How to control your Software Licenses

Posted by admin on September 30, 2010 under Kids and Teens | Comments are off for this article

Introduction

The degree to which technology has become a part of everyday life and day-to-day business has seen a change in the way business approaches how they manage the finances, the processes and the systems within a business. Computing fast becoming an increasing factor in business.

As technology becomes more widespread within a company and takes a more prominent role within the vital functions of that business, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is applied to this computing. Technological assets that may have once been overlooked are now important factors in the decision making process.

IT capabilities have come a long way during the past few years and are now seen as essential parts of any business. As such, they receive greater budgets but must also be able to deal with a greater amount of responsibility.

But once you have spent a substantial amount of your budget on developing your IT network and seen the requirements of your organisation change, how do you make sure that the IT you are using can keep up with demand? Moreover, how can you achieve this without spending a large amount of money?

This is the function by IT management software and procedures.

Every organisation and every environment will have different requirements and will offer different issues. 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 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 programs 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 commercial environment, particularly for companies operating in the field of IT.

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 objectives of SAM include controlling of the IT infrastructure within a company, negating legal risks 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 company grows, so do the potential benefits of SAM.

The practice of software asset management 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 going with a SAM solution is not always obvious until a full of the software infrastructure of a company has been done.

Economic benefits remain the most driving commercial factor when deciding to operate SAM software within a company. Every corporation needs to make profit after all and revenue is a very measurable figure. The financial benefits of software asset management do certainly exist however.

An increasingly large proportion 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 expand and spread, their software needs can change radically and equipment and software can swiftly become outdated. There is no requirement to spend money to maintain the licenses on this outdated software, which is where SAM really delivers an edge.

software asset management is not restricted to simply the IT department of your company either. As a management process 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 standard.

When choosing an accomplished provider of a software asset management solution for your network virtualisation must be a solution that is considered amongst many.

Why follow a SAM Strategy?

Having heard the multiple benefits of employing a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your company? Each company 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. The benefits of SAM do cover the fundamental aspects of IT management.

There are more than simply monetary advantages that can be gained through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across a companies IT network. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that staff have the latest versions of software permitted under current licenses held, and communication inside the corporation 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 convincing reason to utilise SAM 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 plan that can help to increase this profitability by reducing costs is one that should be evaluated. Money can be saved in a number of ways.

The most direct way that SAM can help to reduce 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 very 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 clearing these items of software that are no longer a help to the running of your organisation you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and maintenance agreements means that more money 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 amount of software that is actively used in the business environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Having any amount of unmonitored software on your IT network is ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become very unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly annoying factor for network managers.

Rogue software programs can be introduced into an uncontrolled IT environment in a number of ways. Software may have been bundled when your IT hardware was originally bought although the initial software licenses may have expired. Without the correct access policies in place, users may also be able to load their own software onto the system.

The danger of running unlicensed software on your system is clear. When anything goes wrong with the hardware or software platform behind your vital processes, how do you manage the situation? Operating 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 unpredictable events.

The business case for working with a part-time buying solutions IT supplier throughout your IT review process has never been stronger.

Implementing SAM in your Organisation

As previously mentioned, there are many potential advantages to using a good SAM strategy within your company, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to consider which parts of software asset management you should implement first since certain benefits will be achieved more speedily than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.

The discovery process can be seen as three primary areas that have to be undertaken to truly develop an accurate picture of the deployment 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 aid your IT managers to maintain baselines regarding your IT network.
Thankfully, this process can now be made automatic and even the largest of infrastructures can be searched and analysed in a relatively short period of time. Inventory must be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their geographical location or technological characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.

Capture

The next step in the discovery process involves the capture of the license entitlements that manage the software programs identified in the inventory. The capture process should collect entitlements for all of the software that is installed on your system, even if the software is not currently in use.

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

Identification & Validation

The next 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 paperwork for software to the most recent audits performed on your IT network. These errors can now be rectified.

One critical factor in the validation stage is the ability to link the license entitlements on your system to your company’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital if any arguments with software resellers arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle.

Once these steps have been undertaken you will have built an incredibly rich image of how your IT network is delivering software packages to its users. It will be a lot easier to identify any trouble spots on your network, 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 commence a period of reconciliation on your system. You should 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. This is when the financial benefits of SAM start to take effect.

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

The computing industry is in vital need for many IT security vendors that can supply the right IT monitoring products.

Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management

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

This library is a dynamic entity and is often updated with new ideas and policies that reflect the constantly changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good software asset management strategy should be flexible enough to follow the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst matching the changing requirements of the business within which it is actively utilised. This is an essential requirement of effective 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 collection of suggestions that are designed to ensure that software asset management is used in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”.

The ISO standard should certainly be adhered to when designing a software asset management strategy for your own business, 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 creating a SAM strategy, whatever plan you decide to implement must help your organisation rather than hinder it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them to your business.

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

Conclusion

It is clear to see that as the extent and importance of IT systems within your organisation grow, so does the need for good and effective management of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT department was a luxury that would sometimes forward the business. IT networks are now vital to the modern company.

As with other parts of any business, a number of separate strategies should be evaluated and used in order to ensure the efficient running of daily activities. software asset management should not be the only tool used to manage technological resources within your organisation, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary policies used to control the system as a unit.

So if you think that your organisation is currently suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and control over its IT infrastructure, or that the potential advantages outlined in this article could manufacture a crucial market advantage over your competitors, then it would be worth researching how SAM could be used within your business. There may be no time to lose.