Introduction
The extent to which technology has become a part of everyday life and day-to-day business has forced a change in the way business 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 widely used within an organisation and takes a more prominent vital within the vital processes of that organisation, it is important to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is applied to this technology. Technological systems that may have previously been ignored are now important elements in the decision making process.
Technology have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as essential elements of any organisation. As such, they are allocated larger budgets but must also be able to handle a larger amount of work.
But after you have spent a large amount of your budget on developing an IT network and seen the requirements of your organisation 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 systems.
Every company and every situation will have different needs and will offer different problems. To meet these needs there are a number of different technologies and approaches that can be used 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 controlling the deployment and usage of software suites within your company. It is a business process rather than a distinct discipline and is becoming a more critical part of the modern commercial environment, particularly for businesses 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 program for technicians deploying software across a large corporate network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at all levels of a business. The goals of SAM include managing of the IT infrastructure within a company, negating legal threats 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. As IT usage in a business grows, so do the potential benefits of SAM.
The practice of SAM is often seen 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 broad audit 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 commercial factor when deciding to employ SAM software within a company. Every business needs to make profit after all and expenditure is a very measurable metric. 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 monitor this spending. As organisations grow and diversify, their software requirements can change greatly and hardware and software 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.
software asset management is not restricted to simply the technology of your organisation 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 bureaucratic levels.
Anybody who was going to question Softcat which package stands out would get the simple answer software asset management.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having seen the various advantages of employing a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be right for your business? Each business is different and has its own unique set of problems and advantages, so any plan you will use needs to be tailored to these specific characteristics.
There are more than just cost benefits that can be made through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across an organisations IT system. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that users have the newest versions of software available under current licenses held, and communication within the business is aided when support staff know exactly what is installed on every workstation under their control.
Financial Savings
As discussed previously, perhaps the most persuading 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 plan that can help to improve this profitability by reducing expenses is one that should be evaluated. Money can be saved in a number of ways.
The most direct way that software asset management can help to lower costs is by targeting any software running on your corporate IT system that is no longer necessary. 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. SAM can be used to remove this unnecessary overhead.
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 system. Paying for unneeded software licenses and support and maintenance agreements means that more finance can be spent on the essential parts of your IT system.
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 unmonitored software on your IT system is ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become incredibly unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly frustrating factor for network managers.
Unlicensed software applications can be introduced into an uncontrolled IT system in a number of ways. Software may have been included when your IT hardware was originally bought although the initial software licenses may have expired. Without the correct security policies in place, users may also be able to install their own software onto the system.
The risk of running unlicensed software on your system is clear. When something goes wrong with the hardware or software platform behind your vital processes, how do you manage the situation? Running a complicated software system without the correct support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can critically limit your responsiveness to unpredictable events.
To plan and carry out a successful SAM campaign, keeping CITHS distributors high in your list of priorities will be a key factor.
Implementing SAM in your Organisation
As previously discussed, there are numerous potential benefits to using a good software asset management strategy within your company, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to consider which elements of SAM you should implement first since certain benefits will be achieved more quickly than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.
The discovery process can be viewed as three fundamental stages that have to be undertaken to truly build an informative picture of the usage of IT assets within your organisation.
Inventory
Inventory is the most basic function of the discovery process. It is vital that an accurate audit of IT assets within your organisation is created to aid your IT department 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 IT assets regardless of their physical location or technological characteristics.
Capture
The next step in the discovery process involves the capture of the license entitlements that cover the software assets identified in the inventory. The capture stage should collect entitlements for all of the software that exists on your network, even if the software is not currently in use.
The risk of human error can be avoided 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. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from IT vendors.
Identification & Validation
The next step is to match up your software audit to the repository of licensing information that were created in the previous two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original paperwork for software to the most recent audits undertaken on your IT system. These errors can now be rectified.
One critical factor in the validation stage is the ability to link the license entitlements within your system to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital if any arguments with software resellers arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle.
After these steps have been undertaken you will have built an incredibly rich picture of how your IT system is serving software programs to its users. It will be much easier to identify particular trouble areas on your system, or areas of software usage that are no longer of any particular benefit to your operations.
You can now begin a period of reconciliation upon your network. You should compare the software packages that are actually installed on your system against the licensing and support contracts that you are paying for and close any divides between the two.
The software distribution in your system may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual instances, and there may be 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, utilising one or more tools to apply intelligent rules to the process. These rules can be catered to the specific needs of your organisation.
There is a growing respect in the computing industry for Centennial vendors because they can provide critical services for a modern business.
Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM
Many of the fundamental principles of a successful SAM strategy are based upon the principles set out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library defines a number of ideas and best practices that should be adopted for successful management of IT operations. The ITIL can be found online.
This library is a dynamic publication and is often updated with new ideas and techniques that reflect the ever changing IT environment of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be fluid enough to follow the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst matching the changing requirements of the company within which it is actively utilised.
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has published a standard that applies directly to software asset management practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally comprehensive collection of guidelines 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 followed when designing a software asset management strategy for your own organisation, although the level of detail included within can quickly become a daunting challenge. It is vital to remember that no matter what recommendations you follow when creating a SAM strategy, whatever plan you decide to implement must help your business rather than stifle it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them to your company.
Creating a complete and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own company may actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible to change and mature as your business does, and it must allow for modifications to your daily tasks, no matter how small or underlying they might be.
Conclusion
It is easy to see that as the extent and importance of IT systems within your company grow, so does the need for correct and effective monitoring of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT department was a bonus that would sometimes progress the business. Computer systems are now critical to the modern company. Crucial systems need to be monitored to an appropriate standard.
As with other parts of any business, a number of different strategies should be considered and utilised in order to ensure the smooth running of daily activities. SAM should not be the only tactic used to manage computing resources within your company, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary policies used to manage the system as a whole. SAM can go a long way toward aiding your business but should be supported by other techniques.
So if you think that your organisation is currently suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and management over its IT network, or that the possible benefits outlined in this article could provide a crucial market advantage over your competitors, then it would be worth investigating how software asset management could be employed within your business.
