Introduction
The extent to which computing has become a part of everyday life and day-to-day commerce has seen a change in the way business approaches how they manage the finances, the tasks and the assets within a business. Technology fast becoming an important factor in business.
As technology becomes more widespread within an organisation and takes a more prominent role within the vital processes of that organisation, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is applied to this computing.
IT capabilities have come a long way during 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 larger amount of work.
But after you have spent a substantial amount of money on developing your IT system and seen the needs 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 procedures.
Every business and every situation will have different specifications and will offer different issues. To satisfy these needs there are a range of different solutions and approaches that can be implemented to help control the IT assets of your business.One of these approaches 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 programs within your business. 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 support staff installing software across a large corporate network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at many levels of a organisation. The objectives of SAM include managing of the IT infrastructure within a company, 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 software asset management is often thought of as an unnecessary evil due to the abstract nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the financial case for going with a SAM solution is not always obvious until a complete of the software infrastructure of a company has been undertaken. Once existing problems have been identified however, the use of SAM becomes self evident.
Economic benefits remain the most motivating business factor when choosing to use software asset management technology within a company. Every company needs to make money after all and revenue is a very measurable figure.
An increasingly large percentage of a organisation’s IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a critical need to invest to correctly manage this spending. As organisations expand and diversify, their software needs can change greatly and equipment and programs can quickly 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.
SAM is not limited to simply the technology of your business either. As a management operation it will often involve many of the branches within a organisation, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as cost-effectively as possible. It is a process that does not need to follow established corporate models.
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Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having seen the many benefits of deploying a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be right for your company? Every business is different and has its own separate set of problems and advantages, so any strategy you will undertake needs to be tailored to these specific characteristics.
There are more than just monetary advantages that can be made through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across a businesses IT system. Productivity can be vastly by ensuring that employees have the newest editions of software permitted under current licenses held, and communication within the corporation is helped when support staff know exactly what is in use on every computer under their control. The benefits of SAM are not confined to the technological hardware of your organisation.
Financial Savings
As discussed previously, perhaps the most persuading reason to implement software asset management within your business is the potential financial 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 increase this profitability by descreasing expenses is one that should be considered. Money can be saved in a number of ways.
The most immediate way that SAM can help to reduce costs is by identifying any applications running on your corporate IT system 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.
By removing these items of software that are no longer a benefit to the running of your organisation you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT system. Paying for unneeded software licenses and support and maintenance agreements means that more finance can be spent on the critical parts of your IT infrastructure. Focusing your finances on these vital components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.
Mitigate Risk Factors
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 uncontrolled software on your IT network is not advised, because when left unchecked it can become very unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly frustrating factor for IT managers.
Unlicensed software applications can be introduced into an unmonitored IT environment in a number of ways. Software may have been bundled when your IT hardware was originally bought although the original software licenses may have expired. Without the correct access policies in place, users may also be able to load their own software onto the network.
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 handle the situation? Running a complex software system without the appropriate support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can seriously limit your responsiveness to unpredictable events.
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Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are numerous potential benefits to using a good software asset management strategy within your organisation, both financial and otherwise. It is therefore important to determine which parts of software asset management you should implement first since some benefits will be achieved more quickly than others.
The discovery process can be seen as three primary areas that have to be undertaken to truly build an informative picture of the deployment of IT assets within your business. These are:
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental function of the discovery cycle. It is vital that an accurate audit of software assets within your organisation is created to aid your IT managers to maintain baselines for your IT network. This inventory process must be performed before continuing with discovery.
Thankfully, this process can now be automated and even the largest of infrastructures can be investigated and analysed in a relatively short period. Inventory must be able to identify your software assets regardless of their physical location or computing characteristics.
Capture
The next step in the discovery process is the capture of the license entitlements that manage the software programs identified in the inventory. The capture stage should gather entitlements for 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 almost useless.
The risk 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 very efficient at gathering accurate information. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from IT vendors.
Identification & Validation
The third process is to match up the software inventory to the repository of licensing information that were created in the last two stages. Errors may have been made anywhere from the original paperwork for software to the latest audits performed on your IT system.
One crucial factor in the validation stage is the ability to associate the license entitlements within your system to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital if any disputes with software resellers arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle. You want to be as informed as possible in these circumstances.
After these three steps have been performed you will have created an incredibly detailed picture of how your IT network is serving software packages 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 particular benefit to your activites.
You can now begin a period of reconciliation on your system. You can compare the software packages 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 network may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual instances, 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, utilising 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 basic practices of a successful SAM strategy are based upon the principles laid out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library defines a number of ideas and best practices that should be followed for successful management of IT functions.
This library is a changing entity and is often updated with new ideas and policies that reflect the ever changing IT environment of modern business. A good software asset management strategy should be fluid enough to comply with the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing needs of the company within which it is actively used. This is an essential requirement of successful SAM
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies directly to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally comprehensive set of guidelines that are built to ensure that SAM is used in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”.
The ISO standard should certainly be adhered to when designing a SAM strategy for your own company, although the level of detail covered within can quickly become a daunting challenge. It is vital to remember that no matter what recommendations you follow when planning a SAM strategy, whatever plan you decide to employ needs to help your organisation rather than stifle it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them within your company.
Creating a full and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own business may actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible to change and grow as your organisation does, and it should allow for modifications to your daily tasks, no matter how trivial or fundamental they might be.
Conclusion
It is easy to see that as the scope and importance of IT systems within your company grow, so does the requirement for correct and effective management of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT department was a luxury that would occasionally progress the business. IT systems are now vital to the modern business.
As with other branches of any business, a number of different plans 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 tactic used to manage technological resources within your organisation, but rather one of a number of complimentary techniques used to control the system as a whole.
So if you feel that your organisation is currently suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and control over its IT network, or that the potential advantages outlined in this article could manufacture a critical market advantage over your competitors, then it would be worth researching how SAM could be employed within your organisation. There might be no time to spare.
Posted on March 1st, 2010 by admin
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