SAM needs a plan, Stan… (Part One)
It’s a commonly-held view that 70-80 percent of IT projects fail - that’s to say they either fall apart completely or, at best, miss key deadlines and go over-budget. The bad news is that it’s no different for Software Asset Management, unless you get the basics right.
Like all IT projects, a critical factor to ensuring success is to have a comprehensive and reliable project plan. And while ‘generalist’ IT project planning principles are still just as relevant to SAM, the simple fact is that the majority of organizations are relatively new to the concept of SAM and therefore don’t have much in the way of experience or expertise to call on (another key factor in determining IT project success or failure).
Traditionally, organizations in this situation would have turned to the services of an external consultant - either a SAM specialist, or someone from their preferred licensing provider. However, with IT budgets at best static (or perhaps more realistically, in decline) this option may not be as viable as it once was. At least, it is probably preferrable to look for a way to minimize the amount of time and money spent on expensive consultants.
Thankfully, there are a limited number of tools available on the market designed to help organizations with little or no prior SAM experience to scope and ‘own’ their SAM initiative - guiding them through each step of the five-stage cycle of SAM - Scope, Discover, Record, Reconcile, Automate.
Working with the right tools, managing the SAM project becomes an interactive process, where progress can be visually tracked and key requirements are flagged to key stakeholders across the team. What’s more, even if the individuals are not familiar with standards like ISO 19770-1 or the Microsoft SAM Optimization Model, these are built-in to the project - ensuring that, while industry standards might not be the initial business driver, any effort put in to SAM will deliver benefits in both the short and long term.
Building the right plan is the key to overcoming one of the most dangerous misconceptions about SAM - that it is primarily a techological challenge. In fact, effective SAM needs three things - people, processes and technology.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll look at each of these five stages and how even organizations with no prior experience can create and manage a SAM project that will deliver real benefit to the organization (and by benefit, we’re talking bottom-line financial savings…).
