Cost-Effective Network Management

Introduction

The extent to which technology has become a part of normal life and everyday business has seen a change in the way management approaches how they manage the money, the processes and the assets within a business.

As computing becomes more widely used within an organisation and takes a more prominent critical within the vital functions of that organisation, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is applied to this computing.

Technology have come a long way during the past few years and are now seen as critical elements of any business. As such, they receive grander budgets but must also be able to handle 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 business change, how do you ensure that the technology you are using can keep up with demand?

This is the function by IT management software and procedures.

Every organisation and every environment will have different specifications and will offer unique problems. To satisfy these requirements there are a range of different solutions and approaches that can be used to help manage the IT network of your organisation.

Software Asset Management

SAM ( Software Asset Management) is designed to do exactly what it says on the tin – monitoring and maintaining the deployment and usage of software programs within your organisation. It is a business process rather than a distinct skill and is becoming a more essential 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 an aid for support staff installing software across a large corporate network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at all levels of a company. The objectives of SAM include monitoring expenses of the IT infrastructure within a organisation, 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 an organisation grows, so do the potential benefits of SAM.

The practice of SAM 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 employing a SAM solution is not always obvious until a full of the software infrastructure of a company has been undertaken.

Economic benefits remain the most driving commercial factor when deciding to use software asset management technology within an organisation. Every company needs to make money after all and profitability is a very measurable metric. The financial benefits of software asset management do certainly exist however.

An increasingly large percentage of a organisation’s IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a critical need to invest to correctly handle this spending. As companies expand and spread, their software needs can change greatly and equipment and programs can quickly 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 edge.

software asset management is not restricted to simply the technology of your company either. As a management cycle it will often involve 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.

Ironically, IT service companies themselves, such as the service vendor Centennial need equally as much IT management as their customers.

Why follow a SAM Strategy?

Having heard the multiple advantages of deploying a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your company? Every business is different and has its own separate set of problems and advantages, so any plan you will undertake needs to be tailored to these specific traits.

There are more than simply cost benefits that can be made through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across a businesses IT system. Productivity can be vastly by ensuring that staff have the latest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication within the corporation is helped when support staff know exactly what is installed on every computer under their control. The benefits of software asset management are not confined to the technological hardware of your organisation.

Cost Savings

As discussed before, perhaps the most persuading reason to implement 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 system that can help to increase this profitability by reducing costs is one that should be evaluated. Money can be saved in a multitude of ways.

The most direct way that software asset management can help to reduce costs is by targeting any applications running on your corporate IT system that is no longer needed. The software might not be being used anymore, 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 benefit to the operation of your organisation you are streamlining a large portion of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unneeded software licenses and support and maintenance agreements means that more finance can be spent on the essential parts of your IT infrastructure.

Mitigate Risk

A surprising proportion 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 network is ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become very unpredictable.

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

The risk of running unlicensed software on your network is clear. When something goes wrong with the hardware or software platform supporting your vital processes, how do you recover the situation? Operating a complicated software system without the appropriate support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can critically limit your responsiveness to unpredictable events.

Even in a stagnating and unpredictable economy Centennial distributors continue to find that SAM is a technology in demand from businesses.

Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation

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

This discovery process can be seen as three primary phases that have to be undertaken to truly build an accurate picture of the deployment of software assets within your company.

Inventory

Inventory is the most fundamental function of the discovery cycle. It is vital that an accurate audit of IT assets within your organisation is created to aid your IT department to maintain baselines for your IT system. This inventory process must be performed before carrying on with discovery.
Fortunately, this process can now be automated and even the grandest of infrastructures can be searched and analysed in a reasonably 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 second step in the discovery process involves the capture of the license entitlements that concern the software programs discovered in the inventory. The capture process should collect entitlements for all of the software that exists on your system, even if the software is not currently used.

The factor of human error can be avoided by using automatic tools that are specifically created to create a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently employed are very efficient at capturing accurate information. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from software vendors.

Identification & Validation

The next step is to match up your software audit 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 latest audits undertaken on your IT system. These errors can now be rectified.

One crucial factor in the validation step is the ability to combine the license entitlements within your network to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital if any disputes with software vendors arise as a consequence of the discovery process.

After these three steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly detailed picture of how your IT network is delivering software programs to its users. It will be much easier to identify any trouble spots on your network, or sections of software use that are no longer of any practical benefit to your activites.

You can now start a period of reconciliation on your system. You can compare the software programs that are actually installed on your network against the licensing and support contracts 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 spread in your system may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual installations, and there are any number of rules that may be involved with the licensing contracts you have in place. It is therefore a necessity 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 company

The use SAM within your business is a very specific cycle which should be strategised by a good Centennial reseller as they will have extra information.

Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM

Many of the basic principles of a successful SAM strategy are based upon the principles laid out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library details a number of concepts and best practices that should be followed for successful control of IT operations.

This library is a changing entity and is often updated with new ideas and policies that reflect the ever changing IT environment of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be fluid enough to comply with the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing needs 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 directly to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally 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 planning a software asset management strategy for your own company, although the level of detail included within can quickly become a daunting prospect. It is important to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when creating a SAM strategy, whatever you decide to employ must aid your organisation rather than stifle it.

Designing a full and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own organisation might actually never come to fruition. Your strategy must be flexible to adapt and grow as your business does, and it must allow for modifications to your daily tasks, no matter how trivial or underlying they might be.

Conclusion

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

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 day to day tasks. SAM should not be the only tactic used to manage computing assets within your company, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary policies used to manage the system as a whole.

So if you think that your business is currently suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and management over its IT infrastructure, or that the possible advantages described in this article could provide a crucial market advantage over your competitors, then it would be worth researching how SAM could be employed within your business.

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