Category: SAM Series

Is it time for your organization to hire a Software Asset Management Expert? Software Asset Management (SAM) is the type of thing that is easy for IT organizations to forget. It’s like that mysterious plastic container at the back of the fridge that you haven’t opened in a while. Just like that unpleasant odor to let you know something in your fridge has gone bad, there are some ways you can tell when your software licenses and expenses may be on the cusp of causing you grief. Implementing a successful SAM program is difficult to do.  There are numerous skills required and multiple sources of data to go through and understand (software deployments, contracts, and hardware configurations). Feeling overwhelmed and frustrated in the wake of such a challenge is understandable but it can be avoidable with the right help at your disposal.

4 Reasons to Hire a Software Asset Management Expert

With nearly eighty years of combined consultation experience on our side, the Software Asset Managers at Metrixdata360 know exactly where a company needs help from the experts, and that’s what we’re here to share with you today. We’ll show you how you can tell what you can do yourself and when it’s time to bring in experts to assist.

1. Your Software Estate Is Growing Rapidly

Perhaps you once only had a few licenses to keep track of and the servers that your company needed could be counted on one hand. Now, to accommodate your company’s growth, you’ve had to buy another license, and another, and another, building a large and confusing IT architecture. Maybe your company has recently gone through a merger or acquisition and the transition has left you disorganized and unsure as to whose license belongs to who.

According to OMTCO’s article Six Questions that Managers Should Ask about Software Asset Management, if your software estate incorporates hundreds of servers with licenses from critical vendors like Oracle, IBM, or Microsoft, then it is time to consider having your software managed by a professional.

2. You’ve Purchased More Than One SAM Tool

Software Asset Management tools are a great way to keep your company organized. The problem with these tools is that it is hard to find one that can manage everything you need it to. While SAM tools offer many features, their primary function can be broken down into two parts: to conduct inventory and to manage your licenses.

The problem is that many SAM tools have difficulty accounting for the newest technological advances. Getting your SAM tool to read multiple different license metrics, for instance, can work as well as trying to shove a cassette tape into a CD player.

They can accidentally account for things twice, they can mark your test/ dev servers as full production, and they can fail to account for the information in your Active Directory, which is typically the first place the software auditors will look.

The way that companies accommodate for their SAM tools’ weaknesses is by either creating spreadsheets themselves (which renders the purchase of the SAM tool pointless, why get a product if you have to do its job for it?) or they get another SAM tool just to make up for the missing information.

If you find yourself having to compensate for your SAM tools, it might be time for a professional upgrade.

3. You’re Migrating to the Cloud

It seems like everyone is packing up and heading for the Cloud. Once you’re transitioned, you’ll have excellent flexibility, but the move can cause an equal amount of grief when it comes to your licenses and your software bills. Many companies assume that they can take their licenses to the Cloud with little issue, but that’s not always the case.

It’s important that you read your contracts carefully.

Some software publishers create programs that harbor sensitive information – such as clients’ credit card numbers or patient records – and so they will not let you move their software to the Cloud. It’s a huge liability for both you and them since the Cloud has been known to have major breaches in security. In 2018, for instance, some of the biggest breaches in the Cloud included the Aadhaar India National ID Database (1.1 billion Indian citizens had their information exposed), Facebook (50 million user accounts were compromised) and Marriott Starwood Hotels (the information of 500 million guests was compromised), according to Spinbackup’s article Top Cloud Data Breaches in 2018 Lessons Learned.   Even the vendors that do allow movement to the Cloud can charge you heavy fees for doing so.

In addition, unmonitored access to your new Cloud estate can leave your IT department to have the ability to spin up any Cloud instance they want, without proper regard to whether such an action is within compliance with your licenses or even before having a full understanding of what it will cost your company. It’s common with unmonitored access to the Cloud, that companies will spin up projects and then leave them on for months after the project’s completion, meaning they are still being paid and draining your IT Budget.

As we covered in the last section, because many SAM tools on the market were made long before the Cloud became popular, they struggle to monitor these types of scenarios, leaving companies with unknown expenses and compliance gaps. Having someone that can monitor your Cloud estate is essential to keeping the costs down to their lowest digit during this transition.   For more information about Cloud Migration, check out our article 5 Problems When Moving To the Cloud.

4. The Last SAM Review/ Software Audit Didn’t Go So Well

The sting of a poorly conducted software audit is a harsh one. Perhaps the auditors came in and took every grey area and every unknown factor and inflated your compliance gap until it was the size of your annual software budget. After all that wasted manpower and resources, if you were in a full legal audit, you might have been forced to foot the bill for the whole process and had to pay for the owed products at full price (your discounts aren’t available to you in a full audit).

You were caught off guard by the audit findings, you knew you couldn’t possibly owe that much but had no idea where to look to prove their Estimated License Position wrong. By the time you made it to the negotiation stage, you just wanted the process to be over, so you reluctantly agreed to their terms and now you never want to go through that again.

While a SAM professional can’t stop the software audits from coming back year after year, they can streamline the process, saving your own workforce resources. SAM professionals also can tell the difference between valuable data that is critical to the audit and wild goose chases the auditors will send your highest paid employees on. They know how to make it so that you are better prepared and more organized, which will leave your compliance gap cut down to the amount you actually owe.

Types of Software Asset Management Expert

Should you decide it is, indeed, time to hire a SAM expert, there are three options you have at your disposal.

In-House Software Asset Managers

Hiring someone who owns this project is a great way to ensure it is done with great care and passion. Software asset managers don’t just get your licenses in order for any upcoming audit, they can also help manage new software deployment and track their effectiveness in your company.

A good software asset manager is someone who has extensive knowledge of software, but who also demonstrates a strong understanding of finances, negotiations, legal matters, and business. A software asset manager is excellent for managing your company’s daily usage over a long period of time (either on-premise or in the Cloud).

Software Consultant Hybrid

As Rolling the SAM Dice: in-house vs. managed from the ITAM Review notes, a popular option that many businesses take advantage of is having a hybrid of the two options. They will often buy their own SAM tool but have an external team manage it, thus giving them control over their data and the methods used to monitor it, but they also can rest easy knowing that their assets are being well managed.

For More Information on Hiring a Software Asset Management Expert

Knowing when you need a Software Asset Management Expert could save you a lot of money – almost 30% of your current software expenses and that number only grows in the case of a software audit.

At Metrixdata360, we’re interested in finding you the best solution for your software asset management needs so you will be able to know exactly where your money is going and you’ll be ready with solid data at your disposal when the auditors come knocking. If you’d like to learn more about how Mextrixdata 360 can help, reach out to us with your questions or take a look at our SAM Compass service. We strive to respond by the end of the following business day to all inquiries.

According to Wikipedia: “Software asset management (SAM) is a business practice that involves managing and optimizing the purchase, deployment, maintenance, utilization, and disposal of software applications within an organization.” But what does that really mean or look like in a practical sense? Software Asset Management is a vital process in any organization. Understanding how much software you own, which vendors you buy from, terms and conditions of the contracts you’ve signed with these vendors, program limitations, license entitlements and use rights, user needs vs. license installment, and accuracy of inventory are all essential functions of SAM.

For many organizations, SAM is a complex, unwieldy challenge, especially if the organization spans more than one location. Executing an effective SAM program is very difficult for most companies. A good Software Asset Management strategy is key to maintaining compliance and avoiding hefty true-up fees and other noncompliance costs. Companies who are found to be non-compliant with their licensing agreements can face massive fines, sometimes into the millions of dollars, or be subject to legal action.

What Are Software Licenses?

Software licenses are the agreements that allow a company or individual to use proprietary software owned by a vendor. Software License agreements dictate how and where businesses can deploy software, ranging from the operating systems on each computer throughout the organization, to the workplace software used on each machine/device, but may also include database servers and other back-end infrastructure. The licenses also address what sorts of tasks can be performed with the software, how the software is configured, and which features the organization is approved to use.

Staying in Compliance

Companies need to ensure that they purchase an appropriate number of licenses for either the number of devices the software will be installed and used on or; for the number of people who will be using the software. Historically, we’ve seen two main ways that many companies rely on to try to mitigate their risk around compliance with their licensing:(1) choosing to over-license (aka: “better safe than sorry”) practice or; (2) budgeting year-long for eventual true-ups. Being out of compliance can result in the publisher of the software performing a Software Audit, which can result in massive fees for companies found to be missing licenses, plus the added disruption of having your software environment audited.

Over-Licensing

Over-licensing occurs when an organization purchases more licenses than they need for their environment. While this ensures that the organization will be compliant, the overspending of purchasing more licenses than required is a costly practice, especially when you consider that the licenses won’t be used. A solid SAM strategy will help to ensure that your company does not overpay in the long run by maintaining only the number of licenses necessary.

True-Ups

If a software publisher finds that you are out of compliance, a true-up will be necessary to settle the difference. Depending on the scale of non-compliance, true-ups can cost companies hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. Accurate inventory count, proper maintenance, and regular assessment of software asset requirements and use ensures that true-up costs don’t creep up on you too significantly and can help keep auditors at bay.

Contract Re-negotiation

Part of having a strong Software Asset Management strategy is understanding how to re-negotiate license contracts. At the end of your software license contract term, you will be given the opportunity to re-negotiate with the vendor. When an organization enters into these negotiations with a current view of their software needs and use and a projected view of their future requirements, that information can be leveraged for better pricing and can help avoid unnecessary over-purchasing of new or unneeded licenses.

Maintaining Compliance

Staying in compliance may seem like a daunting task, but a strong Software Asset Management strategy can make compliance a much more manageable process. It may seem like the most prudent way to avoid true-up costs or an audit by a vendor would be to purchase more licenses than you need, but this comes with its own costs, especially over the long-term. Unless the organization is in a growth cycle where more employees will be brought on to consume those licenses before the next purchasing cycle, the money spent on over-purchasing licenses is wasted.

A good practice to assist in maintaining compliance should include performing a Self-Assessment at least once a year. An organization is in its best position to make software license decisions when they have a full picture of their software environment.

For more information about Software Asset Management as a whole, or any inquiries about Self-Assessments, we invite you to contact us with your questions.

What is the difference between Software Asset Management (SAM) and IT Asset Management (ITAM)? It’s been a long time since the IT department was all of one overworked staff member, who sighed long and hard whenever someone asked them how to send an email. Now that digital transformation has touched almost every industry,  it has left us with many new titles that may be difficult to tell apart, such as the difference between ITAM and SAM. At Metrixdata360, although we specialize in Software Asset Management, we often find confusion around such topics, so we thought we’d clearly define the two categories.

What is IT Asset Management (ITAM)?

ITAM Defined

According to Comparesoft’s article The Real Difference Between ITAM and ITSM, ITAM stands for IT Asset Management and it is a practice of managing all the assets in your organization –such as hardware, software, network, and non-network devices. ITAM specializes in licensing, technical support and maintenance, and is designed to bring down the costs of an asset throughout its lifecycle. If there is a branch-wide server failure, ITAM is involved and for this reason, ITAM will often be the department that will see the most interaction with other departments and upper managers.

Do I Need ITAM?

According to ITAM’s article Building the Business case for ITAM, since personal and company motivations behind ITAM can be unique, there’s no single answer as to which area of ITAM will benefit your company most.

However, ITAM specializes in improving agility and efficiency, so if these two areas have been a headache in the past when it comes to your company’s technological profile, it might be a smart idea to approach the idea of ITAM. Some of the expected benefits that can be gained from undertaking an effective ITAM strategy is reduced audit spending, reduced unused assets, quicker and more accurate migration, upgrades, planning, more accurate budgeting, and a more secure system, just to name a few advantages.

What Does a Good ITAM Expert Do?

Usually ITAM is focused only on high value items while the more specific cases will be handed off to more narrowly focused roles. This means that a strong ITAM team would be in close contact with the CIO and Procurement. The team could consist of licensing specialists and program managers, who would answer to the Software Asset Manager, who would answer to the IT Asset Manager.

An effective IT Asset Manager can stretch an asset far beyond its anticipated value, such as reselling or transferring an asset, finding alternative uses, or extending the use life of an asset. They can fully utilize the usage rights of a product and train people to be technology experts.

Bottom Line: How Much Does an IT Asset Manager Cost?

According to Salary.com, the salary range of an IT Asset Manager is anywhere between $95,000 and $128,000 a year in the United States.

What is Software Asset Management?

SAM Defined

SAM stands for Software Asset Management. It can be recognized as a sub-category of ITAM, along with Hardware Asset Management (HAM). According to Aspera’s What is Software Asset Management and How to Get Started, Software Asset management is focused primarily on lowering the budget expenses of a company through controlling and automating the processes of procurement, use, and deployment regarding software licensing.

SAM focuses mainly on optimizing licenses, saving money and remaining in compliance to a license’s use rights. An effective SAM strategy will mean that you will have a lower risk of being audited by a software vendor and your compliance gap will be lower if you are audited.

Do I Need SAM?

ITAM’s article What is the Difference Between SAM and ITAM? points out that software is harder to track since it is not tangible. Hardware can be counted and can collect dust in the back-storage room if it is not being used. Software, on the other hand, is not eye catching when you are out of compliance. Software audits can be staggeringly expensive, so software asset management’s main job is to make sure the company remains in compliance.

It is a huge undertaking considering that each vendor has its own way of writing up licenses and conducting audits. Microsoft alone changes its policies around licensing roughly 300 times a year. Many businesses choose to outsource SAM to consultants on a short-term basis while they build the capability of their internal team. For a more detailed look into if you need a SAM professional or not, visit our article Hire a Software Asset Management Expert or Do it Yourself? The Pros and Cons of Each.

What Does a Good SAM Expert Do?

According to Aspera’s What is Software Asset Management and How to Get Started, an effective SAM expert can potentially save you 30% on your licensing expenses and even more money when it comes to a software audit. Imagine handing your data over to a software auditor and producing the conclusion that you actually owe less than the auditors anticipated.

A well-organized software audit will not only mean your compliance gap will be smaller, it will also mean you are less likely to be audited again in the near future. Software vendors perform audits as a way to make money off of their customers; if they do not believe you’re likely to yield a high return for their efforts, then they’ll target potentially more profitable clients. Software asset management is in high demand with a shortage of skilled professionals currently in the marketplace, especially in areas of software licensing, software asset management and contract experience. For this reason, it will make it difficult to find an effective in-house software asset manager, which is why companies will usually hire consultants.

Bottom Line: How Much Does a Software Asset Manager Cost?

According to Glassdoor, the average in-house Software Asset Manager can earn roughly $85,000 a year in the United States. Hiring an external software asset management team would cause the price to vary depending on the size of your company, the type of vendor that you’re dealing with, the time frame, and the consultation payment method that you can choose from (such as a flat rate or contingency rate). For more information about hiring a SAM consultant, please visit our How to Hire a SAM Expert post.

For More Information on Managing Your Assets

While ITAM and SAM may seem similar, they hold different areas of focus: one that is looking at the general picture and one that is looking at a small but important part of your IT profile. It is important to understand the difference between the two, so that there can be an effective strategy for both SAM and ITAM within your company. With strong SAM and ITAM, you won’t be scrambling to get your digital environments under control. At Metrixdata360, we are committed to providing you with solid Software Asset Management service. For more information on how Software Asset Management can better serve your company, head over to our SAM as a Service Page.

In this modern age of technology, Software Asset Management tools are becoming a necessity in managing the growing complexity of a company’s software infrastructure and inventory. But what exactly is a SAM tool and what does it do? Will SAM tools help or hinder attempts to track your software usage? At Metrixdata360, we are happy to share the benefit of our experience in having spent decades working in this industry. We can tell you exactly what a SAM tool is good for, where its limitations lie, and what the tool’s function will be in the case of a software audit.

What are Software Asset Management Tools?

Software Asset Management tools are software programs designed to make tracking your software licensing easy and efficient, such as Metrixdata360’s SAM Compass. According to the ITAM Review, SAM tools can provide inventory and discovery services, monitoring accounts for both passive and active use, usage statistics, datacenter management, and virtual environment management, to simply name a few. Many older SAM tools still in use in the market today prove useful only in inventory related usage reporting since they struggle to account for multiple licensing metrics, but you will want a SAM tool that can do both.

 

Benefits of SAM Tools

SAM tools can provide so much benefit to your company if used properly and according to Technologyconcepts, and Dynamixsolutions some of those benefits include:

Let’s go through some of these benefits one by one.

 

IT Department can Demonstrate Worth and Strategy

The IT department, with SAM on their side, is given the opportunity to effectively show where and how the organization’s IT budget is being spent. With that kind of data at their disposal, the IT department can effectively make the case for the deployment of needed software. Dynamixsolutions specifically points out that SAM tools also come with a security component to it as well, which can lower the chance of viruses, network breaches or malware, a much-appreciated benefit that allows your IT department to sleep a little more easily at night.

 

Avoiding Huge Fines

With an accurate inventory of environment deployments, SAM tools track and provide up-to-date views of where budget is being invested. The data collected by these tools is critical during a software audit to prove that the organization is within compliance. Having a compliance gap can cost huge, un-budgeted financial penalties that can devastate a company’s balance sheet. Inaccurate data can often inflate compliance gaps by sometimes more than double of what might actually be owed. Having clear, concise reports of inventory is essential in order to counter the auditor’s findings and could spare you a more painful-than-necessary penalty should you be out of compliance when audited.

 

Decreasing Your Chances of Being Audited by Software Vendors

While there is little that can be done to perpetually avoid being audited, there are ways organizations can manage their audit risks. Software vendors are more likely to initiate an audit when they sense the complexity of a company’s environment and suspect that little is in place to monitor that complexity. Having effective SAM tools at your disposal is one way to properly demonstrate to vendors that if an audit is called, your licensing environment will be well inventoried with accessible reporting readily available. Being able to demonstrate preparedness can go a long way in encouraging both publishers and auditors to turn their gaze towards more penalty-lucrative environments than yours.

 

Additional Features SAM Tools Offer

These features are wonderful to help improve your ability to track your license compliance but where does that usefulness end?

Disadvantages of SAM Tools

In every ad for SAM tools out there, the program is passed off as the last stop on your way to easy street. After you’ve installed your SAM tool, your job is done and you’re completely in compliance, now you can relax and get back to what you do best, running your business and taking care of your clients. Right? Everyone buys SAM tools with the desire to make sure they are not offside of their contracts with the software vendors they work with. SAM tools do that to an extent but there are critical limitations in functionality with every SAM tool that you need to be aware of in order to leverage the SAM tool fully in its area of strength.

 

Weaknesses Commonly Found in SAM Tools

Understanding the limitations of your SAM tool is just as important as understanding the functionality it brings. When purchasing a SAM tool, finding one that best fits your unique environment requirements is the key to preventing the need to maintain spreadsheets to make up for missing information; or worse yet, being forced to buy another SAM tool.

 

Further Available Research

It’s important to keep your licensing position under control in order to protect your company from the unforeseen expenses of a potential audit. Software Asset Management tools are one great method that can help you keep your company’s assets and inventory organized; but it shouldn’t be the only method you use. At Metrixdata360, we use the SAM tools that you already have installed and augment their functionality with our own proprietary SAM toolsets we’ve developed over time in order to provide the most accurate results for any upcoming software audit or SAM review. For more information about SAM tools, please consult our Learning Center.

In our eighty years of collective experience in this software licensing and auditing business, we’ve seen plenty of miscommunication happen between the CFO and the CIO. We have often seen these two key roles struggle, not only to stay on the same page but to speak the same language. Finding common ground for these two parties in software asset management is not only possible but critical for the success of any business. Since we often find ourselves balancing between these two different interests when it comes to something so critical like software asset management, we thought we’d share with you some of our findings on a CIO’s and a CFO’s unique points of view, to hopefully shrink the translation gap.

How Digital Transformation is Widening the gap between CFO and CIO

What was the IT department in business thirty years ago beyond those three people in the basement who surfaced only when a printer jammed? Back then in many industries, digital technology had no real sway over the success of a company. With the age of digital transformation, that fact has changed. Now it is a matter of survival that businesses keep up with the latest technology and IT has found themselves moved from the basement to the center stage. With the growing complexity of software licensing, ensuring software compliance can no longer be done with spreadsheets and enough organizational effort. However, such constant updates are unsettling for many businesses since change means risks and the person who hates change and risk the most is the CFO, it’s practically in their job description. The situation isn’t helped that technology is currently the largest expense a CFO has to manage, and that number is only growing as technology steadily transforms how companies are run. The CIO has to be a leader in this new technological age, both in implementing new technology and ensuring that their licenses all line up. This is where the confrontation comes from between CFO and CIO. A CIO must be innovative in order to succeed while a CFO needs to be conservative and figure out how to save their company money whenever possible.

Approaches to New Software: Competitive Advantage vs. Strategic Planning

What a Chief Information Officer Sees

A CIO typically climbs the ladder through demonstrating experience and skills in technology, so they are likely to appreciate the value of an easily implemented and efficient piece of software. They view the company in respects to how technology can improve their already existing architecture, so that means they have an interest in how technology changes.

While a new piece of software is likely the result of a successful negotiation with software vendors, it is also the beginning of a new project for a CIO’s department, something to implement, maintain and track to ensure its efficiency in the company’s technological infrastructure. It is also something that continues to make their job relevant, as many CIOs are worried that their role and their control over their department will be effectively be absorbed by the CFO despite how digital transformation has made their job more relevant than ever. In fact, in a survey conducted by Gartner and Financial Executives Research Foundation and presented in Techopedia’s article: CFO and CIO: How to Smooth out Conflicting Roles, 42% of IT organizations and executives answered to the CFO and when considering all IT investments 26% were approved by the CFO and only 5% were approved by the CIO. This transition has left CIOs feeling less confident, with only 31% seeing themselves as a valued service.

To make matters worse, in this digitally transformed age a CIO would understand the value of environment development life cycles and know that IT upgrades are needed for success, however, a CFO doesn’t necessarily value technology for technology’s sake. In fact, they could easily see it as an unneeded expense. The financial department has been relevant for far longer than the IT department has and traditionally speaking the ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’ has served companies well.  For this reason, often CIO’s investment proposals for new tech or better software is often met with an unwavering ‘no’. 

How to Communicate Effectively in the Workplace:

Keep in mind how unheard and undervalued CIOs often feel. A CIO is usually only seen as the delivery of a function and would rather have a seat at the executive table than constantly feel like their authority is being undermined. A CFO should approach the situation less like a boss and more like a peer. Try to stress that any issue between the two parties is not a matter of constant cutbacks and penny pinching, but the increased business opportunity through IT.

What the Chief Finance Officer Sees

For a CFO, everything is based upon risk and rewards. They evaluate business objectives and generate a budget off of those goals. A new piece of technology can be seen as a financial risk that a CFO must turn into a strong investment with a high return. Ultimately, they are responsible for setting IT’s budget. Should the new product spike the company’s cost unexpectedly, it will be the CFO and the CIO’s collective headache to manage.

Since technology has sometimes failed to return on its promised revenue in the past, there is a practical side to curbing IT’s spending urges. That being said if the CFO believes that the new software might improve the company’s growth or provide a competitive advantage then they could easily become an advocate of the new technology. With this new age of expanding complexity, CFOs are no longer simply focused on the budget, they also have to become more collaborative and willing to accept the risks of technological advancement.

How to Improve Workplace Communication:

Demonstrations are an excellent way to allow CIOs and CFOs to meet in the middle if a CFO were given the chance to try something that was concrete and present, they may be able to better understand its benefits.

Using SAM as a Platform for Co-operation between CIOs and CFOs

Software Licenses and Inventory Under Control

According to CIO’s article: How to Survive a Nasty Software Vendor Audit, the CIO has to make sure that their data including inventory and licenses are ready to go. That being said, a CIO has a million and one things to do during their day, so having another massive project dumped unexpectedly into their lap is less than ideal. The software audit will also involve many wasted hours drained from the CIO’s top paid IT staff when they are forced to hunt down pieces of data that the auditors might request.

The very sight of an audit might leave a CIO feeling overwhelmed, wondering how they will ever produce the data required in such a short turnaround time. Self-auditing is one way a strong CIO can prepare for a software audit. It will mean that the CIO’s company will have the data to effectively respond to a software audit in a timely manner. According to CIO’s article: How Well do You Know SAM, SAM tools can prove the lifeblood of a self-audit. Although CIOs are often faced with the need to justify a SAM tools labor-intensive and seemingly costly performance to the CFO.

It’s not a flashy upgrade or a hardware rejuvenation, in fact, SAM performed effectively does seemingly nothing at all. The business progresses, deals get made, company BBQs commence, and life is good because there’s no software audit fine to gut the company’s budget. That kind of ROI will not be appealing to the CFO.

How to Communicate Effectively in the Workplace:

A discussion into Software Asset management must be done with careful consideration into financial, contractual and legal risk. A three-year road map can chart the expected factors that can drive an asset into reality such as visibility (known unknown and unknown unknowns about your environment), compliance, efficiency, agility, and profit, according to Martin Thompson’s Practical ITAM. 

For more information on SAM tools and the benefits they can bring to a company, please visit our SAM as a Service article.

Software Asset Management Tools = Money Saved

CFOs don’t really have an involvement in a software audit except when they are forced to re-crunch the numbers to account for a massive unbudgeted fine or if the software audit goes to court and tarnishes the business’s reputation. Despite the expense of a SAM tool that might make a CFO cringe, according to Snow’s article Software Asset Management and the CFO, SAM tools can still be are a great way for the CFO to track waste. The re-harvesting tool in SAM features would be exceptionally useful to CFOs, as it can track where the company has purchased too many licenses in one area and redistributes it to unlicensed areas.

Workplace Communication Tip:

Avoid pushing technology for technology’s sake and instead focus on the money saving capabilities of SAM tools. According to Martin Thompson’s book Practical ITAM1, think about answering the three questions: what’s in it for the CFO personally? What’s in it for the CFO’s department? What is in it for the company? Answering these three questions will create a better argument for the proposed SAM tool.

For more information on how CFOs can benefit from Software Management, check out our article CFO Software Management.

Currently, technology and finances stand as two of the most important pillars of business and the departments are steadily becoming more dependent on mutual communication and cooperation for success. At Metrixdata360, throughout our years as software consultants, we have had to navigate these two regions to satisfy both. If you’d like to know more about how Metrixdata360 can meet the needs of both your financial and technology departments, check out our Service Page for more details.

Should You Hire a Software Asset Management Expert or Do It Yourself?

Software expenses can be one of the highest costs in any IT’s budget. You’re constantly asked to do more with less as your software budget continues to shrink, so it’s understandable a company would want to keep as much money within their IT department as possible. Software consultation seems like as good a point as any (it’s either that or forcing the IT department to turn in their shiny new coffee maker). So the question becomes should you hire a Software Asset Management Expert or do it yourself?

At Metrixdata360, over our seven years in this business, one question that comes up with many of our clients is if they really need a software consultant or if they can do it themselves? While we strongly advise for hiring a software consultant, we know it isn’t the most suitable option for everyone. We want to help you make the best decision, which is what we’re here to share today. What are some of the successes that you can experience with having a software consultant on your side verses doing it yourself?   

Doing SAM Yourself 

You’re the type of person who would learn how to fix a sink rather than hiring a plumber. There’s a lot of success that can be had with the build-your-own-SAM-team approach, such as:   

Pros   

• You will have your own internalized team of experts that will know your software estate inside and out. You’ll get on the SAM journey together with a shared work culture and values. 
    
• The initial cost of hiring and training an internal software asset manager will be significantly lower than hiring a software consultant team, according to Ziprecruiter, the average software asset manager can earn $85,000 annually within the United States.    

• According to Rolling the SAM dice: in-house vs. managed from the ITAM Review, an internalized team will be able to fully own the project and will be able to cover a variety of tasks over a long period of time.   

Cons  

•  Software management is a relatively new discipline, so you’ll be hard pressed to find a candidate with the experience you need to give you results. This might leave you with the option of hiring someone who is under qualified but you don’t have time to hire a kid fresh out of college and have them climb the learning curb to figure out your software asset management, you will need the answers immediately.   
   
• Since finding a software asset expert can be difficult, we’ve seen companies who building their own SAM programs that throw the task at their procurement specialist. Giving this task to someone who is way out of their depth will mean they won’t be able to give you an accurate depiction of your data.    

• It is a massive challenge to find one expert that has the knowledge and skills to understand every vendor that you will have in your profile. Each vendor has different product use rights with different licenses that are subject to change. Microsoft alone changes their licenses rules up to 300 times a year. It would be considered a challenge for one person just to have a firm grasp of one vendor. That profile is not even including all the other skills that are required to effectively managed your software. Software Asset Management involves skills in legal matters, finances, negotiations and inventory comprehension. Finding one person who can do all that will be close to impossible.  
    
• Most companies do not understand the time and resources that are wasted during an audit until they’ve been through one. It’s typical for the auditors to send your employees running back and forth, hunting down often irrelevant stray pieces of data. These tasks are not the type of things you can pass off to your intern, it must be your high paying technical staff rifling through your databanks. Your IT staff probably doesn’t have hours to waste on useless data hunts, which means they will procrastinate until the last minute and then do a rushed-out job that will leave gaps in your data.   

Hiring a Software Asset Management Professional    

There’s no shame in asking for help and seeking a professional in your software asset management could be considered the same as going to the doctor when you’re sick. According to ITAM Review’s article Software Asset Managers – The Skills to Look For… , software management experts come to the table with a high understanding of technology, a strong sense of business, legal matters and negotiation tactics, just to name a few. So, what are the successes and challenges you’ll experience when hiring a SAM professional?   

Pros  

• One of the main reasons that SAM professionals are is so popular is because they are experts from the second that they walk through your door. They are not learning things on the fly but instead come to the table with years of experience.  
    
• They are also experts on many vendors and are familiar with each vendor’s licensing. At Metrixdata360, for instance, we have experts on top vendors like Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and SAP but we can also look at your Citrix, Adobe and Autodesk profile with a critical eye, just to name a few of our services. For more information on our software vendor expertise, please visit our Service page.    
   
• A SAM expert team can budget their time to match your deadlines. We had one customer come to us with a turnaround time of just three days and we were able to give them valuable feedback!   
    
• Software Asset Consultants constantly monitor your software status as an ongoing service. Clients can get a license position at any time, so that you can have the confidence of knowing that you’re in great shape. If your vendors every call you to the front for a review or an audit, you won’t have to be nervous about the state of your data.  
   
• They can show you how to do it yourself, they teach you along the way so that the next time you’re audited, you will be prepared even without help.   

Cons  

• First appearance might make it seem like software consultants are more expensive than doing it yourself. The typical cost breakdown for SAM as a service are based on per device on a monthly fee. A company could pay anything from $4-$12 per device, that would be thousands of dollars a month!  Such cost can seem overwhelming at first, when compared to the option of hiring a software asset manager. However, consider the fact that you are asking one person or a small group of people to constantly monitor thousands of devices. Will they be able to do an effective job?  
   
• If the SAM professionals don’t offer learning opportunities, then your company won’t learn how to manage SAM internally and will remain reliant on external assistance.  
    
• Your company may still have to go through a learning curve as the SAM professionals catch all of you up to speed and if your company isn’t willing to adapt to the style of the SAM professionals then you will spend a lot of time butting heads with one another.  

 

A Hybrid SAM Solution 

There is also a third option available to you when debating your next software asset management move. According to Rolling the SAM dice: in-house vs. managed from the ITAM Review, many companies are choosing to buy their own SAM tools but outsourcing the management of it.   

This option has become quite popular as it allows businesses the ability to maintain control over the methods of observation while also being assured that those assets are being well managed. If you feel like you have control over your daily software usage but need help preparing for an unexpected audit or if your business hosts a great deal of highly sensitive data, this might be the ideal option for you.   

For More Information   

It’s important that you make the decision that is best suited for your company, effective SAM management could save you anywhere up to 30% of your software expenses and save you even more money during a software audit. At Metrixdata360, that is our goal: cutting your software expenses down to the lowest number in whatever way works for you.   

The only thing that matters is that you’ve come to a decision about your software asset management strategy long before the auditors are knocking on your door. If you’ve decided that a professional is what you need then hop over to our Software Service Center for more details on our SAM professionals.

If you have been selected for a software audit or review, you might be feeling something akin to missing a step while walking down the stairs, or standing in front of a crowd of bosses and realizing you brought the wrong notes and now you have nothing to say. But what is the difference between a Software Asset Management (SAM) Review vs Audit? You’re panicking, you’re frustrated, and you’re wondering if it isn’t impossible to make a career out of basking on the edge of a quiet lake in the middle of the woods where software auditors will never find you.

Hold onto whatever soothing picture captivates you and stay calm. The first step (or planning for the first step) to your software audit is figuring out if you’ve been given a SAM Review or a Software Audit and what the difference between the two is. 

In this article we are comparing the two in the following areas:

 

• Definition
• Pricing
• Timing

Defining a Software Audit vs a Software Review

Software Asset Management Reviews

One thing that sets a SAM review (also called SAM Engagement, Self-Audit or Software Compliance Review, according to Aberdeen) is that SAM reviews are often presented as voluntary. Since a SAM Review often appears voluntary, you may question what is in it for you?  Software vendors will often position these reviews as an optional learning experience (you should read that as revenue-driven for them), so you may think it’s ok to decline and in fact, according to Scott and Scott LLP, there is little to be discovered that your own internal team couldn’t determine by themselves.

However, life becomes immediately harder when you refuse a SAM review. In most cases, if you push back against a vendor issued-SAM review, the vendor’s response is to send you a full audit regardless. After all, anyone who doesn’t want to be examined has something to hide, right? Resistance as THEY say… is futile, my friends.

The other major difference between a SAM review and a legal audit is the fact that SAM reviews are often conducted internally, using the company’s own SAM tools and their own SAM expert team.

Full Software Audits

Full audits (also called Legal Contract and Compliance (LLC), according to Aberdeen) are very much not voluntary, and it is rare for a business to be able to resolve a software audit notification by simply ignoring it. When you signed your contract for your licences, software companies maintain the right to validate your compliance against the terms of the software contract.

Most contracts only limit software companies to perform an audit every twelve months and that they must provide notice so as not to disrupt your business. Software audits also cannot be conducted during what is defined as the ‘busy season’ of your business. Putting off an audit until the busy time has passed will not remove it entirely. The auditors can be patient, and they can wait.

Proving to be a challenge upfront in the audit, may not be the best strategy.  You are going to need to build goodwill through the audit process. At the completion of the audit, you are most likely going to want to negotiate a settlement and your vendor will be far less flexible if you make it difficult from the start.

You should also note that different vendors have varying methodologies when it comes to audit operations.  Some vendors have their own internal audit teams while others use third party firms like Deloitte or KPMG.

How Much Do SAM Reviews and Audits Cost

Once a SAM review or a full audit has begun, what will happen after is pretty much the same.  In both you are required to collect data about what is installed on your servers and desktops, which will be compared against what you actually own. The main difference between the two is the remedy of any shortfalls or findings against you.

Full SAM Audit

• In a full audit, you may be required to pay list price for any software you need to purchase (any discounts you have with the vendor will not be applied). If you are found out of compliance (for Microsoft, you only have to be out of compliance by 5%), you will have to pay for the entire auditing process, including compensation for the third-party auditors.

SAM Review

• In a SAM review, you can potentially could just purchase against the terms of your contract and the cost of the review is usually paid for by the software vendor.

Now that you understand how much an audit will cost, check out our Software Audit Pricing Guide to figure out the determining factors in hiring audit assistance.

Time Frame

The software publishers will often tell you the whole process of both an audit and a SAM review will take between 30 and 90 days (depending on the size of your organization) but this has never been our experience.  Many audits and SAM Reviews that we’ve seen have gone on for 6 months or longer. The true driving factor to the length of either a software audit or a SAM review is the quality of your data.

Do You Know Where Your Useage Data Is?

Do you have strong accuracy of data in your inventory tools? Do you have good records of all your software licenses and contracts?  Even though a team of auditors will be asking you to collect data during a full audit, it’s important that you understand why they are asking for specific data and what they are planning to do with it once you give that data to them.  So often we have seen audits that have been dragged out unnecessarily, as companies produce data that is easily misinterpreted by the auditors. The presence of a third party auditor may also impact the length of your negotiation, as the third-party auditors are going to want to ensure 100% completeness of data (and if you have gaps in your data, they will make assumptions that could be costly to you).

Being organized and ready to begin the moment you are notified by the auditors is a great way to reduce the overall time your audit or SAM review will take.

When an audit is finalized you will want to get a closure statement (also called a release) from the software publisher. Without the closure statement, the vendor may be able to just turn-around and audit you again, if the findings did not come out as they anticipated.

Further Information on How We Can Help

Software audits and SAM Reviews are confusing and time consuming, but you can do this and with the right information on your side, you’ll get out of this audit or SAM review with as little damage to your company’s budget as possible. At Metrixdata360, that is our goal, to save you money and provide you with a clear licensing position. Don’t let the auditors push you around!  To learn more about how we can help you if you are in an audit or a SAM review, please look at our Audit Services page.

If you are a CFO software management is critical to controlling costs.

CFO Software Management:  The reality of the situation

As the CFO, you have the mandate to protect the assets of your company, working closely with your legal team to ensure you are free from lawsuits and audits, while maximizing ROI in any venture your company takes on. You work tirelessly to Protect your organization, board and shareholders from unforeseen financial pitfalls. Risk Management has always fallen on the shoulders of the CFO, and that’s especially true when it comes to Software Management. If you are a CFO, Software Management is becoming a way to drastically reduce financial exposure and control and reduce overall spend.   Managing a company’s Software Assets has traditionally fallen in the lap of the I.T. team. Sure, there might be some oversight from the CFO but for the most part, Software Asset Management flies under the radar of a company’s Executive team. One fact that often gets over-looked is a strategy to understand and develop a Mature Software Asset Management (SAM) practice. Having a handle on SAM is one of the best and easiest ways for a company to drastically reduce costs and start to really drive ROI from the massive investments put into software. It is very likely that CFO software management in most companies could reduce overall cost associated with software by as much as 30% or even more when using the right approach.

Did you know that major Software Publishers such as Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, and Oracle are targeting their customer base with a Software Audit every 18-36 months?

I’ve written about this in the past. It’s no secret that Software Publishers are using the Audit as a revenue generating tool.

Click here to read – What triggers a Microsoft Audit       

Why wouldn’t they? They know most business do not have an accurate handle on their software deployments and don’t truly understand use rights. Software licensing is complex. For almost every CFO, software management in general is not widely understood. As technology shifts, software publishers constantly change and update use rights to protect their recurring revenue streams. Although I’m sure none would ever admit it, I believe it’s also to add additional complexity that often leads to non-compliance. Unfortunately for any business, an audit often means countless working hours wasted, gathering and compiling data for the auditor, which often turns into hefty fines and/or penalties. This is an expense that is almost never budgeted for. Money that could be used to grow and improve the business. Instead, that money goes to a Software Publisher that already makes a pretty penny off your business. Case in point, MetrixData 360 recently worked with a client that was found to have a $2.5 MILLION compliance gap. After a rigorous defense, the client paid just shy of $200,000 USD. While this can be seen as a victory to most, a proactive SAM strategy would have saved them having to pay out at all.

Did you know, that over 80% of Small/Medium businesses rely of Excel Spreadsheets to manage their Software License deployments?

Nostalgia is sometimes a good thing (when it comes to Atari video games and Star Trek re-runs), but when it comes to CFO software management, it’s time to move away from the old approach, and adopt new technologies. Technology is the future, and the future is NOW! The technology currently exists to get a near real-time update of potential exposure and risks. In the past, a company would often wait for a Software Audit, Contract Renewal or True-Up to understand their software inventory and deployments. By that time, it’s too late. Your company will over-spend when purchasing additional licenses, not to mention the Fines and Penalties that could be levied if any shortfall is found. There are SAM tools in the market-place right now, and while many are good, the clear majority fall short.

Click Here to read why Software Asset Management Tools Are So Bad At Software Asset Management —

Sometimes these tools are complex and difficult to install. Many tools don’t paint a complete and concise picture of all deployments and simply do not have the deep logic to normalize that data into usable outputs. The key really is combining tools and processes into one powerful solution; a solution like SAM Compass.  SAM Compass is a managed service offering from MetrixData 360 which provides you with a turnkey solution to Software Asset Management.  You get access to cutting edge SAM tools, proven processes and top SAM experts.   You get to free yourself up to do whats really important in your business while being confident that you have SAM under control.

When it comes to Software Asset Management, you can’t afford to be Reactive.

Today, for the Proactive CFO, it is vitally important to have near real-time, accurate data at their finger tips. Automation is key, and by leveraging the proper tools and processes that ensure an accurate understanding of all owned software licenses and deployments, you safeguard your business from inflated costs and penalties. Gone are the days when managing licenses using tools like Excel was sufficient. You will never truly free yourself of exorbitant and unexpected costs until you move from a Reactive stance to a Proactive Process! Leveraging a team of experts, like the professionals at MetrixData 360 can be the ace in your pocket. Utilizing a Tool or Managed Service Offering; like SAM Compass will give you the visibility you need to be proactive and successful at a fraction of the cost.

There’s no doubt, the role of CFO is challenging and appears to be growing ever more complex. Like we have all heard a million times; “work smart, not hard”. That saying has never been more applicable. A relatively small investment in the CORRECT tool and process, can protect the assets of your company; a key pillar in any CFO’s mandate!

As an organization’s software needs grow and mature, Software Asset Management becomes more complex and difficult to manage. These difficulties and complexities have led to the emergence of Software Asset Management as a service. For many businesses, an entire team is often needed to stay on top of Software Deployments, and contractual obligations while ensuring Compliance and Optimization. Many times, that team is tasked with not only with keeping track of a single software publisher but, many. Of course, staffing a team that is dedicated to such an important portfolio is an expensive prospect, especially at a time when businesses are looking to reduce over-all spend. With Software Audits being such a common revenue generating tool for all software publishers, it has never been more important to truly understand your company’s licensing position at any given time.

While we can certainly agree that it is important to have a firm grasp on your Software Asset Management practice, the difficult question remains; “ What is the best and most cost effective approach to managing software deployments and Software Asset Management as a whole?”

Let’s take a look at some of the main benefits to Software Asset Management As A Service.

Benefits of SAM as a Service

Software Asset Management As A Service:
What Can I Do To Learn More?

Is SAM As A Service something your organization would like to learn more about? Would it help you sleep better at night, knowing you have a clear and concise picture of your company’s software deployments and total certainty in your effective license position in the face of potential audit or contract renewal activities, MetrixData 360’s Software Asset Management Service; SAM Compass, is the answer!

Regret… We’ve all been there and hate this feeling. I want to talk to you about regret and the software licensing assessment or pre-audit. It’s a truly terrible feeling knowing that you could have done something differently, something that could have changed the way things unfolded.  Maybe, its missing a loved one’s birthday or maybe its wishing you had spoken up when you really know you should have said something.  In my case it could be when I said “yes” to hot sauce on my lunch burrito…Just sayin, the software audit experience can be much more painful if you aren’t ready for it.

I feel like there are two types of regret that we commonly experience.  When we regret “DOING” something or alternatively when we regard “NOT DOING” something.  In the Software Asset Management world, I think we often regret the NOT DOING or not taking action earlier.  We find out too late that there was something wrong… Lapsed support, changing licensing rules that affect compliance… general non understanding of product use rights, the list goes on and on and there are some serious potential consequences at play when you “DO NOTHING”. The worst part is that in almost every case,  if we had only known about it we could have taken simple actions to make the issue go away.

Specifically, in the software licensing world, regret usually settles in when a software publisher notifies you that your organization has been selected for a software compliance audit or, a Software Asset Management (SAM) Engagement.  Pro Tip – they are basically the same thing!   The auditors come in,  run their scripts and turn over their ultra conservative Estimated License Position (ELP) which reveals something you didn’t expect.  Perhaps it was a server that accidentally provided indirect access to much of your organization to a software application (which they are all not licensed for).  It could be that the proof of licensing entitlement that you thought was rock solid isn’t being accepted by the auditor.  Maybe you didn’t implement or properly deploy a good software asset management tool or a SAM Managed Service?  Either way it opens the door to a costly settlement and casts clouds of doubt on your competence as a Software Asset Management Professional.  This is never a good place to find yourself.

So, What Can you Do About It?

I could write a novel about how to build a SAM practice….Oh wait we basically did on this blog, but, I’m going to assume you have some things in place.  If you need ground floor guidance or just a thumbs up from a third party of experts who help others deal with or prevent the regret I’ve described,  just drop us a line and we can talk. I strongly recommend a software licensing assessment.

Bring in an friendly outside auditor who understands how the software vendor will act and behave.   Don’t bring in a software re-seller who says they can do it.  They’ll do it for free but,  ask yourself why…there is some truth to the old saying that you get what you pay for.   Is a software vendor funding it?   How much business intelligence are you just giving away? Who profits from selling additional licenses if there is a compliance gap found?

When MetrixData 360 does software vendor assessment on a specific software publisher, we run them as closely as possible to the way the publisher themselves would run it. How do we know that we are running them the same you are wondering, Many of our internal resources are ex-auditors that have experience running hundreds of audits and understand not only the licensing but, also the internal objectives of the software publishers.  MetrixData 360 will ask for the same sorts of data from you (and help you get it if you don’t know where/how to get it).   We will prepare a report for you (like the one on the right) and coach you on how to bridge any licensing gaps. We do this to make sure there are no surprises in a real audit. We recently completed a software licensing assessment for a company targeting OpenText. We uncovered an initial gap that could have resulted in a claim in the tens of millions of dollar range.   Luckily, we identified it and the client was able to take a few simple actions to eliminate the exposure!  Do you think they were glad they engaged in a software licensing assessment?  You bet they were, absolutely no regret there!

Software Licensing Assessment – What Can I Do To Learn More?

We really want to help you.  Software licensing and SAM is our passion and we are always willing and happy to have a discussion with folks!  Just click the button below to book some time to talk and we can just on a call.  There’s no commitment and frankly the SAM community is pretty small and tight knit.  We’re honestly just interested in licensing and SAM discussions.