Introduction
The extent to which computing has become a part of everyday life and everyday commerce has prompted a change in the way management approaches how they manage the finances, the tasks and the assets within an organisation.
As technology becomes more widely used within an organisation and takes a more prominent role within the vital functions of that organisation, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is given to this computing.
IT departments have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as vital parts of any business. As such, they receive grander budgets but must also be able to deal with a larger amount of work.
But once you have spent a large amount of money on developing your IT infrastructure and seen the circumstances of your organisation change, how do you ensure that the IT 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 challenges. To satisfy these requirements there are a range of different technologies and approaches that can be implemented to help control the IT network of your organisation.
Software Asset Management
SAM ( Software Asset Management) is designed to do exactly what it says on the tin - monitoring and maintaining 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 critical part of the modern business environment, particularly for corporations 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 corporate network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at all levels of a company. The goals 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 an organisation grows, so do the potential benefits of SAM.
The practice of software asset management is often viewed as an unnecessary evil due to the abstract 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.
Monetary benefits are still the most motivating commercial factor when choosing to operate SAM technology within a business. Every corporation needs to make money after all and revenue is a very measurable metric. The financial benefits of software asset management do certainly exist however.
An increasingly large amount of a company’s IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a vital need to invest to correctly handle this spending. As businesses expand and spread, their software needs can change radically and equipment 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 restricted to simply the IT department of your organisation either. As a management cycle it will often involve many of the departments within a company, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as cost-effectively as possible.
IT service staff working for a company named Centennial provide a range of IT management solutions including SAM tools.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the various benefits of deploying a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be right for your organisation? Every business is different and has its own separate set of problems and benefits, so any plan you will undertake needs to be tailored to these specific traits. The benefits of SAM do cover the basic aspects of software management.
There are more than just cost benefits that can be made through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across an organisations IT system. Productivity can be vastly by ensuring that users have the latest editions of software permitted under current licenses held, and communication inside the business is aided 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 convincing reason to utilise SAM 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 improve this profitability by lowering expenses is one that should be considered. Money can be saved in a number of ways.
The most direct way that software asset management can help to lower costs is by identifying any applications running on your corporate network that is no longer needed. 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.
By clearing these items of software that are no longer a benefit to the operation of your business you are streamlining a large portion of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and maintenance contracts means that more finance can be spent on the critical parts of your IT system. Focusing your attention on these vital components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.
Mitigate Risk
A surprising percentage of software that is currently used in the corporate environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Running any amount of unmonitored software on your IT system is not advised, because when left unchecked it can become incredibly unpredictable.
Rogue software applications can be introduced into an uncontrolled IT environment in a number of ways. Software may have been included when your IT hardware was first purchased although the initial software licenses may have expired. Without the correct control policies in place, users may also be able to load their own software onto the network.
The risk 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? Operating a complicated software system without the appropriate support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can critically inhibit your responsiveness to unpredictable events.
If your business undertakes an IT system overhaul, a qualified Centennial distributor must be top of your first ports of call.
Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously discussed, there are many potential benefits to utilising a good SAM strategy within your organisation, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to determine which elements of software asset management you should implement first since certain 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 performed to really build an informative picture of the deployment of software assets within your organisation.
Inventory
Inventory is the most basic stage of the discovery process. It is vital that an accurate audit of software assets within your business is created to help your IT managers to maintain baselines for your IT network. This inventory process must be performed before carrying on with discovery.
Thankfully, this process can now be made automatic and even the grandest of networks can be searched and analysed in a relatively short period. Inventory should be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their geographical location or computing characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.
Capture
The second step in the discovery process involves the capture of the software license entitlements that concern the software assets identified 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 in use.
The risk of human error can be avoided by using automatic tools that are specifically designed to build a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently available are incredibly efficient at gathering accurate data. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from IT vendors.
Identification & Validation
The next process is to match up the software inventory to the repository of licensing data that were created in the last two stages. Errors may have been made anywhere from the original invoices for software to the most recent 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 organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital 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.
After these three steps have been undertaken you will have created an incredibly detailed picture of how your IT network is serving software packages to its users. It will be a lot easier to identify any trouble areas on your system, or sections of software usage that are no longer of any practical benefit to your activites.
You can now begin a period of reconciliation upon your system. You can compare the software packages that are actually installed on your system against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and close any divides between the two.
The software spread within your system may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual instances, and there are any number of rules that may be involved with the licensing contracts you have in place. It is therefore a necessity to automate the reconciliation process, using one or more programs to apply smart rules to the process. These rules can be catered to the specific needs of your company
As demand for SAM technology grows, the chance a well known Centennial reseller has to expand their client base should be taken.
Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM
Many of the fundamental principles 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 dynamic entity and is often updated with new ideas and policies that cater to the ever changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be fluid enough to follow the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst matching the changing needs of the company within which it is actively utilised.
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has published a standard that applies specifically to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally comprehensive set of guidelines that are designed to ensure that SAM is utilised in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”.
The ISO standard should really be adhered to when planning a software asset management strategy for your own company, although the level of detail covered within can easily become a daunting challenge. It is vital to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when designing a SAM strategy, whatever you decide to employ must aid your organisation rather than stifle it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them to your business.
Designing a full and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own business may actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible to change and grow as your organisation does, and it must allow for updates 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 scope and importance of IT systems within your company grow, so does the requirement for good and effective management of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT branch was a luxury that would sometimes progress the business. Computer systems are now critical to the modern company.
As with other branches of any company, a number of separate strategies should be evaluated and used in order to ensure the smooth running of day to day 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 control the system as a whole.
So if you feel that your company is really suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and control over its IT network, or that the possible benefits described in this article could provide a critical market edge over your competitors, then it would be well worth investigating how SAM could be used within your company.
