Rachel Hayes

Introduction

The extent to which computing 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 a business.

As technology becomes more widely used within an organisation and takes a more prominent critical within the critical functions of that business, it is important to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is applied to this computing. Technological systems that may have previously been ignored are now key in the decision making process.

Technology have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as essential elements of any business. As such, they are allocated grander budgets but must also be able to handle a greater amount of responsibility. There is an eternal race between corporate needs and computing capabilities.

But once you have spent a substantial amount of your budget on developing an IT infrastructure and seen the needs of your business change, how do you ensure that the systems you are using can keep up with demand?

This is the role carried out by IT management software and procedures.

Every business and every environment will have different needs and will create unique challenges. To meet these requirements there are a range of different technologies and approaches that can be used to help manage 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 maintaining the deployment and usage of software programs within your organisation. It is a business process rather than a distinct skill and is becoming a more essential part of the modern commercial 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 tool for technicians deploying software across a large corporate network, but can be a critical tool to help improve performance at many levels of a company. The goals 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.

The practice of software asset management is often seen 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 broad inspection of the software infrastructure of a company has been carried out. Once existing problems have been highlighted however, the use of software asset management becomes self evident.

Monetary benefits are still the most driving business factor when choosing to use software asset management technology within a company. Every company needs to make profit after all and revenue is a very measurable metric. The financial benefits of software asset management do certainly exist however.

An increasingly large proportion of a business’ IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a critical need to invest to correctly manage this spending. As organisations expand and spread, their software needs can change greatly and hardware and programs can quickly become outdated. There is no need 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 IT department of your company either. As a management cycle it will often involve many of the departments within a organisation, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as cost-effectively as possible.

The many benefits of software asset management ensure Centennial resellers maintain a healthy product portfolio they can supply to clients.

Why follow a SAM Strategy?

Having seen the multiple advantages of employing a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be right for your organisation? Each company is different and has its own unique set of challenges and benefits, so any strategy you will undertake needs to be tailored to these specific characteristics. The benefits of software asset management do cover the basic aspects of software management.

There are more than simply cost advantages that can be achieved through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across an organisations IT network. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that employees have the latest versions of software permitted under current licenses held, and communication within the corporation is helped when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every workstation under their control. The benefits of software asset management are not confined to the technological hardware of your organisation.

Financial Savings

As discussed before, perhaps the most convincing reason to implement SAM within your business is the potential cost 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 reducing expenses is one that should be evaluated. Money can be saved in a number of ways.

The most direct 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 anymore, it may be too outdated to be of use or it may be duplicated on your system. SAM can be used to remove this unnecessary overhead.

By removing these items of software that are no longer a help 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 critical sections of your IT system.

Mitigate Risk Factors

A surprising percentage of software that is actively used in the business environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Having any amount of uncontrolled software on your IT system is not advised, because when left unchecked it can become very unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly frustrating factor for IT managers.

Unlicensed software applications can be introduced into an uncontrolled IT system in a number of ways. Software may have been bundled when your IT hardware was originally purchased although the initial software licenses may have expired. Without the correct control policies in place, users may also be able to load their own software onto the network.

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 proper support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can seriously limit your responsiveness to unforeseen events.

The financial case for working with a part-time Centennial vendor throughout your IT audit process has never been clearer.

Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation

As previously discussed, there are numerous potential advantages to utilising a good SAM strategy within your company, both monetary and otherwise. It is therefore important to determine which parts of SAM you should deploy first since some benefits will be realised more quickly than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.

This discovery process can be viewed as three fundamental areas that have to be performed to truly build an informative picture of the usage of IT assets within your organisation. These are:

Inventory

Inventory is the most fundamental function of the discovery process. It is vital that an accurate inventory of software assets within your organisation is created to help your IT managers to maintain baselines for your IT network.
Fortunately, this process can now be automated and even the grandest of networks can be searched and analysed in a relatively short period. Inventory must be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their physical location or technological characteristics.

Capture

The second step in the discovery process is the capture of the license entitlements that manage the software assets identified in the inventory. The capture stage should gather entitlements regarding all of the software that is installed on your system, even if the software is not currently used.

The element of human error can be avoided by using automatic tools that are specifically designed to create a library of license entitlements. Packages 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 information that were built in the last two stages. Errors may have occurred 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 associate the license entitlements within your system to your company’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital if any disputes with software resellers arise as a consequence of the discovery process. You want to be as informed as possible in these circumstances.

After these steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly rich picture of how your IT system is delivering software assets to its users. It will be a lot simpler to identify any trouble areas on your network, or sections of software usage that are no longer of any practical benefit to your operations.

You can now begin a period of reconciliation on your system. You should compare the software packages that are actually installed on your system against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and close any divides between the two.

The software spread within your network may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual installations, and there are any number of restrictions that may be involved with the licensing agreements you have in place. It is therefore essential 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

If you are able to find 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 fundamental practices of a successful software asset management strategy are based upon the concepts laid out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library defines a number of ideas and best practices that should be adopted for successful management of IT operations. The ITIL can be found online.

This library is a changing entity and is often updated with new ideas and policies that cater to the ever changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good software asset management strategy should be fluid enough to comply with the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing needs of the business within which it is actively utilised. This is an essential requirement of effective SAM

The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies specifically to software asset management practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an incredibly comprehensive set of suggestions that are designed to ensure that software asset management is used in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”. Standards of this kind play an essential part in achieving standardisation across an industry.

The ISO standard should certainly be followed when designing a SAM strategy for your own company, although the level of detail included within can easily become a daunting challenge. It is vital to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when designing a SAM strategy, whatever you decide to employ must help your business rather than stifle it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them within your business.

Designing a complete and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own business might actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible enough to change and grow as your organisation does, and it should allow for modifications to your daily activities, no matter how trivial or underlying they might be.

Conclusion

It is clear to see that as the extent and importance of computer systems within your company grow, so does the need for good and effective management of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT department was a luxury that would sometimes progress the business. IT systems are now vital to the modern company. Crucial systems need to be maintained to an appropriate standard.

As with other parts of any business, a number of different plans should be considered and used in order to ensure the smooth running of daily tasks. software asset management should not be the only tactic used to manage computing resources within your company, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary techniques used to manage the system as a whole.

So if you think that your business is really suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and management over its IT network, or that the possible advantages described in this article could provide a critical market edge over your competitors, then it would be well worth investigating how SAM could be employed within your company.