Introduction
The degree to which technology has become a part of everyday life and everyday commerce has seen a change in the way management approaches how they manage the finances, the processes and the systems within a business. Technology becoming an important factor in business.
As computing becomes more widespread within a company and takes a more prominent vital within the critical functions of that company, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is applied to this computing. Technological systems that may have once been overlooked are now important factors in the decision making process.
IT departments have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as essential parts of any company. As such, they are allocated greater budgets but must also be able to deal with a greater amount of work.
But after you have spent a large amount of your budget on developing an IT network and seen the requirements of your business change, how do you ensure that the IT you are using can keep up with demand?
This is the role undertaken by IT management software and procedures.
Every company and every environment will have different requirements and will offer unique issues. To satisfy these requirements there are a number of different technologies and approaches that can be used to help control the IT assets of your business.One of these options is discussed below.
Software Asset Management
Software Asset Management (SAM) is designed 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 discipline and is becoming a more essential part of the modern business environment, particularly for companies operating in the field of Information Technology.
SAM is not simply an aid for support staff deploying software across a large corporate network, but can be a critical tool to help improve performance at all levels of a business. The aims of SAM include managing 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 thought of as an unnecessary evil due to the abstract nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the financial case for employing a SAM solution is not always obvious until a full of the software infrastructure of a company has been carried out. Once existing problems have been highlighted however, the use of SAM becomes self evident.
Economic benefits are still the most motivating commercial factor when deciding to use software asset management software 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 organisation’s IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a critical need to invest to correctly manage this spending. As businesses grow and spread, their software needs can change radically and hardware and software can swiftly 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 advantage.
software asset management is not limited to simply the technology of your organisation either. As a management process it will often involve many of the branches within a company, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as cost-effectively as possible.
Ironically, IT service firms themselves, such as the service vendor Centennial demand equally as much IT management as their clients.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having seen the various benefits of employing a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be appropriate for your organisation? Each company is different and has its own separate set of challenges and advantages, so any strategy you will use needs to be catered to these specific traits. The benefits of SAM do cover the fundamental aspects of software management.
There are more than just cost benefits that can be achieved through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across a companies IT network. Productivity can be hugely boosted by ensuring that employees have the latest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication within the business is helped when support staff know exactly what is in use on every computer under their control.
Cost Savings
As discussed previously, perhaps the most convincing reason to utilise SAM within your company is the potential cost savings that can be achieved. The profitability of your company is always going to be the bottom line so any strategy that can help to increase this profitability by descreasing expenses is one that should be evaluated. Money can be saved in a number of ways.
The most immediate way that SAM can help to lower costs is by targeting any software running on your corporate IT system 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 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 system. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and maintenance contracts means that more finance can be spent on the vital parts of your IT infrastructure.
Mitigate Risk Factors
A surprising percentage 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 network is ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become incredibly unpredictable.
Unlicensed software programs can be introduced into an unmonitored IT system in a number of ways. Software may have been included when your IT hardware was originally purchased although the original 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 wild way will almost certainly lead to trouble.
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 handle the situation? Running a complicated 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.
There are a number of adaptable Centennial distributors specialising in SAM who can create the ideal solution for your company.
Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are many potential advantages to utilising a good software asset management strategy within your business, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to determine which branches of software asset management you should deploy 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 primary phases that have to be performed to really build an accurate picture of the usage of software assets within your business. These are:
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental stage of the discovery process. It is important that an accurate inventory of software 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 investigated and analysed in a relatively short period. Inventory should be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their geographical location or technological characteristics.
Capture
The next step in the discovery process involves the capture of the software license entitlements that manage the software assets discovered in the inventory. The capture stage should collect entitlements regarding all of the software that exists on your system, even when the software is not currently used. Without this step the inventory may be almost useless.
The factor 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 employed are incredibly efficient at capturing accurate information.
Identification & Validation
The next process is to match up the software inventory to the repository of licensing data that were built in the last two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original invoices for software to the latest audits undertaken on your IT system.
One crucial factor in the validation stage is the ability to combine the license entitlements on your system to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital if any disputes with software resellers arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle.
Once these steps have been undertaken you will have created an incredibly rich image of how your IT system is serving software packages to its users. It will be a lot simpler to identify particular trouble areas on your system, or sections of software usage that are no longer of any practical benefit to your activites.
You can now start a period of reconciliation upon your network. You can compare the software programs that are actually used on your system against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and bridge any gaps between the two. This is when the financial benefits of SAM start to take effect.
The software spread in your system may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual installations, and there are any number of rules that may be associated with the licensing contracts you have in place. It is therefore a necessity to automate the reconciliation stage, utilising one or more tools to apply intelligent 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 modern SAM strategy are based upon the concepts laid out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library defines a number of concepts and best practices that should be adopted for successful control of IT functions. The ITIL can be found online.
This library is a changing publication and is often updated with new ideas and techniques that reflect the ever changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good software asset management strategy should be flexible enough to comply with the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst matching the changing needs of the business 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 incredibly comprehensive set of guidelines that are built to ensure that software asset management is used in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”. Standards of this kind play an important role in achieving standardisation across an industry.
The ISO standard should certainly be followed when planning a software asset management 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 recommendations you follow when creating a software asset management strategy, whatever plan you decide to implement must aid your business rather than stifle it.
Creating a complete 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 should allow for updates to your daily tasks, no matter how small or fundamental they might be.
Conclusion
It is easy to see that as the extent and importance of IT systems within your company grow, so does the need for correct and effective management of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT branch was a bonus that would sometimes forward the business. Computer systems are now critical 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 strategies should be evaluated and utilised in order to ensure the smooth running of day to day tasks. SAM should not be the only tool used to manage technological assets within your organisation, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary techniques used to manage the system as a unit. software asset management can go a long way toward helping your business but should be supported by other techniques.
So if you think that your company is really suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and control over its IT network, or that the potential benefits described in this article could manufacture a critical market edge over your competitors, then it would be worth researching how SAM could be used within your organisation. There may be no time to lose.