Chaklun is Scalable's crowd-sourced, cloud-based catalog for normalization, recognition and enrichment of discovered IT Assets. This option is for management of Chaklun connectivity, review of performance and access to certain local caches. Local Normalization for discovered Company and Software Product data is found under: Setup > Chaklun > Normalization > Local Normalization.

The Local Normalization > Software Products data view displays all software packages discovered in your instance that have not been normalized. Software Product Normalization refers to the process of linking a discovered software product record (raw data) to a Software Product Version catalog entry (normalized data).

Launch the software product normalization wizard by right-clicking a record and selecting "Resolve," or you can also select multiple records that should be normalized to the same software product version and then click the Resolve Selected button to normalize multiple entries at once.

After selecting one or multiple records to normalize, the local normalization wizard is launched. Identifying the software publisher is the first step. In most cases the publisher will be auto-selected, but if not, simply begin typing in the select drop down box to find the correct software publisher. If the software publisher is not listed, click the New Publisher button to add a new entry.

Once a software publisher has been selected, click the Next button at the bottom of the screen.

To add a new software publisher entry, click the plus sign next to Publisher.

NOTE: Before creating a new publisher, please carefully review the available names in the drop down list. Other than for homegrown software, it is likely the correctly normalized name will already exist in some form.

Next, you will need to identify the software product. If a product is not auto-selected, begin typing the name into the select drop down box to search for an existing product entry. If a matching product does not exist, click the plus button next to Product to add a new software product entry.

Once a software product has been selected, click the Next button at the bottom of the screen.

To add a new software product entry, click the plus button next to Product. Enter a Product Name and select a Product Category.

NOTE: Do not create a Software Product with the publisher name included and do not put a version number, even a friendly version in the product name, there is an opportunity to do this on the next step.

Next click the Select Version button to load the Software Product Version selection window. You can choose an existing version or type in a new Major and Friendly Version if the correct version is not listed.

NOTE: Asset Vision displays the Friendly Version by default in all software product data views. If Major Version and Friendly Version are the same, there is no need to add a Major Version.

If an existing version option exists, simply select it via check box from the list at the top of the dialog box. If no matching version exists, you need to create a new version as follows:

Major version is the left-hand number only from full version (if it exists). The number can be over-typed if necessary since sometime products lose version details during packages.

Friendly version is the version by which this version is more commonly known. Examples are Office V12 is more commonly known as Office 2010. In many cases, friendly version will be the same as the major version, in which case this field can be left blank. Once you have added the version details, press Save.

To add a new Product Version, click the plus button next to Version. Fill out the Add New Product Version form paying close attention to the directions on how to enter the major version, friendly version, and friendly name.

Once you have selected an existing version, the License Metric will populate automatically. If you added a new version, you will need to select a License Metric for the product. Release Date and End of Life Date are not required, but can be added to further supplement the software license catalog data.

Verify that all entered data is correct. If you notice any mistakes, use the Back button to return to a previous step to change your selections. Click Finish to save your software normalization.

If you selected the Commit to Chaklun option you will receive the pop-up confirmation displayed above. This option sends your changes to Scalable's cloud-based catalog. If the entry you have just completed is a "home-grown" application, or is personal to your organization, you may want to deselect this option. Press Continue to proceed with the Commit to Chaklun or Cancel to return to the panel.

The normalized entries will now be displayed in the Local Software Cache. As you can see, the discovered software package data is now displayed alongside its normalized software product data. Asset Vision will now use your definitions to normalize appropriately discovered items. However, prior to a normalization it will continue to check with Chaklun to see if an entry has been added to the main catalog. This will happen when your entry is reviewed and accepted by Scalable's Chaklun data management processes.

There are specific types of software that has been deemed as not helpful if normalized. Examples are device drivers, superfluous registered software entries related to primary software titles, Operating system-specific entries and the like.  In these cases, software is explicitly flagged to be excluded from global normalization by the Scalable Software Normalization Team, and will be marked as such in the Resolver State field as Centrally Excluded.

If desired by an individual organization, Centrally Excluded software may still be locally normalized and stored in the Local Cache. In this case, the software will remain normalized in that specific instance, but will not be considered for global normalization, even if the local normalization is sent as a recommendation to Chaklun.