Failing to manage your software’s lifecycle leaves you open to ineffective resource allocation, lack of visibility for budgets and planning, a weak negotiating base for procurement negotiations and ultimately raises issues around compliance.
The established case for SAM
- Companies that employ software asset management can reduce costs, increase utilisation and improve the performance of their assets, while improving their overall budget predictability.
- Effective Software Asset Management yields true visibility, eliminating wasteful spends.
- The rising cost of software and software license compliance continue to exert pressure on overextended IT budgets.
- According to Gartner, the leading provider of research and analysis on the global IT industry, companies that systematically manage the lifecycle of their distributed IT assets can reduce their cost per asset by as much as 30% the first year and by 5-10% during the next five years
While many organisations offer SAM tools which feature software asset management functionality, the process cannot be contained within a single application. A true picture of your software usage can only be gained with back office collaboration to understand disparate systems and in dept knowledge of software licensing.
Where SAM can Fail?
• Some SAM offerings highlight areas of non compliance but don’t offer effective, legal, timely solutions.
• Compiling a software asset ‘snapshots’ in a dynamic environment can’t provide an accurate analysis using auditing tools due to the complexity of licensing.
• Without an in dept knowledge of licensing entitlements and SAM processes in place projects can fail to deliver.
ISS from Civica
With the cost of software rapidly escalating compared to the cost of hardware, real economies can be derived from getting a handle on software license inventories, installations, usage, maintenance and their associated costs.
Activities to eliminate, replace or redeploy unused licenses can begin only after accurate information is developed and maintained.
Civica’s approach is to utilise our unparalleled experience and expertise in all aspects of licensing to integrate a software asset management solution into your organisations software Lifecycle.
Civica’s licensing knowledge lets us avoid fragmented, inconclusive, time consuming projects and offer to take your organisation from baseline entitlements through process analysis and implementation of our recommendations.
Benefits of ISS
1. Planning
Civica’s ISS offers more than unqualified compliance lists but a continuous process to manage your software needs and aid both financial planning and control.
2 Understanding your licensing
ISS will allow greater control of spending by helping the organisation understand its software usage; this in turn will aid reallocation of existing resources to help bring fluctuation of licensing cover into acceptable limits. It will also ensure effective procurement of licensing to minimise the risk of illegal copies or duplicate purchasing.
3. Visibility
By combining Civica’s licensing intelligence with a state of the art knowledge tool ISS provides transparency of the licensing position throughout the organisation at the click of a button. Civica will also provide monthly reporting and analysis of usage in Licensing Entitlement Verification meetings.
4. Control
ISS allows organisations to free up IT resources from the time consuming and complexity of tasks surrounding software asset management and compliance, while putting your vital software assets in the hands of experts with over 18 years experience.
5. Added Value – through licensing knowledge
The clarity of your software usage combined with a better understanding of your licensing needs provides a key tool to aid future software procurement negotiations.
6. Efficiency through procedures.
When you consider the value of your software assets you’ll understand the needs to have strategies and policies in place around the software lifecycle (deploy etc). ISS provides an MIS (Management of data) to aid policy development as part of existing organisational procedures.
ISS delivers licensing & agreement expertise, continuous methodology that combines disparate elements, an instant visualisation of your licensing position and a single administrative function to host & manage the software lifecycle