Introduction
The degree to which computing 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 money, the processes and the systems within a business. Computing becoming an important factor in business.
As computing becomes more widespread within an organisation and takes a more prominent vital within the vital functions of that organisation, it is important to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is applied to this technology. Technological assets that may have once been ignored are now important factors in the decision making process.
Technology have come a long way during the past few years and are now seen as essential parts of any business. As such, they are allocated grander budgets but must also be able to deal with a greater amount of responsibility.
But once you have spent a large amount of money on developing your IT infrastructure and seen the circumstances of your company change, how do you make sure that the systems you are using can keep up with demand? Moreover, how can you achieve this without spending a large amount of money?
This is the role undertaken by IT management software and systems.
Every company and every situation will have different needs and will offer unique challenges. To meet these requirements there are a range of different technologies and approaches that can be implemented to help control the IT assets of your organisation.
Software Asset Management
SAM ( Software Asset Management) is built to do exactly what it says on the tin - monitoring and maintaining the deployment and usage of software packages within your organisation. It is a business process rather than a distinct skill and is becoming a more critical part of the modern business environment, particularly for corporations operating in the field of IT.
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 all levels of a business. The aims 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.
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 going with a SAM solution is not always obvious until a complete of the software infrastructure of a company has been done. Once existing problems have been identified however, the use of SAM becomes self evident.
Economic benefits remain the most driving commercial factor when choosing to employ software asset management software within a company. Every corporation needs to make money after all and profitability is a very measurable metric.
An increasingly large percentage of a company’s IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a real need to invest to correctly handle this spending. As organisations 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 edge.
SAM is not restricted to simply the IT department of your company either. As a management operation it will often involve 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.
Software asset management can easily be achieved within your business through a feasible Centennial Discovery solution that is tailored to your requirements.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the many benefits of employing a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your company? Every business is different and has its own unique set of challenges and benefits, so any strategy you will use 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 just monetary benefits that can be made through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across a companies IT network. Productivity can be hugely boosted by ensuring that staff 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 deployed on every computer under their control.
Financial Savings
As discussed before, perhaps the most persuading reason to utilise software asset management within your company is the potential cost 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 increase this profitability by reducing 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 targeting any software running on your corporate network that is no longer needed. The software might not be being used any longer, 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 benefit to the running of your business you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT network. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and maintenance agreements means that more money can be spent on the vital sections of your IT infrastructure.
Mitigate Risk Factors
A surprising amount of software that is actively used in the corporate environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Having 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 uncontrolled IT environment in a number of ways. Software may have been bundled when your IT hardware was first bought although the original software licenses may have expired. Without the correct access policies in place, users may also be able to load their own software onto the system.
The risk of running unlicensed software on your system is clear. When something goes wrong with the hardware or software platform behind your vital processes, how do you recover 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 unpredictable events.
SAM is a leading product that is available from all up to date Centennial distributors selling IT products to a wide range of industries.
Implementing SAM in your Organisation
As previously discussed, there are many potential benefits to using a good SAM strategy within your organisation, both financial and otherwise. It is therefore important to consider which parts of SAM you should implement 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 seen as three primary areas that have to be undertaken to truly develop an accurate picture of the usage of software assets within your business. These are:
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental stage of the discovery cycle. It is crucial that an accurate inventory of IT assets within your business is created to aid your IT department to maintain baselines for your IT system.
Fortunately, this process can now be automated and even the largest of networks can be investigated and analysed in a reasonably short period of time. Inventory must be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their geographical location or computing characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.
Capture
The next step in the discovery process involves the capture of the license entitlements that cover the software assets identified in the inventory. The capture process should gather entitlements for all of the software that exists on your network, even when the software is not currently used.
The element of human error can be mitigated by using automated tools that are specifically created to build a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently employed are very efficient at gathering accurate information. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from software vendors.
Identification & Validation
The next process is to match up your software audit to the repository of licensing data that were created in the previous two stages. Errors may have been made anywhere from the original invoices for software to the most recent audits performed on your IT network. These errors can now be rectified.
One crucial factor in the validation stage is the ability to combine the license entitlements within your network to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential if any disputes with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery process.
After these three steps have been undertaken you will have created 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 network, or areas of software use that are no longer of any particular benefit to your activites. This detailed picture can be used for future reference as well.
You can now commence a period of reconciliation on your network. You can compare the software packages that are actually installed 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 involved 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 smart rules to the process.
The use SAM within your business is a very specific cycle which should be strategised by a capable Centennial reseller as they should have extra information.
Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management
Many of the fundamental principles of a successful 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 adopted for successful control of IT functions. The ITIL can be found online.
This library is a dynamic entity and is often updated with new concepts and techniques that cater to the ever changing IT environment of modern business. A good software asset management strategy should be fluid enough to comply with the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing needs of the company within which it is actively utilised. This is an essential requirement of effective software asset management
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has published a standard that applies directly to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an incredibly comprehensive collection of guidelines 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 important part in achieving standardisation across an industry.
The ISO standard should really be followed when designing a software asset management strategy for your own organisation, although the level of detail covered within can quickly become a daunting prospect. It is vital to remember that no matter what recommendations you follow when planning a SAM strategy, whatever plan you decide to employ needs to help your business rather than hinder it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them to your organisation.
Creating a complete and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own company may actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible to adapt and grow as your organisation does, and it should allow for modifications to your daily activities, no matter how trivial or fundamental they might be. This really is the key to a successful SAM plan.
Conclusion
It is clear to see that as the scope and importance of IT systems within your organisation grow, so does the need for good and effective monitoring of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT department was a bonus that would occasionally progress the business. Computer systems are now vital to the modern organisation.
As with other parts of any business, a number of separate strategies should be considered and used in order to ensure the smooth running of daily activities. 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 manage the system as a unit.
So if you feel that your organisation is really suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and management over its IT infrastructure, or that the possible benefits described in this article could provide a critical market advantage over your competitors, then it would be worth researching how SAM could be employed within your organisation. There may be no time to lose.