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 money, the processes and the systems within a business. Computing fast becoming an important factor in business.
As technology becomes more widespread within an organisation 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 computing.
IT departments have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as essential parts of any organisation. As such, they are allocated grander budgets but must also be able to deal with a greater amount of work.
But once you have spent a large amount of your budget on developing your IT system and seen the requirements 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 needs and will create unique challenges. To meet these requirements there are a range of different technologies and approaches that can be implemented to help manage the IT network of your business.One of these options is discussed below.
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 suites within your business. 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 IT.
SAM is not simply an aid for support staff installing software across a large corporate network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at all levels of a business. The goals of SAM include managing 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 commercial case for using a SAM solution is not always obvious until a full of the software infrastructure of a company has been undertaken.
Monetary benefits remain the most driving business factor when deciding to use SAM software within a business. Every corporation needs to make profit after all and revenue is a very measurable figure.
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 monitor this spending. As organisations grow and spread, their software requirements can change greatly 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 edge.
SAM is not limited to simply the IT department of your organisation 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.
Ironically, IT service companies themselves, such as the service provider 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 appropriate for your organisation? Every business is different and has its own separate set of challenges and advantages, so any strategy you will undertake needs to be catered to these specific characteristics. The benefits of SAM do cover the basic aspects of IT management.
There are more than simply monetary benefits that can be made through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across a companies IT network. Productivity can be hugely boosted by ensuring that users have the latest editions of software permitted under current licenses held, and communication within the business is helped when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every computer under their control.
Financial Savings
As discussed previously, perhaps the most persuading reason to implement SAM 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 system that can help to increase this profitability by lowering costs is one that should be evaluated. Money can be saved in a multitude of ways.
The most immediate way that SAM can help to reduce costs is by identifying any applications running on your corporate IT system that is no longer needed. The software might not be being used anymore, it may be very outdated to be of use or it may be duplicated on your system.
By removing these items of software that are no longer a benefit to the operation of your business you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT system. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and maintenance agreements means that more finance can be spent on the vital sections of your IT infrastructure.
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 unmonitored software on your IT system is ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become very unpredictable.
Unlicensed software applications can be introduced into an unmonitored IT system in a number of ways. Software may have been included when your IT hardware was originally bought 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 danger of running unlicensed software on your network is clear. When anything goes wrong with the hardware or software platform supporting your vital processes, how do you manage the situation? Operating a complicated software system without the proper support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can seriously limit your responsiveness to unforeseen events. The cost of recovery will always outweigh the cost of mitigation when it comes to IT systems.
Recent years have seen a vast growth in the numbers of reliable Centennial distributors available that are open for business.
Implementing SAM in your Organisation
As previously discussed, there are numerous potential advantages to employing a good software asset management strategy within your company, both financial and otherwise. It is therefore important to consider which elements of SAM you should deploy first since some benefits will be achieved more speedily than others.
The discovery process can be seen as three primary areas that have to be performed to truly build an accurate picture of the usage of software assets within your organisation. These are:
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental function of the discovery cycle. It is vital that an accurate audit of IT assets within your business is created to help your IT managers to maintain baselines regarding your IT system. This inventory process must be performed before continuing with discovery.
Thankfully, this process can now be automated and even the grandest of networks can be investigated and analysed in a reasonably short period of time. Inventory should be able to identify your software assets regardless of their geographical location or computing characteristics.
Capture
The next step in the discovery cycle involves the capture of the license entitlements that concern the software assets discovered in the inventory. The capture stage should gather entitlements for all of the software that exists on your network, even when the software is not currently in use. Without this information the inventory may be nearly useless.
The element of human error can be avoided by using automatic tools that are specifically created to build a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently employed are incredibly efficient at capturing accurate data.
Identification & Validation
The next process is to match up your software audit to the repository of licensing data that were created in the last two stages. Errors may have been made anywhere from the original invoices for software to the most recent audits undertaken on your IT network.
One crucial factor in the validation stage is the ability to combine the license entitlements within your network to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital if any disputes with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle.
Once these steps have been undertaken you will have created an incredibly detailed picture of how your IT network is serving software assets to its users. It will be much simpler to identify any trouble spots on your system, or sections of software use that are no longer of any practical benefit to your activites.
You can now begin a period of reconciliation upon your network. 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 bridge any gaps between the two.
The software distribution within your system may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual installations, and there may be any number of restrictions that may be associated with the licensing contracts you have in place. It is therefore a necessity to automate the reconciliation process, utilising one or more programs to apply intelligent rules to the process.
More information about implementing SAM in your company can be learned via a Centennial reseller or researching on the web.
Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management
Many of the basic practices of a successful SAM strategy are based upon the concepts set out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library details a number of ideas 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 concepts and techniques that reflect the ever changing IT environment of modern business. A good software asset management strategy should be flexible enough to follow the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing requirements of the company within which it is actively used. This is an essential requirement of successful SAM
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 guidelines that are designed to ensure that SAM is utilised in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”. Standards of this kind play an important part in realising 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 quickly become a daunting prospect. It is important to remember that no matter what recommendations you follow when planning a software asset management strategy, whatever plan you decide to employ must aid your organisation rather than stifle it.
Creating a full and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own company might actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible enough to adapt and mature as your organisation does, and it should allow for updates to your daily tasks, no matter how trivial or underlying they might be. This really is the key to a worthwhile software asset management strategy.
Conclusion
It is easy to see that as the extent and importance of computer systems within your organisation grow, so does the need for correct and efficient management of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT branch was a bonus that would sometimes forward the business. IT systems are now vital to the modern business.
As with other parts of any business, a number of separate plans should be evaluated and used in order to ensure the smooth running of day to day 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 policies used to manage the system as a whole.
So if you feel that your company is currently suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and control over its IT infrastructure, or that the potential benefits outlined in this article could manufacture a crucial market edge over your competitors, then it would be worth investigating how software asset management could be used within your company. There may be no time to lose.