Software Asset Management
Large organisations with hundreds or thousands of staff could potentially save millions in software licence spend by utilising Software Asset Management (SAM).
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If you are not doing effective SAM, you will not be prepared for a licence audit, because you won’t know:
Which software products all your staff are using, and what type of licencing you are paying for with each product?
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If you are using more licences than agreed in your vendor contracts?
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If you are paying for licences for staff that have left your organisation?
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if you are using software free of charge which you are supposed to be paying for?
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Determining your actual license position is difficult and requires SME Consultants with a deep knowledge of how products are licensed based on metrics such as cores, clusters, availability and BYOSL rules.
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Implementing a SAM product can do this for you, and according to a recent Gartner study, can save you up to 30% of your software spend.
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SAM is the practice of ensuring compliance with the legal contractual agreements between your organisation and your IT vendors. These contracts lay out how many software licenses your organisation is entitled to, and state that it’s your responsibility to stay in compliance with the agreed terms.
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To ensure your organisation remains compliant, vendors will conduct audits, usually on an annual or biannual basis. If found non-compliant, your organisation may have to pay for backdated licences, or be fined.
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With effective SAM, you can view and understand your entire technology ecosystem, streamline, and simplify licenses, find opportunities for savings, and reduce risk.
Top 4 benefits of SAM
1. Cost Savings
SAM provides more control over your costs and the data that you require to guide your future investment and budget decisions
2. Repurpose Licences
SAM can identify all of your unused licences so that they can be reclaimed and redeployed, easing pressure on your IT budgets
3. Avoid Penalties
Most large organizations receive at least one audit per year. With SAM any license deficits can be identified and addressed in advance
4. Competitive Edge
SAM can cut round 50% of the manual tasks involved in licence tracking, and free up those resources to focus on higher-value projects
Software applications are critical to all businesses. But providing you staff with the right kind of software portfolio is also a huge investment.
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Many organisations don’t pay attention to how things are being used, and what they really need. To get the most out of these valuable assets, organisations need to have a holistic understanding of this environment.
Once you do, the cost savings are extensive.
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If you need help with SAM, or Software Licence Optimisation, speak with one of JAMAY’s experts ASAP.