Software asset management (SAM) is a critical part of any organisation's IT strategy and offers several tangible business benefits include lower costs, greater security, lowered risk and improved governance.
This is according to Gerhard Roux, software assets services manager at BTG, who says as these benefits are integral to the implementation of a SAM initiative, it's worth drilling down a bit to ensure a solid understanding.
He cites cost control as the first benefit. "In theory, software purchasing is a fairly straightforward process. However, inherent in that process are questionable assumptions: What exactly do you already have? Of that pool, what are people actually using on a regular basis? What is already up to date? What is not?"
Roux says one of SAM's goals is to deliver those answers, enabling the IT group to take control of the software licensing and lifecycle management process. He says that by knowing what you have, you can accurately budget and plan future software purchases. Further to this, Roux says that by knowing what people are not using, you can eliminate waste and redundancy, reallocating unused licences or avoiding unnecessary upgrades.
Second on Roux's list of benefits is greater security. "Tracking software on the network can also help considerably to improve network security. For example, after a critical vulnerability alert is released for a particular application, organisations with a full and up-to-date IT inventory will know which machines are affected and where those machines are on the network. Equipped with this information, administrators can quickly decide to deploy a patch or even quarantine the affected PCs. Similarly, IT managers can use audit reports to monitor networks for applications known to pose security risks and take proactive steps to eliminate those applications."
He says decreased risk is another tangible benefit of SAM. "Organisational risk is not limited simply to security; it also strongly corresponds to the legal risks associated with software non-compliance, lack of policy enforcement, and inappropriate usage. Industry research shows that approximately one quarter to one half of all software worldwide is pirated or unlicensed, and much of this resides on corporate networks. This leads to numerous issues from a legal standpoint, not the least of which is the potential for heavy fines."
Lastly, he says improved governance can be gained through implementation of SAM. "Current and comprehensive software asset control improves IT-related business functions, from support operations to release management to faster and easier mergers, acquisitions, business consolidations or expansions. Knowing exactly what's on the network also allows organisations to focus more on running the business and less on trying to keep up with IT systems, facilitating planning for future IT initiatives, migrations, new hardware or software purchases and more."
Roux says for many IT departments, the idea of identifying, tracking, auditing and maintaining every software asset on a sprawling, often multi-site network is a difficult one to wrap their minds around. "Manually tracking every piece of software would be a nightmare, and manually managing it might well be impossible. Instead, organisations need to find a way to combine technology with their own people and processes to implement SAM in a cost-effective way that will return the maximum value in the minimum time."
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