Software asset management refers to visibility and transparency in the use of the organization’s software, contracts, and the use of licenses. All this gives an understanding of what software is available, what is used, and who uses it.
The increased visibility of software assets helps an organization to:
- Optimizing the use of licenses
- Reduce license costs
- Protect your organization from compliance issues
- Make future investments in software assets
How does Software Asset Management (SAM) complement an IT Asset Management (ITAM) strategy?
In most organizations, central IT planning is a big challenge. That is why many of them choose to decentralize their IT infrastructure into several business units. While this can be great for management purposes, it can lead to unwanted expenses.
When we talk about IT management, ITAM plays a strategic role in managing IT assets, services, and software. Software asset management is a subset of IT asset management that helps an organization in:
- Monitor software usage and installation.
- Implement a base configuration
- Track the use and allocation of software licenses
Software license management plays an important role in supporting the above basic pillars. You need efficient software license management for the proper management of software assets.
Understanding software license management
IT asset management, software asset management, and software license management are all related.
Software license management is an ongoing process that allows an organization to better plan and manage software licenses. It facilitates compliance monitoring, tracking the use of licenses, and the allocation of licenses.
When we are talking about SAM, then creating a group of software vendors is a good start and while creating a group, below you need to keep things in mind:
- Add providers you’re currently spending the most on.
- When choosing new providers, consider those that have clear and direct benefits for stakeholders.
- Analyze the contractual conditions of each supplier.
Best practices for overloading software license management
Gather information about software licenses
You should have a central repository for all software licenses and their information. Optimum Desk SAM Solution allows you to maintain such a deposit and information such as cost, conditions of use, current allocation, and use.
Contractual relationships
It is one thing to have licenses in place, but totally different to prove that they exist. Therefore, it is important to relate both the financial information and the contracts to a license entry. Optimum Desk ITAM allows easy loading of contractual and financial information.
Organize your software
There is a software license repository along with a software repository. It is important to have the software organized; for example, different versions of the same software should have a single entry. An organized software repository will make the licensing process easier.
Track software usage
Once you’ve organized your software inventory, it’s time to track how often they’re used and on how many devices. This exercise will give you the number of licenses for a particular software.
Keep track of license usage
Once you have your licenses in place, it’s important to monitor them continuously to get to know them. Usage monitoring will lay the groundwork for future planning of licenses. Asset Management from Optimum Desk comes with a built-in feature to display the usage number of each license.
Compliance Monitoring
Set notifications when there are overuse and unauthorized use of a license. Such notifications are very easy to set up in Optimum Desk asset management.
Keep your deposits up to date
It’s important to be aware of both the license and the software repository. With updated deposits, you will have the latest version information, the latest contact information, and financial information.
Managing software assets, along with licensing, can be a daunting task if you don’t know what you’ll need in the long run. But we are here to help no matter what stage you are at. Optimum Desk Asset Management intelligently integrates everything into a single interface.
Get more information about IT solutions like ITAM and SAM by scheduling a FREE DEMO with one of our experts.
