"Software Asset Management (SAM) is all of the infrastructure and processes necessary for the effective management, control and protection of the software assets within an organisation, throughout all stages of their lifecycle."

Optimise your IT estate and ensure best practice Software Asset Management, its time to take a closer look at your software risk and minimise your costs.

• The United States has the lowest PC software piracy rate in the world. Even so, one out of five pieces of PC software put into service in the US is still illegal, and given the size of the US market, software piracy and license misuse continues to be a significant problem. [BSA, 2007 State Piracy Report, released July 2008]
• At any one time, around a third of British companies are either under- or over-licensed.

In today's hectic business environment, where change is the only constant, many organisations are now struggling to keep track of their IT Assets. No sooner have they deployed the latest patch or upgraded to a new version of 'must have' software existing records are already out-of-date. How is the IT manager ever going to know if someone internally has just downloaded a piece of non-compliant software?

Many organisations either misunderstand their Software Asset Management (SAM) and licence compliance position or are in complete denial of it. Software management might seem like a routine task, but there can be serious consequences for Companies and their Directors if they get it wrong. The costs of non-compliance and poor SAM can run into hundreds of thousands of pounds and ultimately criminal penalties for Executive Management. If you are struggling to get your compliance situation under control, we can help you overcome your software management challenges and optimise your IT environment.

The key goal of an ongoing SAM strategy is to install confidence and offer a high degree of continuing cost control. We help you achieve this by:

• Understanding your Risk - by understanding your software risk you will reduce the fear and confusion within your organisation of non-compliance. You will be in a better position to understand your legal and regulatory obligations and any risk to the reputation of your business as a result of deemed non-compliance.
• Implementing Cost Control - with understanding comes control. By implementing an effective SAM strategy you will be able to reduce the direct costs of your software and other related assets. This will also deliver time and resourcing benefits and improve your financial management.
• Infrastructure Optimization - Reporting on your licensing position is extremely beneficial, but this only really addresses General Usage Rights (GUR), which apply to all software. If you want to understand whether you have a licence for a specific installed application in order to legitimately understand the correct usage, you need to understand the Product Usage Rights (PUR).
• Mergers and Acquisitions - Mergers and Acquisitions (M & A) are common place in business today. While the purchasing organisation investigates liabilities around finances, pensions, buildings, etc. software is often overlooked. To neglect due diligence and risk assessment in this area can be extremely costly. If an organisation has been purchased for $1M, but later a licensing deficit of $500K is uncovered, the commercial value of the acquisition is considerably weakened. If licences are not transferred correctly and in line with the vendor requirements, these licences are lost for good.
  We work with our clients involved in M & A activity to quickly and confidentially understand the respective key Licence positions. Specifically we address:
  • RISK
  • TRANSFER
  • INTEGRATION
• Industry Standards - As Software Asset Management becomes recognised as a key Business Process it is inevitable that the need to adhere to standards will increase. ITIL, ISO, SARBOX, BASEL-II already have links to SAM and here at SAM Practice we have a range of services to ensure your organisation navigates safely through the maze of standardisation.
• Reap the rewards immediately of an effective Software Asset Management strategy
  • Bring clarity to your software estate
  • Improve relations and negotiation power with software vendors
  • Identify software overlap and overspend
  • Eliminate waste
  • Improve decision–making for future purchases
  • Improve corporate governance
  • Mitigate the risk of a software review

Our SAM program involves dealing with all historic BASELINE licensing issues, understanding and addressing risks to OPTIMISE your licenses, and the ongoing MANAGEMENT of changes to maintain an Effective License Position.

Software asset and license management impacts organizations in different ways. We therefore break our services down so they are easy to understand, purchase and deliver and adhere to these three guiding principles. In addition, we provide outsourced managed services - delivering comprehensive reports and advice to clients, whilst removing all the pressures associated with managing software in-house. We provide a review of systems to identify the reasons behind any issues – helping our customers move from an unstructured and uncontrolled position to proactively being in control of all risks and costs surrounding software compliance.

"Companies, government entities, and academic institutions need to pay attention not only to their own software license management, but also the sources of their software. The next step for companies to take is implementing a system of software asset management (SAM), a growing field covering the use of special tools and services to manage software assets, maximize their productivity, and reduce their overall IT costs." [BSA]

Times are extremely tough for IT departments. With the global recession taking hold fast, CEOs must attempt to maximise revenue while reducing outgoings and often the IT department is the first to suffer cutbacks. Please Contact us to speak with one of our consultants to discuss how our License Services can help your organization. More >>