IT Management Tools
Introduction
The degree to which technology has become a part of normal life and everyday commerce has forced a change in the way management approaches how they manage the finances, the tasks and the systems within a business. Computing fast becoming an increasing factor in business.
As computing becomes more widely used within a business and takes a more prominent critical within the critical functions of that business, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is given to this technology. Technological systems that may have previously been ignored are now key in the decision making process.
Technology have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as essential parts of any company. As such, they are allocated grander budgets but must also be able to deal with a larger amount of responsibility.
But once you have spent a substantial amount of your budget on developing an IT system and seen the circumstances of your company change, how do you make sure that the systems 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 undertaken by IT management software and systems.
Every company and every situation will have different specifications and will present different challenges. To satisfy these requirements there are a range of different solutions and approaches that can be implemented to help manage the IT network of your company.One of these options 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 company. It is a business process rather than a distinct discipline and is becoming a more critical part of the modern business environment, particularly for companies operating in the field of Information Technology. Despite the many benefits of SAM, there are still a great many companies that are not utilising it to its full potential.
SAM is not simply a program for support staff deploying software across a large corporate network, but can be a critical tool to help improve performance at all levels of a business. The goals 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 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 intangible nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the business case for employing a SAM solution is not always obvious until a complete of the software infrastructure of a company has been done.
Financial benefits remain the most driving commercial factor when choosing to operate SAM software within a business. Every corporation needs to make money after all and revenue is a very measurable figure.
An increasingly large percentage of a company’s IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a vital need to invest to correctly manage this spending. As companies grow and diversify, their software needs can change greatly and equipment and software can swiftly become out of date. There is no need to spend money to maintain the licenses on this outdated software, which is where software asset management really delivers an edge.
SAM is not restricted to simply the technology of your business either. As a management operation it will often include many of the branches within a business, 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.
IT service staff working for a company named www.softcat.com supply a range of IT management solutions including SAM tools.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having seen the various advantages of deploying a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your business? Every business is different and has its own separate set of problems and advantages, so any strategy you will use needs to be catered to these specific traits.
There are more than simply monetary advantages that can be made through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across a businesses IT system. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that staff have the latest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication inside the company is aided 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 before, perhaps the most persuading reason to utilise software asset management 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 immediate way that SAM 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 too 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 benefit to the operation of your business you are streamlining a large portion of your IT system. Paying for unneeded software licenses and support and maintenance agreements means that more finance can be spent on the vital sections of your IT system.
Mitigate Risk
A surprising amount of software that is currently 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 not advised, because when left unchecked it can become very unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly annoying factor for network managers.
Unlicensed software programs can be introduced into an unmonitored IT system in a number of ways. Software may have been bundled when your IT hardware was first bought although the initial software licenses may have expired. Without the correct security 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 critical processes, how do you handle 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 unpredictable events.
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Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are numerous potential benefits to utilising a good software asset management strategy within your company, both financial and otherwise. It is therefore important to determine which elements of software asset management 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.
The discovery process can be viewed as three basic stages that have to be performed to really develop an informative picture of the usage of software assets within your business.
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental function of the discovery process. It is vital that an accurate inventory of IT assets within your business is created to aid your IT department to maintain baselines for your IT network.
Thankfully, this process can now be made automatic and even the largest of infrastructures can be investigated and analysed in a relatively short period. Inventory should be able to identify your software 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 manage the software assets discovered in the inventory. The capture stage should collect entitlements for all of the software that is installed on your system, even when the software is not currently in use. Without this information the inventory may be almost useless.
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 incredibly efficient at gathering accurate data.
Identification & Validation
The next step is to match up your software inventory to the repository of licensing information that were created in the previous two stages. Errors may have been made anywhere from the original invoices for software to the most recent audits performed on your IT system. These errors can now be rectified.
One critical factor in the validation step 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 cycle. You want to be as informed as possible in these circumstances.
Once these steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly rich image of how your IT system is delivering software programs to its users. It will be a lot easier to identify any trouble spots on your system, or areas of software use that are no longer of any practical benefit to your operations.
You can now begin a period of reconciliation upon your network. You should compare the software programs that are actually used on your system against the licensing and support contracts 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 distribution in your system may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual installations, and there are any number of rules that may be associated with the licensing contracts you have in place. It is therefore essential to automate the reconciliation stage, utilising one or more tools to apply smart rules to the process. These rules can be catered to the specific needs of your business
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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 concepts laid out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library defines a number of ideas and best practices that should be followed for successful management of IT operations.
This library is a dynamic publication and is often updated with new ideas and policies that reflect the ever changing IT environment of modern business. A good software asset management strategy should be flexible enough to comply with the guidelines set out in the ITIL whilst matching the changing requirements of the company within which it is actively utilised.
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 guidelines that are built to ensure that SAM is utilised in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”.
The ISO standard should certainly 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 prospect. It is vital to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when creating 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 within your company.
Designing a complete and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own business may actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible to change and grow as your business does, and it must allow for modifications to your daily tasks, no matter how small or fundamental they might be. This really is the key to a worthwhile software asset management strategy.
Conclusion
It is easy to see that as the extent and importance of IT systems within your organisation grow, so does the need 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 networks are now vital to the modern business. Crucial systems need to be maintained to an appropriate level.
As with other branches of any company, a number of different plans should be evaluated and used in order to ensure the smooth running of day to day tasks. SAM should not be the only tactic used to manage computing resources within your organisation, but rather one of a number of complimentary techniques used to manage the system as a whole. SAM can go a long way toward helping your business but should be helped by other techniques.
So if you think that your business is really 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 edge over your competitors, then it would be well worth investigating how software asset management could be employed within your company. There may be no time to lose.