Introduction
The degree to which technology 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 finances, the tasks and the systems within a business.
As technology becomes more widely used within a business and takes a more prominent vital within the vital functions of that company, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is applied to this computing.
IT departments have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as essential elements of any organisation. As such, they are allocated greater budgets but must also be able to deal with a larger amount of responsibility.
But after you have spent a large amount of money on developing an IT system and seen the needs of your company change, how do you ensure that the systems you are using can keep up with demand?
This is the role undertaken by IT management software and systems.
Every company and every situation will have different needs and will create unique challenges. To satisfy these needs there are a range of different technologies and approaches that can be used to help control the IT assets of your business.
Software Asset Management
Software Asset Management (SAM) is designed to do exactly what it says on the tin – monitoring and controlling 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 critical part of the modern corporate environment, particularly for corporations operating in the field of IT.
SAM is not simply an aid for support staff rolling out software across a large company network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at multiple levels of a business. The goals of SAM include monitoring expenses 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.
The practice of software asset management is often thought of as an unnecessary evil due to the intangible nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the financial case for using a SAM solution is not always obvious until a complete of the software infrastructure of a company has been done.
Economic benefits are still the most motivating business factor when choosing to employ software asset management technology within a company. Every business needs to make profit after all and profitability is a very measurable figure. The financial benefits of software asset management do certainly exist however.
An increasingly large proportion of a company’s IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a vital need to invest to correctly manage this spending. As businesses expand and diversify, their software requirements can change radically and equipment and programs can quickly become outdated. There is no requirement to spend money to maintain the licenses on this outdated software, which is where SAM really delivers an edge.
SAM is not restricted to simply the technology of your company either. As a management cycle it will often involve many of the branches within a company, including Finance Human Resources, to make sure that it runs as efficiently as possible. It is a process that does not need to follow established corporate levels.
SAM can easily be achieved within your organisation through a feasible companysolution that is tailored to your specific needs.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the multiple benefits of deploying a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be right for your business? Every business is different and has its own separate set of challenges and benefits, so any plan you will undertake needs to be catered to these specific traits. The benefits of software asset management do cover the basic aspects of software management.
There are more than simply financial advantages that can be gained through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across a businesses IT network. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that users have the newest editions of software permitted under current licenses held, and communication inside the corporation is helped when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every computer under their control. The benefits of SAM are not confined to the technological hardware of your business.
Cost Savings
As discussed before, perhaps the most persuading reason to utilise SAM within your company is the potential financial savings that can be achieved. The profitability of your company is always going to be the bottom line so any system that can help to increase this profitability by lowering expenses is one that should be evaluated. Money can be saved in a number of ways.
The most immediate way that software asset management can help to reduce costs is by targeting any software running on your corporate IT system 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 clearing these items of software that are no longer a help to the running of your company you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT system. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and support and maintenance agreements means that more finance can be spent on the critical parts of your IT system.
Mitigate Risk Factors
A surprising amount of software that is currently used in the corporate environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Having any amount of unmonitored software on your IT network is ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become very unpredictable.
Rogue software programs can be introduced into an unmonitored 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 security 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 something goes wrong with the hardware or software platform supporting your critical processes, how do you handle the situation? Operating a complex software system without the appropriate 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 always outweigh the cost of prevention when it comes to data systems.
Some of the most successful Centennial distributors throughout modern times have viewed SAM as key part of their portfolio.
Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are numerous potential benefits to employing a good SAM strategy within your business, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to consider which branches of SAM you should implement first since some benefits will be achieved more quickly than others.
This discovery process can be viewed as three basic areas that have to be performed to truly build an accurate picture of the deployment of software assets within your business. These are:
Inventory
Inventory is the most basic function of the discovery process. It is important that an accurate inventory of IT assets within your business is created to aid your IT department to maintain baselines regarding your IT system.
Fortunately, this process can now be made automatic and even the grandest of infrastructures can be investigated and analysed in a relatively short period of time. Inventory should be able to identify your software assets regardless of their physical location or computing characteristics.
Capture
The second step in the discovery cycle is the capture of the software license entitlements that cover the software programs identified in the inventory. The capture process should collect entitlements regarding all of the software that is installed on your system, even when the software is not currently used. Without this step the inventory would be almost useless.
The element of human error can be mitigated by using automated tools that are specifically created to build 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 IT vendors.
Identification & Validation
The next process is to match up the software audit to the repository of licensing information that were created in the last two stages. Errors may have been made anywhere from the original paperwork for software to the most recent audits performed on your IT network. These errors can now be rectified.
One critical factor in the validation stage is the ability to combine the license entitlements on your system to your company’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital if any disputes with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery process.
Once these steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly rich picture of how your IT system is serving software packages to its users. It will be a lot easier to identify any trouble areas on your network, or areas of software usage that are no longer of any particular benefit to your activites.
You can now start a period of reconciliation on your system. You should compare the software programs that are actually employed on your system against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and bridge any gaps between the two.
The software distribution within your system may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual installations, and there are any number of restrictions that may be associated with the licensing agreements you have in place. It is therefore a necessity 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 organisation.
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Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM
Many of the basic practices of a modern software asset management strategy are based upon the principles laid out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library details a number of principles and best practices that should be followed for successful control of IT operations.
This library is a changing entity 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 flexible enough to comply with the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing requirements 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 collection of guidelines 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 role in realising standardisation across an industry.
The ISO standard should really be adhered to when planning a software asset management strategy for your own organisation, although the level of detail included within can easily become a daunting challenge. It is important to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when creating a SAM strategy, whatever plan you decide to employ must aid your business rather than stifle it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them within your organisation.
Designing a full and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own business might actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible enough 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.
Conclusion
It is clear to see that as the extent and importance of computer systems within your company grow, so does the requirement for correct and efficient management of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT branch was a bonus that would occasionally forward the business. Computer systems are now vital to the modern company. Critical systems need to be controlled to an appropriate standard.
As with other parts of any organisation, a number of separate strategies should be considered and used in order to ensure the efficient running of daily activities. SAM should not be the only tool used to manage computing resources within your organisation, but rather one of a number of complimentary policies used to control the system as a unit.
So if you think that your company is currently suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and control over its IT network, or that the potential advantages outlined in this article could manufacture a crucial market edge over your competitors, then it would be well worth investigating how SAM could be used within your organisation.