Introduction
The extent to which technology has become a part of normal life and day-to-day business has seen a change in the way management approaches how they manage the finances, the tasks and the assets within an organisation.
As technology becomes more widespread within an organisation and takes a more prominent role within the critical functions of that company, it is important to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is given to this technology.
Technology have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as essential parts of any organisation. As such, they are allocated greater budgets but must also be able to manage a greater amount of work.
But once you have spent a large amount of your budget on developing an IT infrastructure and seen the needs of your business change, how do you ensure that the technology you are using can keep up with demand?
This is the role undertaken by IT management software and systems.
Every company and every situation will have different needs and will offer different problems. To meet these requirements there are a range of different technologies and approaches that can be used to help control the IT network of your company.
Software Asset Management
Software Asset Management (SAM) is built to do exactly what it says on the tin – monitoring and managing the deployment and usage of software suites within your organisation. It is a business process rather than a distinct skill and is becoming a more critical part of the modern commercial environment, particularly for corporations operating in the field of Information Technology. 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 an aid for technicians installing software across a large company network, but can be a critical tool to help improve performance at multiple levels of a company. The aims of SAM include monitoring costs of the IT infrastructure within a company, 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.
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 financial case for going with a SAM solution is not always obvious until a full of the software infrastructure of a company has been undertaken.
Economic benefits remain the most driving commercial factor when deciding to operate software asset management software within a company. Every corporation needs to make profit after all and revenue is a very measurable metric. The financial benefits of SAM do certainly exist however.
An increasingly large amount of a business’ IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a real need to invest to correctly handle this spending. As businesses expand and diversify, their software needs can change radically and hardware and software 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 edge.
SAM is not restricted to simply the IT department of your company either. As a management operation it will often involve many of the branches within a business, including Finance Human Resources, to make sure that it runs as cost-effectively as possible. It is a process that does not need to follow established bureaucratic models.
When choosing an accomplished provider of a SAM solution for your network Centennial Discovery should be a product that is considered amongst others.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having seen the various advantages of utilising a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be right for your company? Every business is different and has its own separate set of problems and benefits, so any strategy you will use needs to be catered to these specific characteristics. The benefits of SAM do cover the basic aspects of software management.
There are more than simply monetary advantages that can be achieved through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across an organisations IT network. Productivity can be vastly by ensuring that users have the newest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication inside the corporation is aided when support staff know exactly what is in use on every workstation under their control.
Financial Savings
As discussed previously, perhaps the most convincing reason to implement software asset management within your company is the potential cost 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 reducing expenses is one that should be considered.
The most immediate way that SAM can help to lower costs is by targeting any software 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. software asset management can be used to remove this unnecessary overhead.
By removing these items of software that are no longer a benefit to the running of your company you are streamlining a large portion of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unneeded software licenses and maintenance agreements means that more money can be spent on the vital sections of your IT system.
Mitigate Risk Factors
A surprising proportion of software that is actively used in the corporate environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Running any amount of uncontrolled software on your IT network is ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become very unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly annoying factor for IT managers.
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 first bought although the original software licenses may have expired. Without the correct access policies in place, users may also be able to load their own software onto the system.
The danger of running unlicensed software on your system is clear. When anything goes wrong with the hardware or software platform behind your critical processes, how do you manage the situation? Running a complex software system without the correct support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can seriously limit your responsiveness to unforeseen events. The cost of recovery will forever outweigh the cost of prevention when it comes to data systems.
Many companies have reported increases in efficiency after Centennial consultants planned alongside their current IT support staff.
Implementing SAM in your Organisation
As previously discussed, there are many potential benefits to employing a good software asset management strategy within your organisation, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to determine which elements of SAM you should implement first since some benefits will be realised more speedily than others.
This discovery process can be viewed as three fundamental phases that have to be performed to really develop an informative picture of the usage of IT assets within your organisation.
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental stage of the discovery cycle. It is important that an accurate audit of software assets within your organisation is created to aid your IT managers to maintain baselines regarding your IT system.
Fortunately, this process can now be made automatic and even the grandest of infrastructures can be searched and analysed in a relatively short period. Inventory must be able to identify your software assets regardless of their geographical location or technological characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.
Capture
The second step in the discovery cycle is the capture of the license entitlements that cover the software assets discovered in the inventory. The capture process should gather entitlements for all of the software that exists on your system, even if the software is not currently in use.
The risk of human error can be mitigated by using automated tools that are specifically designed to create a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently available are very efficient at gathering 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 the software audit to the repository of licensing data that were built in the previous two stages. Errors may have been made anywhere from the original invoices for software to the latest audits undertaken on your IT network. These errors can now be rectified.
One critical factor in the validation stage is the ability to combine the license entitlements within your network to your company’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential if any disputes with software resellers arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle.
Once these steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly detailed image of how your IT system is serving software assets to its users. It will be much easier to identify any trouble spots on your network, or areas of software usage that are no longer of any practical benefit to your operations.
You can now start a period of reconciliation upon your network. You should compare the software packages that are actually installed on your system against the licensing and support contracts that you are paying for and bridge any divides between the two. This is when the financial benefits of software asset management start to take effect.
The software distribution in your network may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual installations, and there are any number of rules that may be associated with the licensing agreements you have in place. It is therefore essential to automate the reconciliation stage, utilising one or more programs to apply smart rules to the process.
If you are able to locate a particular Centennial reseller knowledgeable about your particular company you will reap the benefits, one such specialist is Softcat, click here to view their website.
Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management
Many of the basic practices of a successful SAM 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 management of IT operations. The ITIL can be found online.
This library is a dynamic publication and is often updated with new concepts and policies that reflect the constantly changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good software asset management strategy should be flexible enough to follow the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst matching the changing needs of the company within which it is actively used.
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies directly to software asset management practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally comprehensive collection of suggestions that are built to ensure that SAM is utilised in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”. Standards of this kind play an important part in achieving standardisation across an industry.
The ISO standard should really be followed when designing a SAM strategy for your own business, although the level of detail included within can easily become a daunting challenge. It is important to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when planning a SAM strategy, whatever plan you decide to employ must aid your organisation rather than hinder it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them to your business.
Creating a full and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own business may actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible enough to adapt and mature as your organisation does, and it must allow for modifications to your daily tasks, no matter how trivial or fundamental they might be. This really is the key to a worthwhile SAM strategy.
Conclusion
It is easy to see that as the scope and importance of computer systems within your organisation grow, so does the requirement for correct and efficient monitoring of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT department was a bonus that would sometimes forward the business. Computer systems are now vital to the modern company.
As with other parts of any business, a number of separate strategies should be evaluated and utilised in order to ensure the smooth running of day to day activities. software asset management should not be the only tactic used to manage technological resources within your company, but rather one of a number of complimentary policies used to control the system as a unit.
So if you think that your company is currently suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and control over its IT network, or that the possible benefits outlined in this article could manufacture a critical market edge over your competitors, then it would be worth investigating how SAM could be employed within your organisation.
