Software Portfolio Management Based on Feature Usage

An information handling system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• a memory coupled to at least one of the processors;
• a network adapter that connects the information handling system to a computer network;
• and
• a set of instructions stored in the memory and executed by at least one of the processors, wherein the set of instructions perform actions of:
• gathering one or more items of usage data pertaining to a plurality of instrumented software modules that are included in a software offering, wherein the usage data are gathered from a plurality of customer installations of the software offering;
• computing one or more usage statistics corresponding to the plurality of the instrumented software modules;
• and
• determining a support level corresponding to the plurality of instrumented software modules based upon the usage statistics pertaining to the corresponding instrumented software modules.

A computer program product stored in a computer readable medium, comprising functional descriptive material that, when executed by an information handling system, causes the information handling system to perform actions that include:

• gathering one or more items of usage data pertaining to a plurality of instrumented software modules that are included in a software offering, wherein the usage data is gathered from a plurality of customer installations of the software offering;
• computing one or more usage statistics corresponding to the plurality of the instrumented software modules;
• and
• determining a support level corresponding to the plurality of instrumented software modules based upon the usage statistics pertaining to the corresponding instrumented software modules.

An information handling system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• a memory coupled to at least one of the processors;
• a network adapter that connects the information handling system to a computer network;
• and
• a set of instructions stored in the memory and executed by at least one of the processors, wherein the set of instructions perform actions of:
• detecting execution of a plurality of software modules included in a software offering;
• recording, in a local data store, one or more usage statistics pertaining to each of the detected executions of the software module, wherein one of the usage statistics is a plurality of module identifiers that identify each of the executed software modules, and wherein the usage statistics track a number of times each of the plurality of software modules was executed at the information handling system;
• periodically transmitting the recorded usage statistics over a computer network to a software provider.