A variety of industries have worked to improve product supply and delivery chains and they have regularly looked to some type of standardized identification marker such as bar codes or RFID chips to support automation efforts necessary to achieve significant gains. Until the ISO/IEC 19770-2 specification was published, there has never been a consistent, standardized method available to reliably identify specific software components purchased, distributed, installed and managed within a customer environment. TagVault.org is working with industry partners such as Microsoft Corp. to change that model, and to provide the authoritative identification markers required for larger organizations to effectively manage their software supply and distribution process in a much more automated and cost-controlled manner.

“Microsoft is constantly looking for new and innovative ways to help our customers manage their IT environments in a more automated and cost-effective manner,” says Heather Young, global director, SAM Programs, Microsoft. “The fact that software ID tags provide these capabilities and may also provide support for increased supply-side and distribution security is a real benefit to our customers.”

“TagVault.org welcomes organizations like Microsoft that are focused on customer satisfaction and that want to provide the most modern and effective options to their customer base as quickly as possible,” says Steve Klos, executive director of TagVault.org. “The market fully supports SWID tags as a very positive advancement in the industry that can help lower costs and potentially improve security for any organization managing software portfolios today. However, the market has consistently indicated that SWID tags will make a more substantial and beneficial difference to the software ecosystem once companies like Microsoft sign up to support the standard. Having Microsoft on board to help advance the certification requirements is a huge benefit to the TagVault.org community and for organizational IT environments that, to date, have struggled to manage their complete software portfolio in a cost- and resource-effective manner.”

About TagVault.org

TagVault.org is a certification authority for software identification tags based on the ISO/IEC 19770-2:2009 standard. Formed as a non-profit organization under IEEE-ISTO, TagVault.org provides a shared library of software tools, technical knowledge and communications forums that decrease the costs of creating, managing and using software identification tags.

TagVault.org’s certification process ensures SWID tags fully conform to the specification; provide a specified level of information while also ensuring specific values used in the tag are normalized. Certified software identification tags are digitally signed and time-stamped ensuring authoritative tag data that any third party can validate. Certified software identification tags enable accurate and authoritative software identification reducing the cost and complexity and improving accuracy of software logistics, security and compliance activities for all SAM eco-system members.