Introduction
The extent to which computing has become a part of normal life and day-to-day business has seen a change in the way management approaches how they manage the money, the processes and the systems within an organisation.
As technology becomes more widely used within a business and takes a more prominent critical within the critical functions of that company, it is important to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is given to this technology. Technological systems that may have previously been ignored are now important elements in the decision making process.
Technology have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as essential elements of any company. As such, they are allocated greater budgets but must also be able to deal with a larger amount of work. There is an eternal race between corporate needs and IT capabilities.
But after you have spent a large amount of your budget on developing your IT network and seen the circumstances of your company change, how do you ensure that the technology you are using can keep up with demand? Moreover, how can you achieve this without spending a prohibitive amount of money?
This is the role carried out by IT management software and procedures.
Every business and every environment will have different needs and will present different challenges. To satisfy these needs there are a number of different solutions and approaches that can be used to help manage the IT infrastructure of your company.One of these options is discussed below.
Software Asset Management
SAM ( Software Asset Management) is built to do exactly what it says on the tin – monitoring and managing the deployment and usage of software packages within your business. It is a business process rather than a distinct skill and is becoming a more essential part of the modern business environment, particularly for companies operating in the field of IT. 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 tool for technicians installing software across a large company network, but can be a critical tool to help improve performance at multiple levels of a business. The objectives of SAM include monitoring costs of the IT infrastructure within a company, negating legal risks 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 viewed 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 broad audit of the software infrastructure of a company has been undertaken.
Monetary benefits are still the most driving business factor when deciding to use SAM technology within a company. Every business needs to make money after all and profitability 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 critical need to invest to correctly handle this spending. As businesses expand and diversify, their software requirements can change radically and equipment and programs can swiftly 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 advantage.
software asset management is not restricted to simply the technology of your business either. As a management operation it will often include many of the branches within a company, including Finance Human Resources, to make sure that it runs as cost-effectively as possible.
IT service professionals working for a company named softcat provide a range of IT management solutions including SAM tools. To see their website click here.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the various advantages of utilising a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your organisation? Every company is different and has its own separate set of problems and benefits, so any plan you will undertake needs to be tailored to these specific characteristics. The benefits of software asset management do cover the basic aspects of IT management.
There are more than just financial benefits that can be achieved through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across a companies IT system. Productivity can be hugely boosted by ensuring that users have the latest versions of software available under current licenses held, and communication within the business is aided when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every workstation under their control.
Cost Savings
As discussed before, 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 considered.
The most immediate way that SAM can help to reduce costs is by identifying any software running on your corporate IT system 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 help to the operation of your organisation you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unneeded software licenses and maintenance agreements means that more money can be spent on the critical sections of your IT system.
Mitigate Risk
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 incredibly unpredictable.
Rogue software applications can be introduced into an unmonitored IT system in a number of ways. Software may have been bundled 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 unmanaged way will almost certainly lead to trouble.
The danger 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 manage the situation? Operating a complex software system without the proper support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can seriously inhibit your responsiveness to unpredictable events. The cost of recovery will always outweigh the cost of prevention when it comes to IT systems.
Even in a stagnating and unpredictable economy www.softcat.com still see that SAM is a technology in demand from other companies.
Implementing SAM in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are numerous potential benefits to employing a good software asset management strategy within your company, both monetary and otherwise. It is vitally important to determine which parts of software asset management you should implement first since some benefits will be achieved more quickly than others.
This discovery process can be viewed as three primary phases that have to be undertaken to truly build an accurate picture of the deployment of IT assets within your company. These are:
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental function of the discovery process. It is important that an accurate audit of IT assets within your organisation is created to aid your IT department to maintain baselines regarding your IT system.
Fortunately, this process can now be made automatic and even the largest of infrastructures can be searched and analysed in a reasonably short period. Inventory should be able to identify your software assets regardless of their geographical location or computing characteristics.
Capture
The second step in the discovery process involves the capture of the license entitlements that manage the software programs discovered in the inventory. The capture process should collect entitlements for all of the software that exists on your network, even if the software is not currently used. Without this step the inventory would be almost useless.
The factor of human error can be mitigated by using automated tools that are specifically designed to build a library of license entitlements. Packages that are currently available are incredibly efficient at gathering accurate data. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from software vendors.
Identification & Validation
The next step is to match up the software inventory to the repository of licensing data that were built in the last two stages. Errors may have been made anywhere from the original paperwork for software to the latest audits undertaken on your IT system.
One crucial factor in the validation stage is the ability to combine 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. You want to be as informed as possible in these circumstances.
After these steps have been undertaken you will have built an incredibly detailed picture of how your IT system is serving software assets to its users. It will be much simpler to identify any trouble areas on your system, or areas of software use that are no longer of any practical benefit to your activites.
You can now start a period of reconciliation on your system. 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 close any gaps between the two.
The software distribution within your system may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual instances, and there are any number of restrictions that may be associated with the licensing agreements you have in place. It is therefore essential to automate the reconciliation period, utilising one or more tools to apply smart rules to the process. These rules can be catered to the specific needs of your business
Employees who have past experience working with any Centennial specialist company might 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 modern software asset management strategy are based upon the concepts set out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library defines a number of ideas and best practices that should be adopted for successful control of IT operations. The ITIL can be found online.
This library is a changing publication and is often updated with new concepts and techniques that reflect the ever changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good software asset management strategy should be flexible enough to comply with the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst matching the changing requirements of the company within which it is actively utilised.
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies directly to software asset management practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an incredibly comprehensive collection of suggestions that are built to ensure that SAM is utilised in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”.
The ISO standard should certainly be adhered to when designing a SAM strategy for your own organisation, although the level of detail included within can quickly become a daunting prospect. It is vital to remember that no matter what recommendations you follow when planning a software asset management strategy, whatever you decide to employ must help your organisation rather than stifle it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them to your company.
Creating a full and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own organisation might actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible to adapt and mature as your organisation does, and it should allow for modifications to your daily activities, no matter how small or fundamental they might be. This really is the key to a worthwhile software asset management plan.
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 systems are now critical to the modern business. Critical systems need to be controlled to an appropriate level.
As with other parts of any business, a number of different strategies should be evaluated and utilised in order to ensure the smooth running of daily tasks. SAM should not be the only tool used to manage computing assets within your company, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary techniques used to manage the system as a whole. software asset management can go a long way toward aiding your company but should be supported by other strategies.
So if you think that your company is really suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and control over its IT network, or that the potential advantages outlined 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 company.