IT Management ToolsJanuary 28
Introduction
The degree to which technology has become a part of everyday life and day-to-day commerce has seen a change in the way business approaches how they manage the finances, the tasks and the assets within an organisation.
As technology becomes more widely used within an organisation and takes a more prominent role within the critical functions of that organisation, it is important to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is given to this technology.
IT departments have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as vital elements of any organisation. As such, they receive larger budgets but must also be able to manage a greater amount of work. There is an eternal race between corporate needs and computing capabilities.
But after you have spent a substantial amount of money on developing your IT network and seen the circumstances of your organisation change, how do you make sure that the IT you are using can keep up with demand?
This is the function by IT management software and systems.
Every organisation and every situation will have different requirements and will present different problems. To satisfy these requirements there are a number of different solutions and approaches that can be used to help manage the IT infrastructure of your business.One of these approaches is discussed below.
Software Asset Management
SAM ( Software Asset Management) is built to do exactly what it says on the tin – monitoring and managing the deployment and usage of software suites within your organisation. It is a business process rather than a distinct skill and is becoming a more essential part of the modern corporate environment, particularly for corporations operating in the field of IT.
SAM is not simply a tool for technicians installing software across a large company 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 company, negating legal threats associated with incorrect software license usage and sustaining 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 seen as an unnecessary evil due to the intangible 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 broad audit of the software infrastructure of a company has been done.
Financial benefits are still the most motivating commercial factor when deciding to operate SAM technology within a company. Every business needs to make profit after all and revenue is a very measurable figure.
An increasingly large proportion of a company’s IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a real need to invest to correctly manage this spending. As organisations expand and diversify, their software requirements can change greatly and equipment and programs can quickly 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 restricted to simply the technology of your organisation either. As a management cycle it will often include many of the departments within a company, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as cost-effectively as possible.
IT service professionals working for my company called softcat provide a range of IT management solutions including software asset management tools.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the various benefits of deploying a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be appropriate for your business? Each business is different and has its own unique set of problems and advantages, so any plan you will undertake needs to be catered to these specific characteristics. The benefits of software asset management do cover the fundamental aspects of IT management.
There are more than just cost benefits that can be achieved through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across a businesses IT system. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that staff have the latest versions of software available under current licenses held, and communication within the company is aided when support staff know exactly what is installed on every workstation under their control. The benefits of software asset management are not confined to the technological hardware of your organisation.
Financial Savings
As discussed previously, perhaps the most persuading reason to implement software asset management within your business is the potential financial savings that can be achieved. The profitability of your business is always going to be the bottom line so any plan that can help to increase this profitability by lowering expenses is one that should be considered. Money can be saved in a number of ways.
The most direct way that software asset management can help to lower costs is by identifying any software running on your corporate network that is no longer needed. 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. SAM can be used to remove this unnecessary overhead.
By removing these items of software that are no longer a benefit to the running of your organisation you are streamlining a large portion of your IT network. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and maintenance contracts means that more money can be spent on the essential parts of your IT system. Focusing your attention on these vital components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.
Mitigate Risk Factors
A surprising proportion of software that is actively used in the corporate environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Having any amount of unmonitored software on your IT network is not advised, because when left unchecked it can become incredibly unpredictable.
Unlicensed software applications can be introduced into an uncontrolled IT environment in a number of ways. Software may have been bundled when your IT hardware was originally purchased although the initial software licenses may have expired. Without the correct control policies in place, users may also be able to load 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 network is clear. When something goes wrong with the hardware or software platform behind your vital processes, how do you recover the situation? Running a complex software system without the appropriate support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can seriously inhibit your responsiveness to unforeseen events.
The financial case for working with a full-time Centennial vendor throughout your IT review process has never been stronger.
Implementing SAM in your Organisation
As previously discussed, there are numerous potential advantages to utilising a good software asset management strategy within your business, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to consider which parts of software asset management you should implement first since some benefits will be realised more quickly than others.
The discovery process can be viewed as three basic stages that have to be performed to truly develop an informative picture of the usage of software assets within your business. These are:
Inventory
Inventory is the most basic stage of the discovery cycle. It is vital that an accurate inventory of IT assets within your business is created to aid your IT department to maintain baselines regarding your IT network. This inventory process must be performed before carrying on with discovery.
Fortunately, this process can now be automated and even the largest of infrastructures can be investigated and analysed in a reasonably short period of time. Inventory should be able to identify your software assets regardless of their physical location or computing characteristics.
Capture
The next step in the discovery process involves the capture of the software license entitlements that concern the software programs identified in the inventory. The capture process should collect entitlements regarding all of the software that exists on your system, even when the software is not currently in use.
The factor of human error can be avoided by using automated tools that are specifically created to build a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently available are very efficient at capturing accurate data.
Identification & Validation
The third process is to match up the software inventory to the repository of licensing information that were built in the last two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original invoices for software to the most recent audits undertaken on your IT network. These errors can now be rectified.
One critical 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 essential if any disputes with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery process.
Once these three steps have been performed you will have created an incredibly detailed image of how your IT system is delivering software assets to its users. It will be much simpler to identify any trouble spots on your network, or sections of software usage that are no longer of any particular benefit to your operations.
You can now begin a period of reconciliation upon your system. You can compare the software packages that are actually used 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 network 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 process, utilising one or more programs to apply smart rules to the process.
To learn more about the software asset management process you could use virtualization resources through the Internet.
Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM
Many of the basic practices of a modern software asset management strategy are based upon the concepts laid 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 control of IT functions.
This library is a changing publication and is often updated with new concepts and policies that reflect the constantly changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be fluid enough to comply with the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing requirements of the company within which it is actively utilised.
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has published a standard that applies directly to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally comprehensive collection of suggestions that are built to ensure that SAM is utilised in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”. Standards of this kind play an essential part in realising standardisation across an industry.
The ISO standard should really be followed when planning a SAM strategy for your own organisation, although the level of detail covered within can quickly 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 employ must help your business rather than stifle it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them within your business.
Designing a full and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own company might actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible enough to adapt and mature as your business does, and it should allow for modifications to your daily activities, no matter how small or fundamental they might be. This really is the key to a worthwhile 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 requirement for good and efficient monitoring of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT department was a luxury that would sometimes forward the business. IT systems are now critical to the modern business. Critical systems need to be maintained to an appropriate level.
As with other branches of any business, a number of different strategies should be evaluated and utilised in order to ensure the smooth running of daily activities. software asset management should not be the only tactic used to manage computing resources within your company, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary techniques used to control the system as a unit.
So if you think that your business 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 provide a crucial market advantage over your competitors, then it would be well worth researching how SAM could be used within your organisation. There may be no time to lose.
28 Jan 2011 | 3:16 pm | Uncategorized
