How to control your Software Licenses
Introduction
The degree to which technology has become a part of everyday life and everyday commerce has forced a change in the way business approaches how they manage the finances, the tasks and the assets within a business. Computing fast becoming an increasing factor in business.
As technology becomes more widespread within an organisation and takes a more prominent role within the critical processes of that business, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is given to this computing.
IT capabilities have come a long way during the past few years and are now seen as essential elements of any business. As such, they are allocated larger budgets but must also be able to manage a larger amount of work.
But once you have spent a large amount of money on developing an IT network and seen the needs of your company change, how do you make sure that the IT you are using can keep up with demand?
This is the role undertaken by IT management software and systems.
Every business and every environment will have different requirements and will offer different issues. To satisfy these needs there are a number of different technologies and approaches that can be used to help manage the IT assets of your business.
Software Asset Management
SAM ( Software Asset Management) is designed to do exactly what it says on the tin – monitoring and managing the deployment and usage of software suites within your company. It is a business process rather than a distinct area of expertise and is becoming a more critical part of the modern corporate environment, particularly for corporations 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 program for technicians rolling out software across a large company network, but can be a critical tool to help improve performance at many levels of a business. The aims of SAM include managing of the IT infrastructure within a business, 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 SAM is often thought of as an unnecessary evil due to the intangible nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the business case for employing a SAM solution is not always obvious until a complete of the software infrastructure of a company has been done. Once existing problems have been highlighted however, the use of software asset management becomes self evident.
Monetary benefits are still the most driving commercial factor when choosing to operate software asset management technology within an organisation. Every corporation needs to make money after all and revenue is a very measurable metric.
An increasingly large amount of a company’s IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a real need to invest to correctly monitor this spending. As businesses grow and spread, their software requirements can change greatly and hardware and programs can swiftly 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 advantage.
software asset management is not limited to simply the technology of your business either. As a management operation 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.
The forward thinking IT services firm supplying Centennial Discovery found the need for good software asset management services a very long time ago.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having seen the various advantages of deploying a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your company? Every business is different and has its own separate set of problems and advantages, so any strategy you will undertake 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 management of licensing and maintenance agreements across a businesses IT system. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that staff have the newest editions of software permitted under current licenses held, and communication inside the business is helped when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every workstation under their control. The benefits of software asset management are not confined to the technological hardware of your business.
Financial Savings
As discussed previously, perhaps the most persuading reason to utilise SAM within your business is the potential financial savings that can be made. The profitability of your business is always going to be the bottom line so any system that can help to improve this profitability by reducing expenses is one that should be evaluated. Money can be saved in a number of ways.
The most immediate way that software asset management can help to lower costs is by identifying any applications running on your corporate network that is no longer necessary. The software might not be being used any longer, 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 benefit to the running of your business you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and maintenance contracts means that more finance can be spent on the vital parts 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 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.
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 bought although the initial software licenses may have expired. Without the correct security policies in place, users may also be able to install their own software onto the network.
The danger of running unlicensed software on your system is clear. When something goes wrong with the hardware or software platform supporting your critical processes, how do you handle the situation? Running a complicated 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.
The business case for working alongside a full-time Centennial vendor during your IT review process has never been clearer.
Implementing SAM in your Organisation
As previously discussed, there are many potential advantages to utilising a good SAM strategy within your business, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to determine which branches of software asset management you should implement first since certain benefits will be realised more speedily than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.
The discovery process can be seen as three primary stages that have to be undertaken to really build an informative picture of the deployment of IT assets within your business. These are:
Inventory
Inventory is the most basic stage of the discovery cycle. It is important that an accurate audit of software assets within your business is created to help your IT managers to maintain baselines for your IT network.
Fortunately, this process can now be made automatic and even the largest of networks can be searched and analysed in a relatively short period. Inventory must be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their physical location or computing characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.
Capture
The second step in the discovery process is the capture of the license entitlements that cover the software programs discovered in the inventory. The capture stage should gather entitlements for all of the software that exists on your network, even when the software is not currently used.
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 employed are very efficient at capturing accurate information.
Identification & Validation
The next step is to match up the software audit to the repository of licensing information that were created in the previous two stages. Errors may have been made anywhere from the original invoices for software to the latest audits performed on your IT network. These errors can now be rectified.
One crucial factor in the validation stage is the ability to associate the license entitlements on 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 undertaken you will have created an incredibly detailed picture of how your IT network is serving software packages to its users. It will be a lot easier to identify any trouble areas on your system, or sections of software usage that are no longer of any particular benefit to your activites. This detailed map can be used for future reference as well.
You can now commence a period of reconciliation upon your system. You should compare the software programs that are actually used on your network against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and close any divides between the two. This is when the financial benefits of software asset management start to take effect.
The software spread in your system may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual instances, and there may be any number of restrictions that may be involved with the licensing contracts you have in place. It is therefore essential to automate the reconciliation period, utilising one or more programs to apply smart rules to the process. These rules can be catered to the specific needs of your organisation.
Employees who have past experience working alongside a Centennial specialist company may be able to provide an early insight into how SAM can benefit your organisation.
Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management
Many of the basic practices of a successful software asset management strategy are based upon the concepts laid out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library defines a number of concepts and best practices that should be followed for successful control of IT operations.
This library is a dynamic publication and is often updated with new concepts and techniques that reflect the ever changing IT environment of modern business. A good software asset management strategy should be fluid enough to follow the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing needs of the company within which it is actively used.
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies specifically to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an incredibly comprehensive collection of suggestions 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 followed when designing a software asset management strategy for your own organisation, although the level of detail included within can quickly become a daunting challenge. It is vital to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when designing a software asset management strategy, whatever plan you decide to employ needs to aid your organisation rather than stifle it.
Creating a full and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own organisation might actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible enough to change and mature as your business does, and it should allow for updates to your daily activities, no matter how trivial or underlying they might be.
Conclusion
It is easy to see that as the extent and importance of computer systems within your organisation grow, so does the need for good and effective monitoring of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT department was a bonus that would sometimes progress the business. Computer networks are now vital to the modern business.
As with other parts of any company, a number of separate plans should be considered and utilised in order to ensure the efficient running of daily tasks. SAM should not be the only tool used to manage computing assets within your company, but rather one of a number of complimentary policies used to control the system as a whole. software asset management can go a long way toward aiding your company but should be supported by other techniques.
So if you think that your company is really 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 critical market advantage over your competitors, then it would be well worth researching how software asset management could be used within your company. There might be no time to lose.
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