Introduction

The degree to which technology has become a part of everyday life and everyday commerce has seen a change in the way business approaches how they manage the money, the processes and the systems within a business.

As computing becomes more widespread within a business and takes a more prominent role within the critical processes of that company, it is important to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is given to this technology. Technological assets 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 vital elements of any business. As such, they are allocated greater budgets but must also be able to manage a larger amount of work.

But once you have spent a substantial amount of money on developing your IT system and seen the requirements of your organisation change, how do you ensure that the IT you are using can keep up with demand?

This is the function by IT management software and procedures.

Every organisation and every situation will have different needs and will create different issues. To meet these requirements 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 packages 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 businesses operating in the field of IT.

SAM is not simply a program for support staff installing software across a large corporate network, but can be a critical tool to help improve performance at multiple levels of a company. The goals of SAM include managing of the IT infrastructure within a company, 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.

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 financial case for using a SAM solution is not always obvious until a full of the software infrastructure of a company has been done.

Financial benefits are still the most driving business factor when choosing to employ software asset management technology within a business. Every corporation needs to make money after all and revenue is a very measurable figure.

An increasingly large percentage of a business’ IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a real need to invest to correctly manage this spending. As companies grow and diversify, their software needs can change radically and equipment and software can swiftly become out of date. There is no requirement 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 IT department of your business either. As a management process it will often include many of the departments within a company, including Finance Human Resources, to make sure that it runs as cost-effectively as possible. It is a process that does not need to follow regular.

One highly recommend SAM solution say Centennial resellers must be SAM.Suite; a modern solution to modern IT licensing challenges.

Why follow a SAM Strategy?

Having heard the various advantages of employing a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be appropriate for your business? Every business is different and has its own separate set of problems and benefits, so any strategy you will use needs to be catered to these specific characteristics. The benefits of SAM do cover the fundamental aspects of software management.

There are more than just monetary benefits that can be made through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across an organisations IT network. Productivity can be hugely boosted by ensuring that employees have the latest versions of software available under current licenses held, and communication inside the company is aided when support staff know exactly what is in use 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 convincing reason to utilise SAM within your company is the potential financial 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 direct way that SAM can help to reduce costs is by targeting any applications 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.

By removing these items of software that are no longer a help to the running of your company you are streamlining a large portion of your IT system. Paying for unneeded software licenses and maintenance contracts means that more money can be spent on the critical sections of your IT system. Focusing your attention on these critical components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.

Mitigate Risk Factors

A surprising percentage of software that is currently used in the business 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.

Rogue software programs can be introduced into an uncontrolled IT system in a number of ways. Software may have been bundled when your IT hardware was first purchased although the original software licenses may have expired. Without the correct security policies in place, users may also be able to load their own software onto the network. Running a corporate IT system in this wild way will almost certainly lead to trouble.

The risk 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 recover the situation? Running a complicated software system without the correct support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can seriously inhibit your responsiveness to unforeseen events.

There are a number of affordable Centennial distributors specialising in SAM who can create the ideal package for your business.

Implementing SAM in your Organisation

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

The discovery process can be seen as three primary phases that have to be performed to really build an informative picture of the deployment of IT assets within your organisation.

Inventory

Inventory is the most fundamental function of the discovery cycle. It is important that an accurate inventory of software assets within your organisation is created to aid your IT managers to maintain baselines regarding your IT system. This inventory process must be performed before carrying on with discovery.
Fortunately, this process can now be made automatic and even the grandest of infrastructures can be investigated and analysed in a reasonably short period of time. Inventory should be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their physical location or technological characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.

Capture

The second step in the discovery cycle is the capture of the software license entitlements that cover the software assets discovered in the inventory. The capture process should gather entitlements for all of the software that exists on your network, even when the software is not currently in use.

The risk of human error can be avoided by using automated tools that are specifically designed to build a library of license entitlements. Packages that are currently available are incredibly efficient at gathering accurate data.

Identification & Validation

The next step is to match up your 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 paperwork for software to the most recent audits undertaken on your IT system.

One critical factor in the validation stage is the ability to link the license entitlements within your system to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential if any disputes with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery process.

After these steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly detailed picture of how your IT network is delivering software packages to its users. It will be a lot easier to identify any trouble areas on your network, or sections of software use that are no longer of any particular benefit to your operations.

You can now begin a period of reconciliation upon your system. You should compare the software packages that are actually employed on your system against the licensing and support contracts that you are paying for and close any divides between the two.

The software distribution within your system may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual instances, and there may be any number of rules that may be involved with the licensing agreements you have in place. It is therefore a necessity to automate the reconciliation period, utilising one or more tools to apply intelligent rules to the process.

To find out more about the software asset management process you could use Centennial reseller resources via the web.

Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management

Many of the fundamental principles of a modern software asset management strategy are based upon the principles laid out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library details a number of principles and best practices that should be followed for successful management of IT operations. The ITIL can be found online.

This library is a dynamic publication and is often updated with new ideas and policies that cater to the constantly changing IT environment of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be flexible enough to comply with the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst matching the changing needs of the business within which it is actively used. This is an essential requirement of successful software asset management

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

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

Creating a complete and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own company might actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible enough to change and grow as your organisation does, and it should allow for updates to your daily tasks, no matter how small or underlying they might be. This really is the key to a successful SAM plan.

Conclusion

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

As with other branches of any company, a number of different strategies should be evaluated and used in order to ensure the smooth running of daily activities. software asset management should not be the only tactic used to manage technological assets within your organisation, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary techniques used to manage the system as a whole.

So if you think that your business is really suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and management over its IT network, or that the potential advantages outlined in this article could manufacture a crucial market edge over your competitors, then it would be worth researching how software asset management could be employed within your business. There may be no time to lose.