Introduction
The degree to which computing has become a part of normal life and everyday business has prompted a change in the way management approaches how they manage the money, the tasks and the assets within an organisation. Computing becoming an important factor in business.
As computing becomes more widespread within a business and takes a more prominent vital within the critical functions of that business, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is given to this technology. Technological assets that may have previously 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 critical elements of any organisation. As such, they are allocated larger budgets but must also be able to manage a larger amount of work. There is an eternal race between business needs and IT capabilities.
But after you have spent a substantial amount of your budget on developing an IT system and seen the circumstances of your business change, how do you make sure that the IT you are using can keep up with demand? Moreover, how can you achieve this without spending a prohibitive amount of money?
This is the role undertaken by IT management software and procedures.
Every company and every situation will have different specifications and will present unique 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.
Software Asset Management
SAM ( Software Asset Management) is built to do exactly what it says on the tin – monitoring and managing the deployment and usage of software packages within your organisation. It is a business process rather than a distinct discipline and is becoming a more essential part of the modern corporate environment, particularly for companies operating in the field of Information Technology.
SAM is not simply an aid for technicians installing software across a large company network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at multiple levels of a organisation. The aims of SAM include managing of the IT infrastructure within a company, negating legal risks 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.
The practice of software asset management is often viewed as an unnecessary evil due to the intangible nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the commercial case for using a SAM solution is not always obvious until a broad audit of the software infrastructure of a company has been carried out. Once existing problems have been highlighted however, the use of SAM becomes self evident.
Financial benefits are still the most motivating commercial factor when choosing to employ SAM software within a company. Every corporation needs to make money after all and revenue is a very measurable figure.
An increasingly large proportion of a business’ IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a real need to invest to correctly monitor this spending. As companies grow and diversify, their software needs can change radically and hardware and software can quickly become out of date. 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 limited to simply the technology of your organisation either. As a management process it will often involve many of the departments within a business, including Finance Human Resources, to make sure that it runs as cost-effectively as possible. It is a process that does not need to follow standard.
Some of the most experienced SAM technicians work at Centennial specialists so their skills are put to good use.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having seen the multiple advantages of utilising a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be appropriate for your company? Each company is different and has its own separate set of problems and advantages, so any plan you will undertake needs to be tailored to these specific characteristics.
There are more than simply cost benefits that can be achieved through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across an organisations IT network. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that staff have the latest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication inside the business is helped when support staff know exactly what is in use on every computer under their control.
Cost Savings
As discussed before, perhaps the most convincing reason to implement SAM within your business is the potential cost savings that can be made. The profitability of your company is always going to be the bottom line so any strategy that can help to increase this profitability by lowering expenses is one that should be evaluated.
The most direct way that software asset management can help to reduce 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. software asset management can be used to remove this unnecessary overhead.
By clearing these items of software that are no longer a benefit to the operation of your organisation you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and maintenance contracts means that more finance can be spent on the vital parts of your IT system.
Mitigate Risk Factors
A surprising amount of software that is actively used in the business environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Running 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 network managers.
Rogue software applications can be introduced into an unmonitored 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 control policies in place, users may also be able to install their own software onto the network. Operating a corporate IT system in this unmanaged way will almost certainly lead to trouble.
The danger of running unlicensed software on your network is clear. When anything goes wrong with the hardware or software platform behind your vital processes, how do you handle the situation? Operating a complicated software system without the correct support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can seriously limit your responsiveness to unforeseen events.
To plan and carry out a successful software asset management strategy, making Centennial distributors top of your list of priorities will be a key factor.
Implementing SAM in your Organisation
As previously discussed, there are many potential advantages to utilising a good SAM strategy within your company, both financial and otherwise. It is therefore important to determine which branches of software asset management you should deploy 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 areas that have to be undertaken to really develop an informative picture of the usage of software assets within your organisation.
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental function of the discovery cycle. It is crucial that an accurate audit of software assets within your organisation is created to aid your IT managers to maintain baselines for your IT system.
Thankfully, this process can now be automated and even the largest of networks can be investigated and analysed in a relatively short period. Inventory must be able to identify your software assets regardless of their geographical location or computing characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.
Capture
The next step in the discovery process is the capture of the license entitlements that manage the software assets identified in the inventory. The capture stage should gather entitlements for all of the software that is installed on your system, even when the software is not currently in use.
The risk of human error can be mitigated by using automated tools that are specifically designed to create a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently employed are incredibly efficient at capturing accurate information. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from software vendors.
Identification & Validation
The third step is to match up the software inventory to the repository of licensing data that were built in the last two stages. Errors may have been made anywhere from the original paperwork for software to the most recent audits undertaken on your IT network. These errors can now be rectified.
One critical factor in the validation step is the ability to link the license entitlements on your system to your company’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential if any disputes with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery process. You want to be as informed as possible in these circumstances.
Once these three steps have been undertaken you will have built an incredibly rich picture of how your IT system is serving software packages to its users. It will be a lot simpler to identify particular trouble spots on your network, or areas of software use that are no longer of any practical benefit to your operations. This detailed picture can be used for future strategies as well.
You can now begin a period of reconciliation upon your network. You should compare the software programs that are actually employed on your network against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and bridge any gaps between the two.
The software spread within your system may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual installations, and there are 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 programs to apply smart rules to the process. These rules can be catered to the specific needs of your business
More information about deploying software asset management in your organisation can be found through a Centennial reseller or reading on the web.
Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management
Many of the basic principles of a modern SAM strategy are based upon the principles set out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library details a number of principles and best practices that should be adopted for successful management of IT functions.
This library is a dynamic entity and is often updated with new concepts and techniques that reflect the constantly changing IT environment of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be fluid enough to follow the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing requirements 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 suggestions that are designed to ensure that software asset management is utilised 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 adhered to when planning a software asset management strategy for your own business, although the level of detail covered within can quickly become a daunting prospect. It is vital to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when creating a SAM strategy, whatever you decide to employ needs to help your business rather than hinder it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them within your business.
Creating a complete and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own organisation may actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible enough to adapt and mature as your business does, and it must allow for updates to your daily tasks, no matter how small or underlying they might be.
Conclusion
It is easy to see that as the scope and importance of computer systems within your organisation grow, so does the requirement for correct and efficient monitoring of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT branch was a bonus that would sometimes forward the business. IT systems are now critical to the modern organisation. Critical systems need to be monitored to an appropriate level.
As with other branches of any business, a number of separate plans should be considered and utilised in order to ensure the smooth running of daily tasks. SAM should not be the only tool used to manage computing resources within your company, but rather one of a number of complimentary policies used to manage the system as a unit.
So if you feel that your company is currently suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and control over its IT infrastructure, or that the potential 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 organisation. There may be no time to spare.