Software Asset Management – much more than inventory

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Software Asset Management – much more than inventory

Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................................ 3
2. Defining Software Asset Management .......................................................................................................... 4
3. Software Asset Management Core Components ........................................................................................... 5
3.1. Inventory ............................................................................................................................................... 5
3.1.1. Software Metering ................................................................................................................................ 5
3.2. License Management ............................................................................................................................ 6
3.3. Application Deployment ....................................................................................................................... 6
3.4. SAM Process Management ................................................................................................................... 7
4. Eating the SAM Elephant ............................................................................................................................... 8
5. Avoid unnecessary costs - Making the most of what you have ..................................................................... 9
6. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................... 10
7. About License Dashboard ............................................................................................................................ 11
7.1. Resources ............................................................................................................................................ 11

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Software Asset Management – much more than inventory

1. Executive Summary
As an industry, Software Asset Management hasn’t really helped itself in the last ten years. For a start there’s
a self-perpetuating confusion over terminology: Software Asset Management (SAM), Inventory, Software
License Management, Compliance, Discovery, Application Management… they’re all the same thing really,
right?

Well, no. In fact, definitely No.

But many so-called experts are guilty of hiding behind jargon or substituting clarity for confusion either to
make themselves look more clever, or perhaps to sell you technology you don’t need.

This guide will break through the smoke and mirrors to demystify some of the terminology around Software
Asset Management. In particular, it will highlight one of the main confusions – that Software Asset
Management and Inventory are not the same thing.

By the end of this document, you will have a clearer understanding of Software Asset Management and will be
in a better position to decide what component technologies and/or services will drive true value to your
organization.

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Software Asset Management – much more than inventory

2. Defining Software Asset Management

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) defines Software Asset Management (SAM) as:

“…all of the infrastructure and processes necessary for the effective management, control and protection of the
software assets…throughout all stages of their lifecycle.”

What does that mean in real life? Well, quite a lot. In fact, for many organizations, probably too much.

In plain English it means that SAM in its entirety encompasses everything to do with how software is
purchased, deployed, managed, updated, used and secured across the enterprise. That means people,
processes and technology all working together to optimize each and every element of software usage.

The one thing that it isn’t is small. In fact, you only need to read the ISO 19770-1 international SAM standard
to see just how demanding ‘true’ SAM is: the full document runs to 80 pages and comprises no less than 27
individual processes.

In short, it’s one heck of an elephant to try to eat in one sitting – but more of that in chapter four.

In real life, few (if any – at the time of writing, no organization has been certified as compliant with the
standard) organizations actually have a SAM strategy that encompasses all the requirements outlined in the
ISO 19770-1 standard.

It may be easier to look at a simplified version of SAM. In this case, the Microsoft SAM Optimization Model
outlines four stages of SAM ‘maturity’ that enterprises must pass through on the route to Optimization:

Microsoft suggests that the vast majority of organizations have only achieved a ‘basic’ level of SAM to date,
with around 2% of organizations worldwide having what it describes (see above) as ‘Dynamic SAM’.

Under Microsoft’s model, ‘Basic SAM’ is perhaps a bit generous, as it suggests organizations have ‘little control
over what IT assets are being used and where’. That sounds a little more like ‘chaos’ to us!

The following chapter breaks down the core requirements of Software Asset Management, to help you identify
the parts likely to deliver the strongest immediate value to your organization.

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Software Asset Management – much more than inventory

3. Software Asset Management Core Components

While the ISO 19770-1 international standard for SAM might identify 27 key processes and requirements, for
the sake of simplicity this document identifies four ‘essential’ SAM technology components:

1. Inventory (including software metering / usage monitoring)

2. License Management
3. Application Deployment (including patch management)
4. SAM process management

Let’s explore each of these in a little more detail:

3.1. Inventory
Inventory, sometimes referred to as ‘Discovery’, is the foundation of many IT management practices, not just
SAM (and, as such, many organizations already have inventory in place, see chapter four). In very simplistic
terms, it is the automated collection of configuration data about the hardware deployed on the network and
the software (both operating systems and applications) installed on that hardware.

Inventory solutions come in many shapes and sizes, from entry-level point products which cost less than
$1,000 for a network-wide license, through to components of much larger IT Asset Management (ITAM) suites.
In the middle, there are solutions like Microsoft’s SCCM and MAP which are provided free to eligible volume
licensing customers.

Although their intricate workings might differ, most inventory solutions are capable of providing the basic
information about software installed on Windows PCs and servers (caveat: that doesn’t mean you will
necessarily be able to make sense of their reports! See below).

If your network is also home to so-called ‘advanced platforms’ (virtual servers, Mac, Unix, Oracle, IBM etc.),
then the chances are that a cheap or off-the-shelf inventory solution isn’t going to do a good job of identifying
these assets. This is why a growing number of organizations actually use several inventory solutions,
optimized for the different platforms across their network.

It’s all just Greek to me

A quick reality check. While most inventory solutions are capable of identifying the bits and bytes of what
software is installed on Windows PCs and Servers, there is often a huge difference between what is
‘technically’ and what is ‘commercially’ installed. A quick example: an inventory solution might tell you that
Microsoft Excel 11 is installed on a PC. And on a technical level, the inventory solution is correct. But the
organization didn’t buy (and therefore doesn’t need to license) ‘Excel 11’. It would have bought ‘Excel 2003’ or
perhaps Excel as a component of ‘Office 2003 Pro’. This is where many inventory solutions fall short.

Thankfully, there is a way to cope with this shortcoming (that doesn’t necessarily involve throwing out your
incumbent inventory solution): A good license management solution will be able to take the raw data from
inventory solutions and transform this into ‘normalized’ data which makes more sense when looking at
commercial application installations.

3.1.1. Software Metering

A number of inventory solutions are able not only to detect the presence of software installations on PCs, but
also to track how often they are used. The extract mechanisms and metrics vary, but essentially the aim is to
add value to audit data by giving managers a view whether deployed assets are actually delivering any value
back to the organization. In SAM terms, metering can be a valuable metric when trying to reduce software

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Software Asset Management – much more than inventory

expenditure, as this information can be used to determine where software can be removed from PCs where it
is not used, and redeployed to new or more active users.

3.2. License Management

If building an inventory of the installed software is the first step towards Software Asset Management, then
the second has to be the process of understanding how the installed software affects your current software
licensing position (often referred to as an Effective Licensing Position – or ELP). The fact is that inventory alone
can’t deliver a strong ROI to the organization, as there is little or no ‘value’ in the raw data. It is only when you
apply a level of ‘intelligence’ to this inventory data that organizations can start to benefit from reduced risks
and cost savings.

This is where a good license management solution comes into its own. Again using simple terms, a license
management solution is designed to process two data sources (in this case, the raw software audit provided by
the inventory solution, and the license entitlements held by the organization) and provide a reconciliation
between the two. If that’s the theory, then the reality is much, much more complex as the license
management tool not only needs to be able to make sense of the sometimes confusing data provided by the
inventory solution (see “It’s all just Greek to me” in section 3.1). It also has to be able to support all the
different licensing models offered by the different software vendors being managed.

That’s difficult enough when dealing with just a couple of major vendors such as Microsoft and Adobe. Factor
in server virtualization, Oracle and IBM and the vast majority of so-called License Management tools simply
can’t cope. That’s because many of these solutions are, in fact, little or no more than repositories. Yes, you
can store license information in them, but try to apply those licenses accurately against actual usage and it all
starts to fall apart.

The level of automation provided by different license management solutions also varies hugely. Some
solutions offer the ability to automatically import license sources such as a Microsoft License Statement (MLS)
in their raw format, others require you to do a substantial amount of data transformation outside of the
product before import. Some solutions automate the modeling of the effects of server virtualization
technologies such as DRS (Dynamic Resource Scheduling) from VMware, others can’t cope. Some solutions
provide an instant ELP in the format required by major vendors, others need you to export the data to Excel
and then cut and paste.

Which license management solution is right for your organization will depend largely on which software
vendors you need to manage, how many resources you have available to throw at the project and what sort of
investment you are willing to make (and how long before you expect to see an ROI).

3.3. Application Deployment

Application Deployment can come in many shapes and sizes (for example, it may or may not include in-product
packaging of applications), but essentially the aim is to streamline both the process of deploying new software
packages to many users across the network as well as then keeping those applications and operating systems
up-to-date in terms of both upgrades and security patches.

There are many benefits of automated deployment – reduced support overheads thanks to all users in the
organization running common versions of software, minimized administration time to manually ensure that
software policies are being adhered to, and increased user productivity due to reduced downtime etc.
Application deployment is, by its very nature, complex and thus solutions in this area tend to be major
investments and require significant behavioral changes across the organization.

Successful application deployment is itself dependent on having both inventory and license management in
place beforehand. Otherwise, it is near impossible to ensure the right software is deployed/updated on

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Software Asset Management – much more than inventory

appropriate machines or indeed check that the organization’s deployments are in line with current license
entitlements.

3.4. SAM Process Management

As stated earlier in this document, SAM in its widest form is essentially the bringing together of people,
processes and technology to meet the common objective of better management of software throughout its
entire lifecycle.

One of the key challenges facing any organization trying to achieve this is the sheer scale and diversity of
stakeholders that need to be involved. Take the lifecycle of just one application as an example:

1. End User requests a copy of Adobe Acrobat Pro be deployed to their machine
2. Line manager examines and approves request
3. Software manager identifies that no spare licenses are ‘in stock’ so new purchase required
4. Procurement identifies best-cost supplier and places order
5. Software manager updates license availability on confirmation of order
6. Application deployment team receives go-ahead to deploy application to target device

In that simple example, no less than five different stakeholders from four or more departments are involved in
the request, approval, purchase and deployment of the software. Unsurprisingly, for many organizations this
kind of process chain can be difficult to manage. This in turn results in slow resolution times, user productivity
issues and possible over-spend in software licensing.

That’s where SAM process management solutions can come into their own, linking together all the different
stakeholders involved in the software lifecycle onto a single platform. This makes it easier to track requests,
costs, resolution times as well as ensuring that all software deployed on the network is both accounted for
financially (SAM process management solutions can also prove invaluable to cross-charging and inter-
department accounting) and fully in-line with the organization’s license entitlement (thus avoiding any
potential compliance and governance issues).

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Software Asset Management – much more than inventory

4. Eating the SAM Elephant

Most people are familiar with the saying ‘How do you eat an elephant?’; ‘One bite at a time’. Addressing SAM
is very much like eating an elephant (although don’t ask us what an elephant tastes like, we’re being
metaphorical here!).

If SAM is daunting when seen in its entirety, then breaking it down into its component parts makes things
more bearable – and is likely to ultimately deliver greater value to the organization.

Whichever way you look at it, SAM has to start with inventory. You simply can’t do any of the other processes
effectively if you don’t know the current baseline of software installs (and usage/metering if you can) on the
network. So in that way, Discovery comes first. But remember that inventory alone is rarely the direct driver
of cost savings or risk reductions.

A critical stage in the adoption of SAM is when the process stops having a net cost on the organization and
starts driving cash positive outcomes. This conversion from cost to ROI starts with license management.

Why? Research conducted by License Dashboard (over the course of around 1,000 SAM engagements)
suggests that most organizations that are new to SAM are spending in the region of 20% too much on their
licenses and support contracts each year. For most organizations, that 20% wasted spend far exceeds the cost
of investing in a license management solution (don’t forget, many organizations already have an inventory
solution, so this is often not necessarily a new or direct SAM cost) and so it is quite feasible to see a full ROI in
less than six months from the deployment of the license management solution.

There are other compelling reasons why license management should be a priority for SAM:

1. Your organization now faces a 65% chance of being audited by at least one software vendor in the
next 12 months (source: Gartner)
2. More software vendors than ever now have active review and compliance programs for licensing
3. Streamlining application deployments is actually dangerous if you don’t monitor the effect on the
organization’s ELP
4. Most organizations with Enterprise Agreements or other volume licensing schemes fail to realize the
maximum value of their license entitlements, effectively losing money on agreements

When inventory and license management are in place and running effectively, that’s the time to broaden the
SAM scope to include other value add components such as application deployment, and SAM workflow
automation. The building blocks are now in place for these components to contribute towards the ROI rather
than simply increase the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of the SAM program.

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5. Avoid unnecessary costs - Making the most of what you have

It is important to remember that SAM – and the components of SAM – is not a unique and siloed activity but
inter-connected with many other aspects of IT operations. Many organizations, for example, already run an
inventory solution to feed data to their help desk, or to manage the lifecycle of hardware purchases. Similarly,
application deployment modules are often included in larger IT Asset Management (ITAM) suite solutions. For
organizations with a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, they more often than not have access to the Microsoft
SCCM inventory and configuration management solution (other Microsoft customers can often get MAP free
of charge).

As such there is a strong business case for identifying the tools already available to your organization (whether
actually deployed, or just unused entitlements) before committing to any new costs associated with SAM
technologies. As outlined below, it is also important to view inventory solutions not only in terms of
acquisition cost, but also ongoing costs around deployment, configuration and maintenance.

What the vast majority of organizations won’t have in place is a credible license management solution. Certain
ITAM suites do claim to offer license management modules, but by and large these are more like the
repositories outlined in section 3.2 rather than intelligent reconciliation solutions.

The true cost of swapping inventory technologies

Organizations that are considering swapping out an existing inventory technology for replacement tools should
bear in mind that the true cost of doing so will far exceed the initial purchase cost of the new solution. That’s
because inventory solutions are notoriously difficult to configure and deploy. Even the best solutions still need
to cope with the vagaries of the host network, being able to send data through firewalls, across multiple sites
etc. For organizations with no incumbent toolset, it’s a necessary pain. However, an organization looking to
move from one inventory tool to another really needs to ask itself whether the new solution will justify the
cost, downtime, disruption and learning curve?

When a good license management solution is capable of overcoming perceived shortcomings in inventory
‘quality’, there is a strong argument to stick with the incumbent inventory tool to avoid the pain highlighted
above.

By comparison, swapping license management tools is swift and painless – as there are no client agents to
deploy, no firewalls to talk through and a good solution requires only modest hardware resources.
Entitlement data from one license management tool (if the quality is good enough) can usually be imported to
the new solution (with some data transformation or cleansing).

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Software Asset Management – much more than inventory

6. Conclusion
SAM is a big complex animal, with many components and requirements. But as this document shows, what
SAM is not is inventory alone. Good inventory is essential, not only to SAM but to other aspects of IT
operations. But at best inventory can only be a cost, it can’t drive direct cost savings.

At the same time, organizations with incumbent tools – particularly inventory and ITAM suites – need to be
wary of the real cost of swapping these technologies out. The license cost of a new replacement technology
can often pale into insignificance next to the ultimate costs caused by labor, disruption, downtime, new
hardware and training. A better strategy might be to identify the real areas in which the organization’s toolset
is currently lacking – what is it that the current incumbent tools are not delivering? Can these shortcomings be
addressed with new technology that is complimentary to the existing investments, or is ‘rip and replace’ the
only way forward?

To drive true value, organizations need to build on their inventory costs and turn these into ROI by extending
their gaze to license management and other SAM components such as workflow automation.

License Management, in particular, is worthy of attention as it is central to both risk avoidance and driving cost
savings across the organization. With Gartner and other analysts agreeing that organizations now face a 65%
likelihood of receiving a software audit in the next 12 months, there are multiple business arguments for
investing in license management:

1. Audits are disruptive – responding to one will waste time, cause disruption and could cost money –
having a pre-prepared ELP will make the process much faster and less costly
2. More vendors than ever are now conducting software audits – it’s not just Microsoft!
3. Identifying any shortfalls prior to an audit gives the organization time to plan how to rectify them

If auditing is the ‘tails’ side of the license management coin, then driving cost savings must be ‘heads’. Here
are some ways in which license management can deliver tangible cash benefits:

1. Eliminate purchasing of unnecessary software licenses

2. Increase re-harvesting of under-used software assets
3. Reducing over-spend on support contracts (for outdated or unused applications)
4. Ensuring organizations get full value of entitlements and volume licensing agreements

So the final takeaways are simple and succinct. SAM is big, too big to tackle in a single hit. SAM is also much
more than just inventory – at best inventory is merely keeping an eye on what is happening on the network,
often with little or no context.

For most organizations the first real steps into SAM are with license management – there is where SAM stops
being purely a cost to the organization and starts delivering cash-positive value. Only after the organization’s
licensing situation (or ELP if you prefer) is fully understood is it justifiable to make additional investments in
more advanced SAM technologies such as application deployment and SAM workflow automation.

To learn more about effective license management and how to drive value to your business contact License
Dashboard today for a free appraisal of your current SAM maturity and potential risk analysis.

Tel: +44 845 265 1217 (UK/International) | 1-855-773-3404 (US & Canada)

Email: [email protected]

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Software Asset Management – much more than inventory

7. About License Dashboard

License Dashboard combines unrivalled SAM and software licensing expertise with professionally-developed
software solutions designed to help both large and fast-growing organizations manage their software
expenditure, minimize costs, optimize utilization and streamline the entire software lifecycle

From point-in-time Effective Licensing Position (ELP) programs, through to ongoing license compliance and
Software Asset Management initiatives, License Dashboard's advanced portfolio of solutions and professional
services will help you establish, understand, optimize and manage your software licenses. All of which can lead
to savings of up to 30% in your overall IT expenditure.

License Dashboard solutions and approved services are available through many of the world’s most respected
SAM and licensing providers, offering both on-premise and hosted or managed service options. To learn more
about partnership opportunities, or to locate an expert partner in your area, contact License Dashboard today.

License Dashboard Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Blenheim Group.

7.1. Resources
- Videos
- More White papers
- SAM Blog

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