Introduction
The degree to which technology has become a part of everyday life and everyday business has seen a change in the way business approaches how they manage the finances, the tasks and the systems within an organisation.
As technology becomes more widespread within an organisation and takes a more prominent role within the vital functions of that organisation, it is important to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is given to this computing.
IT capabilities have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as critical parts of any business. As such, they are allocated grander budgets but must also be able to handle a greater amount of work.
But after you have spent a substantial amount of money on developing an IT infrastructure and seen the circumstances of your company change, how do you make sure that the systems you are using can keep up with demand? Moreover, how can you achieve this without spending a prohibitive amount of money?
This is the function by IT management software and systems.
Every organisation and every situation will have different requirements and will create unique issues. To satisfy these needs there are a range of different solutions and approaches that can be implemented to help manage the IT infrastructure of your business.
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 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 rolling out 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 organisation, negating legal risks 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 software asset management is often viewed as an unnecessary evil due to the intangible 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 complete of the software infrastructure of a company has been carried out. Once existing problems have been highlighted however, the use of software asset management becomes self evident.
Financial benefits remain the most driving commercial factor when deciding to operate software asset management software within a company. Every company needs to make profit after all and revenue is a very measurable metric. The financial benefits of SAM do certainly exist however.
An increasingly large proportion of a organisation’s IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a critical need to invest to correctly manage this spending. As businesses expand and diversify, their software requirements can change radically and hardware and software can quickly become out of date. 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.
SAM is not restricted to simply the technology of your company either. As a management operation it will often include many of the departments within a organisation, including Finance Human Resources, to make sure that it runs as efficiently as possible.
Software asset management can easily be achieved within your organisation through a feasible Centennial Discovery strategy that is tailored to your requirements.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the many advantages of utilising a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be appropriate for your business? Each company is different and has its own unique set of problems and benefits, so any plan you will undertake needs to be catered to these specific characteristics.
There are more than simply financial benefits that can be made through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across a businesses IT network. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that staff have the newest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication within the company is aided when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every workstation under their control.
Cost Savings
As discussed previously, perhaps the most persuading reason to utilise software asset management within your company is the potential cost savings that can be made. The profitability of your business is always going to be the bottom line so any plan that can help to improve this profitability by lowering expenses is one that should be considered.
The most immediate way that software asset management can help to lower costs is by identifying any applications running on your corporate network 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 operation of your organisation you are streamlining a large portion of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and maintenance contracts means that more finance can be spent on the vital sections of your IT system.
Mitigate Risk Factors
A surprising percentage 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 network is not advised, because when left unchecked it can become very unpredictable.
Unlicensed software applications can be introduced into an uncontrolled IT system in a number of ways. Software may have been included when your IT hardware was originally 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 something goes wrong with the hardware or software platform behind your critical processes, how do you manage the situation? Operating a complex software system without the appropriate support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can seriously inhibit 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 software asset management campaign, making Centennial distributors top of your list of priorities will be a key factor.
Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are many potential advantages to employing a good software asset management strategy within your business, both financial and otherwise. It is therefore important to determine which parts of software asset management you should implement first since certain benefits will be realised more quickly than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.
This discovery process can be seen as three basic areas that have to be undertaken to truly develop an accurate picture of the usage 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 audit of software 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 software assets regardless of their physical location or computing characteristics.
Capture
The second step in the discovery process is the capture of the software license entitlements that concern the software assets identified in the inventory. The capture process should gather entitlements for all of the software that exists on your network, even if the software is not currently in use.
The factor of human error can be avoided by using automated tools that are specifically created to build a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently available are incredibly efficient at capturing accurate data. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from IT vendors.
Identification & Validation
The third process is to match up your software inventory to the repository of licensing information that were built in the last two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original paperwork for software to the most recent audits performed on your IT network.
One critical factor in the validation stage is the ability to link the license entitlements within your network to your company’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital if any arguments with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle. You want to be as informed as possible in these circumstances.
Once these steps have been undertaken you will have created an incredibly rich picture of how your IT network is serving software assets to its users. It will be much easier to identify particular trouble spots on your system, or areas of software usage that are no longer of any practical benefit to your activites.
You can now begin a period of reconciliation on your system. You can compare the software programs that are actually installed on your network against the licensing and support contracts that you are paying for and close any gaps between the two.
The software spread within your system may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual installations, and there are any number of rules 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 intelligent rules to the process. These rules can be catered to the specific needs of your organisation.
More about utilising software asset management within your organisation is accessible through Centennial vendors which can be found around the country.
Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM
Many of the fundamental practices of a modern SAM strategy are based upon the principles laid 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 management of IT operations.
This library is a changing publication and is often updated with new concepts and techniques that reflect the constantly changing IT environment of modern business. A good software asset management strategy should be fluid enough to follow the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst matching the changing requirements of the company within which it is actively utilised.
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has published a standard that applies specifically to software asset management practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an incredibly comprehensive collection of suggestions that are built 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 certainly be followed when planning a software asset management strategy for your own business, although the level of detail included within can easily become a daunting challenge. It is important to remember that no matter what recommendations you follow when designing a SAM strategy, whatever you decide to employ needs to aid your organisation rather than hinder it.
Designing a full and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own company might actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible to change and mature as your business 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 scope and importance of computer systems within your organisation grow, so does the need for good and efficient monitoring of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT branch was a luxury that would occasionally progress the business. IT systems are now vital to the modern organisation. Critical systems need to be monitored to an appropriate level.
As with other parts of any business, a number of separate strategies should be considered and utilised in order to ensure the efficient running of daily tasks. SAM should not be the only tactic used to manage computing assets within your company, 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 aiding your company but should be helped by other techniques.
So if you feel that your company is really suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and management over its IT infrastructure, or that the potential advantages outlined in this article could manufacture a critical market edge over your competitors, then it would be well worth investigating how SAM could be employed within your company.