Introduction
The degree to which computing has become a part of normal life and everyday business has forced a change in the way management approaches how they manage the finances, the tasks and the assets within a business.
As computing becomes more widespread within an organisation and takes a more prominent role within the critical processes of that business, it is important to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is given to this technology.
IT capabilities have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as critical elements of any company. As such, they are allocated grander budgets but must also be able to deal with a greater amount of work. There is an eternal race between corporate demands and computing capabilities.
But after you have spent a large amount of money on developing an 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? Moreover, how can you achieve this without spending a large amount of money?
This is the function by IT management software and systems.
Every business and every situation will have different requirements and will offer unique challenges. To satisfy these needs there are a range of different technologies and approaches that can be implemented to help control the IT network of your business.
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 company. It is a business process rather than a distinct discipline and is becoming a more essential part of the modern business environment, particularly for corporations 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 organisation. The aims of SAM include controlling 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 SAM is often viewed as an unnecessary evil due to the abstract nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the business case for going with a SAM solution is not always obvious until a complete of the software infrastructure of a company has been undertaken.
Economic benefits remain the most driving business factor when choosing to operate software asset management software within a company. Every business needs to make profit after all and revenue is a very measurable figure. The financial benefits of software asset management do certainly exist however.
An increasingly large amount of a organisation’s 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 spread, their software requirements can change greatly and equipment and software can quickly 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 edge.
software asset management is not restricted to simply the IT department of your organisation 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 cost-effectively as possible. It is a process that does not need to follow established corporate models.
Some of the most experienced SAM technicians work for Centennial specialists so their skills are put to good use.
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 problems and advantages, so any plan you will use needs to be tailored to these specific traits. The benefits of SAM do cover the fundamental aspects of software management.
There are more than just monetary benefits that can be achieved through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across a companies IT system. Productivity can be vastly by ensuring that employees have the newest versions of software available under current licenses held, and communication within the corporation is helped when support staff know exactly what is in use on every computer under their control. The benefits of software asset management are not confined to the technological hardware of your business.
Cost Savings
As discussed before, perhaps the most persuading reason to implement SAM within your business is the potential financial savings that can be achieved. The profitability of your company is always going to be the bottom line so any strategy that can help to improve this profitability by lowering costs is one that should be considered.
The most immediate way that software asset management can help to reduce 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 clearing these items of software that are no longer a benefit to the operation of your organisation you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT network. Paying for unneeded software licenses and support and maintenance contracts means that more finance can be spent on the essential sections of your IT infrastructure. Focusing your attention 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 corporate environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Having any amount of uncontrolled software on your IT system is ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become very unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly annoying factor for IT managers.
Rogue software programs can be introduced into an uncontrolled IT environment in a number of ways. Software may have been included when your IT hardware was first bought 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 system. Running a corporate IT system in this unmanaged way will almost certainly lead to trouble.
The danger 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? Running 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 unforeseen events.
Recent years have seen a vast improvement in the numbers of reliable Centennial distributors available who are open for business.
Implementing Software Asset Management 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 elements of software asset management you should implement first since some benefits will be realised more speedily than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.
The discovery process can be viewed as three basic phases that have to be performed to truly build an informative picture of the deployment of software assets within your business.
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental function of the discovery cycle. It is important that an accurate inventory of software assets within your organisation is created to help your IT department to maintain baselines regarding your IT network. This inventory process must be performed before carrying on with discovery.
Thankfully, this process can now be made automatic and even the grandest of networks can be investigated and analysed in a reasonably short period. Inventory must be able to identify your software assets regardless of their physical location or technological characteristics.
Capture
The second step in the discovery process is the capture of the license entitlements that cover the software assets identified in the inventory. The capture process should gather entitlements regarding 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 risk of human error can be mitigated by using automated tools that are specifically created to create a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently available are incredibly efficient at gathering accurate data.
Identification & Validation
The next process is to match up the software inventory to the repository of licensing information that were built in the previous two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original paperwork for software to the most recent audits undertaken on your IT network.
One critical factor in the validation stage is the ability to associate the license entitlements within your system to your company’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential if any disputes with software vendors 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 delivering software assets to its users. It will be much easier to identify particular trouble spots on your network, or sections of software use that are no longer of any particular benefit to your activites. This detailed image can be used for future strategies as well.
You can now start a period of reconciliation upon your network. You should compare the software programs that are actually employed on your system against the licensing and support contracts that you are paying for and close any gaps between the two.
The software distribution within your network may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual installations, and there are any number of rules that may be involved with the licensing agreements you have in place. It is therefore essential to automate the reconciliation stage, utilising one or more programs to apply intelligent rules to the process.
Staff who have past experience working with any Centennial specialist firm might be able to provide an early insight into how software asset management can benefit your organisation.
Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management
Many of the fundamental practices of a successful 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 principles and best practices that should be adopted for successful control of IT functions.
This library is a dynamic publication and is often updated with new ideas and policies that reflect the ever changing IT environment of modern business. A good software asset management strategy should be flexible enough to follow the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing requirements of the company within which it is actively utilised.
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has published a standard that applies directly to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally comprehensive set of guidelines that are designed to ensure that software asset management is used in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”. Standards of this kind play an important role in achieving standardisation across an industry.
The ISO standard should really be followed when planning a SAM strategy for your own company, 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 creating a SAM strategy, whatever you decide to employ must aid your business rather than hinder it.
Designing a full and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own business may actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible to adapt and grow as your organisation does, and it should allow for updates to your daily tasks, no matter how trivial or underlying they might be.
Conclusion
It is easy to see that as the extent and importance of IT systems within your company grow, so does the need for good and efficient monitoring of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT branch was a bonus that would occasionally progress the business. IT systems are now critical to the modern company.
As with other branches of any company, a number of different plans should be evaluated and utilised in order to ensure the smooth running of daily activities. software asset management should not be the only tool used to manage technological 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 company is really suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and control over its IT infrastructure, or that the potential benefits described in this article could manufacture a crucial market edge over your competitors, then it would be worth investigating how software asset management could be employed within your company.