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Introduction

The degree to which computing has become a part of normal life and day-to-day business has forced a change in the way business approaches how they manage the finances, the tasks and the systems within a business.

As computing becomes more widespread within an organisation and takes a more prominent critical within the critical 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 during the past few years and are now seen as essential elements of any company. As such, they are allocated greater budgets but must also be able to handle a greater amount of work. There is an eternal race between corporate needs and computing capabilities.

But after you have spent a large amount of your budget on developing your IT infrastructure and seen the requirements of your business change, how do you ensure that the technology you are using can keep up with demand?

This is the role undertaken by IT management software and systems.

Every business and every situation will have different needs and will create different problems. To satisfy these needs there are a number of different technologies 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 maintaining the deployment and usage of software programs within your company. It is a business process rather than a distinct skill and is becoming a more essential part of the modern corporate environment, particularly for businesses operating in the field of Information Technology.

SAM is not simply a program for technicians deploying software across a large corporate network, but can be a critical tool to help improve performance at many levels of a business. The goals of SAM include managing of the IT infrastructure within a organisation, 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.

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 commercial case for employing a SAM solution is not always obvious until a full of the software infrastructure of a company has been done. Once existing problems have been identified however, the use of software asset management becomes self evident.

Financial benefits remain the most driving business factor when deciding to operate SAM technology within a business. Every company needs to make profit after all and expenditure is a very measurable figure. The financial benefits of SAM do certainly exist however.

An increasingly large amount 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 businesses expand and spread, their software requirements can change radically and equipment 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 advantage.

software asset management is not restricted to simply the IT department of your business either. As a management operation it will often involve many of the branches within a business, including Finance Human Resources, to make sure that it runs as cost-effectively as possible.

IT service professionals working for a company named Centennial supply a range of IT management solutions including software asset management tools.

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 correct 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 tailored to these specific characteristics. The benefits of SAM do cover the basic aspects of software management.

There are more than simply financial advantages that can be made through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across a companies IT network. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that users 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 workstation under their control.

Financial Savings

As discussed before, perhaps the most convincing reason to implement software asset management within your business is the potential cost savings that can be achieved. The profitability of your company is always going to be the bottom line so any plan that can help to improve this profitability by lowering expenses is one that should be considered.

The most immediate way that SAM can help to lower costs is by identifying any software running on your corporate IT system that is no longer necessary. 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 help to remove this unnecessary overhead.

By clearing these items of software that are no longer a benefit to the running of your business you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT system. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and support and maintenance contracts means that more money can be spent on the critical sections of your IT infrastructure.

Mitigate Risk

A surprising amount of software that is actively 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 incredibly unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly annoying factor for network managers.

Unlicensed 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 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 system.

The danger of running unlicensed software on your system is clear. When something goes wrong with the hardware or software platform supporting your critical 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.

There are a number of affordable Centennial distributors focusing on SAM who can create the ideal solution for your company.

Implementing SAM in your Organisation

As previously discussed, there are many potential benefits to using a good SAM strategy within your business, both financial and otherwise. It is therefore important to determine which branches of software asset management you should implement first since some benefits will be realised more speedily than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.

The discovery process can be seen as three basic stages that have to be performed to truly build an accurate picture of the usage of software assets within your organisation. These are:

Inventory

Inventory is the most fundamental stage of the discovery process. It is vital that an accurate audit of software assets within your business 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 made automatic 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 geographical location or technological characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.

Capture

The next step in the discovery process involves the capture of the software license entitlements that concern the software assets discovered in the inventory. The capture stage should collect entitlements regarding all of the software that exists on your system, even if the software is not currently used.

The risk of human error can be mitigated by using automated tools that are specifically created to create a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently available are very efficient at gathering accurate information.

Identification & Validation

The next step is to match up the software audit to the repository of licensing data that were built in the last two stages. Errors may have been made anywhere from the original invoices for software to the most recent audits undertaken on your IT system. These errors can now be rectified.

One crucial factor in the validation stage is the ability to combine the license entitlements on your network to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential 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 steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly detailed image of how your IT network is delivering software programs to its users. It will be a lot easier to identify any trouble areas on your system, or sections of software use that are no longer of any particular benefit to your activites. This detailed picture can be used for future strategies as well.

You can now begin a period of reconciliation upon your system. You can compare the software packages that are actually employed on your system against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and close any gaps between the two.

The software distribution in your system may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual installations, and there are any number of restrictions that may be involved with the licensing agreements you have in place. It is therefore essential to automate the reconciliation period, using one or more tools to apply smart rules to the process.

The IT industry is in vital need of more Centennial vendors who can supply the right IT monitoring products.

Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management

Many of the fundamental 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 concepts and best practices that should be adopted for successful control of IT functions.

This library is a changing publication and is often updated with new ideas and techniques 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 matching the changing requirements of the company within which it is actively used.

The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has published a standard that applies directly to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally comprehensive collection of guidelines that are built to ensure that SAM 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 really be followed when planning a software asset management strategy for your own company, although the level of detail included within can easily become a daunting challenge. It is vital to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when creating a SAM strategy, whatever plan you decide to employ needs to aid your business rather than hinder it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them within your organisation.

Designing a full and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own organisation might actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible enough to adapt and grow as your organisation does, and it must allow for modifications to your daily activities, no matter how trivial or fundamental they might be.

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 department was a luxury that would occasionally progress the business. IT systems are now vital to the modern company.

As with other parts of any company, a number of separate plans should be evaluated and used in order to ensure the efficient running of day to day tasks. software asset management should not be the only tool used to manage computing assets within your company, but rather one of a number of complimentary policies used to manage the system as a whole.

So if you feel that your organisation is really suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and management over its IT network, or that the possible advantages described in this article could manufacture a critical market edge over your competitors, then it would be well worth researching how SAM could be employed within your organisation. There may be no time to spare.

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