How to control your Software Licenses
Introduction
The degree to which technology has become a part of normal life and everyday commerce has forced a change in the way management approaches how they manage the money, the processes and the assets within an organisation.
As computing becomes more widely used within a business and takes a more prominent critical within the vital processes of that business, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is applied to this technology. Technological systems that may have previously been overlooked are now important elements in the decision making process.
IT departments have come a long way during the past few years and are now seen as vital parts of any organisation. As such, they are allocated larger budgets but must also be able to handle a greater amount of work.
But after you have spent a large amount of money on developing your IT network and seen the needs of your company 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 prohibitive amount of money?
This is the function by IT management software and systems.
Every business and every environment will have different requirements and will offer unique problems. To satisfy these requirements there are a range of different solutions and approaches that can be implemented to help manage the IT assets 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 programs within your organisation. It is a business process rather than a distinct skill and is becoming a more essential part of the modern business environment, particularly for corporations 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 a tool for support staff installing software across a large corporate network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at all levels of a business. The aims of SAM include monitoring costs of the IT infrastructure within a organisation, negating legal threats 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 financial case for using a SAM solution is not always obvious until a broad audit 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 commercial factor when deciding to use SAM software within an organisation. Every company needs to make profit after all and profitability is a very measurable figure. The financial benefits of software asset management do certainly exist however.
An increasingly large proportion of a company’s IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a real need to invest to correctly handle this spending. As businesses expand and diversify, their software requirements can change radically and equipment and programs can swiftly 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.
software asset management is not restricted to simply the technology of your company either. As a management process it will often involve many of the departments within a company, including Finance Human Resources, to make sure that it runs as efficiently as possible.
One highly recommend software asset management package say Centennial resellers would be SAM.Suite; a modern solution to modern IT licensing challenges.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the multiple benefits of employing a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your organisation? Every business 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. The benefits of SAM do cover the basic aspects of IT management.
There are more than just monetary advantages that can be achieved through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across an organisations IT network. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that employees have the latest editions of software permitted under current licenses held, and communication inside the business is aided when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every workstation under their control.
Cost Savings
As discussed before, perhaps the most persuading reason to utilise 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 plan that can help to improve this profitability by lowering costs is one that should be considered.
The most direct way that software asset management can help to lower costs is by targeting any software running on your corporate network that is no longer necessary. 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 clearing these items of software that are no longer a help to the operation of your company you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT network. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and support and maintenance contracts means that more finance can be spent on the vital sections of your IT infrastructure.
Mitigate Risk
A surprising percentage of software that is currently used in the business environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Having any amount of unmonitored software on your IT system is not 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 included when your IT hardware was originally bought although the original software licenses may have expired. Without the correct control 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 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 seriously limit your responsiveness to unpredictable events. The cost of recovery will forever outweigh the cost of prevention when it comes to data systems.
If you are willing to do business with the most appropriate Centennial distributoryour company will be well placed to achieve the maximum potential from software asset management.
Implementing SAM in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are numerous 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 deploy first since certain benefits will be realised more quickly than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.
The discovery process can be viewed as three fundamental areas that have to be performed to truly develop an accurate picture of the usage of IT assets within your business. These are:
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental function of the discovery cycle. It is vital that an accurate inventory of IT assets within your business is created to help your IT department to maintain baselines for your IT system.
Thankfully, this process can now be automated and even the grandest of infrastructures can be searched and analysed in a reasonably short period. Inventory must be able to identify your software assets regardless of their physical location or technological characteristics.
Capture
The next step in the discovery cycle is the capture of the license entitlements that concern the software programs identified in the inventory. The capture process should collect entitlements for all of the software that exists on your system, even when the software is not currently used.
The element of human error can be mitigated by using automated tools that are specifically designed to create a library of license entitlements. Packages that are currently employed are incredibly 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 the software audit to the repository of licensing data that were created in the last two stages. Errors may have been made anywhere from the original invoices for software to the latest audits undertaken on your IT network. These errors can now be rectified.
One crucial factor in the validation stage 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 resellers arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle.
After these three steps have been undertaken you will have built an incredibly rich image of how your IT system is serving software programs to its users. It will be much simpler to identify particular trouble areas on your system, or sections of software usage that are no longer of any practical benefit to your operations.
You can now start a period of reconciliation on your network. You can compare the software programs that are actually used on your system against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and close any gaps between the two. This is when the financial benefits of SAM start to take effect.
The software distribution within your system may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual instances, and there are any number of rules that may be associated with the licensing contracts you have in place. It is therefore essential to automate the reconciliation process, utilising one or more tools to apply smart rules to the process.
To see how SAM can directly aid your company use an available Centennial consultant who can construct a software asset management strategy suited to your needs.
Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management
Many of the basic practices of a successful software asset management strategy are based upon the principles set out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library details a number of concepts and best practices that should be adopted for successful management of IT functions.
This library is a dynamic publication and is often updated with new concepts and policies that reflect the constantly 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 meeting the changing requirements of the company within which it is actively utilised. This is an essential requirement of successful software asset management
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 collection 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 certainly be adhered to when designing a SAM strategy for your own organisation, although the level of detail included within can easily become a daunting challenge. It is vital to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when creating a software asset management strategy, whatever you decide to employ needs to aid your business rather than stifle it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them to your business.
Designing a full and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own company might actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible to adapt and mature as your business does, and it should allow for updates to your daily tasks, no matter how trivial or fundamental they might be. This really is the key to a worthwhile SAM strategy.
Conclusion
It is clear to see that as the scope and importance of IT systems within your company grow, so does the need for correct and efficient monitoring of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT department was a luxury that would sometimes progress the business. IT networks are now critical to the modern organisation. Critical systems need to be controlled to an appropriate level.
As with other parts of any organisation, a number of separate plans should be evaluated and used in order to ensure the efficient running of daily activities. SAM should not be the only tool used to manage technological resources 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 structured monitoring and control over its IT network, or that the possible advantages outlined in this article could provide a crucial market advantage over your competitors, then it would be worth researching how software asset management could be employed within your organisation. There might be no time to lose.
