Introduction
The degree to which computing has become a part of everyday life and day-to-day business has prompted a change in the way management approaches how they manage the finances, the tasks and the assets within an organisation.
As computing becomes more widespread within an organisation and takes a more prominent vital within the critical processes of that business, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is applied to this technology. Technological systems that may have previously been overlooked are now important factors 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 business. As such, they receive larger budgets but must also be able to handle a larger amount of work. There is an eternal race between business needs and computing capabilities.
But after you have spent a large amount of your budget on developing your IT system 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 systems.
Every business and every environment will have different specifications and will create different problems. To satisfy these needs there are a number of different solutions and approaches that can be implemented to help control the IT infrastructure of your business.
Software Asset Management
SAM ( Software Asset Management) is designed to do exactly what it says on the tin – monitoring and controlling the deployment and usage of software programs within your business. It is a business process rather than a distinct skill and is becoming a more critical part of the modern corporate environment, particularly for companies operating in the field of Information Technology.
SAM is not simply a tool for support staff rolling out software across a large company network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at multiple levels of a company. The aims of SAM include monitoring costs 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 an organisation grows, so do the potential benefits of SAM.
The practice of SAM is often seen as an unnecessary evil due to the intangible nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the commercial case for employing a SAM solution is not always obvious until a complete of the software infrastructure of a company has been done.
Economic benefits are still the most driving business factor when choosing to use software asset management software within an organisation. Every corporation needs to make money after all and revenue is a very measurable figure.
An increasingly large amount of a organisation’s IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a critical need to invest to correctly handle this spending. As organisations expand and spread, their software needs can change greatly and equipment and programs can quickly become outdated. 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 limited to simply the technology of your company either. As a management operation it will often include many of the departments within a business, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as efficiently as possible.
The forward thinking technology services company delivering Centennial Discovery noticed the need for good SAM services a very long time ago.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the multiple benefits of employing a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be appropriate for your organisation? Each company is different and has its own unique set of challenges and benefits, so any plan you will use needs to be tailored to these specific characteristics.
There are more than just financial benefits that can be achieved through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across an organisations IT network. Productivity can be hugely improved by ensuring that employees have the newest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication within the business is helped when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every workstation under their control. The benefits of SAM are not confined to the technological hardware of your organisation.
Cost Savings
As discussed previously, perhaps the most convincing reason to utilise software asset management within your company is the potential cost 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 increase this profitability by descreasing costs is one that should be considered. Money can be saved in a number of ways.
The most immediate way that software asset management can help to reduce costs is by identifying any applications running on your corporate network that is no longer needed. The software might not be being used any longer, 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 company you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and maintenance contracts means that more finance can be spent on the essential sections of your IT system.
Mitigate Risk
A surprising proportion of software that is currently used in the business environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Running any amount of uncontrolled 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 uncontrolled IT system in a number of ways. Software may have been included when your IT hardware was originally 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 system. Operating a corporate IT system in this unmanaged way will almost certainly lead to trouble.
The danger of running unlicensed software on your network is clear. When anything goes wrong with the hardware or software platform supporting your critical 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 seriously limit your responsiveness to unpredictable events. The cost of recovery will forever outweigh the cost of mitigation when it comes to IT systems.
SAM is a leading product that is available from all up to date Centennial distributors providing IT services to a wide range of industries.
Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are many potential advantages to utilising a good SAM strategy within your business, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to consider which elements of SAM you should implement first since certain benefits will be realised more speedily than others.
This discovery process can be viewed as three primary stages that have to be undertaken to truly build an informative picture of the usage of IT assets within your organisation. These are:
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental function of the discovery cycle. 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 networks can be investigated and analysed in a reasonably short period. Inventory must be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their geographical location or computing characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.
Capture
The next step in the discovery process is the capture of the license entitlements that manage the software programs identified in the inventory. The capture stage should gather entitlements for all of the software that is installed on your network, even if the software is not currently in use. Without this step the inventory may be almost useless.
The factor of human error can be avoided by using automatic tools that are specifically created to create a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently employed are very efficient at gathering accurate information.
Identification & Validation
The next process 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 invoices for software to the most recent audits undertaken on your IT network. These errors can now be rectified.
One critical factor in the validation stage is the ability to combine the license entitlements within your network to your company’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital if any arguments with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery process.
Once these steps have been performed you will have created an incredibly detailed picture of how your IT system is delivering software programs to its users. It will be a lot simpler to identify any trouble areas on your system, or areas of software usage that are no longer of any practical benefit to your operations.
You can now begin a period of reconciliation upon your system. You can compare the software packages that are actually used on your network 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 within your system may include many hundreds or perhaps 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 stage, utilising one or more tools to apply smart rules to the process.
To find out more about the SAM process you could use Centennial reseller resources through the Internet.
Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management
Many of the fundamental principles of a successful SAM strategy are based upon the concepts set out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library defines a number of ideas and best practices that should be followed for successful control of IT functions. The ITIL can be found online.
This library is a changing entity and is often updated with new concepts and policies that cater to the ever changing IT environment of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be fluid enough to follow the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst meeting 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 set of suggestions that are built to ensure that SAM is used in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”.
The ISO standard should really be adhered to when designing a SAM strategy for your own business, although the level of detail covered within can easily become a daunting challenge. It is important to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when designing a software asset management strategy, whatever plan you decide to implement needs to aid your business rather than stifle it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them to your company.
Designing a full and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own business might actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible enough to change and grow as your organisation does, and it must allow for updates to your daily tasks, no matter how trivial or underlying they might be. This really is the key to a worthwhile SAM plan.
Conclusion
It is easy to see that as the scope and importance of computer 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 forward the business. IT systems are now critical to the modern company. Crucial systems need to be monitored to an appropriate standard.
As with other parts of any organisation, a number of different strategies should be evaluated and used in order to ensure the efficient running of day to day activities. software asset management should not be the only tactic used to manage computing resources within your organisation, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary policies used to control the system as a unit. SAM can go a long way toward aiding your business but should be supported by other techniques.
So if you feel that your organisation is currently suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and management over its IT network, or that the possible benefits described in this article could provide a crucial market advantage over your competitors, then it would be well worth researching how software asset management could be employed within your company.