EANS-News: In its current market analysis of IT asset management, a leading US market research and advisory company has rated USU as "promising" based on the evaluation of its Valuemation suite.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Corporate news transmitted by euro adhoc. The issuer/originator is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Analysts' Comments Möglingen (euro adhoc) - USU AG, an international provider of IT solutions in Business Service Management, has been rated as "promising" by Gartner in its 2011 study "MarketScope for the IT Asset Management Repository"*. A total of 13 vendors were included in this MarketScope report, among them two from Europe. In the "ITAM MarketScope" study, the US analysts evaluated software manufacturers with respect to their ITAM solutions targeted at midsize and large enterprises. Gartner thoroughly examined and then rated USU´s Valuemation suite regarding its capability "to manage and integrate financial, physical and contractual data throughout the IT asset life cycle, from requisitioning an asset to the retirement and disposal of hardware or software assets." Moreover, Gartner evaluated USU´s recent acquisitions intended to enhance and strengthen its product portfolio. Specifically, USU recently assumed a majority interest in the German software developer and provider Aspera GmbH (http://www.aspera.com) and the Swiss strategy consultancy get IT Services GmbH (now USU Consulting GmbH, http://www.usuconsulting.com). Based in Aachen, Germany, Aspera is rated a major global provider of software license management solutions. "We´re pleased to see that Gartner has evaluated our product strategy. In particular, we feel that our integration of Aspera´s SmartTrack solution represents an ideal extension of the Valuemation product line. For this reason, we consider ourselves to be in a very good position in this dynamically growing market, both domestically and internationally," stated Bernhard Oberschmidt, CEO of USU AG. Valuemation is a comprehensive, modularly structured product suite featuring newly integrated technologies and functions covering all the disciplines required for ITIL®-compliant Business Service Management. The solution area Service Asset Lifecycle Management covers the comprehensive control of service assets and resources, including contract management, software license management, procurement as well as asset management. In this solution sector, USU has long-standing partnerships with well-known international enterprises such as Allianz, Baloise Holding, BMW Group, Deutsche Telekom, Modon Saudi Industrial Property Authority, Poste Italiane and RUAG Electronics. Gartner regularly evaluates providers and their solutions in the area of IT Asset Management (ITAM). "ITAM is the centralized management of the financial, contractual and basic configuration data of IT assets in an organization The number of device types and scope of the project may differ greatly by organization, but the primary goal is to begin tracking and monitoring what is happening to the assets throughout their life cycles." According to Gartner, "core attributes include the capability to capture and maintain asset costs, depreciation, chargeback, contract terms and conditions, vendor service levels, asset maintenance, ownership, and entitlements associated with inventory components and configuration items necessary for the effective management and optimization of IT asset performance." Furthermore, Gartner stresses the mission-critical importance of efficient software license management and assurance of compliance. Beyond this, Gartner sees challenges posed by managing the increasing system complexity due to IT virtualization and by the strong growth in consumer devices. Based on this trend, Gartner predicts that the market penetration of centralized ITAM solutions will significantly increase "from approximately 45% today to 70% during the next five years". * The "MarketScope for the IT Asset Management Repository, 2011" was released by Gartner analyst Patricia Adams on October 12, 2011. Further information can be found at http://www.gartner.com. The press release is available at: http://www.valuemation.com or http://www.usu-ag.com About the Gartner MarketScope study The MarketScope is copyrighted on 2011 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The MarketScope is an evaluation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the MarketScope, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest rating. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. About USU AG. Founded in 1977, USU offers strategies, consulting, software solutions and services for achieving comprehensive integration of knowledge and experience into business workflows and applications within organizations. Market leaders from every sector of the international economy create transparency with USU applications, while also becoming more competitive, cutting costs and reducing their risks. With its three business areas, USU is Europe´s largest provider of IT and knowledge management solutions. With its Valuemation® product line, USU offers a high-quality portfolio for supporting IT Management and Service Management, one whose merits have been recognized by leading market analysts around the world. This modular, highly integrated suite covers all disciplines for achieving ITIL®-compliant Business Service Management. With it, our customers can obtain a comprehensive overview of their IT processes and IT infrastructure, allowing them to transparently chart, track, allocate and actively manage their IT costs. With KnowledgeCenter technology, customers can activate and leverage all the knowledge resources within their organizations. This broad, comprehensive application bundles all the various communications and information channels on one central platform. With the support of intelligent knowledge bases from USU, call and service centers efficiently provide accurate, individualized answers to over 25 million inquiries per year. By developing and maintaining complex, customer-specific applications, USU experts can combine user-requested features, sector-specific knowledge and technological expertise to create individual, customized solutions. Our core competencies also include process and system integration based on service-oriented architecture (SOA) as well as deployment of knowledge and employee portals, from initial planning to ultimate placement in service. USU AG is a subsidiary of USU Software AG (ISIN DE 000A0BVU28), which is listed in the Prime Segment of the German Stock Exchange (DAX) in Frankfurt. For further information, please go to: http://www.usu-ag.com Further inquiry note: Gerick Thomas end of announcement euro adhoc -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- company: USU Software AG Spitalhof D-71696 Möglingen phone: +49 (0)7141 4867 0 FAX: +49 (0)7141 4867 20 mail: investor@usu-software.de WWW: http://www.usu-software.de sector: Software ISIN: DE000A0BVU28 indexes: CDAX, Prime All Share, Technology All Share stockmarkets: regulated dealing/prime standard: Frankfurt, free trade: Berlin, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Hannover, München, regulated dealing: Stuttgart language: English
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