Introduction
The degree to which technology has become a part of normal life and day-to-day business has prompted a change in the way management approaches how they manage the finances, the processes and the systems within an organisation. Technology becoming an important factor in business.
As computing becomes more widely used within an organisation and takes a more prominent role within the vital processes 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 once 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 essential elements of any organisation. As such, they receive grander budgets but must also be able to manage a greater amount of responsibility. There is an eternal race between business demands and IT capabilities.
But after you have spent a large amount of your budget on developing an IT network and seen the needs of your business change, how do you make sure that the technology you are using can keep up with demand?
This is the role undertaken by IT management software and procedures.
Every organisation and every situation will have different requirements and will present different problems. To satisfy these needs there are a range of different solutions and approaches that can be used to help manage the IT infrastructure of your organisation.One of these approaches is discussed below.
Software Asset Management
Software Asset Management (SAM) 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 critical part of the modern business environment, particularly for businesses operating in the field of Information Technology.
SAM is not simply an aid for technicians rolling out software across a large corporate network, but can be a critical tool to help improve performance at all levels of a company. The objectives of SAM include controlling of the IT infrastructure within a business, 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 software asset management is often thought of as an unnecessary evil due to the abstract nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the business case for using 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 software asset management becomes self evident.
Financial benefits remain the most driving commercial factor when choosing to employ SAM technology within a business. Every business needs to make money after all and revenue is a very measurable metric.
An increasingly large amount of a company’s IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a critical need to invest to correctly monitor this spending. As businesses grow and diversify, their software requirements can change radically and hardware and software can quickly become outdated. 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 cycle it will often involve many of the departments within a company, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as efficiently as possible.
SAM can easily be achieved within your organisation through a feasible companypackage that is tailored to your requirements.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having seen the many advantages of deploying a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your organisation? Every company is different and has its own unique set of problems and advantages, so any plan you will use needs to be catered to these specific traits.
There are more than simply financial advantages that can be made through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across a businesses IT system. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that employees have the newest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication within 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 convincing reason to utilise SAM within your business is the potential cost savings that can be achieved. The profitability of your company is always going to be the bottom line so any strategy that can help to improve this profitability by reducing expenses is one that should be considered.
The most immediate way that SAM can help to lower costs is by identifying any software running on your corporate network 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 running of your business you are streamlining a large portion of your IT network. Paying for unneeded software licenses and maintenance contracts means that more finance can be spent on the critical sections of your IT system. Focusing your finances on these vital components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.
Mitigate Risk
A surprising amount of software that is actively used in the business environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Having any amount of unmonitored software on your IT network is not advised, because when left unchecked it can become incredibly unpredictable.
Rogue software applications can be introduced into an uncontrolled IT environment in a number of ways. Software may have been included when your IT hardware was originally purchased although the original software licenses may have expired. Without the correct security policies in place, users may also be able to install their own software onto the system. Running a corporate IT system in this wild way will almost certainly lead to trouble.
The risk of running unlicensed software on your system is clear. When anything 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 unpredictable events.
The financial case for working alongside a full-time virtualization throughout your IT review process has never been stronger.
Implementing SAM in your Organisation
As previously discussed, there are numerous potential advantages to utilising a good software asset management strategy within your organisation, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to consider which elements of SAM you should implement first since some benefits will be realised more speedily than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.
This discovery process can be seen as three primary areas that have to be performed to really build an informative picture of the usage of IT assets within your company.
Inventory
Inventory is the most basic function of the discovery process. It is vital that an accurate audit of software assets within your business is created to aid your IT managers to maintain baselines regarding your IT network.
Thankfully, this process can now be made automatic and even the grandest of networks can be investigated and analysed in a relatively short period of time. Inventory should be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their physical location or computing characteristics.
Capture
The second step in the discovery process involves the capture of the software 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 if the software is not currently in use.
The risk of human error can be mitigated by using automatic tools that are specifically designed to build a library of license entitlements. Packages that are currently employed are incredibly efficient at capturing accurate information.
Identification & Validation
The third step is to match up your software audit to the repository of licensing data that were built in the last two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original paperwork for software to the most recent audits undertaken on your IT network. These errors can now be rectified.
One crucial factor in the validation stage is the ability to link the license entitlements within your system to your company’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital if any disputes with software resellers arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle.
Once these three steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly detailed picture of how your IT network is delivering software programs to its users. It will be a lot easier to identify any trouble spots on your network, or sections of software usage that are no longer of any practical benefit to your operations.
You can now begin a period of reconciliation on your system. You can compare the software packages that are actually installed on your network against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and close any gaps between the two.
The software spread within your system may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual instances, and there may be any number of restrictions that may be associated with the licensing contracts you have in place. It is therefore essential to automate the reconciliation stage, using one or more programs to apply intelligent rules to the process.
More about deploying software asset management within your organisation is accessible through my company which can be located around the country.
Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management
Many of the basic principles of a successful SAM strategy are based upon the concepts set out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library defines a number of principles and best practices that should be adopted for successful management of IT operations. The ITIL can be found online.
This library is a changing entity and is often updated with new concepts and policies that cater to the ever changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be fluid enough to follow the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing needs of the company within which it is actively utilised. This is an essential requirement of effective SAM
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has published a standard that applies specifically to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an incredibly comprehensive set of guidelines that are designed 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 planning a software asset management strategy for your own organisation, 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 designing a SAM strategy, whatever plan you decide to employ must help your organisation rather than stifle it.
Creating a complete and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own company might actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible to adapt and mature as your business does, and it should allow for modifications to your daily tasks, 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 company grow, so does the requirement for correct and efficient monitoring of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT department was a luxury that would occasionally forward the business. IT networks are now vital to the modern company. Critical systems need to be monitored to an appropriate level.
As with other branches of any organisation, a number of separate strategies should be evaluated and utilised in order to ensure the efficient running of daily activities. SAM should not be the only tactic used to manage computing resources within your company, but rather one of a number of complimentary policies used to manage the system as a whole.
So if you think that your company is currently suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and management over its IT infrastructure, or that the potential advantages described in this article could manufacture a crucial market advantage over your competitors, then it would be worth researching how SAM could be employed within your company.