Clearfind Delivers Unprecedented Visibility into Your Software

Software optimization — a process that enables IT teams to identify redundancies, increase productivity and reduce costs — is a persistent challenge for many organizations, largely because many lack the ability to see and analyze their portfolios holistically. This can result in software budgets that spin out of control. The consequences are broad, including costly duplications, inefficient processes and greater complexity for IT management. 

Now, there’s a solution. CDW data-driven software management, powered by Clearfind, provides unprecedented visibility into the software environment and delivers cost-saving recommendations.

Nearly three years of research and development went into the design of the Clearfind solution, which was created to enable decision-makers to answer important questions about their software ecosystems that historically have been opaque. 

For instance: Is an organization supporting multiple tools that have similar functionality? Has it chosen the best software to meet its business objectives? Is there an easy, reliable way to check against existing software before making a purchase? 

Research shows that most business leaders intend to increase their software investments. Still, they don’t want to do so in a vacuum, without fully understanding current costs and capabilities. As a testament to the fact that many organizations struggle with software management, the average organization running Clearfind can eliminate approximately 30 percent of its existing software.

One reason software optimization is difficult is the simple fact that organizations and their tools are constantly changing. Business priorities shift, employees come and go, and software vendors add and remove features. 

The Clearfind platform addresses these problems by rapidly and continuously analyzing the capabilities of an organization’s software portfolio and pushing out optimization opportunities as they arise. Using state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and a proprietary set of software capabilities, Clearfind categorizes all the software in an organization’s ecosystem into four buckets: “Review,” “Add,” “Consolidate” and “Keep.” 

It does so by understanding the features of each piece of software and then running simulations to identify tools with similar functions. This helps decision-makers to see and understand — often for the first time — how each piece of software fits into the environment, identifying redundancies and opportunities to reduce waste. Clearfind is cloud-based, requires no integration and covers both Software as a Service and non-SaaS products.

Software insights are especially valuable for CIOs and CTOs, who need a consistent evaluation process that covers everything from niche software to major enterprise tools. It also helps chief financial officers, who need data to rationalize and inform their spending decisions, as well as to measure the return on their investments. An organization’s innovation leaders also benefit by being able to analyze the potential uses of new and existing software solutions.

At a time when every organization must do more with less, Clearfind presents an opportunity to consolidate buying power and streamline resources throughout an organization. Software optimization also improves the employee experience, giving staff fewer solutions to learn and integrate into their workflows. For more specifics on Clearfind or to get in touch with a CDW software expert, reach out to us directly.

Story by Phillip Pollicove, a manager of a team of field software experts driving services and solutions growth within the Eastern region of the U.S. as well as CDW’s Software Business Development team, working with customers to optimize their software portfolios. His teams work across customer and industry verticals to assess client environments and business goals to help deliver the best software solutions for CDW’s clients. They also address a range of business objectives including disaster recovery, redundancy and migrations to cloud-based strategies.