Software Asset Management
http://www.pebbleit.com.au/index.php/source/software/sam-tool/ - With increasing reliance on information technology by businesses, software has become a crucial tool in the day-to-day running of organizations. However, the process of managing software in a business organization can be a challenging one.Software asset management helps an organization in meeting these goals.Read on to find out if Software Asset Management can help your organisation.http://pebbleit.com.au
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SOFTWARE ASSET MANAGEMENT
With increasing reliance on information technology by businesses, software has become a crucial tool in the day-to-day running of organizations. However, the process of managing software in a business organization can be a challenging one. Software costs a lot of money and even after acquisition, the company still faces many risks legally and financially, ensuring that it maximizes on the use and productivity of the software it owns not to mention finding a way to ensure that the software grows at the same rate the business grows. Software asset management helps an organization in meeting these goals. Software asset management refers to all the infrastructure and organizational processes involved in the effective management, control and safeguarding of software assets throughout the software life cycle (acquisition, deployment, use and maintenance up to ultimate disposal). Software asset management helps the business know what software it has and whether there are copies not in use. The business is able to cut on costs while improving on security compliance of software license terms. All the while anticipating what the business´ future software needs may be and adapting appropriately to these needs. Software Asset Management which is supposed to be part of an organization´s IT business strategy helps an organization in effectively managing, controlling and protecting its software assets. By carrying out these three tasks of management, control and protection, Software Asset Management´s aim is to reduce the organization´s IT costs, by limiting any business and legal risk that may arise from the use of software, while at the same time ensuring a high level of IT responsiveness in the organization and also offering high productivity from end-users. A good Software Asset Management program always asks the questions: • • • How can the business control costs on software and be able to manage well the legal and financial risks that are associated with the use of software that it has or plans to purchase? What can be done to ensure that the use of the software that the business already has is optimized? Will the business information technology infrastructure adapt well to support the company as it grows?
The process of implementing a good software asset management program should include four main tasks. These include: 1. To begin with, proper software inventory analysis. This involves knowing all the software that has been deployed in the business. Although a small business may manage to do this manually, large organizations may employ the use of automated discovery tools or opt for an outside solution like a Software Asset Management (SAM) partner. 2. Next, a record of all the licenses and documentation for each of the software and its version is taken. Keeping all these well organized is very important.
3. Then, the software asset management program needs to ensure software assets are safeguarded throughout their life cycle. This is done by creating policies and procedures that must be followed by all units or departments of the organization. 4. Finally, what’s left is to maintain the software asset management program by conducting regular checks, taking frequent software inventories and ensuring that employees are always trained concerning compliance with licenses and also to enable them to optimize their productivity from the use of software. Indeed, for most organizations, the main aim of implementing a software asset management plan will be to avoid the legal and financial consequences of not complying with software license rules and requirements. All the processes in a software asset management program can be achieved through a mix of certain IT processes in the organization, strict purchasing policies and even through the employment of certain IT solutions like software inventory tools. Indeed, a good software asset management plan brings together users of software, IT staff and managers, the procurement department or unit of the organization that deals with purchases and compliance officers so as to in ensure that the company´s money is efficiently spent while risks (legal and financial) are minimized. Some goals that a software asset management plan can have include: enforcing corporate security policy compliance, negotiating big contracts and controlling underutilized software licenses, acquiring software that fits and maximizes worker productivity and automating and streamlining of IT processes like inventory tracking in order to limit overheads that may result from managing software. There exist technologies that support the main software asset management processes: • Software inventory help to discover software applications installed across a computer network collecting specific software file information. Some may compare the data of software inventory with purchasing information revealing license deficits and helping to ensure compliance with software licensing agreements. Software metering tools help in monitoring the utilization of software programs installed in a network and can also provide enforcement of compliance for software programs licensed based on usage. Application control work in restricting the running of software programs by certain users to avoid security risks. Software deployment tools help to automate and control the organization´s deployment of new software. Patch management tools aid in automating the deployment of software program patches ensuring that they are up-to-date and that they meet the required security and efficiency standards
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• • •
Some of these tools however, face scalability challenges (they may work well when analyzing small amounts of information but not with huge amounts of data). The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC) in 2006 together with the SAM industry developed Standard ISO/IEC 19770-1:2006, Information Technology – Software Asset Management, a standard aimed at developing a standard for best practices in software asset management programs.
Part 1, was published by the ISO and IEC in May 2006. Part 1 of the standard (published in May 2006), details Software Asset Management processes. ISO/IEC 19770-2:2009 – Part 2: Software Identification Tags - makes specifications and ways for tagging software to help optimize in identification and management. The use of Software Identification Tags (SWID tags) helps in making the process of discovery simpler and accurate for vendors to audit an organizations entire software asset base. Here at http://www.pebbleit.com.au, our extensive software license professionals are able to assist in delivering a strategy to better manage your software investment. We can advise specifically on the how to implement correct structures that allow you to have detailed software asset records and in turn implement a superior software management systems
Disclaimer
Pebble IT does not guarantee the accuracy of the content contained within, and in no event or circumstance shall PebbleIT or its partners or affiliates be liable for any direct, indirect, or consequential damages, or loss of profits, revenue, or data incurred by you or any third party, if such should arise out of access to or the use of this content in any way
With increasing reliance on information technology by businesses, software has become a crucial tool in the day-to-day running of organizations. However, the process of managing software in a business organization can be a challenging one. Software costs a lot of money and even after acquisition, the company still faces many risks legally and financially, ensuring that it maximizes on the use and productivity of the software it owns not to mention finding a way to ensure that the software grows at the same rate the business grows. Software asset management helps an organization in meeting these goals. Software asset management refers to all the infrastructure and organizational processes involved in the effective management, control and safeguarding of software assets throughout the software life cycle (acquisition, deployment, use and maintenance up to ultimate disposal). Software asset management helps the business know what software it has and whether there are copies not in use. The business is able to cut on costs while improving on security compliance of software license terms. All the while anticipating what the business´ future software needs may be and adapting appropriately to these needs. Software Asset Management which is supposed to be part of an organization´s IT business strategy helps an organization in effectively managing, controlling and protecting its software assets. By carrying out these three tasks of management, control and protection, Software Asset Management´s aim is to reduce the organization´s IT costs, by limiting any business and legal risk that may arise from the use of software, while at the same time ensuring a high level of IT responsiveness in the organization and also offering high productivity from end-users. A good Software Asset Management program always asks the questions: • • • How can the business control costs on software and be able to manage well the legal and financial risks that are associated with the use of software that it has or plans to purchase? What can be done to ensure that the use of the software that the business already has is optimized? Will the business information technology infrastructure adapt well to support the company as it grows?
The process of implementing a good software asset management program should include four main tasks. These include: 1. To begin with, proper software inventory analysis. This involves knowing all the software that has been deployed in the business. Although a small business may manage to do this manually, large organizations may employ the use of automated discovery tools or opt for an outside solution like a Software Asset Management (SAM) partner. 2. Next, a record of all the licenses and documentation for each of the software and its version is taken. Keeping all these well organized is very important.
3. Then, the software asset management program needs to ensure software assets are safeguarded throughout their life cycle. This is done by creating policies and procedures that must be followed by all units or departments of the organization. 4. Finally, what’s left is to maintain the software asset management program by conducting regular checks, taking frequent software inventories and ensuring that employees are always trained concerning compliance with licenses and also to enable them to optimize their productivity from the use of software. Indeed, for most organizations, the main aim of implementing a software asset management plan will be to avoid the legal and financial consequences of not complying with software license rules and requirements. All the processes in a software asset management program can be achieved through a mix of certain IT processes in the organization, strict purchasing policies and even through the employment of certain IT solutions like software inventory tools. Indeed, a good software asset management plan brings together users of software, IT staff and managers, the procurement department or unit of the organization that deals with purchases and compliance officers so as to in ensure that the company´s money is efficiently spent while risks (legal and financial) are minimized. Some goals that a software asset management plan can have include: enforcing corporate security policy compliance, negotiating big contracts and controlling underutilized software licenses, acquiring software that fits and maximizes worker productivity and automating and streamlining of IT processes like inventory tracking in order to limit overheads that may result from managing software. There exist technologies that support the main software asset management processes: • Software inventory help to discover software applications installed across a computer network collecting specific software file information. Some may compare the data of software inventory with purchasing information revealing license deficits and helping to ensure compliance with software licensing agreements. Software metering tools help in monitoring the utilization of software programs installed in a network and can also provide enforcement of compliance for software programs licensed based on usage. Application control work in restricting the running of software programs by certain users to avoid security risks. Software deployment tools help to automate and control the organization´s deployment of new software. Patch management tools aid in automating the deployment of software program patches ensuring that they are up-to-date and that they meet the required security and efficiency standards
•
• • •
Some of these tools however, face scalability challenges (they may work well when analyzing small amounts of information but not with huge amounts of data). The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC) in 2006 together with the SAM industry developed Standard ISO/IEC 19770-1:2006, Information Technology – Software Asset Management, a standard aimed at developing a standard for best practices in software asset management programs.
Part 1, was published by the ISO and IEC in May 2006. Part 1 of the standard (published in May 2006), details Software Asset Management processes. ISO/IEC 19770-2:2009 – Part 2: Software Identification Tags - makes specifications and ways for tagging software to help optimize in identification and management. The use of Software Identification Tags (SWID tags) helps in making the process of discovery simpler and accurate for vendors to audit an organizations entire software asset base. Here at http://www.pebbleit.com.au, our extensive software license professionals are able to assist in delivering a strategy to better manage your software investment. We can advise specifically on the how to implement correct structures that allow you to have detailed software asset records and in turn implement a superior software management systems
Disclaimer
Pebble IT does not guarantee the accuracy of the content contained within, and in no event or circumstance shall PebbleIT or its partners or affiliates be liable for any direct, indirect, or consequential damages, or loss of profits, revenue, or data incurred by you or any third party, if such should arise out of access to or the use of this content in any way
