Introduction
The extent to which technology has become a part of normal life and day-to-day commerce has seen a change in the way business approaches how they manage the money, the tasks and the systems within an organisation.
As technology becomes more widely used within an organisation and takes a more prominent vital within the critical processes of that business, it is important to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is applied to this computing.
Technology have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as critical parts of any business. As such, they receive greater budgets but must also be able to manage a greater amount of responsibility.
But once you have spent a large amount of money on developing an IT network and seen the needs of your organisation change, how do you ensure that the technology you are using can keep up with demand? Moreover, how can you achieve this without spending a large amount of money?
This is the role carried out by IT management software and procedures.
Every company and every environment will have different needs and will offer unique issues. To satisfy these needs there are a range of different technologies and approaches that can be implemented to help control the IT assets of your organisation.One of these solutions 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 programs within your company. It is a business process rather than a distinct area of expertise and is becoming a more critical part of the modern commercial environment, particularly for companies operating in the field of IT.
SAM is not simply a tool for technicians rolling out software across a large company network, but can be a critical tool to help improve performance at all levels of a company. The objectives of SAM include controlling of the IT infrastructure within a company, 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.
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 complete of the software infrastructure of a company has been carried out. Once existing problems have been highlighted however, the use of software asset management becomes self evident.
Monetary benefits are still the most driving commercial factor when deciding to operate SAM software within a business. Every company needs to make money after all and profitability is a very measurable figure. The financial benefits of software asset management do certainly exist however.
An increasingly large amount of a business’ IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a real need to invest to correctly monitor this spending. As organisations grow and spread, their software requirements can change radically and equipment and software can swiftly become out of date. 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 IT department of your company either. As a management cycle it will often involve many of the branches within a company, 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 regular.
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Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having seen the many benefits of employing 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 advantages, so any plan you will undertake needs to be catered to these specific characteristics. The benefits of software asset management do cover the fundamental aspects of software management.
There are more than just cost advantages that can be achieved through the management 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 company is aided when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every computer under their control. The benefits of SAM are not confined to the technological hardware of your organisation.
Cost Savings
As discussed before, perhaps the most convincing reason to utilise software asset management within your business is the potential financial savings that can be achieved. The profitability of your company is always going to be the bottom line so any system that can help to improve this profitability by reducing expenses is one that should be considered.
The most direct way that SAM 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 running of your company you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT system. Paying for unneeded software licenses and maintenance contracts means that more finance can be spent on the vital sections of your IT system. Focusing your attention on these vital components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.
Mitigate Risk Factors
A surprising proportion of software that is actively used in the business 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. This is becoming an increasingly frustrating factor for network managers.
Unlicensed software programs can be introduced into an uncontrolled 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 security 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 anything goes wrong with the hardware or software platform behind your critical processes, how do you manage the situation? Running a complicated software system without the proper support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can critically limit your responsiveness to unforeseen events.
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Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously discussed, there are numerous potential advantages to utilising a good SAM strategy within your organisation, both monetary and otherwise. It is therefore important to determine which parts of software asset management you should deploy 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 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 basic stage of the discovery cycle. It is important that an accurate audit of IT assets within your organisation is created to aid your IT managers to maintain baselines regarding your IT system. This inventory process must be performed before continuing with discovery.
Fortunately, this process can now be automated and even the grandest of infrastructures can be investigated and analysed in a relatively 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 second step in the discovery cycle is the capture of the license entitlements that concern the software programs discovered 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 element of human error can be avoided by using automatic tools that are specifically designed to create a library of license entitlements. Packages that are currently employed are very efficient at gathering accurate information.
Identification & Validation
The next process is to match up your software inventory to the repository of licensing data that were created in the previous two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original paperwork for software to the latest audits performed on your IT network. These errors can now be rectified.
One crucial factor in the validation step is the ability to associate the license entitlements within your network to your company’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential if any disputes with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle. You want to be as informed as possible in these circumstances.
After these three steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly detailed image of how your IT system is serving software assets to its users. It will be a lot easier to identify particular trouble areas on your network, or sections of software use that are no longer of any practical benefit to your activites.
You can now commence 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 close any divides between the two. This is when the financial benefits of software asset management start to take effect.
The software spread in your system may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual instances, and there are any number of rules that may be associated with the licensing agreements you have in place. It is therefore essential to automate the reconciliation process, utilising one or more programs to apply intelligent rules to the process.
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Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM
Many of the basic 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 management of IT operations. The ITIL can be found online.
This library is a changing entity and is often updated with new ideas and techniques 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 matching the changing needs of the company within which it is actively used. This is an essential requirement of successful software asset management
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 built to ensure that SAM is used in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”. Standards of this kind play an essential role in achieving standardisation across an industry.
The ISO standard should really be adhered to when planning a software asset management strategy for your own organisation, although the level of detail covered within can easily become a daunting challenge. It is vital to remember that no matter what recommendations you follow when creating a SAM strategy, whatever you decide to employ must aid your business rather than stifle it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them within your business.
Creating a full and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own company may actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible enough to change and mature as your organisation does, and it should 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 extent and importance of computer systems within your organisation grow, so does the requirement for good and effective monitoring of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT department was a luxury that would occasionally forward the business. Computer networks are now vital to the modern company. Critical systems need to be maintained to an appropriate standard.
As with other branches of any business, a number of separate plans should be evaluated and utilised in order to ensure the smooth running of day to day activities. SAM should not be the only tool used to manage computing assets within your company, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary policies used to manage the system as a unit.
So if you think that your organisation is currently suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and management over its IT infrastructure, or that the potential advantages 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 business. There might be no time to lose.