Introduction
The extent to which technology has become a part of normal life and day-to-day business has prompted a change in the way business approaches how they manage the money, the processes and the systems within a business. Technology fast becoming an increasing factor in business.
As technology becomes more widely used within an organisation and takes a more prominent vital within the vital functions of that business, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is applied to this technology.
Technology have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as essential parts of any business. As such, they are allocated grander budgets but must also be able to deal with a larger amount of work. There is an eternal race between business demands and IT capabilities.
But once you have spent a large amount of your budget on developing an IT system and seen the needs of your company change, how do you ensure that the systems you are using can keep up with demand?
This is the role undertaken by IT management software and systems.
Every organisation and every situation will have different needs and will present unique challenges. To satisfy these needs there are a range of different technologies and approaches that can be used to help control the IT assets 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 maintaining the deployment and usage of software suites within your business. It is a business process rather than a distinct skill and is becoming a more essential part of the modern corporate environment, particularly for corporations operating in the field of IT.
SAM is not simply an aid for technicians deploying software across a large corporate network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at multiple levels of a business. The objectives of SAM include managing of the IT infrastructure within a organisation, negating legal risks associated with incorrect software license usage and maintaining 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 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.
Economic benefits are still the most motivating business factor when deciding to employ SAM technology within a business. Every business needs to make money after all and profitability is a very measurable metric. The financial benefits of software asset management do certainly exist however.
An increasingly large proportion of a business’ IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a critical need to invest to correctly monitor this spending. As businesses grow and diversify, their software needs can change radically and hardware and software can swiftly become out of date. There is no requirement to spend money to maintain the licenses on this outdated software, which is where SAM really delivers an advantage.
SAM is not restricted to simply the technology of your organisation either. As a management process it will often involve many of the departments within a business, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure 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 heard the multiple advantages of employing a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be appropriate for your organisation? Every business is different and has its own unique set of problems and benefits, so any strategy you will use needs to be catered to these specific characteristics.
There are more than just financial advantages that can be made through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across a companies IT system. Productivity can be hugely improved by ensuring that employees have the newest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication within the company is helped when support staff know exactly what is in use on every computer under their control.
Cost Savings
As discussed previously, perhaps the most convincing reason to implement software asset management within your company is the potential financial savings that can be achieved. The profitability of your company is always going to be the bottom line so any strategy that can help to improve this profitability by descreasing costs is one that should be considered.
The most immediate way that SAM can help to reduce costs is by targeting any applications running on your corporate network 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.
By clearing these items of software that are no longer a help to the operation of your company you are streamlining a large portion of your IT network. Paying for unneeded software licenses and support and maintenance contracts means that more money can be spent on the vital parts of your IT infrastructure. Focusing your finances on these vital components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.
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. Having any amount of unmonitored software on your IT system is ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become very unpredictable.
Unlicensed software programs can be introduced into an unmonitored IT environment in a number of ways. Software may have been bundled when your IT hardware was first purchased although the original software licenses may have expired. Without the correct access policies in place, users may also be able to load their own software onto the network. Running a corporate IT system in this wild 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 supporting your vital processes, how do you recover the situation? Running a complicated software system without the proper support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can seriously limit your responsiveness to unpredictable events.
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Implementing SAM in your Organisation
As previously discussed, there are many potential benefits to employing a good SAM strategy within your organisation, both monetary and otherwise. It is therefore important to determine which branches of software asset management you should implement first since certain benefits will be realised more speedily than others.
The discovery process can be viewed as three fundamental areas that have to be undertaken to really build an informative picture of the usage of IT assets within your company.
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental stage of the discovery cycle. It is crucial that an accurate inventory of software assets within your organisation is created to help your IT department to maintain baselines regarding your IT network.
Thankfully, this process can now be automated and even the grandest of networks can be searched and analysed in a relatively short period. Inventory must be able to identify your software assets regardless of their physical location or computing characteristics.
Capture
The second step in the discovery process involves the capture of the license entitlements that manage the software assets discovered in the inventory. The capture stage should gather entitlements for all of the software that exists on your network, even when the software is not currently used.
The element of human error can be mitigated by using automatic tools that are specifically designed to build a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently employed are very efficient at gathering accurate information. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from software vendors.
Identification & Validation
The next process is to match up your software audit to the repository of licensing data that were built in the previous two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original paperwork for software to the latest audits undertaken on your IT network.
One critical factor in the validation step is the ability to associate the license entitlements within your system to your company’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital if any arguments with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle.
Once these steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly detailed picture of how your IT network is delivering software packages to its users. It will be much simpler to identify particular trouble areas on your network, or areas of software use that are no longer of any practical benefit to your activites.
You can now begin a period of reconciliation on your system. You should compare the software programs that are actually used on your system against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and bridge any divides between the two. This is when the financial benefits of software asset management start to take effect.
The software distribution in your system may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual instances, and there are any number of restrictions that may be associated 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 intelligent rules to the process. These rules can be catered to the specific needs of your organisation.
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Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management
Many of the fundamental practices 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 concepts and best practices that should be adopted for successful management of IT functions.
This library is a changing entity and is often updated with new concepts and techniques that reflect the constantly changing IT environment of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be flexible enough to comply with the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst matching the changing needs of the business within which it is actively used.
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies specifically to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally comprehensive collection of guidelines that are built to ensure that software asset management is utilised in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”. Standards of this kind play an essential part in achieving standardisation across an industry.
The ISO standard should really be adhered to when designing a software asset management strategy for your own business, although the level of detail included within can quickly become a daunting challenge. It is vital to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when planning a software asset management strategy, whatever plan you decide to implement needs to aid your business rather than hinder it.
Creating a complete and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own organisation might actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible to change and mature as your business does, and it should allow for modifications to your daily activities, 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 company grow, so does the requirement for correct and efficient management of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT department was a bonus that would sometimes progress the business. IT systems are now critical to the modern organisation. Crucial systems need to be monitored to an appropriate level.
As with other branches of any company, a number of separate strategies should be evaluated and utilised in order to ensure the efficient running of day to day activities. SAM should not be the only tactic used to manage technological assets within your company, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary policies used to control the system as a whole.
So if you feel that your business is really suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and management over its IT infrastructure, or that the possible benefits outlined in this article could provide a critical market advantage over your competitors, then it would be worth investigating how SAM could be employed within your business. There may be no time to lose.
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