Introduction
The degree to which computing has become a part of everyday life and day-to-day commerce has seen a change in the way management approaches how they manage the money, the processes and the assets within an organisation.
As technology becomes more widely used within a company and takes a more prominent role within the vital processes of that business, it is important to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is given to this technology. Technological assets that may have once been ignored are now key in the decision making process.
IT capabilities have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as critical parts of any company. As such, they receive grander budgets but must also be able to manage a larger amount of work. There is an eternal race between corporate demands and IT capabilities.
But after you have spent a substantial amount of money on developing an IT network and seen the needs of your organisation change, how do you make sure that the technology you are using can keep up with demand?
This is the function by IT management software and systems.
Every business and every environment will have different specifications and will offer unique issues. To satisfy these requirements there are a range of different technologies and approaches that can be used to help manage the IT infrastructure of your business.
Software Asset Management
SAM ( Software Asset Management) is built to do exactly what it says on the tin – monitoring and managing the deployment and usage of software suites within your company. It is a business process rather than a distinct skill and is becoming a more critical part of the modern business environment, particularly for businesses operating in the field of IT.
SAM is not simply an aid for support staff rolling out software across a large company network, but can be a critical tool to help improve performance at all levels of a business. The aims of SAM include controlling of the IT infrastructure within a business, negating legal threats associated with incorrect software license usage and preserving high levels of productivity by making sure software is up to date and fit for its purpose. As IT usage in a company grows, so do the potential benefits of SAM.
The practice of software asset management is often viewed as an unnecessary evil due to the abstract nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the business case for using a SAM solution is not always obvious until a broad audit of the software infrastructure of a company has been done. Once existing problems have been identified however, the use of software asset management becomes self evident.
Monetary benefits are still the most motivating business factor when choosing to employ SAM technology within an organisation. Every corporation needs to make money after all and profitability is a very measurable figure. The financial benefits of software asset management do certainly exist however.
An increasingly large percentage of a organisation’s IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a real need to invest to correctly monitor this spending. As organisations expand and diversify, their software needs can change radically and hardware and programs can swiftly become out of date. There is no need to spend money to maintain the licenses on this outdated software, which is where software asset management really delivers an advantage.
software asset management is not limited to simply the technology of your organisation 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.
Ironically, IT service companies themselves, such as the service provider Centennial require equally as much IT management as their customers.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the multiple advantages of deploying a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your business? Every company is different and has its own unique set of challenges and benefits, so any plan you will use needs to be catered to these specific traits. The benefits of software asset management do cover the basic aspects of IT management.
There are more than just monetary advantages that can be achieved through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across a businesses IT network. Productivity can be vastly by ensuring that users have the newest editions of software permitted under current licenses held, and communication within the business is helped when support staff know exactly what is in use on every workstation under their control. The benefits of SAM are not confined to the technological hardware of your organisation.
Cost Savings
As discussed previously, perhaps the most convincing reason to implement software asset management within your company is the potential financial savings that can be made. The profitability of your company is always going to be the bottom line so any plan that can help to increase this profitability by lowering expenses is one that should be evaluated.
The most direct way that software asset management can help to reduce costs is by identifying any applications running on your corporate IT system that is no longer necessary. The software might not be being used anymore, it may be too outdated to be of use or it may be duplicated on your system.
By removing these items of software that are no longer a help to the running of your organisation you are streamlining a large portion of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unneeded software licenses and support and maintenance agreements means that more money can be spent on the critical parts of your IT system.
Mitigate Risk Factors
A surprising percentage of software that is actively used in the corporate environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Having any amount of unmonitored software on your IT system is not advised, because when left unchecked it can become incredibly unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly frustrating factor for IT managers.
Unlicensed software applications can be introduced into an unmonitored IT environment in a number of ways. Software may have been bundled when your IT hardware was first purchased although the original 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.
The risk of running unlicensed software on your system is clear. When something goes wrong with the hardware or software platform supporting your vital processes, how do you recover the situation? Operating 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. The cost of recovery will forever outweigh the cost of mitigation when it comes to data systems.
There are a number of affordable Centennial distributors focusing on SAM who can create the ideal solution for your business.
Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously discussed, there are numerous potential advantages to employing a good SAM strategy within your business, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to determine which parts of SAM you should deploy first since some benefits will be achieved more speedily than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.
The discovery process can be seen as three primary phases that have to be undertaken to really build an informative picture of the usage of software assets within your business. These are:
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental stage of the discovery process. It is vital that an accurate audit of IT assets within your business is created to help your IT department to maintain baselines regarding your IT network.
Thankfully, this process can now be automated and even the grandest of networks can be investigated and analysed in a relatively short period of time. Inventory should be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their physical location or computing characteristics.
Capture
The next step in the discovery process involves the capture of the software license entitlements that manage the software assets identified in the inventory. The capture process should collect entitlements regarding all of the software that exists on your network, even if the software is not currently used.
The element of human error can be avoided by using automated tools that are specifically designed to create a library of license entitlements. Packages that are currently available are very efficient at capturing accurate data.
Identification & Validation
The third step is to match up your software inventory to the repository of licensing data that were created in the last two stages. Errors may have been made anywhere from the original paperwork for software to the most recent audits performed on your IT network. These errors can now be rectified.
One crucial factor in the validation step is the ability to combine the license entitlements on your network to your company’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential if any arguments with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle.
After these three steps have been performed you will have created an incredibly detailed picture of how your IT network is serving software programs to its users. It will be much easier to identify any trouble spots on your system, or areas of software usage that are no longer of any practical benefit to your activites. This detailed image can be used for future reference as well.
You can now commence a period of reconciliation on your network. You should compare the software packages that are actually used on your system against the licensing and support contracts that you are paying for and close any gaps between the two. This is when the financial benefits of SAM start to take effect.
The software distribution within your system may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual installations, and there may be any number of restrictions that may be associated with the licensing agreements you have in place. It is therefore a necessity to automate the reconciliation stage, utilising one or more tools to apply smart rules to the process. These rules can be catered to the specific needs of your company
The use software asset management within your organisation is a very specific process which can be strategised by a capable Centennial reseller as they will have more information.
Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management
Many of the fundamental practices of a successful software asset management strategy are based upon the principles laid out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library defines a number of concepts and best practices that should be adopted for successful management of IT operations.
This library is a changing publication and is often updated with new concepts and policies that cater to the constantly changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be flexible enough to comply with the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing requirements of the company within which it is actively used. This is an essential requirement of effective software asset management
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies specifically to software asset management practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally comprehensive set of suggestions that are built to ensure that software asset management is used in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”.
The ISO standard should really be adhered to when designing a SAM strategy for your own business, although the level of detail covered within can quickly become a daunting prospect. It is important to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when creating a SAM strategy, whatever you decide to implement must aid your organisation rather than hinder it.
Designing a complete and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own business may actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible to adapt and mature as your business does, and it must allow for updates to your daily activities, no matter how small or underlying they might be. This really is the key to a worthwhile SAM plan.
Conclusion
It is easy to see that as the extent and importance of computer systems within your company grow, so does the need for correct and efficient management of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT department was a luxury that would sometimes forward the business. IT systems are now vital to the modern company.
As with other parts of any organisation, a number of separate plans should be considered and used in order to ensure the efficient running of daily activities. SAM should not be the only tactic used to manage computing assets within your company, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary policies used to control the system as a whole. software asset management can go a long way toward helping your business but should be supported by other techniques.
So if you feel that your organisation is really suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and control over its IT network, or that the potential advantages outlined in this article could manufacture a critical market advantage over your competitors, then it would be well worth investigating how software asset management could be employed within your company.
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