Introduction
The degree to which technology has become a part of normal life and day-to-day business has prompted a change in the way management approaches how they manage the money, the tasks and the systems within an organisation.
As technology becomes more widespread within a company and takes a more prominent role within the vital functions of that business, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is given to this computing. Technological systems that may have once been ignored are now important factors in the decision making process.
Technology have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as vital parts of any organisation. As such, they receive grander budgets but must also be able to deal with a larger amount of work. There is an eternal race between business needs and computing capabilities.
But after you have spent a substantial amount of money on developing an IT system and seen the circumstances of your organisation change, how do you make sure that the IT you are using can keep up with demand?
This is the function by IT management software and procedures.
Every company and every environment will have different needs and will present unique issues. To satisfy these needs there are a number of different solutions and approaches that can be implemented to help control the IT assets of your company.One of these approaches is discussed below.
Software Asset Management
Software Asset Management (SAM) is designed to do exactly what it says on the tin – monitoring and controlling the deployment and usage of software suites within your business. It is a business process rather than a distinct discipline and is becoming a more essential part of the modern corporate environment, particularly for companies operating in the field of IT. Despite the many benefits of SAM, there are still a great many companies that are not utilising it to its full potential.
SAM is not simply a program for technicians installing software across a large corporate network, but can be a critical tool to help improve performance at many levels of a organisation. The objectives of SAM include controlling of the IT infrastructure within a business, negating legal threats associated with incorrect software license usage and maintaining high levels of productivity by making sure software is up to date and fit for its purpose. As IT usage in an organisation grows, so do the potential benefits of SAM.
The practice of software asset management is often thought of as an unnecessary evil due to the abstract nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the financial case for using a SAM solution is not always obvious until a full of the software infrastructure of a company has been undertaken. Once existing problems have been identified however, the use of SAM becomes self evident.
Financial benefits remain the most driving commercial factor when deciding to operate software asset management software within a business. Every corporation needs to make money after all and revenue is a very measurable figure. The financial benefits of SAM do certainly exist however.
An increasingly large percentage of a company’s IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a vital need to invest to correctly monitor this spending. As businesses expand and spread, their software requirements can change greatly and hardware and programs can swiftly become out of date. There is no requirement to spend money to maintain the licenses on this outdated software, which is where SAM really delivers an advantage.
software asset management is not restricted to simply the technology of your company either. As a management process it will often include many of the departments within a company, including Finance Human Resources, to make sure that it runs as efficiently as possible. It is a process that does not need to follow established corporate models.
When choosing an accomplished provider of a software asset management solution for your system Centennial Discovery must be a name that is considered amongst many.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the many advantages of employing a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your organisation? Each business is different and has its own unique set of challenges and benefits, so any strategy you will use needs to be catered to these specific characteristics.
There are more than just financial benefits that can be gained through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across an organisations IT system. Productivity can be vastly by ensuring that staff have the latest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication within the business is aided when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every computer under their control. The benefits of SAM are not confined to the technological hardware of your business.
Cost Savings
As discussed previously, perhaps the most persuading reason to implement software asset management within your company is the potential financial savings that can be achieved. The profitability of your business is always going to be the bottom line so any plan that can help to increase this profitability by descreasing expenses is one that should be evaluated.
The most immediate way that SAM can help to lower costs is by targeting any applications running on your corporate network that is no longer necessary. The software might not be being used any longer, it may be too outdated to be of use or it may be duplicated on your system.
By clearing these items of software that are no longer a help to the running of your business you are streamlining a large portion of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and support and maintenance contracts means that more finance can be spent on the essential sections of your IT system.
Mitigate Risk
A surprising amount of software that is currently used in the corporate environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Having any amount of uncontrolled software on your IT network is ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become incredibly unpredictable.
Unlicensed software applications can be introduced into an unmonitored IT system in a number of ways. Software may have been included when your IT hardware was originally purchased although the initial software licenses may have expired. Without the correct access policies in place, users may also be able to install their own software onto the system. Operating a corporate IT system in this wild way will almost certainly lead to trouble.
The risk of running unlicensed software on your system is clear. When something goes wrong with the hardware or software platform behind your critical processes, how do you handle the situation? Running a complicated software system without the correct support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can critically inhibit your responsiveness to unforeseen events.
Of the many products and services available from any national Centennial distributor software asset management is only one solution that can be used.
Implementing SAM in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are numerous potential advantages to using a good SAM strategy within your organisation, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to consider which branches of SAM you should implement first since some benefits will be realised more speedily than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.
The discovery process can be viewed as three primary phases that have to be undertaken to truly develop an informative picture of the usage of software assets within your company. These are:
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental stage of the discovery process. It is vital that an accurate inventory of software assets within your organisation is created to help your IT department to maintain baselines for your IT system. This inventory process must be performed before carrying on with discovery.
Fortunately, this process can now be automated and even the grandest of infrastructures can be investigated and analysed in a reasonably short period. Inventory should be able to identify your software assets regardless of their physical location or computing characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.
Capture
The second step in the discovery process is the capture of the license entitlements that manage the software programs discovered in the inventory. The capture process should collect entitlements regarding all of the software that is installed on your network, even when the software is not currently in use. Without this information the inventory may be almost useless.
The factor of human error can be avoided by using automatic tools that are specifically created to build a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently employed are very efficient at capturing accurate information. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from software vendors.
Identification & Validation
The next step is to match up your software audit to the repository of licensing information that were created in the previous two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original invoices for software to the latest audits undertaken on your IT network.
One crucial factor in the validation stage is the ability to associate the license entitlements within your network to your company’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential if any disputes with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery process.
After these three steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly rich picture of how your IT system is serving software programs to its users. It will be a lot simpler to identify particular trouble areas on your network, or sections of software usage that are no longer of any particular benefit to your activites. This detailed image can be used for future strategies as well.
You can now commence a period of reconciliation on your network. You can compare the software programs that are actually installed on your system against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and bridge any gaps between the two. This is when the financial benefits of software asset management start to take effect.
The software distribution within your network may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual installations, and there are any number of rules that may be involved with the licensing agreements you have in place. It is therefore a necessity to automate the reconciliation period, using one or more programs to apply intelligent rules to the process. These rules can be catered to the specific needs of your company
More about implementing SAM within your organisation is available via www.softcat.com who can be located around the country.
Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM
Many of the basic practices of a successful software asset management strategy are based upon the principles set out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library defines a number of concepts and best practices that should be followed for successful control of IT functions.
This library is a changing publication and is often updated with new ideas and techniques that reflect the ever changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good software asset management strategy should be fluid enough to comply with the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing requirements of the business within which it is actively used. This is an essential requirement of effective SAM
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies directly to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an incredibly comprehensive set of guidelines that are designed to ensure that SAM is used in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”. Standards of this kind play an important role in realising standardisation across an industry.
The ISO standard should certainly be adhered to when designing a software asset management strategy for your own organisation, although the level of detail covered within can quickly become a daunting challenge. It is vital to remember that no matter what recommendations you follow when planning a software asset management strategy, whatever plan you decide to employ needs to aid your organisation rather than hinder it.
Creating a full and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own company might actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible to change and grow as your business does, and it must allow for updates to your daily activities, no matter how small or underlying they might be.
Conclusion
It is clear to see that as the scope and importance of computer systems within your organisation grow, so does the need for good and effective management of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT department was a luxury that would occasionally progress the business. IT networks are now critical to the modern business.
As with other parts of any company, a number of separate strategies should be considered and utilised in order to ensure the smooth running of daily tasks. SAM should not be the only tool used to manage technological assets within your company, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary policies used to control the system as a whole.
So if you think that your company is really suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and management over its IT network, or that the potential advantages described in this article could manufacture a critical market edge over your competitors, then it would be worth researching how SAM could be employed within your organisation. There may be no time to spare.