Introduction
The extent to which technology has become a part of normal life and day-to-day business has forced a change in the way management approaches how they manage the finances, the tasks and the assets within a business.
As technology becomes more widely used within a company and takes a more prominent vital within the vital functions of that business, it is important to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is applied to this technology. Technological systems that may have previously been overlooked are now key in the decision making process.
IT departments have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as essential elements of any business. As such, they receive greater budgets but must also be able to handle a larger amount of responsibility. There is an eternal race between corporate needs and computing capabilities.
But after you have spent a substantial amount of your budget on developing your IT network and seen the circumstances of your company change, how do you ensure that the IT you are using can keep up with demand?
This is the function by IT management software and procedures.
Every organisation and every environment will have different specifications and will present unique issues. To meet these needs there are a range 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 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 corporate environment, particularly for businesses operating in the field of IT.
SAM is not simply a tool for technicians rolling out software across a large corporate network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at many levels of a organisation. The goals of SAM include controlling 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. As IT usage in a business grows, so do the potential benefits of SAM.
The practice of software asset management is often viewed as an unnecessary evil due to the abstract 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 full of the software infrastructure of a company has been carried out.
Financial benefits remain the most motivating business factor when choosing to operate software asset management technology within a company. Every corporation needs to make money 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 business’ IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a vital need to invest to correctly handle this spending. As businesses grow and spread, their software requirements can change radically and hardware and software can swiftly become out of date. 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 IT department of your business either. As a management process it will often include many of the departments within a organisation, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as efficiently as possible. It is a process that does not need to follow standard.
Ironically, IT service firms themselves, such as the service vendor Centennial require equally as much IT management as their clients.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the multiple advantages of employing a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be right for your organisation? Each company is different and has its own unique set of challenges and advantages, so any strategy you will undertake needs to be catered to these specific characteristics.
There are more than just financial benefits that can be made through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across a businesses IT network. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that users have the latest versions of software available under current licenses held, and communication inside the corporation is aided when support staff know exactly what is in use on every computer under their control.
Financial Savings
As discussed previously, perhaps the most persuading reason to utilise 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 strategy that can help to improve this profitability by descreasing expenses is one that should be evaluated.
The most direct way that software asset management can help to lower costs is by identifying any software running on your corporate network that is no longer necessary. 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. software asset management can be used to remove this unnecessary overhead.
By removing these items of software that are no longer a benefit to the running of your business you are streamlining a large portion of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unneeded software licenses and support and maintenance contracts means that more finance can be spent on the essential sections of your IT system. Focusing your finances on these critical components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.
Mitigate Risk Factors
A surprising percentage of software that is currently used in the business 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 very unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly frustrating factor for network managers.
Unlicensed software applications can be introduced into an uncontrolled IT system in a number of ways. Software may have been included when your IT hardware was originally purchased although the initial 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 anything goes wrong with the hardware or software platform supporting your critical 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 financial case for working alongside a part-time buying solutions CITHS during your IT audit process has never been clearer.
Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are many potential benefits to employing a good software asset management strategy within your organisation, both monetary and otherwise. It is therefore important to determine which parts of software asset management you should deploy first since certain benefits will be achieved more speedily than others.
The discovery process can be viewed as three basic phases that have to be undertaken to really build an informative picture of the deployment of software assets within your company.
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental stage of the discovery process. It is crucial that an accurate audit of IT assets within your organisation is created to help your IT managers to maintain baselines regarding your IT system.
Thankfully, this process can now be made automatic and even the grandest of infrastructures can be searched and analysed in a reasonably short period of time. Inventory must be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their physical location or computing characteristics.
Capture
The next step in the discovery process involves the capture of the license entitlements that concern the software assets discovered in the inventory. The capture process should collect entitlements for all of the software that is installed on your network, even when the software is not currently in use. Without this information the inventory would be almost useless.
The factor of human error can be avoided by using automated 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 third step is to match up the software audit to the repository of licensing data 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 network. These errors can now be rectified.
One critical factor in the validation step is the ability to combine the license entitlements within your system to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital if any arguments with software resellers arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle.
After these three steps have been undertaken you will have created an incredibly detailed image of how your IT system is serving software assets to its users. It will be much simpler to identify particular trouble areas on your network, or areas of software usage that are no longer of any particular benefit to your activites.
You can now commence a period of reconciliation on your system. You should compare the software packages that are actually used on your network against the licensing and support contracts that you are paying for and close any divides between the two. This is when the financial benefits of software asset management start to take effect.
The software distribution within your network may include many hundreds or even 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, utilising one or more programs to apply intelligent rules to the process. These rules can be catered to the specific needs of your business
If you are able to locate a certain 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 SAM
Many of the fundamental 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 ideas 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 ideas and techniques that reflect the constantly changing IT environment of modern business. A good software asset management strategy should be fluid enough to follow the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing needs of the business within which it is actively utilised.
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has published a standard that applies directly to software asset management practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally comprehensive collection of suggestions that are designed to ensure that software asset management is utilised in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”.
The ISO standard should really be followed when planning a SAM strategy for your own business, although the level of detail covered within can easily become a daunting challenge. It is important to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when planning a software asset management strategy, whatever plan you decide to implement needs to help your business rather than hinder it.
Designing a complete and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own business might actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible to change and grow as your business does, and it should allow for updates to your daily tasks, no matter how trivial or fundamental they might be.
Conclusion
It is clear to see that as the extent and importance of computer systems within your organisation grow, so does the need for good and efficient monitoring of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT branch was a luxury that would occasionally forward the business. Computer networks are now vital to the modern company.
As with other branches of any company, a number of separate strategies should be considered and utilised in order to ensure the efficient running of daily tasks. SAM should not be the only tactic used to manage technological resources within your company, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary policies used to manage the system as a whole. SAM can go a long way toward aiding your company but should be helped by other strategies.
So if you feel that your organisation is currently suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and control over its IT network, or that the possible advantages described in this article could provide a critical market edge over your competitors, then it would be well worth researching how software asset management could be used within your organisation. There might be no time to lose.