Introduction

The degree to which technology has become a part of everyday life and day-to-day business has forced a change in the way management approaches how they manage the finances, the processes and the assets within an organisation. Technology fast becoming an increasing factor in business.

As technology becomes more widespread within a company and takes a more prominent critical within the critical functions of that company, it is important to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is applied 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 during the past few years and are now seen as vital parts of any company. As such, they receive grander budgets but must also be able to handle a greater amount of responsibility. There is an eternal race between business demands and computing capabilities.

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

This is the role carried out by IT management software and systems.

Every organisation and every situation will have different requirements and will present unique problems. To meet these needs there are a number of different technologies and approaches that can be used to help manage the IT assets of your organisation.One of these approaches is discussed below.

Software Asset Management

SAM ( Software Asset Management) is designed to do exactly what it says on the tin – monitoring and managing the deployment and usage of software suites within your organisation. 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 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 tool for technicians deploying software across a large company network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at all levels of a company. The objectives of SAM include managing of the IT infrastructure within a organisation, negating legal threats associated with incorrect software license usage and sustaining 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 seen 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 broad inspection of the software infrastructure of a company has been carried out.

Monetary benefits remain the most driving commercial factor when choosing to employ SAM technology within a company. Every corporation needs to make profit after all and revenue is a very measurable figure.

An increasingly large proportion of a company’s IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a real need to invest to correctly manage this spending. As organisations expand and spread, their software requirements can change greatly and equipment and programs can quickly become outdated. There is no need to spend money to maintain the licenses on this outdated software, which is where SAM really delivers an edge.

SAM is not restricted to simply the technology of your business either. As a management operation it will often include many of the departments within a business, including Finance Human Resources, to make sure that it runs as cost-effectively as possible.

Ironically, IT service firms themselves, such as the service vendor Centennial demand equally as much IT management as their customers.

Why follow a SAM Strategy?

Having heard the many benefits of deploying a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be right for your organisation? Each business is different and has its own separate set of challenges and advantages, so any plan you will undertake needs to be catered to these specific traits.

There are more than simply cost benefits that can be gained through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across an organisations IT system. Productivity can be vastly by ensuring that staff have the latest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication within the corporation is helped when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every computer under their control. The benefits of SAM are not confined to the technological hardware of your business.

Financial Savings

As discussed previously, perhaps the most convincing 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 system that can help to increase this profitability by descreasing costs is one that should be evaluated. Money can be saved in a multitude of ways.

The most immediate way that software asset management can help to lower costs is by identifying any software running on your corporate IT system 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. SAM can help to remove this unnecessary overhead.

By clearing these items of software that are no longer a help to the running of your organisation you are streamlining a large portion of your IT network. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and maintenance agreements means that more money can be spent on the vital parts of your IT system. Focusing your finances on these critical components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.

Mitigate Risk

A surprising proportion of software that is currently used in the corporate 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.

Rogue software programs can be introduced into an uncontrolled IT environment in a number of ways. Software may have been bundled when your IT hardware was first bought although the initial software licenses may have expired. Without the correct security policies in place, users may also be able to load their own software onto the system.

The risk of running unlicensed software on your system is clear. When something goes wrong with the hardware or software platform behind your vital processes, how do you manage the situation? Running a complicated 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.

To plan and carry out a successful software asset management campaign, making Centennial distributors high in your list of priorities will be a key factor.

Implementing SAM in your Organisation

As previously discussed, there are numerous potential advantages to employing a good SAM strategy within your business, both monetary and otherwise. It is therefore important to consider 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 viewed as three primary phases that have to be undertaken to truly develop an accurate picture of the deployment of IT assets within your company.

Inventory

Inventory is the most fundamental function of the discovery cycle. It is important that an accurate audit of IT assets within your business is created to help your IT department to maintain baselines for your IT system.
Thankfully, this process can now be automated and even the grandest of networks can be searched and analysed in a reasonably short period. Inventory should be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their physical location or technological characteristics.

Capture

The second step in the discovery cycle involves the capture of the software license entitlements that manage the software programs discovered in the inventory. The capture process should collect entitlements regarding all of the software that exists on your system, even when the software is not currently used. Without this information the inventory would be nearly useless.

The factor of human error can be avoided by using automatic tools that are specifically created to build a library of license entitlements. Packages that are currently available are very efficient at gathering accurate data.

Identification & Validation

The third step 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 undertaken 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 network to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential 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 performed you will have created an incredibly rich image of how your IT system is delivering software assets to its users. It will be much simpler to identify particular trouble areas on your system, or sections of software use that are no longer of any particular benefit to your operations. This detailed image can be used for future reference as well.

You can now start a period of reconciliation upon your network. You should compare the software packages that are actually employed on your system 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 software asset management start to take effect.

The software spread in your network may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual installations, and there may be any number of rules that may be involved with the licensing agreements you have in place. It is therefore a necessity to automate the reconciliation stage, using one or more tools to apply smart rules to the process.

As demand for SAM technology grows, the opportunity any reputable Centennial reseller sees to expand their client base should be taken.

Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM

Many of the basic principles of a modern software asset management strategy are based upon the concepts set out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library defines a number of concepts and best practices that should be adopted for successful management of IT functions.

This library is a dynamic publication and is often updated with new concepts and policies that reflect the constantly changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good software asset management strategy should be fluid 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 SAM 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”.

The ISO standard should certainly be followed when designing a software asset management strategy for your own business, although the level of detail covered within can quickly become a daunting challenge. It is important to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when planning a SAM strategy, whatever you decide to employ must aid your business rather than stifle it.

Creating a full and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own company might actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible enough to adapt and mature as your business does, and it must allow for modifications to your daily activities, no matter how small or fundamental they might be. This really is the key to a successful software asset management plan.

Conclusion

It is clear to see that as the scope and importance of IT systems within your company grow, so does the need for good and efficient monitoring of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT branch was a bonus that would sometimes progress the business. Computer systems are now vital to the modern business. Critical systems need to be controlled to an appropriate standard.

As with other parts of any company, a number of separate strategies should be considered and utilised in order to ensure the efficient running of day to day activities. software asset management should not be the only tool used to manage technological resources within your organisation, but rather one of a number of complimentary policies used to manage the system as a unit.

So if you feel that your organisation is really suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and control over its IT infrastructure, or that the possible advantages described in this article could provide a critical market advantage over your competitors, then it would be worth investigating how SAM could be used within your company.