Introduction

The extent to which technology has become a part of everyday life and day-to-day commerce has forced a change in the way business approaches how they manage the finances, the tasks and the systems within a business.

As computing becomes more widely used within a business and takes a more prominent vital within the vital functions of that organisation, it is important to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is given to this computing. Technological systems that may have previously been ignored are now important elements in the decision making process.

Technology have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as essential parts of any company. As such, they receive larger budgets but must also be able to manage a larger amount of responsibility.

But after you have spent a substantial amount of money on developing your IT infrastructure and seen the circumstances of your business change, how do you ensure that the systems 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 systems.

Every organisation and every environment will have different specifications and will offer different issues. To meet these requirements there are a number of different technologies and approaches that can be used to help manage the IT infrastructure of your organisation.

Software Asset Management

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

SAM is not simply a program for technicians deploying software across a large corporate network, but can be a critical tool to help improve performance at many levels of a company. The aims of SAM include monitoring expenses of the IT infrastructure within a organisation, negating legal threats 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. As IT usage in a company grows, so do the potential benefits of SAM.

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 complete of the software infrastructure of a company has been done.

Monetary benefits are still the most driving business factor when deciding to operate software asset management technology within a company. Every business needs to make money after all and profitability is a very measurable metric.

An increasingly large amount of a organisation’s IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a critical need to invest to correctly monitor this spending. As organisations expand and diversify, their software needs can change radically and equipment and programs can quickly become outdated. There is no need to spend money to maintain the licenses on this outdated software, which is where software asset management really delivers an edge.

SAM is not restricted to simply the IT department of your organisation either. As a management cycle it will often involve many of the departments within a organisation, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as efficiently as possible.

SAM can easily be achieved within your business through a viable Centennial Discovery solution that is tailored to your specific needs.

Why follow a SAM Strategy?

Having seen the many advantages of utilising a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be right for your business? Every business is different and has its own separate set of challenges and advantages, so any strategy you will undertake needs to be catered to these specific characteristics. The benefits of SAM do cover the fundamental aspects of IT management.

There are more than just monetary benefits that can be gained through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across an organisations IT system. Productivity can be vastly by ensuring that staff have the latest editions of software permitted under current licenses held, and communication inside the corporation is aided when support staff know exactly what is installed on every computer under their control.

Financial Savings

As discussed previously, perhaps the most persuading 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 strategy that can help to increase this profitability by descreasing expenses is one that should be evaluated.

The most immediate way that SAM 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. software asset management can be used to remove this unnecessary overhead.

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 network. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and maintenance agreements means that more money 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 Factors

A surprising proportion of software that is currently used in the corporate 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 incredibly unpredictable.

Unlicensed 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 original software licenses may have expired. Without the correct access policies in place, users may also be able to load their own software onto the network.

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 manage 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 unforeseen events. The cost of recovery will forever outweigh the cost of mitigation when it comes to IT systems.

Many businesses have reported increases in productivity after Centennial consultants planned alongside their current IT support staff.

Implementing SAM in your Organisation

As previously mentioned, there are numerous potential advantages to utilising a good software asset management strategy within your business, both monetary and otherwise. It is therefore important to consider which branches 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.

The discovery process can be viewed as three basic phases that have to be performed to really develop an accurate picture of the deployment of software assets within your organisation. These are:

Inventory

Inventory is the most basic stage of the discovery process. It is crucial that an accurate inventory 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 carrying on with discovery.
Thankfully, this process can now be automated and even the largest of networks can be investigated and analysed in a relatively short period. Inventory should be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their geographical location or computing characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.

Capture

The second step in the discovery process involves the capture of the software license entitlements that manage the software programs identified in the inventory. The capture stage should collect entitlements for all of the software that exists on your network, even when the software is not currently used.

The element of human error can be avoided by using automated tools that are specifically designed to create a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently available are very efficient at gathering accurate information.

Identification & Validation

The third process is to match up your software inventory to the repository of licensing data that were built in the previous two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original invoices for software to the latest audits undertaken on your IT system.

One critical factor in the validation step is the ability to link the license entitlements within your system to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential if any arguments 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 built an incredibly rich image of how your IT system is delivering software assets to its users. It will be a lot simpler to identify particular trouble areas on your system, or areas of software usage that are no longer of any practical benefit to your operations.

You can now commence a period of reconciliation on your system. You can compare the software packages that are actually used on your network against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and bridge any gaps between the two.

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

The IT industry is in dire need for more Centennial vendors that can supply the right IT monitoring services.

Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management

Many of the fundamental principles of a modern SAM strategy are based upon the principles laid 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 dynamic publication and is often updated with new concepts and techniques that reflect the constantly changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good software asset management strategy should be fluid enough to follow the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst matching the changing requirements of the company within which it is actively utilised.

The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies specifically to software asset management practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an incredibly comprehensive set of guidelines that are built to ensure that software asset management is utilised in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”. Standards of this kind play an important role in achieving 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 prospect. It is important to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when planning a SAM strategy, whatever you decide to employ must help your organisation rather than stifle it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them within your company.

Designing a complete and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own organisation may actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible to adapt and mature as your business does, and it should allow for modifications to your daily activities, no matter how trivial or underlying they might be. This really is the key to a worthwhile software asset management plan.

Conclusion

It is clear to see that as the scope and importance of IT systems within your organisation grow, so does the requirement for correct and efficient management of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT department was a bonus that would sometimes forward the business. IT systems are now critical to the modern organisation.

As with other branches of any company, a number of different strategies should be considered and utilised in order to ensure the smooth running of day to day activities. software asset management should not be the only tool used to manage computing resources within your organisation, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary policies used to manage the system as a whole. software asset management can go a long way toward helping your company but should be supported by other techniques.

So if you feel that your company is currently suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and management over its IT infrastructure, or that the possible benefits described 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 used within your company.