Introduction
The extent to which technology has become a part of everyday life and everyday commerce has prompted a change in the way business approaches how they manage the finances, the tasks and the assets within an organisation. Computing becoming an important factor in business.
As technology becomes more widespread within a company and takes a more prominent vital within the vital functions of that organisation, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is applied to this technology.
IT departments have come a long way during the past few years and are now seen as critical elements of any company. As such, they are allocated greater budgets but must also be able to deal with 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 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 carried out by IT management software and procedures.
Every business and every situation will have different specifications and will offer unique issues. To meet these requirements there are a number of different solutions and approaches that can be implemented to help manage the IT infrastructure of your business.
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 organisation. It is a business process rather than a distinct skill and is becoming a more critical part of the modern commercial environment, particularly for businesses operating in the field of Information Technology.
SAM is not simply a program for support staff rolling out software across a large corporate network, but can be a critical tool to help improve performance at multiple levels of a company. The objectives of SAM include monitoring expenses of the IT infrastructure within a organisation, negating legal threats 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. As IT usage in an organisation 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 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 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.
Monetary benefits are still the most motivating business factor when deciding to operate SAM technology within a business. Every business needs to make money after all and expenditure is a very measurable figure. The financial benefits of software asset management do certainly exist however.
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 manage this spending. As organisations expand and spread, their software requirements can change greatly and hardware and software can swiftly become outdated. There is no need to spend money to maintain the licenses on this outdated software, which is where SAM really delivers an advantage.
software asset management is not limited to simply the technology of your organisation either. As a management operation it will often involve many of the departments within a business, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as efficiently as possible. It is a process that does not need to follow regular.
IT managers and staff with decision making authority should note Centennial Discovery at meetings regarding the implementation of IT resource management.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the many benefits of utilising a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be appropriate for your company? Every company is different and has its own unique set of challenges and benefits, so any strategy you will undertake needs to be tailored to these specific characteristics.
There are more than just monetary advantages that can be gained through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across a businesses IT network. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that users have the newest versions of software available under current licenses held, and communication inside the corporation is aided when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every workstation 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 convincing reason to utilise software asset management within your company 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. Money can be saved in a number of ways.
The most direct 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 anymore, it may be too outdated to be of use or it may be duplicated on your system. SAM can help to remove this unnecessary overhead.
By removing these items of software that are no longer a help to the operation of your organisation you are streamlining a large portion of your IT system. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and maintenance agreements means that more money can be spent on the critical sections of your IT infrastructure.
Mitigate Risk
A surprising amount of software that is actively used in the business 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.
Rogue software programs can be introduced into an uncontrolled IT environment in a number of ways. Software may have been included when your IT hardware was first purchased 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 system. Running a corporate IT system in this unmanaged way will almost certainly lead to trouble.
The danger 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 handle the situation? Running a complicated 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.
Recent years have seen a vast improvement in the numbers of reliable Centennial distributors around that are open for business.
Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously discussed, there are many potential benefits to using a good SAM strategy within your company, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to determine which elements of SAM you should implement 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 stages that have to be undertaken to really build an informative picture of the usage of IT assets within your organisation.
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental function of the discovery cycle. It is crucial that an accurate audit of software assets within your organisation is created to help your IT department to maintain baselines regarding your IT system. This inventory process must be performed before carrying on with discovery.
Fortunately, this process can now be automated and even the grandest of infrastructures can be investigated and analysed in a reasonably short period of time. Inventory must be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their physical location or computing characteristics.
Capture
The second step in the discovery cycle involves the capture of the software license entitlements that manage the software assets identified in the inventory. The capture process should collect entitlements for all of the software that exists on your system, even when the software is not currently used. Without this step the inventory would be almost useless.
The element of human error can be avoided by using automated tools that are specifically designed to create a library of license entitlements. Packages that are currently employed are very efficient at capturing accurate information. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from software vendors.
Identification & Validation
The next process is to match up the software inventory to the repository of licensing information that were created in the last two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original invoices for software to the latest audits undertaken on your IT network.
One crucial 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 vital if any arguments with software resellers arise as a consequence of the discovery process. You want to be as informed as possible in these circumstances.
Once these steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly rich image of how your IT network is delivering software programs to its users. It will be a lot easier to identify any trouble areas on your network, or areas of software usage that are no longer of any particular benefit to your activites. This detailed image can be used for future reference as well.
You can now begin a period of reconciliation on your system. You should compare the software packages that are actually used on your system against the licensing and support contracts that you are paying for and bridge any gaps between the two.
The software distribution in your network may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual installations, and there are any number of rules that may be involved with the licensing agreements you have in place. It is therefore essential to automate the reconciliation process, using one or more tools to apply intelligent rules to the process.
The computing industry is in vital need of more Centennial vendors that can provide the right IT monitoring services.
Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM
Many of the fundamental principles of a successful SAM strategy are based upon the principles laid out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library details a number of concepts and best practices that should be followed for successful control of IT functions.
This library is a dynamic entity and is often updated with new ideas and policies that cater to the constantly changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be fluid enough to comply with the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing requirements of the company within which it is actively used. This is an essential requirement of successful SAM
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has published a standard that applies specifically to software asset management practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an incredibly comprehensive set of suggestions that are built to ensure that SAM is utilised in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”.
The ISO standard should really be adhered to when planning a SAM strategy for your own company, although the level of detail included within can easily become a daunting prospect. It is vital to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when designing a SAM strategy, whatever you decide to implement must help your business rather than stifle it.
Creating a full and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own company may actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible to adapt and mature as your organisation does, and it should allow for updates 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 computer systems within your organisation grow, so does the need for good and effective monitoring of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT branch was a luxury that would sometimes forward the business. IT systems are now critical to the modern business. Crucial systems need to be maintained to an appropriate level.
As with other parts of any business, a number of separate strategies should be considered and used in order to ensure the efficient running of day to day tasks. software asset management should not be the only tool used to manage computing assets within your organisation, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary techniques used to control 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 organisation is really suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and control over its IT infrastructure, or that the potential benefits outlined in this article could manufacture a crucial market advantage over your competitors, then it would be well worth researching how software asset management could be used within your organisation.
Web Traffic