Introduction
The extent to which computing has become a part of everyday life and everyday business has forced a change in the way business approaches how they manage the money, the tasks and the assets within a business.
As technology becomes more widespread 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 level of attention is given to this technology. Technological systems that may have once been overlooked are now key in the decision making process.
IT departments have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as vital elements of any business. As such, they are allocated grander budgets but must also be able to manage a greater amount of responsibility.
But after you have spent a substantial amount of money on developing your IT network and seen the circumstances of your company change, how do you ensure 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 needs and will present unique issues. To meet these needs there are a range of different technologies 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 built to do exactly what it says on the tin – monitoring and controlling the deployment and usage of software packages within your company. It is a business process rather than a distinct discipline and is becoming a more essential part of the modern commercial environment, particularly for businesses operating in the field of Information Technology.
SAM is not simply a tool for technicians rolling out software across a large company network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at multiple levels of a company. The aims of SAM include monitoring costs 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. As IT usage in a company grows, so do the potential benefits of SAM.
The practice of SAM is often thought of 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 broad audit of the software infrastructure of a company has been done.
Economic benefits are still the most motivating commercial factor when deciding to operate SAM software within a business. Every company needs to make profit after all and expenditure is a very measurable metric.
An increasingly large amount of a organisation’s IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a real need to invest to correctly manage this spending. As businesses grow and spread, their software needs can change greatly and hardware and software can quickly 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 advantage.
SAM is not limited to simply the technology of your business either. As a management process it will often involve many of the branches within a business, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as efficiently as possible. It is a process that does not need to follow standard.
When choosing an accomplished provider of a SAM solution for your network Centennial Discovery should be a name that is considered amongst others.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the various advantages of employing a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be appropriate for your business? Every business is different and has its own unique set of problems and advantages, so any plan you will undertake needs to be catered to these specific characteristics. The benefits of SAM do cover the basic aspects of software management.
There are more than just financial benefits that can be achieved through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across an organisations IT system. Productivity can be hugely improved by ensuring that employees have the newest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication within the business is aided when support staff know exactly what is in use on every workstation under their control.
Cost Savings
As discussed before, perhaps the most persuading reason to implement software asset management within your business is the potential financial savings that can be made. The profitability of your business is always going to be the bottom line so any strategy that can help to improve this profitability by reducing costs is one that should be evaluated.
The most direct way that SAM 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 very outdated to be of use or it may be duplicated on your system. SAM can be used to remove this unnecessary overhead.
By removing these items of software that are no longer a help to the running of your company you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unneeded software licenses and maintenance agreements means that more finance can be spent on the vital sections of your IT system. Focusing your attention on these vital components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.
Mitigate Risk Factors
A surprising proportion of software that is currently 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 incredibly unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly frustrating factor for IT managers.
Unlicensed software programs can be introduced into an unmonitored IT environment 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 install their own software onto the system. Running a corporate IT system in this unmanaged way will almost certainly lead to trouble.
The risk of running unlicensed software on your network is clear. When anything goes wrong with the hardware or software platform supporting your critical processes, how do you recover the situation? Running a complex software system without the proper support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can critically inhibit your responsiveness to unforeseen events.
SAM is a leading product that is available from all modern Centennial distributors selling IT products to a wide range of markets.
Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously discussed, there are many potential benefits to employing a good SAM strategy within your company, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to consider which parts of software asset management you should deploy first since certain benefits will be achieved more speedily than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.
The discovery process can be viewed as three fundamental stages that have to be performed to really develop an accurate picture of the usage of IT assets within your company.
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental stage of the discovery cycle. It is crucial that an accurate audit of software assets within your business is created to help your IT managers to maintain baselines regarding your IT network.
Thankfully, this process can now be made automatic and even the largest of infrastructures 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 technological characteristics.
Capture
The second step in the discovery process is the capture of the software license entitlements that cover the software programs identified in the inventory. The capture stage should gather entitlements regarding all of the software that exists on your network, even if the software is not currently in use. Without this step the inventory may be nearly useless.
The element of human error can be mitigated by using automated tools that are specifically designed to create a library of license entitlements. Packages that are currently available are incredibly efficient at capturing accurate data.
Identification & Validation
The next step is to match up the software inventory to the repository of licensing information that were created in the previous two stages. Errors may have occurred 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 stage is the ability to combine the license entitlements within your network to your company’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential if any arguments with software resellers 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 rich picture of how your IT network is serving software programs to its users. It will be a lot easier to identify particular trouble areas on your system, or sections of software use that are no longer of any practical benefit to your operations. This detailed image can be used for future reference as well.
You can now commence a period of reconciliation on your network. You can compare the software packages that are actually used on your network against the licensing and support contracts that you are paying for and close any gaps between the two. This is when the financial benefits of SAM start to take effect.
The software distribution within your network may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual instances, and there are 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.
More information about utilising software asset management in your company can be found through a Centennial reseller or reading on the Internet.
Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management
Many of the basic 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 functions. The ITIL can be found online.
This library is a changing entity and is often updated with new concepts and policies that cater to 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 utilised. This is an essential requirement of effective SAM
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies directly to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an incredibly comprehensive collection of suggestions that are built to ensure that SAM is utilised 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 adhered to when planning a software asset management strategy for your own organisation, although the level of detail covered within can easily become a daunting prospect. It is vital to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when planning a SAM strategy, whatever plan you decide to employ 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 plan must be flexible to adapt and mature as your business does, and it should allow for modifications to your daily tasks, no matter how trivial or underlying they might be. This really is the key to a successful software asset management strategy.
Conclusion
It is easy to see that as the extent and importance of computer systems within your company grow, so does the requirement for good and efficient management of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT branch was a bonus that would sometimes forward the business. Computer networks are now vital to the modern business.
As with other branches of any organisation, a number of different strategies should be evaluated 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 organisation, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary techniques used to control the system as a unit.
So if you think that your company is currently suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and control over its IT network, or that the potential benefits described in this article could provide a crucial market advantage over your competitors, then it would be well worth investigating how SAM could be employed within your business. There may be no time to lose.
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