Introduction

The extent to which computing has become a part of everyday life and day-to-day commerce has forced a change in the way management approaches how they manage the finances, the processes and the assets within a business. IT is fast becoming an increasing factor in business.

As technology becomes more widespread within an organisation and takes a more prominent critical within the critical processes of that organisation, it is important to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is applied to this technology. Technological assets that may have once been overlooked are now important factors in the decision making process.

Technology have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as critical elements of any company. As such, they receive larger budgets but must also be able to manage a larger amount of work. There is an eternal race between corporate needs and computing capabilities.

But once you have spent a large amount of your budget on developing an IT infrastructure and seen the requirements of your business change, how do you make sure that the systems you are using can keep up with demand?

This is the function by IT management software and systems.

Every company and every situation will have different requirements and will present unique issues. To meet these needs there are a range of different solutions and approaches that can be implemented to help manage the IT assets of your business.

Software Asset Management

SAM ( Software Asset Management) is built 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 skill and is becoming a more critical part of the modern business environment, particularly for businesses operating in the field of IT.

SAM is not simply a program for support staff rolling out software across a large corporate network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at all levels of a company. The aims of SAM include managing of the IT infrastructure within a company, 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 an organisation grows, so do the potential benefits of SAM.

The practice of software asset management is often thought of as an unnecessary evil due to the intangible nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the financial case for employing a SAM solution is not always obvious until a broad audit of the software infrastructure of a company has been done.

Economic benefits remain the most motivating commercial factor when choosing to employ software asset management software within a company. Every business needs to make money after all and profitability is a very measurable figure.

An increasingly large percentage of a company’s IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a vital need to invest to correctly monitor this spending. As organisations expand and diversify, their software needs can change greatly and hardware and programs can swiftly become outdated. There is no requirement 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 ensure that it runs as efficiently as possible. It is a process that does not need to follow regular.

The many benefits of SAM make sure Centennial resellers maintain a healthy product portfolio they can supply to clients.

Why follow a SAM Strategy?

Having heard the multiple advantages of utilising a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your organisation? Every business is different and has its own unique set of problems and benefits, so any strategy you will use needs to be catered to these specific characteristics. The benefits of software asset management do cover the basic aspects of IT management.

There are more than simply monetary advantages that can be gained through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across a businesses IT system. Productivity can be hugely improved by ensuring that employees have the newest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication inside the corporation is aided when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every workstation under their control.

Financial Savings

As discussed previously, perhaps the most convincing reason to utilise software asset management within your company is the potential financial savings that can be achieved. The profitability of your business 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 evaluated.

The most immediate way that software asset management can help to reduce costs is by targeting any software 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 removing these items of software that are no longer a help to the running of your business you are streamlining a large portion of your IT network. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and maintenance contracts means that more money can be spent on the vital parts of your IT system. Focusing your attention on these critical components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.

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 uncontrolled software on your IT system is not advised, because when left unchecked it can become very unpredictable.

Unlicensed software applications can be introduced into an unmonitored IT environment in a number of ways. Software may have been included when your IT hardware was first purchased although the initial 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 wild way will almost certainly lead to trouble.

The danger of running unlicensed software on your network is clear. When something goes wrong with the hardware or software platform behind your vital processes, how do you recover the situation? Running a complicated software system without the proper support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can critically inhibit your responsiveness to unpredictable events.

Some of the most successful Centennial distributors throughout recent times have viewed SAM as key part of their portfolio.

Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation

As previously discussed, there are numerous potential advantages to employing a good SAM strategy within your business, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to consider which branches of SAM you should deploy first since some benefits will be achieved more quickly than others.

This discovery process can be viewed as three basic stages that have to be performed to truly develop an accurate picture of the usage of IT assets within your business. These are:

Inventory

Inventory is the most fundamental stage of the discovery cycle. It is vital that an accurate inventory of software assets within your organisation is created to help your IT department to maintain baselines for your IT system.
Fortunately, this process can now be made automatic and even the largest of infrastructures can be searched and analysed in a relatively 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 process is the capture of the software license entitlements that manage the software programs identified in the inventory. The capture process should gather entitlements for all of the software that is installed on your system, even if the software is not currently used. Without this information the inventory would be almost useless.

The factor 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 very efficient at gathering accurate data. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from software vendors.

Identification & Validation

The next process is to match up the software audit to the repository of licensing information that were created in the previous two stages. Errors may have been made anywhere from the original invoices for software to the latest audits performed on your IT network. These errors can now be rectified.

One crucial factor in the validation step is the ability to link the license entitlements on your system to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital if any arguments with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery process. You want to be as informed as possible in these circumstances.

Once these steps have been undertaken you will have built an incredibly detailed image of how your IT network is serving software programs to its users. It will be a lot simpler to identify particular trouble spots on your system, or areas of software usage that are no longer of any particular benefit to your activites.

You can now commence a period of reconciliation upon your network. You can compare the software packages that are actually installed on your network against the licensing and support contracts that you are paying for and close any divides between the two. This is when the financial benefits of software asset management start to take effect.

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

There is a growing respect in the computing world toward Centennial vendors since they can provide critical services for a modern business.

Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management

Many of the basic principles of a modern SAM strategy are based upon the principles 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 management of IT functions.

This library is a dynamic entity and is often updated with new ideas and policies that cater to the constantly changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be flexible enough to comply with the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing requirements of the company within which it is actively utilised. This is an essential requirement of successful software asset management

The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has published a standard that applies directly to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an incredibly comprehensive set of suggestions 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 essential role in realising standardisation across an industry.

The ISO standard should really be followed when planning a SAM strategy for your own business, although the level of detail covered within can easily become a daunting prospect. It is important to remember that no matter what recommendations you follow when creating a SAM strategy, whatever you decide to implement needs to aid your organisation rather than stifle it.

Creating a full and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own organisation may actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible enough to adapt and grow as your business does, and it must allow for updates to your daily activities, no matter how small or fundamental they might be.

Conclusion

It is clear to see that as the scope and importance of computer systems within your company grow, so does the need for correct and effective management of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT branch was a bonus that would sometimes progress the business. IT systems are now critical to the modern company. Crucial systems need to be maintained to an appropriate level.

As with other branches of any business, a number of separate strategies should be considered and utilised in order to ensure the smooth running of day to day tasks. software asset management should not be the only tactic used to manage computing assets within your company, but rather one of a number of complimentary techniques used to control the system as a unit. SAM can go a long way toward helping your company but should be helped by other strategies.

So if you think that your organisation is currently suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and management over its IT infrastructure, or that the potential advantages outlined in this article could provide a critical market edge over your competitors, then it would be well worth researching how SAM could be employed within your organisation.

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