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TELECOMS AND SOFTWARE NEWS
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ManageSoft Enterprise Compliance Manager 8.2: software asset management made easy?
Stephen Mann
ManageSoft Enterprise Compliance Manager 8.2: software asset management made easy?
ManageSoft, a supplier of enterprise-level solutions for asset recognition, license compliance, contract management, and software deployment, has announced version 8.2 of Enterprise Compliance Manager. This delivers a product use rights library (PURL) which extends its automated capabilities and therefore the ease of enterprise software license management. In Ovum's opinion, software asset management (SAM) is a traditionally difficult discipline for enterprises, with many making do with spreadsheets and manual processes to manage what has become a considerable element of total IT spend. However, enterprise SAM practices can only be fully effective when automated and fully integrated into business-as-usual operations.Many enterprises currently do little more than accounting for software purchases
Software assets are increasingly important to organizations. Not only are they a vital element of the IT services that enable business-critical processes; they now also represent a much larger proportion of total IT spend. Thus IT functions are faced with a pincer attack: the threat of software audits by major software vendors/industry watchdogs and pressure from the ubiquitous corporate imperative to “deliver more with less”. However, many companies continue to manage their software assets with a “lighter touch” than other vital business assets and, while the statutory and legal issues are well understood, enterprises are often unaware of the business benefits that mature SAM practices can deliver. It can be common practice for organizations to “play safe” and oversubscribe licenses; they can fail to reuse licenses on retired hardware assets or those that belong to users who change business roles. They can also fail to take advantage of product use rights when determining the relative level of license compliance. In our opinion, it is imperative that software license management should not stop at accounting for license purchases. IT organizations need to gain a better understanding of the licenses they own, how they are used, and how best to exploit use rights to ensure both compliance and value for money.Effective software asset management can help enterprises achieve financial efficiencies
The financial crisis has not only affected what IT has had to spend on business-as-usual activities, but has also increased the focus on what IT costs and what it ultimately delivers to the organization. CIOs are challenged to reduce IT costs and wastage, and to provide IT governance-mandated visibility and assurance. Whereas previous (probably unsuccessful) enterprise forays into software asset management have been driven by the need to be compliant, in our opinion the corporate need for IT to “do more with less” has refocused attention on the area from a cost perspective.An organization needs to create and implement a SAM strategy, along with a policy and process framework, using the software license lifecycle and enterprise-level SAM tools to help ensure the compliant provision of the right software to the right people, at the right time, and at the right cost. An organization should also manage actual usage (including adherence to use rights) and ensure that supplier management activities help to optimize its investment in software. Beyond this, SAM activities should also include deployment and configuration management best practices, using software deployment and patch management tools, and technology that can help to ensure local compliance with authorized images.ManageSoft's introduction of a PURL can help support greater SAM maturity
Product use rights affect license “consumption”. A good example is the right of second use, which allows the same license to be allocated to both a desktop and a laptop that belong to the same user. Without an awareness of, and the ability to apply, such rights an enterprise will undoubtedly overspend on software licenses in the pursuit of compliance.Previous versions of ManageSoft Enterprise Compliance Manager used an asset recognition library (ARL), a purchase order stock keeping unit (SKU) library, and a high level of automation to significantly reduce the manual effort and complexity of SAM. The addition of a PURL (which defines software entitlement for key vendors such as Microsoft and Adobe), and associated automation in version 8.2, significantly adds to the solution's capabilities. This further extends visibility and control of an enterprise's software position and, importantly, gets down to a level of licensing granularity that helps to ensure that optimal use is made of existing software license investments.
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This article is an extract taken from Ovum's Straight Talk service. This daily email bulletin provides our expert's views and opinions on important news and events in global IT and telecoms. If you have a comment or question regarding this article then please submit your details here:
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