Introduction
The extent 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 an organisation.
As computing becomes more widely used within an organisation and takes a more prominent role within the vital functions of that business, it is important to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is given to this technology.
IT departments have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as vital parts of any organisation. As such, they receive greater budgets but must also be able to manage a greater amount of responsibility. There is an eternal race between corporate demands and IT capabilities.
But after you have spent a large amount of your budget on developing your IT network and seen the needs of your company 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 business and every situation will have different specifications and will create unique issues. To satisfy these requirements there are a range of different technologies and approaches that can be implemented to help manage the IT network of your organisation.
Software Asset Management
Software Asset Management (SAM) is built to do exactly what it says on the tin – monitoring and controlling the deployment and usage of software suites within your business. It is a business process rather than a distinct discipline and is becoming a more essential part of the modern business environment, particularly for businesses 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 an aid for support staff rolling out software across a large corporate network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at multiple levels of a company. The goals of SAM include managing of the IT infrastructure within a organisation, 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 seen as an unnecessary evil due to the abstract nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the commercial case for going with a SAM solution is not always obvious until a full of the software infrastructure of a company has been done.
Financial benefits remain the most driving commercial factor when choosing to use SAM technology within an organisation. Every business needs to make profit after all and profitability is a very measurable figure.
An increasingly large percentage of a organisation’s IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a real need to invest to correctly handle this spending. As companies grow and spread, their software requirements can change greatly and hardware and software 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 advantage.
SAM is not restricted to simply the technology of your business either. As a management process it will often include many of the departments within a company, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as cost-effectively as possible.
One highly recommend software asset management package say Centennial resellers must be SAM.Suite; a modern solution to modern IT licensing challenges.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the various benefits of employing a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be right for your business? Each company is different and has its own separate set of problems and advantages, so any strategy you will use needs to be catered to these specific characteristics. The benefits of software asset management do cover the fundamental aspects of IT management.
There are more than simply cost benefits that can be achieved through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across a companies IT system. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that users have the newest editions of software permitted under current licenses held, and communication within the corporation is helped when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every computer under their control.
Cost Savings
As discussed previously, 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 strategy that can help to improve this profitability by reducing expenses 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 identifying any applications 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 operation of your company you are streamlining a large portion of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and support and maintenance contracts means that more money can be spent on the vital sections of your IT system. Focusing your finances on these vital components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.
Mitigate Risk Factors
A surprising amount of software that is actively used in the business environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Having any amount of unmonitored software on your IT network is not advised, because when left unchecked it can become very unpredictable.
Rogue software applications can be introduced into an uncontrolled IT environment in a number of ways. Software may have been included 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.
The danger of running unlicensed software on your network is clear. When something goes wrong with the hardware or software platform supporting your vital processes, how do you handle the situation? Running a complex software system without the appropriate support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can critically inhibit your responsiveness to unpredictable events. The cost of recovery will always outweigh the cost of prevention when it comes to IT systems.
Software asset management is a leading product that is available from all new Centennial distributors providing IT products to a wide range of markets.
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 organisation, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to determine which parts of SAM you should deploy first since certain benefits will be realised more quickly than others.
This discovery process can be seen as three basic stages that have to be performed to truly develop an accurate picture of the usage of software assets within your company.
Inventory
Inventory is the most basic stage of the discovery cycle. It is crucial that an accurate audit of software assets within your organisation is created to help your IT department to maintain baselines regarding your IT system.
Fortunately, this process can now be made automatic and even the largest of networks can be investigated and analysed in a relatively short period of time. Inventory should be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their geographical location or computing characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.
Capture
The second step in the discovery cycle involves the capture of the license entitlements that concern the software assets identified in the inventory. The capture process should collect entitlements regarding all of the software that exists on your network, even if the software is not currently used.
The element of human error can be avoided by using automatic tools that are specifically designed to build a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently available are very efficient at gathering accurate data.
Identification & Validation
The next process is to match up your software inventory to the repository of licensing information 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.
One crucial factor in the validation stage is the ability to link the license entitlements on your network to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital if any arguments with software resellers arise as a consequence of the discovery process.
Once these three steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly detailed picture of how your IT system is delivering software packages to its users. It will be much easier to identify particular trouble spots on your system, or sections of software usage that are no longer of any practical benefit to your activites. This detailed map can be used for future reference as well.
You can now start a period of reconciliation on your network. You can compare the software packages that are actually used on your network against the licensing and support entitlements 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 in your system may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual instances, and there may be 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 process, using one or more tools to apply intelligent rules to the process. These rules can be catered to the specific needs of your business
The use software asset management within your business is a very specific process which should be strategised by a capable Centennial reseller who should have more information.
Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM
Many of the fundamental practices of a successful SAM strategy are based upon the concepts laid out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library defines a number of principles and best practices that should be followed for successful management of IT functions.
This library is a dynamic entity and is often updated with new concepts and techniques that reflect the ever changing IT environment of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be fluid enough to follow the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst matching the changing requirements of the business within which it is actively utilised.
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has published a standard that applies specifically to software asset management practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an incredibly comprehensive set of guidelines that are built to ensure that SAM is utilised 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 designing a software asset management strategy for your own organisation, 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 planning a software asset management strategy, whatever you decide to employ needs to aid your organisation rather than hinder it.
Creating a complete and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own business might actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible enough to change and grow as your business does, and it should allow for modifications to your daily tasks, no matter how small or fundamental they might be.
Conclusion
It is clear to see that as the scope and importance of computer systems within your organisation grow, so does the requirement for correct and effective management of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT branch was a luxury that would occasionally progress the business. Computer networks are now critical to the modern organisation. Critical systems need to be controlled to an appropriate standard.
As with other parts of any company, 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 tactic used to manage technological assets within your company, but rather one of a number of complimentary techniques used to control the system as a whole. software asset management can go a long way toward helping your business but should be helped by other strategies.
So if you feel that your organisation is really suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and control over its IT infrastructure, or that the potential advantages outlined in this article could manufacture a critical market edge over your competitors, then it would be worth investigating how SAM could be employed within your organisation.