Are you managing your software assets well?

Vikas Bhonsle

Software Asset Management (SAM) is an IT strategy that mainly involves in controlling, improving the buying, usage, maintenance and responsible disposal of software applications that are installed in any organization. Therefore, it is crucial for a Chief Information Officer(CIO) to understand the versatility of SAM.

An effective and productive SAM in any organization can save you a lot of work.

Define the needs

Be clear about your needs. Many companies tend to rush into the inventory and software implementation before understanding their requirements and needs. The need for Software asset management should be well defined and decided upon by senior management and stakeholders.

Employing the right resources

Hiring the right managers who understand the complexity and importance of managing your company’s IT assets could help you in saving losses and preparing efficiently for a surprise audit. Without the right people, you could be wasting your time and investments.

Mechanize the process

Adopting a process to manually track software assets could be time consuming. Automating this process, could save time and help in streamlining the software. It could also help in predicting and estimating software budgets in future.

Having your assets in place

A surprise full-blown official audit, if you must face, will not be of any threat to your company if you are prepared. An auditor tool helps in recognizing the installed licenses across all systems in your company. An asset inventory tool will keep an account of all systems deployed in your company. A CIO should internally undertake audits regularly using appropriate software license management tools.

Be accurate about your inventories

Get your records straight. Make sure there aren’t any discrepancies in the numbers. Your inventory should be completely cataloged, with your assets updated.

Streamlining your hardware and software

It is imperative to be certain of having both your software and hardware in order. Hardware is equally important to your IT asset management strategy and updating the same could help you stay ahead.

Analyze your software purchases

SAM ensures to weed out unused software to reduce cost and strategically use the installed software. More than often, organizations own thousands of software, but the quantum of the software utilized by the organization makes it difficult to separate the owned ones from the unlicensed ones. These tools can free up software and help in price negotiations.

Asset life-cycle should be assessed

Once you have defined your needs and requirements, you need to examine your assets’ life-cycle. Time and energy are needed to define data elements, which must be logged, and the data flow through each asset's life.

Review the process periodically

A software asset management process could require recurring appraisals to ensure the requirements are met. Reviewing the process once a quarter is recommended so that the achievement can be measured and the errors eliminated. The processes require control and constant monitoring so that the staff, departments and stakeholders follow the procedures correctly. Without this, the process can quickly go wrong.

Correcting errors

A successful software asset management strategy could be carried out depending on the accurate data that is provided. Errors, if any, should be dealt with immediately.

Embrace the cloud

A lot of companies are adopting cloud for its effective cloud-based resources and its ability to contain software assets well. Having flexible work hours or options may lead to a balanced work-life balance for some professionals, which in turn may enhance productivity for the organization.

Centralizing your assets

The CIO must encourage and implement a central software asset storehouse, where there is only one source of data for the company, helping in keeping track of records.

Be realistic

Start small and then scale up. Adopting a Software Asset Management strategy in small, practical phases could help in building its credibility and attain your goal.

Money matters

All of your company’s IT assets are valuable, therefore it’s advisable to integrate software asset management with your IT financial management so that one can gain buy in from other parts of the organization. Communicate costs regularly and use financial management to manage needs and work towards a cost-effective strategy.

Talk about your accomplishments

The value of your software asset management process should be exhibited to the rest of the company, especially the important stakeholders and senior management. Sharing the strategy and the process will help in gathering support from other departments and will let the others know about the initiative to build a robust IT Asset strategy.

The author is CEO, Crayon Software Experts India Pvt. Ltd.