Introduction
The degree to which technology has become a part of everyday life and everyday commerce has seen a change in the way business approaches how they manage the finances, the processes and the systems within an organisation.
As computing becomes more widely used within a business and takes a more prominent vital within the critical processes of that company, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is applied to this computing. Technological assets that may have previously been ignored are now important factors in the decision making process.
IT capabilities have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as vital elements of any organisation. As such, they receive grander budgets but must also be able to deal with a greater amount of work. There is an eternal race between corporate demands and computing capabilities.
But after you have spent a substantial amount of your budget on developing an IT system and seen the circumstances of your company change, how do you make sure 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 undertaken by IT management software and procedures.
Every organisation and every situation will have different specifications and will offer different problems. 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 managing the deployment and usage of software suites within your company. It is a business process rather than a distinct discipline and is becoming a more essential part of the modern commercial 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 a tool 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 company, 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 SAM is often thought of as an unnecessary evil due to the abstract 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 carried out. Once existing problems have been identified however, the use of SAM becomes self evident.
Monetary benefits are still the most motivating commercial factor when choosing to employ SAM technology within an organisation. Every business needs to make money after all and expenditure is a very measurable metric.
An increasingly large percentage of a organisation’s IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a vital need to invest to correctly handle this spending. As businesses expand and diversify, their software needs can change radically and equipment and programs can swiftly become out of date. There is no requirement to spend money to maintain the licenses on this outdated software, which is where software asset management really delivers an edge.
software asset management is not limited to simply the IT department of your organisation either. As a management process it will often involve many of the departments within a company, 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.
Ironically, IT service companies themselves, such as the service provider Centennial need equally as much IT management as their customers.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the various advantages of employing a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your business? Every company is different and has its own unique set of challenges and advantages, so any plan you will use needs to be catered to these specific characteristics.
There are more than simply financial benefits that can be gained through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across a companies IT system. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that employees have the newest editions of software permitted under current licenses held, and communication within the corporation is helped when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every workstation under their control.
Financial Savings
As discussed before, perhaps the most persuading reason to implement SAM within your company is the potential cost savings that can be made. The profitability of your business is always going to be the bottom line so any strategy that can help to increase this profitability by descreasing costs is one that should be evaluated.
The most direct way that software asset management can help to reduce costs is by identifying any software running on your corporate network 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. software asset management can help to remove this unnecessary overhead.
By clearing these items of software that are no longer a help to the operation of your organisation you are streamlining a large portion of your IT network. Paying for unneeded software licenses and support and maintenance agreements means that more money can be spent on the vital parts of your IT system. Focusing your attention on these critical components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.
Mitigate Risk Factors
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 uncontrolled software on your IT network is ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become very unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly annoying factor for IT managers.
Rogue software programs can be introduced into an unmonitored 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 system.
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? Running a complex software system without the correct support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can critically limit your responsiveness to unforeseen events. The cost of recovery will forever outweigh the cost of mitigation when it comes to data systems.
There are a number of affordable Centennial distributors focusing on SAM who can create the ideal solution for your organisation.
Implementing SAM in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are numerous potential benefits to employing a good software asset management strategy within your company, both monetary and otherwise. It is vitally important to determine which parts of SAM you should deploy first since some benefits will be achieved more quickly than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.
This discovery process can be viewed as three fundamental stages that have to be undertaken to truly build an informative picture of the usage of software assets within your company. These are:
Inventory
Inventory is the most basic stage of the discovery cycle. It is crucial that an accurate inventory of software assets within your business is created to aid your IT department to maintain baselines for your IT system.
Thankfully, this process can now be made automatic and even the largest of infrastructures can be searched and analysed in a reasonably short period. Inventory must be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their physical location or technological characteristics.
Capture
The next step in the discovery process is the capture of the software license entitlements that concern the software programs discovered in the inventory. The capture process should collect entitlements regarding all of the software that is installed on your system, even if the software is not currently in use. Without this step the inventory would be almost useless.
The risk 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 incredibly efficient at gathering accurate data.
Identification & Validation
The third step is to match up the software audit to the repository of licensing information that were built in the previous two stages. Errors may have been made anywhere from the original paperwork 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 associate 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. You want to be as informed as possible in these circumstances.
Once these three steps have been performed you will have created an incredibly rich image of how your IT system is serving software programs to its users. It will be much easier to identify particular trouble areas on your system, or sections of software use that are no longer of any practical benefit to your operations. This detailed map can be used for future reference as well.
You can now commence a period of reconciliation on your system. You should compare the software programs that are actually installed on your system against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and close any gaps between the two.
The software spread in your network may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual installations, 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 stage, utilising one or more programs to apply intelligent rules to the process. These rules can be catered to the specific needs of your company
More about deploying SAM within your business is available through Centennial vendors who can be located around the country.
Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM
Many of the basic practices of a modern 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. The ITIL can be found online.
This library is a changing publication and is often updated with new ideas and techniques that reflect the ever changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good software asset management strategy should be flexible enough to comply with the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst matching the changing requirements of the company 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 set of guidelines 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 essential role in realising standardisation across an industry.
The ISO standard should certainly be followed when planning a SAM strategy for your own business, although the level of detail included 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 implement must aid your organisation rather than hinder it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them to your organisation.
Designing a complete and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own organisation may actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible enough to adapt and grow as your organisation does, and it should allow for updates to your daily activities, no matter how small or fundamental they might be.
Conclusion
It is clear to see that as the scope and importance of IT systems within your organisation grow, so does the need for good and effective monitoring of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT branch was a bonus that would occasionally progress the business. IT networks are now vital to the modern business.
As with other parts of any organisation, a number of separate plans should be evaluated and used in order to ensure the smooth running of daily activities. software asset management should not be the only tactic used to manage technological resources within your organisation, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary policies used to manage the system as a whole.
So if you think that your business is really suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and control over its IT infrastructure, or that the possible advantages outlined in this article could provide a crucial market advantage over your competitors, then it would be well worth investigating how software asset management could be employed within your company.
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