Introduction
The extent to which computing has become a part of normal life and day-to-day commerce has forced a change in the way management approaches how they manage the money, the processes and the assets within a business.
As computing becomes more widely used within an organisation and takes a more prominent vital within the critical functions of that business, it is important 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 vital elements of any company. As such, they are allocated larger budgets but must also be able to handle a larger amount of responsibility. There is an eternal race between corporate demands and computing capabilities.
But once you have spent a large amount of money on developing your IT infrastructure and seen the needs of your business change, how do you make sure that the systems you are using can keep up with demand?
This is the function by IT management software and procedures.
Every company and every environment will have different needs and will present different problems. To satisfy these needs there are a range of different solutions and approaches that can be implemented to help manage the IT infrastructure 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 maintaining the deployment and usage of software suites within your organisation. It is a business process rather than a distinct discipline and is becoming a more critical part of the modern corporate environment, particularly for companies operating in the field of IT. 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 an aid for technicians installing 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 monitoring costs of the IT infrastructure within a organisation, 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 thought of 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. Once existing problems have been identified however, the use of SAM becomes self evident.
Economic benefits are still the most driving business factor when choosing to operate SAM technology within an organisation. Every business needs to make money after all and profitability is a very measurable figure.
An increasingly large percentage of a organisation’s IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a critical need to invest to correctly monitor this spending. As companies grow and diversify, their software requirements can change radically and hardware and programs can swiftly 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 IT department of your business either. As a management process it will often include many of the departments within a company, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as cost-effectively as possible.
SAM can easily be achieved within your business through a operable Centennial Discovery package that is tailored to your requirements.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having seen the multiple benefits of deploying a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be right for your organisation? Each company is different and has its own unique set of problems and benefits, so any strategy you will undertake needs to be tailored to these specific traits. The benefits of SAM do cover the basic aspects of software management.
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 vastly by ensuring that employees have the latest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication inside the business is helped when support staff know exactly what is installed on every computer under their control.
Cost Savings
As discussed before, perhaps the most convincing reason to implement SAM 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 improve this profitability by descreasing costs is one that should be considered. Money can be saved in a multitude of ways.
The most immediate way that software asset management can help to lower costs is by identifying any software running on your corporate network that is no longer needed. 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 benefit to the operation of your organisation you are streamlining a large portion of your IT network. Paying for unneeded software licenses and maintenance contracts means that more finance can be spent on the vital parts of your IT infrastructure. Focusing your finances on these critical components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.
Mitigate Risk
A surprising amount of software that is actively used in the business environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Running any amount of uncontrolled software on your IT network is ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become incredibly 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 bought although the initial software licenses may have expired. Without the correct access policies in place, users may also be able to install their own software onto the network.
The risk of running unlicensed software on your network is clear. When something goes wrong with the hardware or software platform behind your critical processes, how do you handle the situation? Operating a complex software system without the proper support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can seriously inhibit your responsiveness to unpredictable events. The cost of recovery will forever outweigh the cost of mitigation when it comes to IT systems.
There are a great deal of affordable Centennial distributors focusing on software asset management who can create the ideal solution for your company.
Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are numerous potential benefits to employing a good software asset management strategy within your organisation, both monetary and otherwise. It is vitally important to determine which branches of software asset management you should deploy first since certain benefits will be realised more speedily than others.
This discovery process can be seen as three basic stages that have to be undertaken to really build an informative picture of the deployment of software assets within your business. These are:
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental stage of the discovery cycle. It is important that an accurate inventory of software assets within your organisation is created to aid your IT department to maintain baselines regarding your IT system.
Fortunately, this process can now be made automatic and even the largest of infrastructures can be searched and analysed in a relatively short period of time. Inventory must be able to identify your software assets regardless of their physical location or computing characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.
Capture
The next step in the discovery cycle involves the capture of the license entitlements that cover the software assets discovered in the inventory. The capture process should collect entitlements for all of the software that is installed 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 designed to build a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently available are incredibly efficient at capturing accurate data. 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 inventory to the repository of licensing information that were created in the last two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original invoices for software to the latest audits performed on your IT system. These errors can now be rectified.
One crucial factor in the validation step is the ability to combine the license entitlements within your network to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential if any arguments with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle.
Once these steps have been undertaken you will have created an incredibly rich image of how your IT network is serving software packages to its users. It will be much easier to identify any trouble areas on your system, or areas of software usage that are no longer of any practical benefit to your activites.
You can now start a period of reconciliation on 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 bridge any gaps between the two.
The software distribution within your network may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual instances, and there may be 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, utilising one or more tools to apply intelligent rules to the process.
The computing industry is in vital need of plenty of Centennial vendors that will provide the right IT management products.
Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM
Many of the basic principles of a successful software asset management strategy are based upon the concepts laid out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library defines a number of principles and best practices that should be adopted for successful management of IT operations.
This library is a dynamic publication and is often updated with new ideas and techniques that cater to the constantly changing IT backdrop 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 utilised. This is an essential requirement of effective SAM
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies directly to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an incredibly comprehensive collection of suggestions that are designed to ensure that software asset management is used in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”. Standards of this kind play an important role 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 covered 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 implement must aid your business rather than stifle it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them within your organisation.
Creating a complete and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own organisation may actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible enough to change and mature as your organisation does, and it should allow for updates 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 computer systems within your organisation grow, so does the requirement for good and effective monitoring of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT branch was a bonus that would occasionally forward the business. IT systems are now vital to the modern organisation. Crucial systems need to be monitored to an appropriate level.
As with other parts of any organisation, a number of separate strategies should be considered and used in order to ensure the smooth running of day to day tasks. SAM should not be the only tool used to manage technological assets within your company, but rather one of a number of complimentary techniques used to manage the system as a whole.
So if you think that your company is really suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and control over its IT network, or that the possible advantages outlined in this article could manufacture a crucial market edge over your competitors, then it would be worth researching how SAM could be employed within your company.