shared-platform governance model. A governance group, consisting of one representative from each onboarded Responsible Group, collaborates with the TDX Admin Team to review proposed changes to the data model and ensure:
- Consistent attribute definitions and terminology
- Alignment with higher-education software asset management (SAM) best practices
- Avoidance of customization that limits scalability or cross-departmental consistency
Onboarding
Departments interested in using the Departmental Software Asset Registry follow this process:
- Submit a request ticket
- Attend an introductory meeting and application demo scheduled by the TDX Admin Team
- Conduct a hands-on evaluation of the application in the sandbox environment using existing sample data
- Prepare the software records import template with departmental data, with guidance from the TDX Admin Team
- Review and approve the imported data for accuracy in the sandbox, after which the TDX Admin Team will migrate the data to the production environment
Onboarding timelines vary and depend primarily on how quickly the onboarding department completes each step.