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Introduction

The extent to which technology has become a part of normal life and everyday commerce has seen a change in the way business approaches how they manage the money, the tasks and the systems within a business.

As computing becomes more widespread within a company and takes a more prominent role within the vital functions of that company, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is applied to this technology.

Technology have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as vital parts of any company. As such, they receive greater budgets but must also be able to handle a greater amount of work. There is an eternal race between business demands and computing capabilities.

But once you have spent a large amount of money on developing an IT system and seen the requirements of your organisation change, how do you make sure that the IT 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 undertaken by IT management software and procedures.

Every organisation and every situation will have different requirements and will create different issues. To satisfy these requirements there are a number of different technologies and approaches that can be implemented to help manage the IT infrastructure of your organisation.

Software Asset Management

SAM ( Software Asset Management) is built to do exactly what it says on the tin - monitoring and controlling the deployment and usage of software packages within your company. It is a business process rather than a distinct discipline and is becoming a more essential part of the modern corporate environment, particularly for companies 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 an aid for support staff rolling out software across a large company network, but can be a critical tool to help improve performance at many levels of a company. The objectives of SAM include managing of the IT infrastructure within a organisation, negating legal risks 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.

The practice of software asset management 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 going with a SAM solution is not always obvious until a full of the software infrastructure of a company has been done. Once existing problems have been identified however, the use of SAM becomes self evident.

Monetary benefits remain the most motivating business factor when deciding to employ SAM software within an organisation. Every business needs to make money after all and expenditure is a very measurable figure. The financial benefits of SAM do certainly exist however.

An increasingly large percentage of a company’s IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a vital need to invest to correctly manage this spending. As companies expand and spread, their software needs can change radically and equipment and software can quickly become out of date. There is no need 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 operation it will often include many of the departments within a company, including Finance Human Resources, to make sure that it runs as efficiently as possible.

Some of the most experienced SAM technicians work at Centennial specialists so their skills are put to good use.

Why follow a SAM Strategy?

Having heard the multiple advantages of deploying 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 benefits, so any plan you will undertake needs to be tailored to these specific characteristics.

There are more than just cost advantages that can be achieved through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across a companies IT system. Productivity can be hugely boosted by ensuring that employees have the latest versions of software permitted under current licenses held, and communication inside the corporation is helped when support staff know exactly what is in use on every workstation under their control.

Financial Savings

As discussed previously, perhaps the most persuading 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 plan that can help to improve this profitability by reducing costs is one that should be considered. Money can be saved in a number of ways.

The most immediate way that SAM can help to lower costs is by identifying any applications running on your corporate IT system that is no longer necessary. The software might not be being used anymore, 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 portion of your IT network. Paying for unneeded software licenses and support and maintenance agreements means that more finance can be spent on the essential sections of your IT infrastructure. Focusing your finances on these vital components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.

Mitigate Risk

A surprising percentage of software that is currently used in the business environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Running any amount of unmonitored software on your IT network is ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become incredibly unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly annoying factor for network managers.

Rogue software applications can be introduced into an uncontrolled IT system in a number of ways. Software may have been bundled when your IT hardware was first bought although the original 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 system is clear. When anything goes wrong with the hardware or software platform supporting your critical processes, how do you handle the situation? Running a complex software system without the proper support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can critically inhibit your responsiveness to unpredictable events.

Some of the most profitable Centennial distributors throughout recent times have viewed SAM as key part of their portfolio.

Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation

As previously mentioned, there are many potential benefits to employing a good SAM strategy within your business, both monetary and otherwise. It is vitally important to consider which branches of SAM you should implement first since some benefits will be realised more quickly than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.

This discovery process can be viewed as three primary stages that have to be performed to truly build an informative picture of the usage of software assets within your organisation. These are:

Inventory

Inventory is the most fundamental function of the discovery process. It is crucial that an accurate inventory of IT assets within your business is created to help your IT managers to maintain baselines for your IT network. This inventory process must be performed before carrying on with discovery.
Thankfully, this process can now be made automatic and even the largest of networks can be searched and analysed in a reasonably short period. Inventory should be able to identify your software assets regardless of their physical location or technological characteristics.

Capture

The second step in the discovery process is the capture of the software license entitlements that manage the software assets 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 used. Without this step the inventory may be almost useless.

The factor of human error can be mitigated by using automatic tools that are specifically designed to create a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently employed are very efficient at gathering accurate data. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from software vendors.

Identification & Validation

The third step is to match up your software inventory to the repository of licensing data that were created in the last two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original paperwork for software to the latest audits performed on your IT system.

One critical factor in the validation stage is the ability to link the license entitlements on your system 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.

After these three steps have been undertaken you will have created an incredibly rich picture of how your IT network is delivering software programs to its users. It will be a lot simpler to identify particular trouble spots on your network, or areas of software usage that are no longer of any particular benefit to your activites. This detailed map can be used for future reference as well.

You can now begin a period of reconciliation on your system. You can compare the software programs that are actually installed on your network against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and bridge any gaps between the two.

The software distribution in your system may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual installations, and there may be any number of rules that may be involved with the licensing agreements you have in place. It is therefore essential to automate the reconciliation period, using one or more tools to apply intelligent rules to the process.

To learn more about the software asset management process you could use Centennial reseller resources through the web.

Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM

Many of the basic practices of a modern 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 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 ever changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good software asset management strategy should be fluid enough to follow the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing needs of the company within which it is actively used. This is an essential requirement of successful SAM

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 guidelines that are designed to ensure that SAM is utilised in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”. Standards of this kind play an essential part in realising standardisation across an industry.

The ISO standard should really be followed when designing a software asset management strategy for your own company, although the level of detail covered within can easily become a daunting prospect. It is vital to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when creating a software asset management strategy, whatever plan you decide to employ must aid your business rather than hinder 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 business might actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible to change and grow as your organisation does, and it should allow for modifications to your daily activities, no matter how small or underlying they might be.

Conclusion

It is clear to see that as the scope and importance of computer systems within your company grow, so does the requirement for good and efficient management of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT branch was a luxury that would occasionally progress the business. Computer networks are now vital to the modern organisation.

As with other branches of any company, a number of separate strategies should be considered and used in order to ensure the efficient running of daily activities. software asset management should not be the only tactic used to manage computing assets within your organisation, but rather one of a number of complimentary policies used to manage the system as a whole. software asset management can go a long way toward helping your business but should be supported by other techniques.

So if you think that your company is currently suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and management over its IT network, or that the possible benefits described in this article could provide a crucial market edge over your competitors, then it would be worth researching how SAM could be used within your business.

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