Introduction The extent to which technology has become a part of normal life and everyday commerce has seen a change in the way management approaches how they manage the finances, the tasks and the assets within an organisation. Technology fast becoming an increasing factor in business. As technology becomes more widely used within a business [...]
Introduction
The extent to which technology has become a part of normal life and everyday commerce has seen a change in the way management approaches how they manage the finances, the tasks and the assets within an organisation. Technology fast becoming an increasing factor in business.
As technology becomes more widely used within a business and takes a more prominent role within the critical processes of that business, it is important to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is given to this computing. Technological systems that may have previously been overlooked are now key in the decision making process.
Technology have come a long way during the past few years and are now seen as critical parts of any company. As such, they are allocated larger budgets but must also be able to deal with a larger amount of responsibility. There is an eternal race between corporate needs and computing capabilities.
But once you have spent a substantial amount of money on developing an IT infrastructure and seen the needs of your company change, how do you ensure that the technology you are using can keep up with demand?
This is the role carried out by IT management software and procedures.
Every business and every environment will have different requirements and will present unique challenges. To meet these requirements there are a number of different technologies and approaches that can be implemented to help manage the IT assets of your company.One of these approaches is discussed below.
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 business. It is a business process rather than a distinct area of expertise 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 a tool for technicians rolling out software across a large company network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at multiple levels of a organisation. The goals of SAM include monitoring costs of the IT infrastructure within a organisation, negating legal risks 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.
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 using a SAM solution is not always obvious until a broad audit of the software infrastructure of a company has been undertaken.
Financial benefits remain the most motivating business factor when choosing to operate software asset management technology within an organisation. Every business needs to make money after all and expenditure is a very measurable figure.
An increasingly large amount of a business’ IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a critical need to invest to correctly monitor this spending. As organisations grow and diversify, their software needs can change radically and hardware 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 edge.
software asset management is not limited to simply the IT department of your business either. As a management cycle 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 standard.
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Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having seen the multiple advantages of employing a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your business? Each business is different and has its own unique set of challenges and benefits, so any strategy you will use needs to be catered to these specific traits. The benefits of software asset management do cover the fundamental aspects of IT management.
There are more than simply cost benefits that can be made through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across an organisations IT network. Productivity can be hugely boosted by ensuring that employees have the newest versions of software permitted under current licenses held, and communication within the company is helped when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every computer under their control. The benefits of SAM are not confined to the technological hardware of your business.
Cost Savings
As discussed before, perhaps the most persuading reason to utilise software asset management within your business is the potential financial savings that can be made. The profitability of your company 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 considered.
The most immediate way that SAM can help to reduce costs is by identifying any applications running on your corporate IT system that is no longer necessary. 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 operation of your business you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unneeded software licenses and maintenance agreements means that more money can be spent on the critical parts of your IT system. Focusing your finances on these critical components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.
Mitigate Risk Factors
A surprising percentage of software that is actively used in the corporate 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. This is becoming an increasingly frustrating factor for IT managers.
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 system.
The risk 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 manage the situation? Operating a complex software system without the correct 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 always outweigh the cost of prevention when it comes to IT systems.
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Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are numerous potential advantages to using a good software asset management strategy within your business, both monetary and otherwise. It is vitally important to consider which parts of SAM you should implement first since some benefits will be realised more speedily than others.
This discovery process can be viewed as three primary areas that have to be undertaken 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 important that an accurate inventory of software assets within your organisation is created to help your IT department to maintain baselines for your IT network. This inventory process must be performed before carrying on with discovery.
Fortunately, this process can now be automated and even the largest of infrastructures can be investigated and analysed in a reasonably short period of time. Inventory must be able to identify your software assets regardless of their geographical location or computing characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.
Capture
The next step in the discovery process involves the capture of the license entitlements that concern the software programs identified in the inventory. The capture process should gather entitlements regarding all of the software that is installed on your network, even when the software is not currently used. Without this information the inventory would be almost useless.
The factor of human error can be avoided by using automated tools that are specifically created to build a library of license entitlements. Packages that are currently available are very efficient at capturing accurate data.
Identification & Validation
The third step is to match up the software audit to the repository of licensing data that were created in the previous two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original paperwork for software to the latest audits undertaken on your IT system. These errors can now be rectified.
One critical factor in the validation step is the ability to combine the license entitlements on your network to your company’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential if any disputes with software resellers arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle.
Once these three steps have been undertaken you will have built an incredibly detailed image of how your IT network is serving software packages to its users. It will be much simpler to identify particular trouble spots on your system, or sections of software usage that are no longer of any particular benefit to your activites.
You can now start a period of reconciliation upon your network. 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 distribution within your network may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual installations, and there may be any number of restrictions that may be involved with the licensing contracts you have in place. It is therefore a necessity to automate the reconciliation period, using one or more tools to apply smart rules to the process.
The use software asset management within your business is a very specific process which should be strategised by a good company who will have more information.
Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM
Many of the fundamental practices of a modern software asset management strategy are based upon the principles laid 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 management of IT functions.
This library is a dynamic entity and is often updated with new concepts and techniques that reflect the constantly changing IT environment of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be flexible enough to comply with the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst matching the changing needs of the business within which it is actively used. This is an essential requirement of effective software asset management
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has published a standard that applies specifically to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally comprehensive collection of guidelines that are built to ensure that software asset management is utilised in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”.
The ISO standard should certainly be adhered to when designing a software asset management strategy for your own business, although the level of detail covered within can quickly become a daunting prospect. It is vital to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when planning a software asset management strategy, whatever plan you decide to employ must help your organisation 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 organisation might actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible to change and grow as your business does, and it must allow for updates to your daily activities, no matter how small or underlying they might be.
Conclusion
It is clear to see that as the extent and importance of IT systems within your company grow, so does the requirement for good and effective monitoring of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT department was a bonus that would sometimes progress the business. Computer systems are now vital to the modern business. Crucial systems need to be controlled to an appropriate standard.
As with other branches of any organisation, a number of different strategies should be evaluated and utilised in order to ensure the efficient running of day to day activities. SAM should not be the only tactic used to manage computing assets within your company, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary techniques used to manage the system as a unit. SAM can go a long way toward aiding your business but should be helped by other strategies.
So if you feel that your organisation is currently suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and control over its IT network, or that the potential advantages described in this article could provide a crucial market edge over your competitors, then it would be well worth researching how software asset management could be employed within your organisation.
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