Introduction
The degree to which computing has become a part of normal life and day-to-day business has forced a change in the way business approaches how they manage the money, the tasks and the assets within a business. Computing becoming an important factor in business.
As technology becomes more widely used within an organisation and takes a more prominent vital within the vital processes of that organisation, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is given to this technology. Technological assets that may have previously 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 critical parts of any business. As such, they receive grander budgets but must also be able to handle a larger amount of responsibility.
But once you have spent a substantial amount of your budget on developing your IT system and seen the circumstances of your organisation 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 business and every environment will have different specifications and will offer different challenges. To meet these requirements there are a number of different solutions and approaches that can be used to help control 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 maintaining the deployment and usage of software suites within your organisation. It is a business process rather than a distinct area of expertise and is becoming a more essential part of the modern business environment, particularly for corporations operating in the field of IT.
SAM is not simply a tool for technicians deploying software across a large company network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at multiple levels of a organisation. The aims of SAM include managing of the IT infrastructure within a company, negating legal risks 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.
The practice of software asset management is often seen as an unnecessary evil due to the intangible nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the commercial 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 remain the most motivating business factor when deciding to operate SAM software within a company. Every corporation needs to make profit after all and revenue is a very measurable figure. The financial benefits of SAM do certainly exist however.
An increasingly large percentage of a organisation’s IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a vital need to invest to correctly monitor this spending. As organisations grow and spread, their software requirements can change radically and hardware and programs can swiftly become outdated. There is no requirement to spend money to maintain the licenses on this outdated software, which is where SAM really delivers an advantage.
SAM is not limited to simply the technology of your company either. As a management cycle it will often involve many of the departments within a company, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as efficiently as possible.
The many benefits of software asset management make sure Centennial resellers retain a healthy product portfolio they can supply to clients.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having seen the multiple advantages of employing a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be right for your business? Every business is different and has its own unique set of challenges and advantages, so any plan you will undertake needs to be catered to these specific characteristics.
There are more than simply cost advantages 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 staff have the newest versions of software permitted under current licenses held, and communication inside 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.
Financial Savings
As discussed before, perhaps the most convincing reason to implement 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 plan that can help to improve this profitability by lowering expenses is one that should be evaluated.
The most immediate way that SAM can help to lower costs is by identifying 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. software asset management can be used to remove this unnecessary overhead.
By clearing these items of software that are no longer a benefit to the running of your organisation you are streamlining a large portion of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and maintenance agreements means that more finance can be spent on the vital parts of your IT system.
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 applications can be introduced into an uncontrolled IT environment 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 load their own software onto the network. Running a corporate IT system in this wild 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 vital processes, how do you manage the situation? Operating a complicated software system without the appropriate support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can critically inhibit your responsiveness to unforeseen events. The cost of recovery will always outweigh the cost of prevention when it comes to data systems.
To plan and carry out a successful software asset management campaign, keeping Centennial distributors top of your list of priorities will be a key factor.
Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are numerous potential advantages to employing a good software asset management strategy within your business, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to determine which elements of SAM you should implement first since some benefits will be achieved more quickly than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.
The discovery process can be seen as three primary stages that have to be performed to really develop an informative picture of the usage of software assets within your business.
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental function of the discovery cycle. It is important that an accurate audit of software assets within your business is created to help your IT managers to maintain baselines regarding your IT network. This inventory process must be performed before continuing with discovery.
Thankfully, this process can now be automated and even the grandest of networks can be investigated and analysed in a reasonably short period. Inventory must be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their physical location or technological characteristics.
Capture
The second step in the discovery cycle is the capture of the software license entitlements that manage the software assets identified in the inventory. The capture process should gather entitlements regarding all of the software that is installed on your system, even if the software is not currently in use. Without this information the inventory would be almost useless.
The element of human error can be mitigated by using automatic tools that are specifically created to build a library of license entitlements. Packages that are currently employed are incredibly efficient at capturing accurate data.
Identification & Validation
The next step is to match up your software audit to the repository of licensing information that were built in the previous two stages. Errors may have been made anywhere from the original invoices for software to the most recent audits undertaken on your IT system. These errors can now be rectified.
One critical factor in the validation stage is the ability to combine 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 cycle.
After these steps have been undertaken you will have built an incredibly detailed picture of how your IT network is serving software packages to its users. It will be a lot simpler to identify particular trouble areas on your network, or areas of software usage that are no longer of any practical benefit to your operations. This detailed picture can be used for future strategies as well.
You can now start a period of reconciliation on your system. You can compare the software packages that are actually employed on your network against the licensing and support contracts that you are paying for and close any gaps between the two.
The software distribution in your system may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual installations, and there may be any number of rules that may be involved with the licensing agreements you have in place. It is therefore a necessity to automate the reconciliation process, using one or more tools to apply smart rules to the process.
There is a growing respect in the computing world for Centennial vendors since they can provide critical services for a modern business.
Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management
Many of the fundamental 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 concepts and best practices that should be adopted for successful control of IT operations.
This library is a dynamic entity and is often updated with new concepts and techniques that reflect the constantly changing IT environment of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be fluid enough to follow the guidelines laid 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 specifically to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an incredibly comprehensive set of suggestions that are designed to ensure that SAM is used in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”. Standards of this kind play an essential role in achieving standardisation across an industry.
The ISO standard should certainly be adhered to when designing a SAM strategy for your own company, 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 plan you decide to employ needs to help your business rather than hinder it.
Creating a complete and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own company may actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible to change and mature as your business does, and it must allow for updates to your daily tasks, no matter how trivial or fundamental they might be.
Conclusion
It is easy to see that as the scope and importance of computer systems within your organisation grow, so does the requirement for correct and effective monitoring of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT department was a bonus that would occasionally forward the business. Computer systems are now critical to the modern organisation.
As with other parts of any company, a number of different plans should be considered and utilised in order to ensure the efficient running of daily activities. 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 techniques used to manage the system as a whole.
So if you think that your business is currently suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and management over its IT infrastructure, or that the possible benefits described in this article could provide a critical market edge over your competitors, then it would be worth investigating how SAM could be used within your business.