Introduction

The degree to which technology has become a part of normal life and day-to-day business has seen a change in the way business approaches how they manage the finances, the tasks and the assets within an organisation.

As computing becomes more widely used within an organisation and takes a more prominent role within the critical functions of that business, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is applied to this computing. Technological systems that may have previously been ignored are now important factors 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 organisation. As such, they receive larger budgets but must also be able to manage a larger amount of work. There is an eternal race between business needs and IT capabilities.

But once you have spent a substantial amount of money on developing your IT infrastructure and seen the needs of your company change, how do you ensure 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 carried out by IT management software and systems.

Every organisation and every environment will have different specifications and will offer different issues. To satisfy these requirements there are a number of different solutions and approaches that can be used to help manage the IT assets of your organisation.One of these solutions is discussed below.

Software Asset Management

SAM ( Software Asset Management) 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 business environment, particularly for corporations operating in the field of Information Technology.

SAM is not simply a tool for technicians rolling out software across a large corporate network, but can be a critical tool to help improve performance at many levels of a organisation. The goals of SAM include controlling 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 SAM is often seen as an unnecessary evil due to the intangible nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the financial case for using a SAM solution is not always obvious until a full of the software infrastructure of a company has been carried out.

Economic benefits are still the most motivating commercial factor when deciding to operate software asset management software within a business. Every corporation needs to make profit after all and expenditure is a very measurable figure.

An increasingly large proportion of a organisation’s IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a critical need to invest to correctly manage this spending. As businesses grow and diversify, their software requirements can change greatly and equipment and software can quickly become outdated. There is no need to spend money to maintain the licenses on this outdated software, which is where SAM really delivers an edge.

SAM 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 make sure that it runs as efficiently as possible. It is a process that does not need to follow regular.

When choosing an appropriate provider of a SAM solution for your system virtualisation must be a solution that is considered amongst many.

Why follow a SAM Strategy?

Having seen the various benefits of deploying a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be right for your company? Every company is different and has its own unique set of problems and benefits, so any strategy you will use needs to be tailored to these specific characteristics. The benefits of software asset management do cover the basic aspects of IT management.

There are more than just cost benefits that can be achieved through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across a businesses IT network. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that staff have the latest editions of software available 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. The benefits of SAM are not confined to the technological hardware of your organisation.

Cost Savings

As discussed before, perhaps the most convincing reason to utilise SAM within your company is the potential cost savings that can be made. The profitability of your company is always going to be the bottom line so any system that can help to increase this profitability by reducing expenses is one that should be evaluated. Money can be saved in a number of ways.

The most direct way that software asset management can help to reduce costs is by targeting any software running on your corporate IT system 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.

By removing these items of software that are no longer a benefit to the operation of your business you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT system. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and maintenance contracts means that more money can be spent on the critical sections of your IT infrastructure. Focusing your finances on these vital components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.

Mitigate Risk Factors

A surprising proportion of software that is actively used in the corporate environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Running any amount of unmonitored 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 network managers.

Rogue software applications can be introduced into an unmonitored IT environment 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 system. Operating a corporate IT system in this unmanaged way will almost certainly lead to trouble.

The danger of running unlicensed software on your system is clear. When something goes wrong with the hardware or software platform behind your critical processes, how do you recover the situation? Operating a complex software system without the correct support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can critically inhibit your responsiveness to unforeseen events.

The financial case for working with a part-time virtualization during your IT audit process has never been stronger.

Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation

As previously discussed, there are numerous potential benefits to using a good software asset management strategy within your business, both monetary and otherwise. It is vitally important to determine which parts of SAM you should implement first since certain benefits will be realised more speedily than others.

This discovery process can be seen as three fundamental stages that have to be performed to truly develop an informative picture of the usage of software assets within your organisation.

Inventory

Inventory is the most basic function of the discovery cycle. It is crucial that an accurate audit of software assets within your organisation is created to aid your IT department to maintain baselines for your IT system. This inventory process must be performed before continuing with discovery.
Fortunately, this process can now be automated and even the largest of networks can be searched and analysed in a relatively short period. Inventory must be able to identify your software assets regardless of their geographical location or technological characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.

Capture

The second step in the discovery cycle is the capture of the software license entitlements that concern the software programs discovered in the inventory. The capture process should gather entitlements for all of the software that is installed on your system, even when the software is not currently in use. Without this step the inventory may be almost useless.

The factor 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.

Identification & Validation

The next process is to match up your software audit to the repository of licensing information 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 crucial factor in the validation step is the ability to link the license entitlements within your network to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital if any disputes with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle.

After these three steps have been performed you will have created an incredibly rich image of how your IT system is serving software assets to its users. It will be a lot simpler to identify any trouble areas on your network, or sections of software usage that are no longer of any particular benefit to your activites.

You can now begin a period of reconciliation upon your network. You can compare the software packages that are actually installed on your network against the licensing and support contracts that you are paying for and close any divides between the two.

The software spread within your network may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual instances, and there may be any number of rules that may be associated with the licensing contracts you have in place. It is therefore a necessity to automate the reconciliation period, using one or more programs to apply intelligent rules to the process. These rules can be catered to the specific needs of your organisation.

The use SAM within your organisation is a very specific cycle which can be planned by a capable 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 details a number of ideas and best practices that should be followed for successful management of IT functions.

This library is a changing entity and is often updated with new concepts 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 laid out in the ITIL whilst matching the changing requirements of the business within which it is actively used. This is an essential requirement of successful software asset management

The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies directly to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally comprehensive collection of suggestions that are built to ensure that SAM is utilised in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”. Standards of this kind play an important role in realising standardisation across an industry.

The ISO standard should certainly be adhered to when designing a software asset management strategy for your own company, although the level of detail included within can easily become a daunting challenge. It is important to remember that no matter what recommendations you follow when creating a software asset management strategy, whatever plan you decide to employ must help your organisation rather than hinder it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them within your organisation.

Designing a complete and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own business might actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible to change and mature as your organisation does, and it should allow for modifications to your daily tasks, no matter how small or underlying they might be.

Conclusion

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

As with other branches of any company, a number of different strategies should be considered and used in order to ensure the smooth running of daily tasks. SAM should not be the only tool used to manage technological assets within your company, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary policies used to control the system as a unit. SAM can go a long way toward helping your business but should be helped by other strategies.

So if you feel 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 manufacture a critical market advantage over your competitors, then it would be well worth investigating how software asset management could be used within your business.