Introduction
The extent to which technology has become a part of everyday life and day-to-day commerce has prompted a change in the way management approaches how they manage the finances, the processes and the systems within an organisation. Computing becoming an important factor in business.
As technology becomes more widespread within an organisation and takes a more prominent vital within the critical functions of that company, it is important to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is applied to this technology. Technological assets that may have previously been overlooked are now important elements in the decision making process.
Technology have come a long way during the past few years and are now seen as critical elements of any company. As such, they receive greater budgets but must also be able to handle a greater amount of work. There is an eternal race between corporate needs and IT capabilities.
But once you have spent a substantial amount of money on developing your IT infrastructure and seen the circumstances of your organisation change, how do you make sure that the technology you are using can keep up with demand?
This is the function by IT management software and systems.
Every organisation and every environment will have different requirements and will offer different challenges. To satisfy these needs there are a number of different technologies and approaches that can be implemented to help control the IT infrastructure of your company.
Software Asset Management
Software Asset Management (SAM) is built to do exactly what it says on the tin - monitoring and managing the deployment and usage of software programs 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 commercial environment, particularly for companies 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 a program for support staff deploying software across a large company network, but can be a critical tool to help improve performance at many levels of a company. The aims of SAM include controlling of the IT infrastructure within a organisation, negating legal risks 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. As IT usage in a company 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 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 SAM becomes self evident.
Economic benefits remain the most motivating business factor when deciding to use software asset management technology within an organisation. Every company 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 amount of a organisation’s IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a critical need to invest to correctly monitor this spending. As companies expand and spread, their software requirements can change radically and equipment and software can swiftly become outdated. There is no need to spend money to maintain the licenses on this outdated software, which is where SAM really delivers an edge.
SAM is not limited to simply the IT department of your company either. As a management process 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.
Software asset management can easily be achieved within your business through a feasible Centennial Discovery package that is tailored to your requirements.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having seen the many advantages of employing a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your organisation? Each company is different and has its own separate set of challenges and advantages, so any strategy you will use needs to be tailored to these specific traits. The benefits of software asset management do cover the fundamental aspects of IT management.
There are more than simply financial advantages that can be made through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across a businesses IT system. Productivity can be hugely boosted by ensuring that staff have the newest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication inside the company is aided when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every workstation 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 utilise software asset management within your company is the potential cost savings that can be made. The profitability of your business is always going to be the bottom line so any plan that can help to improve this profitability by descreasing expenses is one that should be evaluated.
The most immediate way that software asset management can help to lower costs is by identifying any applications running on your corporate network that is no longer needed. 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. SAM can help to remove this unnecessary overhead.
By removing these items of software that are no longer a help to the running of your business you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT system. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and support and maintenance contracts means that more finance can be spent on the critical parts of your IT infrastructure.
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 ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become incredibly unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly frustrating factor for network managers.
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 originally purchased although the original software licenses may have expired. Without the correct access policies in place, users may also be able to install 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 system is clear. When anything goes wrong with the hardware or software platform supporting your critical processes, how do you handle the situation? Operating a complicated software system without the correct 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 forever outweigh the cost of mitigation when it comes to data systems.
Of the many products and services available from any national Centennial distributor software asset management is just one solution that can be used.
Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are many potential advantages to employing a good software asset management strategy within your company, both monetary and otherwise. It is therefore important to consider which parts of software asset management you should deploy first since some benefits will be realised more quickly than others.
The discovery process can be seen as three primary stages that have to be undertaken to really develop an informative picture of the usage of IT assets within your business.
Inventory
Inventory is the most basic stage of the discovery cycle. It is vital that an accurate audit of IT assets within your business is created to aid your IT department to maintain baselines regarding your IT network.
Thankfully, this process can now be made automatic and even the grandest of networks can be investigated and analysed in a relatively short period. 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 second step in the discovery cycle is the capture of the license entitlements that concern the software assets discovered in the inventory. The capture stage should collect entitlements regarding all of the software that exists on your system, even when the software is not currently in use. Without this step the inventory may be almost useless.
The factor of human error can be avoided by using automated tools that are specifically created to create a library of license entitlements. Packages that are currently available are very efficient at capturing accurate information. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from software vendors.
Identification & Validation
The third step is to match up your software audit to the repository of licensing data that were created in the last two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original invoices for software to the latest audits performed on your IT network.
One critical factor in the validation stage is the ability to associate the license entitlements within your system to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential if any disputes with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle. You want to be as informed as possible in these circumstances.
After these three steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly detailed picture of how your IT system is serving software packages to its users. It will be a lot simpler to identify particular trouble spots on your system, or sections of software use that are no longer of any particular benefit to your operations. 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 programs that are actually employed on your network against the licensing and support contracts that you are paying for and bridge any divides between the two. This is when the financial benefits of SAM start to take effect.
The software spread within your system may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual instances, and there are any number of rules that may be associated with the licensing agreements you have in place. It is therefore essential to automate the reconciliation process, utilising one or more tools to apply intelligent rules to the process. These rules can be catered to the specific needs of your organisation.
Employees who have past experience working alongside a Centennial specialist firm may be able to provide an early insight into how SAM can benefit your organisation.
Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM
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 defines 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 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 company within which it is actively used.
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has published a standard that applies specifically to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally comprehensive set of suggestions that are built to ensure that SAM is used 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 certainly be adhered to when designing a SAM strategy for your own company, although the level of detail covered within can easily become a daunting prospect. It is vital to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when designing a software asset management strategy, whatever plan you decide to implement must aid your organisation rather than hinder it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them to your business.
Designing 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 mature as your business does, and it should allow for modifications to your daily activities, 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 times when an IT department was a luxury that would sometimes forward the business. Computer networks are now critical to the modern organisation.
As with other branches of any company, a number of different plans should be considered and utilised in order to ensure the efficient running of daily tasks. software asset management should not be the only tactic used to manage technological resources within your company, but rather one of a number of complimentary techniques used to control the system as a unit. software asset management can go a long way toward aiding your company but should be helped by other strategies.
So if you think that your company is really suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and control over its IT infrastructure, or that the potential advantages described in this article could manufacture a crucial market advantage over your competitors, then it would be well worth investigating how SAM could be employed within your business.
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