Software Asset Management (SAM) Discussion

In an obvious move to promote adoption of Windows Vista, Microsoft has announced price cuts on the operating system to coincide with the release of the first service pack.

With 2008 expected to see more organizations (as opposed to home users) adopting Vista, software and network managers face the challenge of upgrading the IT estate with minimal disruption and unexpected expenditure. In this type of exercise, the role of both IT Asset Management and Software Asset Management is vital, helping the business understand exactly what is already on the network and what needs to be done to successfully complete the upgrade.

With upwards of 70% of IT projects running over time and/or over budget, getting a Vista migration wrong could be a costly and painful mistake.

For more information on upgrading to Vista, Centennial has prepared some simple advice, available here.

An unnamed UK company has agreed to pay a record fine of £250,000  for running unlicensed software.

The company (which operates in the infrastructure and public services sector) was running unlicensed copies of Adobe, Autodesk, and Microsoft software on hundreds of PCs across several UK locations.

The BSA is highly active and is said to be investigating a number of large UK companies who are believe to be running un-licensed Software.

The BSA is not the only organsiation actively auditing customers. A recent Gartner study showed that major software vendors such as Adobe, IBM, BEA Systems, Microsoft, Oracle and Attachmate are aggressively auditing customers where they believe there is unlicensed copies of their software in use.

Companies should be protecting themselves against such activity but how?

By implementing good Software Asset Management processes to adequately manage an organisation’s software assets. This will involve technology, people and processes.

Deploy an autodiscovery/inventory such as Centennial Discovery so the organisation has an understanding of what assets are deployed across the organisation. Combine this with licence management technology such as Centennial License Manager 2.0 which will launch September 2007 and the organisation will be on the road to gaining control of their software assets.

Implement good SAM processes such as those recommended in ITIL guide to Software Asset mangement. http://www.best-management-practice.com/ or in the ISO/IEC 19770-1 Standard for Software Asset Management and the organisation should avoid the risk of a vendor audit and associated.

If an audit is requested by a vendor these processes should make it a relatively straightforward process as it will be easy to demonstrate what the compliance position is and the organisation will be on the front foot of any negotiations with vendors.

 What is conformity?

Conformity against any standard is the demonstation that specified requirements relating to a product, process, systems person or body are fulfilled. 

An organisation can be conform and indeed become certified against ISO 19770-1 without any regard for any automation tools. However automation technology will undoubtably contribute to efficiency, data accuracy and the extent of process maturity. 

An example of where auto discovery tools such as Centennial Discovery aid confromance with ISO 19770-1 is in the area of inventory management. ISO 19770-1 state that a measurable outcome is the creation and maintenance of repositories  and records of software and related assets. The role of Centennial Discovery in this will be extensive.

Also Centennial Discvery can track softare usage which directly supports the outcome for a mechanism to determine usage of software assets.

Ultimately, Software Asset Management is about people and processes but technology such as Centennial Discovery and Centennial Licence Manager which is slated for launch this calendar year will make the achievement of Software Asset Management easier than without.