What would employees at your business do if they lost their laptops? What steps would they take after learning about the loss or theft? What have they done to protect or backup the information they carry?
Whether you follow these recommendations or not, the reality is that if you don’t have a software management plan in place that at a minimum includes regularly scheduled inventories, license compliance management, and enforcement of policies and standards – you are risking fi nancial losses. This is why it’s imperative that you have an ongoing plan that includes studying inventory and compliance reports with your team and your asset management consultant or vendor. Schedule regular meetings with your IT, purchasing and software managers to address discrepancies in your inventory and compliance reports. Software asset management is a long-term commitment that can be managed easily with the right tools, team and processes in place.
UNDERSTANDING SOFTWARE AS AN ASSET
Software is widely defi ned as an IT asset, the same as any hardware device. This valuable asset provides strong fi nancial and productivity benefi ts, but it has ongoing expenses; such as license renewals, true-ups, support and version upgrades. Therefore, like any asset – physical, financial or digital – it has to be monitored and maintained. How this is done varies depending on the size and diversity of your organization. The challenge is that software is not a physical asset, like a building or machinery. It’s less tangible – less visible – and therefore more diffi cult to track and manage properly. As such, it requires an automated, electronic means of tracking and updating. There are numerous tools on the market for performing software and hardware inventories. If your reseller doesn’t offer one, review the Software & Information Industry Association or Business Software Alliance web sites for a listing of audit tools. Small businesses may or may not have dedicated purchasing or IT departments. Depending on the size, an owner or manager might make all of the purchasing decisions. IT support could be provided by an outsourcer. This could indicate that no one is assigned to manage software assets and licenses. An employee might bring software from home and load it to help get a certain assignment done quickly. Before long, everyone in the department has the application on their PC. The business owner has now lost control of software licensing and could be liable for fi nes and penalties. Mid-size to large organizations, especially those with diverse and decentralized locations and business units, have more of a challenge. IT needs to keep up with user demand and configure systems from software masters without checking for proper license requirements. It’s not long before potential compliance issues arise. In order to help minimize this risk, organizations tend to buy more licenses than they need, but they can’t afford to continue to do this. Another scenario is that organizations may take a risk by under-licensing the software currently installed. Additionally, many organizations could be paying for licenses and support packs they don’t need. They might be paying maintenance for software applications that they either no longer have or have been supplanted by newer versions. Companies that have gone through recent divestitures or acquisitions are especially susceptible to this.
