Introduction
The extent 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 tasks and the assets within a business.
As technology becomes more widespread within a company and takes a more prominent vital within the critical functions of that organisation, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is applied to this technology.
Technology have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as essential elements of any organisation. As such, they receive greater budgets but must also be able to deal with a larger amount of responsibility.
But once you have spent a substantial amount of your budget on developing an IT network and seen the needs of your business change, how do you make sure that the IT you are using can keep up with demand?
This is the function by IT management software and systems.
Every organisation and every environment will have different needs and will present different issues. To satisfy these requirements there are a range of different solutions and approaches that can be used to help manage the IT infrastructure of your organisation.
Software Asset Management
SAM ( Software Asset Management) is designed to do exactly what it says on the tin - monitoring and controlling the deployment and usage of software packages within your company. 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 a tool for technicians installing software across a large company network, but can be a critical tool to help improve performance at multiple levels of a organisation. The aims of SAM include controlling of the IT infrastructure within a organisation, negating legal threats associated with incorrect software license usage and sustaining 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 seen as an unnecessary evil due to the abstract nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the financial case for using 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 highlighted however, the use of software asset management becomes self evident.
Financial benefits are still the most driving commercial factor when deciding to employ SAM technology within an organisation. Every business 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 amount 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 companies 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 software asset management really delivers an advantage.
SAM is not restricted to simply the IT department of your business either. As a management operation it will often involve many of the departments within a organisation, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as efficiently as possible.
The forward thinking technology services company delivering Centennial Discovery discovered the need for good SAM services a very long time ago.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having seen the many advantages of utilising 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 challenges and advantages, so any plan you will use needs to be tailored to these specific characteristics.
There are more than simply monetary benefits that can be gained through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across a companies IT network. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that employees have the newest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication within 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.
Cost Savings
As discussed before, perhaps the most convincing reason to utilise software asset management within your business is the potential financial 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 improve this profitability by reducing expenses is one that should be evaluated.
The most immediate way that software asset management can help to reduce 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 very 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 benefit to the running of your company you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT system. Paying for unneeded software licenses and maintenance agreements means that more finance can be spent on the critical parts of your IT infrastructure. Focusing your finances on these critical components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.
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 ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become incredibly unpredictable.
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 original software licenses may have expired. Without the correct security 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 network is clear. When anything goes wrong with the hardware or software platform behind your critical processes, how do you recover 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 inhibit your responsiveness to unforeseen events. The cost of recovery will forever outweigh the cost of prevention when it comes to data systems.
Even during a stagnating and unknown economy Centennial distributors still find that SAM is a technology in demand from companies.
Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are numerous potential advantages to using a good SAM strategy within your business, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to determine which elements 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.
The discovery process can be viewed as three primary phases that have to be undertaken to really develop an informative picture of the usage of IT assets within your company.
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 aid your IT department to maintain baselines regarding your IT network. This inventory process must be performed before carrying on with discovery.
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 computing characteristics.
Capture
The next step in the discovery cycle is the capture of the software license entitlements that cover the software programs identified in the inventory. The capture stage should collect entitlements regarding all of the software that exists on your system, even if the software is not currently used.
The factor of human error can be mitigated 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 information. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from IT vendors.
Identification & Validation
The next step is to match up the software inventory to the repository of licensing information that were built in the last two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original invoices 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 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 process. You want to be as informed as possible in these circumstances.
After these steps have been undertaken you will have built an incredibly rich image of how your IT network 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 usage that are no longer of any practical benefit to your operations. This detailed map can be used for future strategies as well.
You can now start a period of reconciliation upon your system. You should compare the software programs that are actually used on your network 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 spread within your system 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 a necessity to automate the reconciliation stage, utilising one or more programs to apply intelligent rules to the process.
If you are able to find a particular Centennial reseller knowledgeable about your particular business you will reap the benefits, one such specialist is Softcat, click here to view their website.
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 control of IT operations. The ITIL can be found online.
This library is a changing publication and is often updated with new concepts and policies that reflect the constantly changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be fluid enough to comply with the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst matching the changing requirements of the company within which it is actively utilised.
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies specifically to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally comprehensive set of guidelines that are built to ensure that SAM is utilised in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”.
The ISO standard should really be followed when planning a SAM strategy for your own company, although the level of detail included within can quickly become a daunting challenge. It is vital to remember that no matter what recommendations you follow when designing a SAM strategy, whatever plan you decide to implement must help your organisation rather than hinder it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them to your company.
Designing a full and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own organisation might actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible to adapt and mature as your organisation 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 software asset management strategy.
Conclusion
It is easy to see that as the extent and importance of IT systems within your company grow, so does the need for good and efficient monitoring of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT department was a bonus that would occasionally forward the business. Computer networks are now critical to the modern business.
As with other parts of any organisation, a number of separate strategies should be evaluated and used in order to ensure the smooth running of daily tasks. software asset management should not be the only tool used to manage computing resources within your organisation, but rather one of a number of complimentary techniques used to control the system as a unit.
So if you feel that your company is really suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and control over its IT network, or that the possible benefits outlined 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 business.
