Introduction
The degree to which technology has become a part of everyday life and day-to-day commerce has forced a change in the way management approaches how they manage the finances, the processes and the assets within an organisation.
As technology becomes more widespread within an organisation and takes a more prominent critical within the vital processes of that organisation, it is important to make sure that an appropriate level 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 receive grander budgets but must also be able to deal with a greater amount of work. There is an eternal race between corporate needs and IT capabilities.
But once you have spent a large amount of your budget on developing your IT system and seen the requirements of your business 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 role carried out by IT management software and systems.
Every organisation and every situation will have different requirements and will present different issues. To satisfy these needs there are a number of different solutions and approaches that can be used to help manage the IT network of your business.One of these approaches is discussed below.
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 business. It is a business process rather than a distinct skill 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 an aid for support staff 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 managing 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.
The practice of SAM is often seen as an unnecessary evil due to the abstract nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the commercial case for employing a SAM solution is not always obvious until a full 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 operate SAM technology within an organisation. Every corporation needs to make money after all and profitability is a very measurable metric. The financial benefits of software asset management do certainly exist however.
An increasingly large percentage of a organisation’s IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a real need to invest to correctly manage this spending. As businesses grow and spread, their software needs 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 software asset management really delivers an advantage.
software asset management is not limited to simply the technology of your organisation either. As a management cycle it will often include many of the branches within a business, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as cost-effectively as possible. It is a process that does not need to follow regular.
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Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the many advantages of employing a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be appropriate for your company? Each company is different and has its own separate set of problems and benefits, so any plan you will undertake needs to be catered to these specific characteristics. The benefits of software asset management do cover the basic aspects of IT management.
There are more than simply monetary advantages that can be made through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across a businesses IT network. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that users have the newest versions of software permitted under current licenses held, and communication within the corporation is helped when support staff know exactly what is installed on every workstation under their control.
Cost Savings
As discussed previously, perhaps the most persuading reason to utilise SAM 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 strategy that can help to improve this profitability by lowering costs is one that should be considered. Money can be saved in a number of ways.
The most direct way that software asset management can help to lower costs is by identifying any applications 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.
By clearing these items of software that are no longer a help to the operation of your business you are streamlining a large portion of your IT system. Paying for unneeded software licenses and maintenance contracts means that more money can be spent on the critical sections of your IT infrastructure. Focusing your finances on these critical components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.
Mitigate Risk
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 unmonitored software on your IT system is ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become incredibly unpredictable.
Rogue software applications can be introduced into an uncontrolled IT environment in a number of ways. Software may have been included when your IT hardware was originally bought 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 system.
The danger of running unlicensed software on your system is clear. When anything goes wrong with the hardware or software platform supporting your vital 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 critically limit your responsiveness to unpredictable events. The cost of recovery will always outweigh the cost of mitigation when it comes to data systems.
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Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously discussed, there are many potential benefits to employing a good SAM strategy within your company, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally 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 seen as three fundamental stages that have to be undertaken to truly build an informative picture of the deployment 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 inventory of IT assets within your business is created to help your IT managers to maintain baselines regarding your IT system. This inventory process must be performed before carrying on with discovery.
Thankfully, this process can now be automated and even the grandest of infrastructures can be searched and analysed in a reasonably short period. Inventory should be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their physical location or technological characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.
Capture
The second step in the discovery cycle is the capture of the software license entitlements that concern the software assets identified in the inventory. The capture stage should collect entitlements regarding all of the software that exists on your network, even when the software is not currently used.
The risk 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 available are very efficient at gathering accurate data. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from software vendors.
Identification & Validation
The third step is to match up the software inventory to the repository of licensing information that were created in the previous two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original paperwork for software to the latest audits performed on your IT system. These errors can now be rectified.
One critical factor in the validation stage is the ability to associate the license entitlements on 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 three steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly detailed picture of how your IT system is serving software programs to its users. It will be a lot simpler to identify particular trouble spots on your network, or sections of software use that are no longer of any particular benefit to your operations.
You can now start a period of reconciliation upon your system. You should compare the software programs that are actually employed on your network against the licensing and support contracts 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 spread within your system may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual installations, and there may be any number of rules that may be associated with the licensing agreements you have in place. It is therefore a necessity to automate the reconciliation stage, using one or more programs to apply intelligent rules to the process. These rules can be catered to the specific needs of your company
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Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM
Many of the fundamental principles 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 principles and best practices that should be adopted for successful control of IT operations.
This library is a dynamic publication and is often updated with new ideas and policies that cater to the constantly changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be fluid enough to comply with the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst matching the changing needs of the company within which it is actively utilised. This is an essential requirement of successful SAM
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has published 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 utilised 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 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 creating a software asset management strategy, whatever you decide to implement needs to help your business rather than hinder it.
Designing a full and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own company may actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible enough to adapt and mature as your organisation does, and it should allow for updates to your daily activities, no matter how small or underlying they might be. This really is the key to a successful SAM strategy.
Conclusion
It is easy to see that as the scope and importance of IT systems within your company grow, so does the need for correct and effective 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 critical to the modern business.
As with other branches of any business, a number of different strategies should be considered and utilised in order to ensure the efficient running of day to day tasks. software asset management should not be the only tactic used to manage computing assets within your organisation, but rather one of a number of complimentary policies used to control the system as a whole.
So if you think that your business is really suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and control over its IT network, or that the possible advantages described in this article could manufacture a crucial market edge over your competitors, then it would be worth researching how software asset management could be employed within your organisation. There may be no time to lose.
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