Introduction

The extent to which technology has become a part of normal life and everyday commerce has prompted a change in the way management approaches how they manage the finances, the processes and the assets within a business. IT is becoming an important factor in business.

As computing becomes more widespread within a business and takes a more prominent critical within the critical processes of that company, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is given to this computing.

Technology have come a long way during the past few years and are now seen as critical elements of any business. As such, they receive grander budgets but must also be able to manage a larger amount of work.

But once you have spent a large amount of your budget on developing an IT system and seen the circumstances of your business change, how do you make sure that the technology 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 requirements and will present unique problems. To satisfy these requirements there are a number of different solutions and approaches that can be implemented to help control the IT infrastructure of your company.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 controlling the deployment and usage of software suites within your business. 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.

SAM is not simply a program for support staff deploying software across a large company network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at many levels of a organisation. The aims of SAM include controlling of the IT infrastructure within a business, 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 a business grows, so do the potential benefits of SAM.

The practice of SAM is often viewed as an unnecessary evil due to the abstract nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the commercial case for using a SAM solution is not always obvious until a complete 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.

Economic benefits are still the most motivating commercial factor when deciding to employ SAM technology within an organisation. Every company needs to make profit after all and expenditure is a very measurable figure. The financial benefits of SAM 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 companies grow and spread, their software needs can change greatly 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 advantage.

software asset management is not limited to simply the technology of your organisation either. As a management cycle 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 service staff working for a company named Centennial provide a range of IT management solutions including SAM tools.

Why follow a SAM Strategy?

Having heard the various benefits of employing a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be appropriate for your organisation? Each business is different and has its own separate set of problems and benefits, so any strategy you will undertake needs to be catered to these specific traits.

There are more than simply financial benefits that can be achieved through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across a companies IT network. Productivity can be hugely boosted by ensuring that staff have the latest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication within the business is aided when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every computer under their control.

Financial Savings

As discussed previously, perhaps the most convincing reason to implement software asset management within your business 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 considered. Money can be saved in a number of ways.

The most immediate way that SAM can help to reduce costs is by targeting any applications running on your corporate IT system that is no longer needed. 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 help to the operation of your organisation you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unneeded software licenses and maintenance agreements means that more finance can be spent on the vital parts of your IT system.

Mitigate Risk Factors

A surprising proportion of software that is actively used in the business environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Having any amount of uncontrolled software on your IT system is ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become incredibly unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly frustrating factor for network managers.

Unlicensed software applications can be introduced into an unmonitored 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 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 appropriate 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 data systems.

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Implementing SAM in your Organisation

As previously mentioned, there are many potential benefits to utilising a good SAM strategy within your company, both monetary and otherwise. It is vitally important to consider which branches of software asset management you should deploy first since certain benefits will be achieved more speedily than others.

This discovery process can be seen as three basic areas that have to be undertaken to truly build an informative picture of the deployment of IT assets within your organisation.

Inventory

Inventory is the most basic stage of the discovery cycle. It is crucial that an accurate inventory of IT assets within your business is created to aid your IT managers to maintain baselines for your IT network.
Fortunately, this process can now be made automatic and even the grandest of networks can be searched and analysed in a reasonably short period of time. Inventory should be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their physical location or computing characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.

Capture

The next step in the discovery cycle involves the capture of the license entitlements that manage the software programs discovered in the inventory. The capture process should gather entitlements regarding all of the software that exists on your system, even when the software is not currently used.

The factor of human error can be avoided by using automatic tools that are specifically designed to build a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently employed are very efficient at gathering accurate data. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from software vendors.

Identification & Validation

The third process is to match up the software audit to the repository of licensing data 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 system. These errors can now be rectified.

One crucial factor in the validation step is the ability to combine the license entitlements within your system to your company’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital if any disputes with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle.

After these steps have been performed you will have created an incredibly rich picture of how your IT system is serving software packages to its users. It will be much simpler to identify any trouble spots on your system, or sections of software usage that are no longer of any practical benefit to your operations. This detailed image can be used for future reference as well.

You can now start a period of reconciliation upon your network. You should compare the software packages that are actually installed on your system against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and close any gaps between the two. This is when the financial benefits of SAM start to take effect.

The software spread within your system may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual installations, 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 stage, using one or more programs to apply smart rules to the process.

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Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management

Many of the basic principles of a modern software asset management strategy are based upon the principles set out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library defines a number of principles and best practices that should be followed for successful management of IT functions.

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 SAM strategy should be fluid enough to follow the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing needs of the business within which it is actively utilised.

The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies directly to software asset management practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally comprehensive set of guidelines that are designed to ensure that SAM is utilised in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”.

The ISO standard should really be followed when designing a software asset management strategy for your own company, although the level of detail covered within can easily become a daunting prospect. It is vital to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when planning a software asset management strategy, whatever plan you decide to implement needs to aid your business rather than hinder it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them to your business.

Designing a full 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 fundamental they might be. This really is the key to a worthwhile SAM plan.

Conclusion

It is clear to see that as the scope and importance of IT systems within your organisation grow, so does the need for good and efficient monitoring of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT branch was a bonus that would occasionally forward the business. IT networks are now critical to the modern organisation. Crucial systems need to be controlled to an appropriate standard.

As with other branches of any business, a number of separate plans should be evaluated and used in order to ensure the efficient running of daily tasks. SAM should not be the only tool used to manage computing resources within your company, but rather one of a number of complimentary techniques used to manage the system as a unit. SAM can go a long way toward helping your business but should be helped by other techniques.

So if you feel that your company is really suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and management over its IT network, or that the possible benefits outlined in this article could manufacture a critical market advantage over your competitors, then it would be worth investigating how software asset management could be used within your business.