UK firms are starting to adopt software asset management (SAM) tools in order to monitor and control spending on applications as well as ensuring compliance with licensing demands.
With the risks of failing to look after a software estate so high profile, the BSA settled with a medical training supplies firm last week for thousands, the message about the need for SAM appears to be getting through, according to a survey from Ernst & Young.
The findings showed that although more firms and vendors were starting to adopt and show an interest in SAM some of it was happening as a knee-jerk response to the threat of software audits and fines.
"The survey shows that companies are concerned about incurring significant additional costs through an audit, so are embracing software asset management, to take greater control over the use of software around their businesses. In particular, the findings shine light on the fact they're keen to save money and reduce the risk of non-compliance,"said Matt Fisher, chairman of the Software Industry Research Board, which is working with Ernst & Young.
"However, there is still a real need for better control over quality of audits and both customers and suppliers have a responsibility to achieve absolute compliance," he added.
The research highlighted the consequences of an approach to SAM based on fending off audits with a more coherent approach lacking in some quarters, particularly as cloud computing arrives with greater force.
Our experience with many customers is consistent with these findings—typically a pending audit or a recent audit experience is a strong impetus to implementing a software asset management (SAM) program. The organization may have just written (another) big check to pay for unbudgeted true-up fees and expenses. In fact, one of our large enterprise customers previously required Board-level involvement when they had these sorts of unbudgeted audit costs, because the expenses were so high and had been incurred on such a frequent basis. Another major cost factor is the IT staff time required to prepare for an audit. Without the proper SAM processes and tools in place, it can take many months to gather the data required by the auditors. With the requisite processes and tools in place, audit preparation time can be reduced to a few days or a couple of weeks for even the largest enterprises.
But there are some organizations that are beginning to approach SAM from a more proactive and strategic perspective. They realize that an optimized SAM program can reap a significant return on investment on an on-going basis by lowering software license and maintenance fees. The standard SAM approach to determining a vendor license position by counting license purchases and comparing to software install counts is pessimistic at best. Forward looking organizations know that they must take license entitlements into account to optimize their license position and reduce license costs. These entitlements include product use rights such as downgrade rights, second use rights, and multiple versions rights that can significantly reduce license consumption, in some cases by as much as 30%—and lower consumption equates to lower costs. In addition, because of the complexity involved in applying these rights, SAM automation is a necessity.