Organisations of all shapes and sizes use various software applications to streamline their day-to-day operations. With new applications emerging almost every day, procurement is no longer an issue for IT teams. However, managing a diverse fleet of software assets can be daunting, unless you implement software asset management best practices. What are they? How does it benefit an organization? Let’s explore.
What is Software Asset Management?
Gartner defines software asset management (SAM) as “a process for making software acquisition and disposal decisions. This includes strategies that define and eliminate infrequently used or unused software, consolidating software licenses or moving towards new licensing models.”
Simply put, software asset management combines a set of processes and policies facilitating the procurement, use, maintenance, and disposal of software applications. It involves;
Patch and license management
Software asset data tracking
Detection of under utalized software asset
Overall software lifecycle management
Fundamental to an organization's IT asset management (ITAM), SAM also ensures adherence to GRC (governance, risk & compliance) and license agreements.
Significance of Software Asset Management for Organizations
Unchecked procurement and use of software assets can cause overspending and governance issues for an organization. That’s where SAM comes in handy, as it facilitates easy discovery of software assets and validity of license agreements.
With an appropriate software asset management strategy in place, you can save your organization from anti-piracy litigation, prevent overuse of software licenses and control shadow IT across your network. Other benefits include:
Proper management of software licenses (usage, renewals, and removal of under utalized licenses) reduces IT spending.
Establishing software inventory across data centers and cloud, ensures proper utilisation of software assets with efficient monitoring.
Deployment of the right software that meets your business needs enhances productivity.
It fortifies business data and helps you abide by the GRC standards.
Software Asset Management Best Practices
Now, let’s take a look at the best practices involving software asset management for an organization.
1. Determine your SAM Objectives
The key to developing a software asset management strategy is to determine your primary objectives. What do you wish to achieve through SAM? Do you wish to keep tabs on all your software assets? Is it to ensure timely license renewals? Is reducing IT spending your primary goal or streamlining software audits? Knowing what you want from SAM gives you a clear directive to choose the right tools and employ the best practices.
2. Implement a Basic SAM Policy
Once you have clarified your SAM goals, the next step is establishing a basic SAM policy that aligns with your objectives. A standard software asset management policy should include the following:
Define the overall scope of software asset management
Determine the regulation and compliance areas to be included
Include installation guidelines for employees
Establish software maintenance protocol and guidelines
Provide resources for help and support with all of the above
3. Choose the Right SAM Tool
Choosing the right software asset management tool wins you half the battle. So, how do you know which tool will suit your needs? Look for a tool that:
Offers flexibility ensuring easy integration with your existing business and IT asset management system.
Has the ability to offer robust support to a growing organization and its fleet of software assets.
Comes with powerful asset discovery and license management features (license optimization, expiration & renewals, managing vendor audit requests, and likewise).
Can measure the operational metrics and generate detailed reports, enabling leaders within the organization to make informed business decisions.
You can choose a robust ITAM software equipped with the aforementioned SAM capabilities.
4. Classify Your Software Assets
Use the asset discovery feature of your SAM tool to list your existing software assets, including all licensed, customized, and open-source software. Here you are basically creating an inventory for your software assets, but based on their importance, such as:
High-priority assets: Software assets that incur the highest license cost, business implications, and compliance risks.
Low-priority assets: Free software assets that have the least impact on IT costs.
Blacklisted assets: Prohibited software assets.
Having a priority list, allows you to tally all the assets that you own and their utilization for business purposes.
5. Update Software & License Inventory
Your software and license inventory data should be regularly updated so that you can assess their utilization levels and determine whether they are worth the IT spending. The essential information you should update are:
Name of the apps installed/upgraded by users
Name of the owners
Average use of the software asset
Software asset data including subscription status, license expiration and renewal, upgrades, and likewise.
6. Recycle licenses
Recycling software licenses allows you to save money on new licenses, streamlining IT spending and maintenance costs. For example, if an employee leaves the company, you can recycle the license and assign it to the new employee instead of releasing the license.
7. license Inventory Optimization
Choose a SAM tool that provides insights on license inventory depending on the usage. Based on those insights you can determine if you are overspending on certain software assets. It allows you to detect unused programs which you can assign to other users. If the tool catches redundant apps you can immediately dispose of/replace them based on your needs.
8. Prepare for Compliance Audits
Software compliance audits are essential for an organization. Therefore, your software asset management tool should ensure you are always audit-ready, which involves gap analysis and compliance analysis.
Gap analysis identifies software assets the organization uses now, determining the ones without licenses. Compliance analysis involves listing the under-licensed and over-licensed software.
A comprehensive gap and compliance analysis ensure your SAM complies with ISO 19770-1/2/3 standards. Conducting the analysis gives you a clear picture of how the software assets within your organization are utilised.
Improve your Software Asset Management Strategy with AssetRemix
As mentioned, choosing the right tool wins you half the battle when it comes to software asset management. Our fully-integrated IT asset management system comes with software asset management capabilities. You can track and manage the software lifecycle from procurement to disposal. It allows you to record and update software asset data, and track license expiration and renewals, including who it is licensed to. Are you looking for a comprehensive software asset management solution? Schedule a call with our experts at AdminRemix or book a demo today!