Introduction
The degree to which computing has become a part of normal life and everyday commerce has prompted a change in the way management approaches how they manage the money, the tasks and the assets within an organisation. Technology becoming an important factor in business.
As computing becomes more widely used within a business and takes a more prominent role within the vital processes of that company, it is important to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is applied to this computing.
Technology have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as essential parts of any business. As such, they are allocated grander budgets but must also be able to handle a greater amount of responsibility.
But after you have spent a large amount of your budget on developing an IT infrastructure and seen the circumstances of your organisation 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 company and every situation will have different specifications and will present different issues. To satisfy these requirements there are a number of different solutions and approaches that can be implemented to help manage the IT infrastructure of your business.One of these solutions is discussed below.
Software Asset Management
Software Asset Management (SAM) is designed to do exactly what it says on the tin – monitoring and maintaining the deployment and usage of software programs within your business. It is a business process rather than a distinct skill and is becoming a more critical part of the modern commercial environment, particularly for companies operating in the field of IT. 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 company network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at multiple levels of a organisation. The goals 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 full of the software infrastructure of a company has been done. Once existing problems have been highlighted however, the use of software asset management becomes self evident.
Financial benefits are still the most motivating business factor when deciding to employ SAM software within a business. Every business needs to make money after all and profitability is a very measurable figure.
An increasingly large amount of a organisation’s IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a real need to invest to correctly handle this spending. As organisations grow and diversify, their software needs can change greatly and equipment and programs can swiftly become outdated. There is no requirement to spend money to maintain the licenses on this outdated software, which is where software asset management really delivers an advantage.
software asset management is not restricted to simply the IT department of your business either. As a management operation it will often involve many of the departments within a business, including Finance Human Resources, to make sure that it runs as efficiently as possible. It is a process that does not need to follow standard.
Software asset management can easily be achieved within your business through a feasible Centennial Discovery solution that is tailored to your specific needs.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the various advantages of utilising a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be right for your company? Every company is different and has its own unique set of challenges and advantages, so any strategy you will undertake needs to be tailored to these specific traits.
There are more than simply cost advantages that can be achieved through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across an organisations IT network. Productivity can be hugely improved by ensuring that staff have the latest versions of software permitted under current licenses held, and communication inside the company is helped 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 organisation.
Financial Savings
As discussed before, perhaps the most persuading reason to implement SAM within your company is the potential financial savings that can be made. The profitability of your company is always going to be the bottom line so any plan that can help to increase this profitability by reducing expenses is one that should be evaluated.
The most direct way that SAM can help to lower costs is by targeting any software running on your corporate network that is no longer needed. The software might not be being used any longer, 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 company you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and maintenance agreements means that more money can be spent on the vital parts of your IT infrastructure. Focusing your finances on these critical components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.
Mitigate Risk
A surprising amount of software that is currently used in the corporate environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Running any amount of unmonitored software on your IT network is ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become incredibly unpredictable.
Unlicensed software applications can be introduced into an uncontrolled IT system in a number of ways. Software may have been bundled when your IT hardware was originally bought 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.
The risk of running unlicensed software on your network is clear. When something goes wrong with the hardware or software platform supporting your critical processes, how do you recover the situation? Operating a complicated software system without the appropriate 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 forever outweigh the cost of mitigation when it comes to IT systems.
If you are able to do business with the most appropriate Centennial distributor the business will be well placed to achieve the maximum benefit from software asset management.
Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously discussed, there are numerous potential advantages to using a good software asset management strategy within your company, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to determine which elements of software asset management you should implement first since certain benefits will be achieved more speedily than others.
The discovery process can be viewed as three fundamental phases that have to be performed to really develop an accurate picture of the deployment of software assets within your company. These are:
Inventory
Inventory is the most basic function of the discovery process. It is crucial that an accurate audit of software assets within your business is created to help your IT managers to maintain baselines for your IT network. This inventory process must be performed before continuing with discovery.
Fortunately, this process can now be made automatic and even the grandest of networks can be investigated and analysed in a reasonably short period of time. Inventory must be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their geographical location or technological characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.
Capture
The second step in the discovery cycle is the capture of the license entitlements that cover the software assets identified 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.
The element of human error can be mitigated by using automatic tools that are specifically designed to build a library of license entitlements. Packages that are currently employed are very efficient at gathering accurate data. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from IT vendors.
Identification & Validation
The third step is to match up the software audit 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 undertaken on your IT network.
One crucial factor in the validation step is the ability to link the license entitlements on your network to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential if any disputes with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery process.
Once these steps have been undertaken you will have created an incredibly detailed image of how your IT network is serving software programs to its users. It will be a lot simpler to identify any trouble spots on your network, or areas of software use that are no longer of any particular benefit to your operations.
You can now start a period of reconciliation on your system. You should compare the software programs that are actually installed on your system 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 SAM start to take effect.
The software spread in 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 contracts you have in place. It is therefore a necessity to automate the reconciliation stage, utilising one or more tools to apply intelligent rules to the process.
Staff who have previous 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 SAM
Many of the basic practices of a modern software asset management 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 followed for successful control of IT operations.
This library is a dynamic entity and is often updated with new concepts and techniques that reflect the ever changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be flexible enough to comply with the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing needs of the company within which it is actively utilised.
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies directly 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 utilised 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 designing a software asset management strategy for your own business, although the level of detail included within can quickly become a daunting prospect. It is important to remember that no matter what recommendations you follow when creating a software asset management 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 should allow for updates to your daily tasks, no matter how trivial or fundamental they might be.
Conclusion
It is clear to see that as the extent and importance of computer systems within your company grow, so does the need for good and effective management of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT branch was a bonus that would occasionally progress the business. Computer systems are now critical to the modern business. Critical systems need to be maintained to an appropriate standard.
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 tool used to manage computing assets within your organisation, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary policies used to control the system as a unit.
So if you think that your business is currently suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and management over its IT network, or that the possible benefits described in this article could manufacture a crucial market edge over your competitors, then it would be worth researching how software asset management could be employed within your business.