IT Management Tools

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 money, the processes and the systems within a business.

As technology becomes more widespread within an organisation and takes a more prominent role within the vital functions of that business, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is given to this technology.

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

But once you have spent a substantial amount of your budget on developing an IT system and seen the needs of your company change, how do you make sure that the technology you are using can keep up with demand?

This is the function by IT management software and procedures.

Every business and every situation will have different needs and will create unique problems. To satisfy these requirements there are a range of different technologies and approaches that can be used to help manage the IT assets of your company.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 company. It is a business process rather than a distinct skill and is becoming a more essential part of the modern commercial environment, particularly for corporations operating in the field of Information Technology.

SAM is not simply a program for technicians deploying software across a large corporate network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at many levels of a organisation. The objectives of SAM include monitoring expenses of the IT infrastructure within a company, negating legal risks associated with incorrect software license usage and maintaining high levels of productivity by making sure software is up to date and fit for its purpose.

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 complete of the software infrastructure of a company has been done.

Monetary benefits remain the most driving business factor when deciding to use software asset management technology within an organisation. 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 percentage of a company’s IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a real need to invest to correctly handle this spending. As businesses grow and diversify, their software requirements can change greatly and equipment and programs 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.

SAM is not limited to simply the IT department of your company either. As a management cycle it will often involve many of the departments within a organisation, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as cost-effectively as possible.

Ironically, IT service firms themselves, such as the service provider Centennial need equally as much IT management as their clients.

Why follow a SAM Strategy?

Having heard the multiple benefits of utilising a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your company? Each business is different and has its own separate set of problems and benefits, so any strategy you will use needs to be tailored to these specific traits.

There are more than simply financial benefits that can be gained 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 business is aided when support staff know exactly what is in use on every workstation under their control.

Financial Savings

As discussed before, perhaps the most convincing reason to utilise 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 plan that can help to increase this profitability by lowering 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 any longer, it may be very 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 infrastructure. Paying for unneeded software licenses and maintenance contracts means that more money can be spent on the vital sections of your IT infrastructure.

Mitigate Risk Factors

A surprising amount of software that is currently 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 not advised, because when left unchecked it can become incredibly unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly frustrating factor for network managers.

Rogue software applications can be introduced into an unmonitored IT system in a number of ways. Software may have been bundled when your IT hardware was originally purchased although the original 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.

The risk of running unlicensed software on your system is clear. When anything goes wrong with the hardware or software platform supporting your critical 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 inhibit your responsiveness to unpredictable events.

To plan and carry out a successful SAM campaign, making Centennial distributors top of your list of priorities will be a key factor.

Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation

As previously mentioned, there are many potential benefits to utilising a good software asset management strategy within your organisation, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to determine which branches of SAM you should deploy first since some benefits will be realised more speedily than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.

This discovery process can be viewed as three basic areas that have to be performed to really develop an accurate picture of the usage of IT assets within your business.

Inventory

Inventory is the most basic stage of the discovery process. It is important that an accurate inventory of IT assets within your business is created to aid your IT managers to maintain baselines for your IT network. This inventory process must be performed before continuing with discovery.
Fortunately, this process can now be made automatic and even the largest of networks can be investigated and analysed in a relatively short period of time. Inventory should be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their geographical location or technological characteristics.

Capture

The next step in the discovery cycle is the capture of the license entitlements that cover the software programs identified in the inventory. The capture stage should gather entitlements for all of the software that is installed on your network, even when the software is not currently used. Without this step the inventory would be nearly useless.

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 employed are incredibly efficient at gathering accurate data.

Identification & Validation

The next step is to match up your software audit to the repository of licensing data that were created in the last two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original invoices for software to the latest audits performed on your IT network.

One critical 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 essential if any arguments with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery process. You want to be as informed as possible in these circumstances.

After these steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly detailed image of how your IT network is delivering software packages to its users. It will be much simpler to identify any trouble spots on your network, or areas of software usage that are no longer of any particular benefit to your activites.

You can now commence a period of reconciliation upon your system. You can compare the software programs that are actually employed on your network against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and bridge any gaps between the two.

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

To see how SAM can directly help your business use an experienced Centennial consultant that can plan a SAM strategy suited to your needs.

Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management

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

This library is a changing publication and is often updated with new concepts and techniques that cater to the ever changing IT backdrop 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 used. This is an essential requirement of effective software asset management

The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies specifically to software asset management practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally comprehensive collection of guidelines that are designed to ensure that SAM 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 company, although the level of detail included within can easily become a daunting challenge. It is vital to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when designing a SAM strategy, whatever plan you decide to employ must help your business rather than hinder it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them to your business.

Creating a complete and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own business might actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible enough to adapt and grow as your organisation does, and it must allow for updates to your daily tasks, no matter how trivial or fundamental they might be.

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 management of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT branch was a bonus that would sometimes forward the business. IT networks are now vital to the modern business.

As with other parts of any company, a number of separate plans 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 assets within your company, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary policies used to manage the system as a whole.

So if you feel that your business is currently suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and control over its IT network, or that the potential advantages described in this article could provide a critical market edge over your competitors, then it would be well worth researching how software asset management could be used within your organisation.

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