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 business approaches how they manage the finances, the tasks and the systems within an organisation.
As technology becomes more widely used within an organisation and takes a more prominent vital within the vital functions of that organisation, 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.
IT capabilities have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as essential elements of any company. As such, they are allocated larger budgets but must also be able to handle a larger amount of responsibility. There is an eternal race between business demands and IT capabilities.
But after you have spent a large amount of your budget on developing an IT infrastructure and seen the circumstances of your organisation change, how do you ensure that the technology you are using can keep up with demand? Moreover, how can you achieve this without spending a prohibitive amount of money?
This is the function by IT management software and systems.
Every business and every situation will have different specifications and will present different issues. To meet these requirements there are a number of different solutions and approaches that can be used to help manage the IT infrastructure of your organisation.
Software Asset Management
Software Asset Management (SAM) is built to do exactly what it says on the tin - monitoring and controlling the deployment and usage of software programs within your business. It is a business process rather than a distinct discipline and is becoming a more essential part of the modern business environment, particularly for businesses 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 an aid for support staff rolling out software across a large corporate network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at many levels of a organisation. The goals of SAM include controlling 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. As IT usage in an organisation 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 full of the software infrastructure of a company has been carried out.
Monetary benefits are still the most motivating commercial factor when deciding to operate SAM technology within a company. Every business needs to make profit after all and profitability is a very measurable metric.
An increasingly large percentage of a company’s IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a critical need to invest to correctly handle this spending. As organisations expand and spread, their software needs can change radically and hardware and programs can quickly become outdated. There is no requirement to spend money to maintain the licenses on this outdated software, which is where software asset management really delivers an edge.
software asset management is not restricted to simply the technology of your company either. As a management process it will often involve many of the departments within a business, including Finance Human Resources, to make sure that it runs as cost-effectively as possible.
One highly recommend SAM package claim Centennial resellers has to be SAM.Suite; a modern solution to modern IT licensing challenges.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the multiple benefits of deploying a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be right for your business? Each business is different and has its own separate set of problems and benefits, so any strategy you will undertake needs to be tailored to these specific traits. 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 management of licensing and maintenance agreements across an organisations IT system. Productivity can be vastly by ensuring that employees have the newest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication inside the corporation is helped when support staff know exactly what is installed on every computer under their control. The benefits of software asset management are not confined to the technological hardware of your business.
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 system that can help to improve this profitability by descreasing expenses is one that should be considered.
The most immediate way that SAM can help to lower costs is by identifying any applications running on your corporate network that is no longer needed. The software might not be being used any longer, it may be very outdated to be of use or it may be duplicated on your system. SAM can help to remove this unnecessary overhead.
By removing these items of software that are no longer a benefit to the running of your business you are streamlining a large portion of your IT network. Paying for unneeded software licenses and maintenance agreements means that more money can be spent on the essential sections of your IT system.
Mitigate Risk
A surprising proportion of software that is currently used in the corporate environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Running any amount of uncontrolled 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.
Rogue software programs can be introduced into an unmonitored IT system in a number of ways. Software may have been bundled when your IT hardware was first purchased although the initial software licenses may have expired. Without the correct control policies in place, users may also be able to install their own software onto the network. Running a corporate IT system in this unmanaged way will almost certainly lead to trouble.
The risk of running unlicensed software on your system is clear. When anything goes wrong with the hardware or software platform behind your vital processes, how do you handle the situation? Operating a complicated software system without the proper support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can seriously inhibit your responsiveness to unpredictable events.
If you are able to do business with the most appropriate Centennial distributor the business will be well placed to achieve the maximum potential from SAM.
Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously discussed, there are numerous potential benefits to using a good software asset management strategy within your company, both financial and otherwise. It is therefore important to consider which elements of SAM you should implement first since certain benefits will be realised more speedily than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.
This discovery process can be viewed as three primary stages that have to be undertaken to really develop an informative picture of the deployment of software assets within your organisation. These are:
Inventory
Inventory is the most basic function of the discovery cycle. 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 continuing with discovery.
Fortunately, this process can now be made automatic and even the grandest of infrastructures can be searched and analysed in a relatively short period of time. Inventory must be able to identify your software assets regardless of their geographical location or computing characteristics.
Capture
The next step in the discovery process involves the capture of the license entitlements that manage the software programs discovered in the inventory. The capture stage should gather entitlements regarding all of the software that exists on your network, even when the software is not currently in use. Without this step the inventory may be nearly useless.
The factor of human error can be avoided by using automated tools that are specifically created to create a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently employed are incredibly efficient at capturing accurate information.
Identification & Validation
The third process is to match up your software audit to the repository of licensing information that were built in the previous two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original invoices for software to the latest audits undertaken on your IT system. These errors can now be rectified.
One crucial factor in the validation step is the ability to link the license entitlements within your network to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital if any arguments with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle. You want to be as informed as possible in these circumstances.
Once these steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly detailed image of how your IT system is delivering software packages to its users. It will be much simpler to identify particular trouble spots on your system, or areas of software use that are no longer of any practical benefit to your operations. This detailed map can be used for future reference as well.
You can now start a period of reconciliation upon your network. You can compare the software packages that are actually employed on your network against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and close any divides between the two. This is when the financial benefits of SAM start to take effect.
The software spread within your network may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual installations, and there may be 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, utilising one or more tools to apply smart rules to the process. These rules can be catered to the specific needs of your organisation.
More information about deploying software asset management in your business can be learned through a Centennial reseller or reading on the web.
Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM
Many of the basic practices of a modern software asset management strategy are based upon the concepts laid out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library details a number of ideas and best practices that should be followed for successful management of IT functions. The ITIL can be found online.
This library is a dynamic publication and is often updated with new concepts and policies that cater to the constantly changing IT environment of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be fluid enough to comply with the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst meeting 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 SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally comprehensive collection of suggestions that are designed to ensure that SAM is utilised 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 adhered to when designing a software asset management strategy for your own company, although the level of detail included within can quickly become a daunting prospect. It is important to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when planning a software asset management strategy, whatever plan you decide to employ needs to aid your organisation rather than hinder it.
Designing a complete and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own organisation may actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible enough to change and mature as your organisation does, and it must allow for modifications to your daily tasks, no matter how small or underlying they might be.
Conclusion
It is clear to see that as the extent and importance of IT systems within your company grow, so does the need for good and effective monitoring of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT branch was a bonus that would sometimes progress the business. Computer systems are now vital to the modern business.
As with other parts of any organisation, a number of different plans should be considered and utilised in order to ensure the efficient running of daily activities. SAM should not be the only tactic used to manage computing assets within your organisation, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary techniques used to control the system as a whole.
So if you feel that your company is currently suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and control over its IT infrastructure, or that the possible benefits outlined in this article could provide a critical market edge over your competitors, then it would be worth researching how software asset management could be used within your organisation.