Introduction

The extent to which technology has become a part of everyday life and everyday business has forced a change in the way management approaches how they manage the finances, the tasks and the systems within an organisation. Technology becoming an important factor in business.

As technology becomes more widely used within a company and takes a more prominent role within the vital functions of that business, it is important to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is applied to this computing. Technological assets that may have previously been overlooked are now key in the decision making process.

IT departments have come a long way during the past few years and are now seen as critical elements of any company. As such, they are allocated greater budgets but must also be able to deal with a greater amount of work. There is an eternal race between corporate needs and computing capabilities.

But once you have spent a substantial amount of money on developing an IT infrastructure and seen the needs of your organisation change, how do you make sure that the technology you are using can keep up with demand? Moreover, how can you achieve this without spending a large amount of money?

This is the role carried out by IT management software and systems.

Every company and every situation will have different needs and will create unique issues. To meet these needs there are a range of different technologies and approaches that can be implemented to help manage the IT network of your company.One of these solutions is discussed below.

Software Asset Management

SAM ( Software Asset Management) is designed to do exactly what it says on the tin – monitoring and controlling the deployment and usage of software packages within your business. It is a business process rather than a distinct area of expertise and is becoming a more critical part of the modern business environment, particularly for businesses 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 an aid for support staff deploying software across a large company network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at many levels of a company. The aims of SAM include controlling of the IT infrastructure within a business, negating legal threats 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.

The practice of SAM is often seen as an unnecessary evil due to the intangible 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 broad audit of the software infrastructure of a company has been carried out.

Financial benefits remain the most driving business factor when deciding to operate software asset management technology within a company. Every business needs to make profit after all and expenditure is a very measurable metric. The financial benefits of software asset management do certainly exist however.

An increasingly large percentage 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 organisations expand and spread, their software requirements can change greatly and equipment and programs can quickly 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 restricted to simply the IT department of your company either. As a management cycle it will often involve many of the departments within a company, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as efficiently as possible.

The forward thinking IT services company providing Centennial Discovery detected the need for good SAM services a very long time ago.

Why follow a SAM Strategy?

Having seen the many advantages of deploying a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your business? Each company is different and has its own unique set of problems and advantages, so any strategy you will use needs to be tailored to these specific characteristics.

There are more than just cost benefits that can be made through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across a businesses IT network. Productivity can be hugely boosted by ensuring that employees have the latest versions 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 SAM are not confined to the technological hardware of your business.

Financial Savings

As discussed before, perhaps the most convincing reason to utilise SAM within your business is the potential cost 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 reducing expenses is one that should be considered.

The most direct way that software asset management can help to reduce costs is by targeting 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 operation of your company 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 essential parts 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. Having any amount of unmonitored 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 uncontrolled IT environment in a number of ways. Software may have been bundled when your IT hardware was first purchased although the original software licenses may have expired. Without the correct control 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 anything goes wrong with the hardware or software platform supporting your vital processes, how do you manage the situation? Operating a complex software system without the correct support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can critically limit your responsiveness to unforeseen events. The cost of recovery will always outweigh the cost of prevention when it comes to data systems.

To plan and carry out a successful SAM campaign, making Centennial distributors high in your list of priorities will be a key factor.

Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation

As previously discussed, there are many potential advantages to using a good SAM strategy within your company, both monetary and otherwise. It is therefore important to determine which branches of software asset management you should deploy first since some benefits will be realised more speedily than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.

This discovery process can be seen as three fundamental phases that have to be undertaken to truly develop an informative picture of the deployment of software assets within your business. These are:

Inventory

Inventory is the most fundamental function of the discovery process. It is vital that an accurate inventory of IT assets within your organisation is created to help your IT department to maintain baselines regarding your IT network.
Fortunately, this process can now be automated and even the largest of networks can be investigated and analysed in a reasonably short period. Inventory should be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their geographical location or computing characteristics.

Capture

The second step in the discovery cycle involves the capture of the software license entitlements that manage the software programs discovered 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.

The risk of human error can be avoided by using automatic tools that are specifically designed to build a library of license entitlements. Packages that are currently employed are incredibly efficient at capturing accurate information. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from IT vendors.

Identification & Validation

The next process is to match up the software inventory to the repository of licensing data that were built in the last two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original paperwork for software to the latest audits undertaken on your IT system. These errors can now be rectified.

One crucial factor in the validation step is the ability to associate the license entitlements on your network 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. You want to be as informed as possible in these circumstances.

After these steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly detailed image of how your IT network is serving software programs to its users. It will be much simpler to identify particular trouble spots on your system, or sections of software usage that are no longer of any practical benefit to your activites. This detailed image can be used for future strategies as well.

You can now begin a period of reconciliation upon your system. You can compare the software packages that are actually used on your system against the licensing and support contracts that you are paying for and bridge any divides between the two.

The software spread within your system may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual instances, and there may be any number of restrictions that may be involved with the licensing contracts you have in place. It is therefore a necessity to automate the reconciliation period, utilising one or more programs to apply smart rules to the process. These rules can be catered to the specific needs of your business

More about deploying software asset management within your company is available through Centennial vendors which can be located across the country.

Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM

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 principles and best practices that should be adopted for successful management of IT functions. The ITIL can be found online.

This library is a dynamic entity and is often updated with new ideas and techniques that reflect the ever changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good software asset management strategy should be fluid enough to comply with the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing requirements of the business within which it is actively utilised.

The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has published a standard that applies specifically to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally comprehensive collection of suggestions 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 achieving standardisation across an industry.

The ISO standard should really be adhered to when designing a software asset management strategy for your own company, although the level of detail covered within can easily become a daunting challenge. It is vital to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when planning a software asset management strategy, whatever you decide to implement must aid your organisation rather than stifle it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them to your company.

Designing a full and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own company might actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible to change and grow as your organisation does, and it must allow for modifications to your daily tasks, no matter how small or fundamental they might be. This really is the key to a successful SAM plan.

Conclusion

It is easy to see that as the extent and importance of computer systems within your company grow, so does the need for good and efficient management of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT branch was a luxury that would occasionally progress the business. IT networks are now vital to the modern organisation.

As with other branches of any business, a number of different strategies should be considered and used in order to ensure the efficient running of day to day activities. SAM should not be the only tool used to manage computing resources within your organisation, but rather one of a number of complimentary policies used to manage the system as a whole. software asset management can go a long way toward helping your business 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 infrastructure, or that the potential advantages described in this article could provide a critical market edge over your competitors, then it would be well worth investigating how software asset management could be used within your company.