Introduction
The degree to which computing has become a part of normal life and everyday business has seen a change in the way business approaches how they manage the money, the tasks and the systems within a business. Technology becoming an increasing factor in business.
As computing becomes more widespread within an organisation and takes a more prominent critical within the vital functions of that business, it is important to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is applied to this technology. Technological assets that may have previously been overlooked are now important elements in the decision making process.
Technology 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 larger budgets but must also be able to handle a greater amount of responsibility.
But after you have spent a large amount of money on developing your IT system and seen the needs of your organisation change, how do you ensure that the technology you are using can keep up with demand?
This is the role carried out by IT management software and systems.
Every business and every environment will have different specifications and will present unique problems. To meet these needs there are a number of different technologies and approaches that can be implemented to help control the IT network of your company.
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 programs within your organisation. It is a business process rather than a distinct discipline and is becoming a more critical part of the modern commercial 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 critical tool to help improve performance at many levels of a organisation. The goals of SAM include monitoring expenses of the IT infrastructure within a organisation, 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 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 commercial case for employing a SAM solution is not always obvious until a full of the software infrastructure of a company has been done.
Financial benefits are still the most driving business factor when deciding to employ SAM software within a business. Every corporation needs to make profit after all and profitability is a very measurable metric. The financial benefits of SAM do certainly exist however.
An increasingly large percentage of a business’ IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a vital need to invest to correctly handle this spending. As organisations grow and diversify, their software needs can change radically 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 limited to simply the technology of your company either. As a management operation it will often include many of the departments within a business, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as cost-effectively as possible. It is a process that does not need to follow standard.
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Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the many benefits of utilising a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your organisation? Each business is different and has its own separate set of challenges and advantages, so any plan you will use needs to be tailored to these specific traits.
There are more than just cost advantages that can be achieved through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across an organisations IT network. Productivity can be vastly by ensuring that employees have the latest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication inside the corporation is helped when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every workstation under their control.
Cost 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 strategy that can help to improve this profitability by descreasing costs is one that should be considered.
The most immediate way that SAM can help to reduce costs is by targeting 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. SAM can help to remove this unnecessary overhead.
By removing these items of software that are no longer a benefit to the running of your organisation you are streamlining a large portion of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unneeded software licenses and maintenance contracts means that more finance can be spent on the critical sections of your IT system. Focusing your finances on these vital components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.
Mitigate Risk
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 system is ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become incredibly unpredictable.
Rogue software programs can be introduced into an unmonitored IT system in a number of ways. Software may have been included when your IT hardware was originally purchased although the original 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 wild way will almost certainly lead to trouble.
The risk of running unlicensed software on your network is clear. When something goes wrong with the hardware or software platform supporting your vital processes, how do you manage the situation? Running a complex software system without the correct support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can seriously inhibit your responsiveness to unpredictable events. The cost of recovery will always outweigh the cost of mitigation when it comes to IT systems.
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Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are numerous potential benefits to utilising a good SAM strategy within your company, both monetary and otherwise. It is vitally important to consider which elements of SAM you should implement 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 viewed as three primary stages that have to be undertaken to really build an accurate picture of the deployment of software assets within your organisation. These are:
Inventory
Inventory is the most basic function of the discovery cycle. It is important that an accurate audit of IT assets within your organisation is created to aid your IT managers to maintain baselines for your IT system.
Fortunately, this process can now be made automatic and even the largest of networks can be searched and analysed in a relatively short period. 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 next step in the discovery cycle involves the capture of the license entitlements that concern the software assets discovered in the inventory. The capture stage should collect entitlements for all of the software that exists on your system, even when the software is not currently used. Without this information the inventory may be almost useless.
The element of human error can be avoided by using automatic tools that are specifically created to build a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently available are incredibly efficient at capturing accurate data.
Identification & Validation
The third process is to match up your software inventory to the repository of licensing data that were created in the last two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original invoices for software to the latest audits performed on your IT system. These errors can now be rectified.
One critical 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 arguments with software resellers arise as a consequence of the discovery process.
After these steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly rich image of how your IT network is delivering software packages to its users. It will be much simpler to identify any trouble spots on your network, 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 system. You should compare the software programs that are actually used on your system against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and close any gaps between the two.
The software distribution in your system may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual installations, and there may be any number of rules that may be involved with the licensing contracts you have in place. It is therefore essential to automate the reconciliation stage, using one or more programs to apply intelligent rules to the process.
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Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management
Many of the fundamental principles of a successful software asset management strategy are based upon the principles laid out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library defines a number of concepts and best practices that should be followed for successful control of IT functions. The ITIL can be found online.
This library is a dynamic publication and is often updated with new concepts and policies that reflect the constantly changing IT environment of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be flexible enough to comply with the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst matching the changing requirements of the company within which it is actively used.
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies specifically to software asset management practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an incredibly comprehensive set of guidelines that are designed to ensure that SAM is used in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”. Standards of this kind play an important role in realising standardisation across an industry.
The ISO standard should certainly be followed when planning a software asset management strategy for your own organisation, although the level of detail included within can quickly 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 needs to help your business rather than stifle it.
Designing a full and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own organisation may actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible to adapt and mature as your organisation does, and it should allow for modifications to your daily tasks, no matter how small or fundamental they might be. This really is the key to a worthwhile software asset management strategy.
Conclusion
It is clear to see that as the extent and importance of computer systems within your company grow, so does the need for correct and effective management of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT department was a luxury that would sometimes progress the business. Computer networks are now vital to the modern company. Crucial systems need to be monitored to an appropriate standard.
As with other parts of any business, a number of separate strategies should be considered and used in order to ensure the smooth running of daily activities. SAM should not be the only tactic used to manage technological assets within your company, but rather one of a number of complimentary techniques used to control the system as a whole. software asset management can go a long way toward aiding your company but should be supported by other techniques.
So if you feel 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 critical market edge over your competitors, then it would be well worth researching how software asset management could be used within your business.