Introduction
The extent to which technology has become a part of everyday life and day-to-day commerce has forced a change in the way business approaches how they manage the money, the tasks and the systems within an organisation. IT is fast becoming an important factor in business.
As computing becomes more widely used within a company and takes a more prominent role within the vital functions of that company, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is applied to this technology. Technological assets that may have once been ignored are now key in the decision making process.
Technology have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as critical elements of any company. As such, they receive larger budgets but must also be able to handle a greater amount of responsibility. There is an eternal race between corporate demands and computing capabilities.
But once you have spent a large amount of money on developing an IT infrastructure and seen the needs 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 function by IT management software and procedures.
Every organisation and every situation will have different specifications and will offer unique challenges. To meet these needs there are a range of different solutions and approaches that can be implemented to help manage the IT infrastructure of your organisation.One of these options is discussed below.
Software Asset Management
Software Asset Management (SAM) 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 area of expertise and is becoming a more essential part of the modern corporate environment, particularly for businesses operating in the field of IT. 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 program for technicians deploying software across a large corporate network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at many levels of a business. The objectives of SAM include managing of the IT infrastructure within a business, 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. 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 employing a SAM solution is not always obvious until a full of the software infrastructure of a company has been carried out.
Financial benefits are still the most motivating commercial factor when deciding to use software asset management software within a company. Every corporation needs to make money after all and profitability is a very measurable figure. The financial benefits of SAM do certainly exist however.
An increasingly large percentage of a organisation’s IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a real need to invest to correctly monitor this spending. As organisations expand and diversify, their software requirements can change radically and hardware and software can quickly become outdated. There is no need 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 organisation either. As a management operation it will often include many of the branches within a organisation, including Finance Human Resources, to make sure that it runs as cost-effectively as possible.
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Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the various advantages of employing a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your organisation? Every business is different and has its own unique set of challenges and advantages, so any plan you will undertake needs to be catered to these specific traits. The benefits of software asset management do cover the fundamental aspects of software management.
There are more than simply financial benefits that can be achieved through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across a businesses IT network. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that employees 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 deployed on every computer under their control. The benefits of software asset management are not confined to the technological hardware of your business.
Cost Savings
As discussed before, perhaps the most convincing reason to utilise software asset management within your company is the potential financial 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 descreasing 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 reduce costs is by targeting any applications running on your corporate IT system that is no longer necessary. 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 help to the running of your organisation you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT network. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and support and maintenance contracts means that more money can be spent on the essential parts of your IT system.
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 very unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly annoying factor for IT managers.
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 first purchased although the original software licenses may have expired. Without the correct control policies in place, users may also be able to install their own software onto the system. Running a corporate IT system in this unmanaged way will almost certainly lead to trouble.
The risk 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 recover the situation? Running a complicated software system without the appropriate support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can critically limit your responsiveness to unpredictable events.
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Implementing SAM in your Organisation
As previously discussed, there are many potential advantages to utilising a good SAM strategy within your business, both financial and otherwise. It is therefore important to determine which parts of SAM you should implement first since some benefits will be realised more quickly than others.
This discovery process can be viewed as three primary areas that have to be undertaken to truly build an informative picture of the deployment of software assets within your organisation. These are:
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental function of the discovery cycle. It is vital that an accurate inventory of software assets within your business is created to aid your IT department to maintain baselines regarding 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 largest of networks can be investigated and analysed in a reasonably short period. Inventory should be able to identify your software assets regardless of their physical location or computing characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.
Capture
The next step in the discovery cycle is the capture of the license entitlements that cover the software assets discovered in the inventory. The capture process should gather entitlements regarding all of the software that is installed on your network, even if the software is not currently used.
The element of human error can be avoided by using automated tools that are specifically created to build a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently available are very efficient at gathering accurate information.
Identification & Validation
The third step is to match up the software audit to the repository of licensing data that were created in the last two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original paperwork for software to the most recent audits performed on your IT system. These errors can now be rectified.
One crucial factor in the validation step is the ability to associate the license entitlements on your network to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential if any disputes with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle.
Once these steps have been undertaken you will have built an incredibly detailed picture of how your IT network is serving software programs to its users. It will be much simpler to identify particular trouble spots on your network, or areas of software usage that are no longer of any practical benefit to your activites. This detailed image can be used for future strategies as well.
You can now start a period of reconciliation on your network. You should compare the software programs that are actually employed on your network 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 distribution in your network 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 agreements you have in place. It is therefore essential to automate the reconciliation stage, utilising one or more programs to apply smart rules to the process.
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Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM
Many of the fundamental practices of a successful software asset management strategy are based upon the principles laid out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library details a number of principles and best practices that should be followed for successful control of IT operations. The ITIL can be found online.
This library is a dynamic publication and is often updated with new concepts and policies that cater to the constantly changing IT environment of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be flexible enough to comply with the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing requirements of the business within which it is actively utilised. This is an essential requirement of successful SAM
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies directly to software asset management practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an incredibly 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”.
The ISO standard should certainly be adhered to when planning a software asset management strategy for your own organisation, although the level of detail included within can easily become a daunting prospect. It is important to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when designing a SAM strategy, whatever you decide to implement must aid your organisation rather than hinder it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them to your organisation.
Creating a full and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own company may actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible to change and mature as your organisation does, and it should allow for updates to your daily tasks, no matter how trivial or fundamental they might be.
Conclusion
It is easy to see that as the extent and importance of computer systems within your organisation 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 occasionally forward the business. IT networks are now critical to the modern organisation.
As with other parts of any company, a number of different plans should be considered and utilised 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 organisation, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary policies used to control the system as a whole. SAM can go a long way toward helping your company but should be helped by other techniques.
So if you feel that your business is currently suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and control over its IT network, or that the possible benefits described in this article could manufacture a crucial market edge over your competitors, then it would be well worth researching how SAM could be employed within your company.