IBM DB2 vs Oracle Database

With a constantly growing IT infrastructure, it is important to know how your company plans on managing data storage and data management. At MetrixData 360, our customers are taking an interest in IBM’s DB2 and Oracle’s Database, although there seems to be a bit of confusion about which one is right for their system. While we are unaffiliated to any software vendor, we aim to empower our customers to make smarter IT spending decisions for their business and so today, we’d like to go over what IBM DB2 and Oracle Database are and some things to consider before signing any contracts around either.

IBM DB2 Databases

IBM DB2 is a collection of relational database management systems (RDBMS). First commercially released in 1983, DB2 offers its clients a means to manage their structured and unstructured data that is stored both on-prem and in the Cloud. These hybrid data management products are powered by AI capabilities to create an efficient means of providing data insights while being both flexible and scalable. It is one of the three most popular databases available in the market today, alongside Microsoft SQL Servers and Oracle’s Database.

Features of DB2

The reviews for this product rank it highly for its ability to work with substantial amounts of data without reducing its performance by any means. Clients also report receiving very little downtime from the product. IBM’s DB2 is praised for its stability, customers reporting that both its hardware and software have proven reliable. DB2 is also proven to have excellent storage capabilities, and claims to be especially SQL server compatible, so if you have experience with similar products, you won’t be starting from square one.

Disadvantages of DB2

Reviews on Gartner from IBM’s clients reveal that the setup of DB2 can be quite laborious and there is a risk that queries would produce the wrong results if the DB2 fails to interact correctly with other products. There is also a learning curve to be found with DB2 and it requires a skilled team for the product to reach its full potential. The tools for queries have also been reported to be a bit lacking.

What is the Future of DB2

In June of 2019, IBM released DB2 11.5, which is praised for its AI capabilities. This new database is powered by and run by AI. The benefits of this can be found in the database’s high-speed queries, and its ability to handle natural language querying, which are styled after search engines and can provide a similar user experience.

Can IBM DB2 be Taken to the Cloud?

IBM does offer a Cloud solution, IBM DB2 on Cloud, which presents tempting features like quick and easy installation, compatibility with Oracle’s database, and even a free tier available if you’d like to try it out – though we always advise caution around free software and exposure to shadow IT. Although reviews have claimed that it lacks the regional options of larger Cloud platforms, so it is always best to check the availability of IBM Cloud capabilities in your particular region, as it could easily influence its overall performance and your user experience.

Oracle Database

Another popular option that many businesses are opting into is the highly reputable Oracle Database. Oracle Database appeared in 1979 with Oracle v2 being marked as the first commercially available SQL-based RDBMS.

Features of Oracle Database

Oracle comes with many wonderful features, such as their high quality support, scalability, and the ability to track sophisticated architecture. It has also been reported to be extremely reliable, with very little down time and applying new instances to Oracle can be relatively painless.

Disadvantages of Oracle Database

Some of the disadvantages of having Oracle as your database is, according to reviews on Gartner, that the system needs an experienced administrator at the helm in order to properly manage it. The product is also very expensive, with the tool proving out of reach for most start-up businesses on a budget.

The Future of Oracle Database

Oracle has been tentatively looking into things like having algorithms embedded directly into microprocessors and integrating big data storage with the data their customers have already accumulated when installing Oracle Database. Oracle’s database also wishes to make its product able to more easily integrate with other products like SQL Server and JSON.

Can Oracle Database be Taken to the Cloud?

Oracle can be taken to the Cloud thanks to Oracle Cloud for Database Management, which offers a variety of features including the ability to easily implement it, easily creating backups and restore processes and easy patching. One of the main appeals of Oracle Database, according to Oracle’s own website, can be found in in the fact that you can move to the Cloud seamlessly, using the same technology that you had on-prem and claiming to have zero downtime during the transition (although reviews have tracked the installation time to anywhere between 2.5-3.5 hours). The product has also been praised in Gartner Reviews for being able to handle a large workload (one review even claims to run a million daily transactions through Oracle). Although, more critical reviews have said that the auto-extend data storage needs to be improved, and the DB monitor alerts are not exactly effective.

Which Works Best for You?

At MetrixData 360, we want you to make as an informed decision as possible about your next purchase with IBM or Oracle as both have reputations of frequently auditing their customers’ compliance with their difficult to read contracts. It is important that you get a fair deal that best suits your business’s unique software profile. At MetrixData 360, we have saved our clients millions of dollars through successful contract negotiations with IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, and Adobe, just to list a few of the vendors that we have handled in the past. Get the Software Contract Negotiation Experts on your team and save big on your next software contract.

Guide to Software Contract Negotiations

Not many people enjoy software contract negotiations. This is because not many people think that they are good at it. There’s an anxiety that you’ll run up against a smooth-talking salesman who will spin circles around you until you’re signing your life away on the dotted line. This fear is only exacerbated when we consider the hyper complexity of software licensing that makes it difficult to understand on the best of days. Software negotiations may not be an exact science, but they are not derived solely from born talent either — you can learn to be good at it.

At MetrixData 360, we have spent 20 years going through software contracts, and as a result, we have successfully negotiated over a billion dollars in software contracts for our clients. In this booklet, we will go over how best to get ready for your negotiation with your software vendor, whether that negotiation is a contract renewal, the arranging of a new contract, or looking for a concession at the end of a software audit.

Table of Contents

  • Inventory and License Knowledge
  • Trained Responses to Suite Their Goals
  • Cultivated Relationships
  • Time
  • Focus On What You Need, Not What You Want
  • Prepare and Surround Yourself with the Right People
  • Follow Your Own Timeline
  • Know Your Data
  • Come to the Table with the Right Attitude
  • Know Your Vendor Better Than They Know You

Understanding the Vendor

It may be unfair to paint the vendors as the villains of this scenario, but while they don’t have forked tongues and horns coming out of their foreheads, it is important to remember that they and you sit in adversarial roles with opposing goals in this arrangement. They want sales, maximum profit, and a push to popularize certain platforms (Microsoft has been aggressively pushing Azure as a good example of this tactic). You, on the other hand, want software that will only bring value to your company, and you want to pay a fair price for only the features you need. By their very nature, these goals will butt heads and therefore you must keep in mind that for this moment, the vendor is your opponent, no matter how much your sales rep will act like they want to be your friend or business partner. To start this battle, it is important to get to know your opponent first. So, what advantages will your software vendor’s sales rep have when they come to the negotiations?

Inventory and License Knowledge

Usually when vendors first hire new sales reps, they will have them go through extensive training that forces the new hires to learn the ins and outs of all the vendor’s products and the licenses to go with them. They will most likely have a strong understanding of contract templates and will be trained on customer relationship management. A seasoned sales rep spends their days going over these same products again and again, however, their knowledge of software licenses only really covers how to effectively sell the software to you. In addition to this, the software that they are pushing on you might have very little to do with your goals for cost-saving or value, it’s simply what they were told to sell. Often, we have seen software sales reps, when pressured, produce more cost-effective deals that fit our client’s needs far better. So, whatever you do, do not let the mind-set sink in that the sales rep knows what is best for you, only you can answer that question.

Trained Responses to Suit Their Goals

Any objection you could possibly think of to why you shouldn’t buy a product, there’s a guarantee that your sales rep has heard it before, and they already have a perfectly timed answer ready. It’s important that you let go of the idea that both of you can come to a win-win scenario. That’s not how the sales reps will be thinking, at least, because sadly we live in a world where behavior is controlled by business objectives and annual reviews. This means that no matter how much they might like you as a person, the software vendors are always going to work solely with their own victory in mind, so you will need to take the same approach.

Cultivated relationships

The software vendor will work hard to cultivate relationships with the C-level employees of your company; doing research to figure out where the upper levels of your management went to school, past employment, favorite charities or civil organizations, searching for any and every connection. If you aren’t on “golfing buddy” terms with your CEO and you need to walk into a software negotiation with people who are, it could leave you at a disadvantage. If you aren’t necessarily the be-all-end-all decision maker of your company, then that means the software vendor will be especially rigid towards you, because whatever progress you make with the software vendor, the sales reps will have to go through the same process again with the people above you in your company, only this time the starting price will be whatever progress you made.

Time

Software vendors will often pressure you to wrap up the deal quickly. The truth is that the software vendor has the advantage of time on their side. The situation is exacerbated if the software the vendor is selling is critical to run your business because there’s only so long you can wait before not having that technology impairs your business’s productivity. In many cases, if the vendor doesn’t like what you’re proposing, they can simply fold their hands and wait in order to outlast you.

Of course, you will be able to tell if you have a good vendor on your hands if they don’t resort to any of these ploys: if they don’t take their merry sweet time about closing a deal; if they don’t leap-frog over you to get cuddly with the C-levels; and if they offer deals based on your business’s interests and needs, you should reconsider your relationship. If you find a vendor who makes it clear that these underhanded strategies are not how they roll, cherish that relationship.

Tactics at Your Disposal

Despite the seeming unevenness of the situation, there are a few tactics you can use when approaching a software contract negotiation that can ensure the best outcome for the situation.

Focus on What You Need, Not What You Want

We all like shiny new things and getting the latest and greatest software always seems like a tempting offer to give into, but it may not be what your company needs. Even just going for a discount may not serve your company the best in the long run. You need to know exactly what your company needs based on the following factors:

  • Use: What do employees at your company use, and what do they not use? There is no point renewing products that your company’s employees have used only once or twice in a year. This may be due to lack of education on the new software, or it may be that they just don’t need it to get their jobs done.
  • Future Growth: Buying based only on what you have purchased in the past does not allow your company to grow.
  • Manageability: Do you have the processes in place to manage this software? Does it look too complex for your current SAM processes to handle? Signing up for overly complex licensing models may lead to disorganization and compliance risks later down the road.
  • Full Cost: Subtle expenses like maintenance and upgrades can easily add up to outweigh the overall value of the software.

Prepare and Surround Yourself with the Right People

When it comes to software contract negotiations, there’s no such thing as too much information. We have often seen customers rush into a conversation with their suppliers about features and needs before they are completely ready to do so. You need to start preparing for your contract negotiations long before you start arranging a kick-off meeting. Make sure you have a firm understanding of your business’s requirements, the full extent of the features and benefits your desired product offers, and the particular licensing metrics of the software vendor you’re dealing with.

Take the time to prepare a meeting agenda outlining any and all outstanding questions or issues you may have.

As part of your preparation, you should surround yourself with a team of experts. Expertise sits in many different departments, including procurement, IT, and the legal department. Remember, the ones who are arranging the purchase of the product are often not the ones who will be using it. Seek insights from a variety of sources and don’t get caught up in the petty squabbles between departments; despite the fact that many organizations often create internal walls that are difficult to overcome, it’s important that you face the software vendors with a united approach.

Follow Your Own Timeline

The vendor will often press you and make it seem like they need your answer quickly but that hardly means there is anything tangible behind this pressure. It’s not like the vendor’s main office is going to collapse into the sea unless they get your answer; if they can meet with you tomorrow, odds are they will also be available next week or the week after. It’s important that you pick a schedule that works for you, and that you resist the vendor’s pressure whenever possible. Try breaking your contract negotiation into parts, instead of taking an all-or-nothing approach. This strategy will compartmentalize your efforts, which can allow you to track your progress and will give you a feeling of accomplishment rather than slogging through one giant battle.

A negotiation can be broken down into four parts:

  1. Preparation: In which both parties prepare their stance and approach before meeting.
  2. Negotiation: In which an agreement is reached between both parties.
  3. Execution: In which the terms of the deal are carried out.
  4. Further Cultivation: In which the deal is completed but the relationship between the two parties is nurtured and further partnership opportunities are explored.
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Know Your Data

This is the key to developing a strong approach to a software contract negotiation. If you don’t know what you have deployed, if you don’t know what you are using or how much value your company is getting out of it, then you won’t be able to make smart purchasing decisions. We have often seen companies buy simply based on what they have purchased in the past or they make an educated guess at what they need. However, if you purchase based on what you have bought in the past, then it both fails to account for any future growth your company may experience and opens you up to rebuying licenses that you never needed. Guessing will also lead to similar problems since guessing a license number that is too high means you are losing money and guessing too low leaves you exposed to heavy penalties in the event of a software audit.

The best way to gain insight is through effective software asset management procedures. If you want to know how you can get started, you can check out our article, Implementing Software Asset Management for Beginners.

Come to the Negotiating Table with the Right Attitude

While emanating charisma might come easier to some than to others, it is a skill that can be learned given enough practice. Bringing the right disposition to negotiations will allow for the meeting to go smoothly.

  • Be optimistic and positive, even if you are frustrated.
  • Be bold, don’t let the software vendor push you into deals you don’t like.
  • Be creative, problem solving is often met with favor.
  • Be generous with your willingness to supply equal opportunities for growth and prosperity for both parties.
  • Be humble. Approach the situation with kindness and grace. They are humans, after all. Treat them the way you’d like to be treated.

Know Your Vendor Better Than They Know You

The software vendors will have to go through a few questions while they are considering their partnership with you. Considering these questions can help you direct the conversation in a way that ensures that they are positively answered in the mind of the vendor:

  • Do we have ongoing business with this customer?
  • Do we have an established relationship with the decision makers within this customer’s organization?
  • What are the customer’s goals?
  • What is the customer’s budget?
  • What is their project schedule? The importance of their project?
  • Is there a way we can become their sole supplier?
  • Is the customer doing business with our competitors?
  • Is the customer doing business with one of our resellers or distributors?

Your knowledge cannot be limited to what your sales rep likes and dislikes. Many companies are not willing negotiate with anyone within the software vendor’s company other than the sales rep, especially when they have developed a friendly relationship. You don’t want to upset the balance within the software vendor’s company and the software vendors are great at making sure things stay this way. It’s critical that you break out of this cycle in order to get the software contracts that you want. Be willing to escalate the situation up the chain of command if needed. A well-placed phone call to a high-ranking member of the company may be just what you need to get your software negotiations moving again.

Have a List of Talking Points

There’s no hard and fast rule to leading a successful negotiation because contract negotiations are as unique as the software that you are trying to obtain. However, there are a few general things that should be addressed during the negotiations, consider the following areas:

  • Definitions like Use, Licensee, and Parameters. Ensure they are properly expanded upon.
  • How software is defined, will it include everything the licensee is ordering or simply what the licensor is delivering,
  • Restrictions surrounding copying, access, transferring, sub-licensing, or providing the software to a third party.
  • How both the licensee and the licensor intend to protect their own information; if the licensor will have any access to the software in the licensee’s environment, along with data protection or security measures.
  • Auditing rights, whether the licensor is required to provide notice, who can conduct an audit, the number of audits that can occur in a given time period, whether the audit must be conducted during regular business hours while also having minimum impact on the licensee’s business are all important details.
  • Where will the software be located? On-prem on designated machines or servers? Third-party host? Cloud Environment?
  • Will a third-party need to be accessed by or have access to the software?
  • Other than the installation if not provided by the licensor, what will the licensee be expected to do with the software? Will modifications, patching, or maintenance be required?
  • Are there territorial restrictions surrounding the software?
  • Is the license perpetual or only for a fixed period of time?
  • What is the process around expanding the licensee’s rights? If the licensee wants more users, more devices, or anything else similar in nature, what is the process around that increase? If you expect an increase in your counts soon, consider actions that will protect any current discounted rates you’ve gained during the negotiations.
  • Test and Development server environments, disaster recovery scenarios and how both pertain to the licensor’s definition of ‘Use’.
  • Are there any disclaimers and other warranties within the software license?

Having answers to these questions will give you a lot of the information you need to make sure you will be able to use the software correctly without compliance issues. Most products and services can be purchased in a variety of sizes, models, and shapes, each with their own unique benefits and varying costs. Be certain to evaluate each option carefully.

Knowing what you want to say will also help you in figuring out how you will say it. Messaging will be everything and understanding what to say and when to say it will be critical. We’ve seen simple careless statements like “don’t worry about it, procurement is just playing hard to get,” absolutely destroy months of hard work. Make sure that everyone in your company is on the same page of what can and cannot be said and that all departments’ goals are aligned to deliver the best results.

For More Information

Software contract negotiations can be stressful, and it may seem like you’re surrounded by fake smiling faces that are pressuring you into bad deals for software you ultimately don’t need. But it doesn’t have to be this way, with the right tools in place, you can properly defend yourself against these ploys and be able to counter them effectively. Have insight into your own data, prepare, have questions, and above all else, don’t do this alone. At MetrixData 360, we’ve spent years perfecting the art of business negotiations. We’re here to save you money, to stand for your interests and your goals in this venture. If you’d like to learn more about our approach to contract negotiations, you can contact us using the information below and we can get started on getting you the deals you need.

About Virtual Machines

An Overview on Virtual Machines

Virtual Machines can bring increased mobility and productivity to your business, but before you start filling your screen up with VMs, it is important to first have a strong understanding of what they are and how you can license them. At MetrixData 360, we have worked alongside plenty of organizations looking to maximize the efficiency of their software environment, including the use of their VMs. So today we’ll get into a few of your most pressing questions surrounding virtual machines.

What is a Virtual Machine (VM)?

Just to quickly summarize, a virtual machine (VM) is a virtual environment that behaves separately from the rest of your software environment. It is basically a computer that runs inside another computer, appearing as a window on your screen. It can drastically reduce the time that is required to bring a new server online, going from weeks or months to mere minutes or hours. By booting an operating installer disc (either a virtual or physical one) inside the VM, it is tricked into thinking it is running on a real computer. The actual operating system on your device is called the Host operating system and the operating systems on the VMs are called Guests. Just to keep things from getting too confusing, here is a guide to some terminology from VM Ware.

VMs come with many advantages:

  • They allow you to safely try out new applications or data that you know is infected with a virus without having them mingle with the rest of your software environment through the use of sandboxing.
  • They allow you to use different operating systems and run applications your main operating system wouldn’t be able to support.
  • They are easy to remove from your operating system once you are finished.

The downside of VMs is that the virtualization process has the tendency to add some lag to the programs you are attempting to run, especially if that program requires copious amounts of storage.

You can run multiple VMs at the same time, with the only limitation being how much storage your hard drive has.

VM Sprawl

The main appeal to virtual machines is how fast they are to bring online and the lack of governance that usually surrounds physical servers within an organization. However, with this agility comes the main concern with VMs: letting them run away from you. This is true for anything that is easy and fast to make, whether that is emails, files, or databases, all of which suffer from sprawl issues. VM sprawl occurs when your company loses track of how many VMs are connected to your software environment. It remains one of the biggest concerns organizations face when it comes to virtual machines. When employees can spin up as many VMs as they like, your company runs the risk of having more than your network can support or than your licenses allow you to have.

There are a few ways one can deal with VM sprawl. You can get a reporting tool to monitor your software environment, however, this only addresses part of the issue, since reporting tools will only give you visibility into the problem. You can track whether it is getting better or worse but there may be very little indication of where the problem is coming from. It is also important to have policies and governance in place that will allow for the cleanup of unused VMs and make it possible to recycle them back into your environment.

Licensing Virtual Machines

Virtual machines are essentially devices that have been built and simply exist on another device. So, in case you were wondering, you absolutely need a license for them. How those VMs are licensed is the real tricky part. Some of the features that can create challenges around licensing VM include:

  • High Mobility: You can potentially move an entire virtualized operating system from one host to another.
  • Near-complete Isolation is Needed: If you want to create portability of your VMs guest files, you’ll need it to be near totally isolated, with the main exception being CPU/processor models.
  • Snapshots of a Machine State: Being able to take snapshots allows for the possibility to revert back to a previous state quickly and to repeatedly reinstall a trial to gain additional usage.
  • Advanced CPU Compatibility Masking: this allows for per-virtual machine customization.

As you can see, trying to license VMs can be challenging, especially with the minimal fingerprint a VM leaves on its host device and the quick and easy ability to clone a VM. If you license a device to a piece of software, potentially countless VMs could access that software.

The specific rules revolving around licenses differ from vendor to vendor and licensing type to licensing type.

For IBM, for instance, a VM needs to be licensed for any software that it comes into contact with, and it must be licensed as though it were a regular device. You can find more details about the matter in our article.

For Microsoft, licenses that are eligible for license mobility through software can be moved to an Azure environment with default per-minute cost. Windows Server licenses are not eligible for license mobility but if you have Software Assurance, you can utilize the Azure Hybrid Benefits in order to access cheaper per-minute costs.

If you can’t already tell, this can become quite confusing very quickly.

There are general rules you can use to minimize your risk of running up against compliance issues.

  • Detection and prevention tactics
  • Utilize Network Floating Licenses, which will allow you to track the number of concurrent users using the software, which will force VMs to communicate with a central licensing server.
  • Periodic license validation, this will allow for a central server communication and the transfer and revocation of licenses.
  • License a special build if you can’t avoid running virtual machines. This will allow you run virtual machines, although it will be set at a higher price point in order to counter the costs of anticipated VM cloning.

Working from Home? Make Sure Your Licensing Allows It!

Still Have Questions?

Virtual Machines can make our lives so much easier and make our work so much more productive, so long as we properly understand them and know how to license them. The last thing you need right now is being forced to either prove which nearly invisible virtual machine did what or simply take the brunt the full blow of an audit penalty, especially when you’re pretty sure you don’t owe as much as the auditors are saying you do. At MetrixData 360, we have helped companies clean up the messiest software environments by getting them started on software asset management and taught them to keep even the most untraceable software in line. Learn more about how you can get started with software asset management.

Why Are Software Audits Necessary?

How to Save Money on Your Software Licensing

It’s easy to wonder why software audits are necessary. “Can’t the software vendor just trust your company to be an honest paying customer?” You’re already giving them so much of your IT budget and yet, it seems they keep on coming back for more.

At MetrixData 360, we’ve put a lot of time and effort into understanding the auditors and the software vendors who hire them. In this article, we’re going to discuss why you might be inviting a software audit.

Reason #1: Software Vendors Like Making Money

Software audits are big investments that publishers are putting time and resources into. If you are found out of compliance in a software audit, not only will your company have to pay for the missing licenses, but you will also have to cover the cost of the auditing process, including compensating the third-party auditors. Your licenses must be purchased at full price, not at your contractual or historical discounted rate, and, in the case of a Microsoft audit, you will also have to pay an additional 5% penalty fee. A poorly conducted software audit could eat an IT department’s annual budget.

For the software vendors this is an effective means of generating revenue because your options are paying out the auditing penalties year after year or finding a different software vendor to support your company’s IT infrastructure. If your software vendor views your software audit as an investment, it would be logical to assume they would prefer safe investments, the type that are certain to yield a profit.

You can therefore lower your risk of incurring a software audit by making yourself appear like a less profitable target. Being prepared is the best defense against audits.

Reason #2: Compliance Audits Mean Software Sales

Not only should software audits are seen as investments, they are also viewed by the software vendors as sales opportunities. As Infoworld’s article – Software Audits: How High Tech Plays Hardball – states, software audits usually end the same way, with the customer handing over cash either to pay for missing licenses or to strike up a new deal with the software vendors.

Vendors go into audits to find mistakes, to strike fear in their clients, and just when the sweat has glistened the top of the client’s brow, they offer a deal, then the vicious cycle continues. It is important not to rely solely on the advice of the vendor’s sales rep because they will not be interested in ensuring you spend wisely, just that your spending continues to increase.

The sales department of these software vendors has quotas to meet, and there will always be a push for their customers to spend more. When your license is up for renewal, this is the sales rep’s chance to offer better maintenance and better products, not necessarily because it can benefit your company in a substantial way but because it was what they were told to sell. However, if you manage to keep your spending with the vendor what it is, or if you manage to even lower your spending with the vendor, then the sale’s team has a problem because now their quota wasn’t met. How else are they going to squeeze that extra cash from you? Simple, the company will send an audit notification and the vendor’s sales team will practice looking surprised in case you ever mention it to them.

Reason #3: Software Licensing Complexity Plays to the Vendor’s Advantage

There are plenty of reasons that software vendors give to explain the over complication of licensing. According to Softchoice, constant updates to technology means that there needs to be constant license updates to accommodate for those changes. A client may also require unique contracts with licensing specifically tailored to their demands, which makes for a complicated licensing system.

While these points may be true, software vendors do very little to remedy this confusion. In 2009, according to PCworld, then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stated that there could be no simplification of licenses expected in the near future.

Having a license for a piece of software doesn’t mean that you own it, it means you’re being granted the ability to use it. Software contracts are unique compared to other types of intellectual property since they can be written to include virtually as many agreements as both parties are willing to sign onto. Contracts are still written by the software vendor’s rules. In fact, the language the software publishers use to write up their licensing agreements is vague enough to make it difficult to understand and tempting to skip over.

However, if you don’t have a full understanding of the rules, how are you supposed to follow them? How are you supposed to work the rules to your advantage if they keep changing? You can’t, and that inability to know all the rules, let alone follow them, is the idea. Software Vendors perform audits the same way you would make your rounds checking the mouse traps in your house to see if any of them have been sprung.

Reason #4: Software Audits Aren’t Meant to Save You Money

Software audits or SAM reviews can be presented in a friendly way, as though it is an opportunity to check that products are being used properly and effectively. However, during a software audit, the third-party auditors will take the data from your software estate and come up with their own estimated licensing position.

It’s important to ask why were they hired? They were hired to find your compliance gaps and might even be paid based on how big a compliance gap they can find. There’s nothing to incentivize the auditors to scrutinize the accuracy of their findings.

If there are grey areas, if there’s room to make assumptions in your profile, they’ll always assume that the most expensive case is the reality, and if they’re wrong, then it’s so much the better for them. The only way you can gain an accurate depiction of your data and know what you actually owe the software vendors is by gathering trustworthy data yourself in order to challenge the software auditor’s findings.

The only way you can have trustworthy data at the ready is by having a strong software asset management system already in place long before the auditors arrive. The auditors will also fail to provide you with any information that indicates where you are overspending because that’s not what they were hired for. Even if there are areas where you could save money with the vendor, even if there are ways you could maximize the efficiency of how the software is utilized, those won’t be the talking points during an audit.

MetrixData 360 Makes Software Compliance Easy

Software audits happen; it’s an unfortunate truth that businesses must live with. With software audits only happening more frequently, it’s not a matter of if your business will be audited, but when. It’s important that you have a system in place that can accurately capture your data, which is where software asset management comes in. At MetrixData 360, we know how the software vendors think, and we know how to defend our client’s time and resources throughout the process. By clicking the link below you can head over to our Audit Defense page, where you can learn more about how MetrixData 360 can help you through a software audit.

Make SAM Easier for Everyone

Software asset management, especially when you are just starting out in your SAM journey, can easily prove an overwhelming, exhausting, and discouraging experience. It can be a laborious headache if you take the wrong approach to it, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be this way – there are things you can do to make software asset management a little easier. At MetrixData 360, our job is to make your job easier regarding your software licensing environment, so today we’ll be discussing ways to work smarter and not harder on your SAM program.

Don’t Set Unrealistic Expectations

One of the greatest pitfalls for someone just starting out with software asset management is getting too overwhelmed too quickly. Peeking into your software environment is enough to reveal an endless number of tasks and potential problems you now have to fix. For many companies, they feel it’s better not to look and hope the problem will sort itself out eventually.

While sticking your head in the sand is not an effective way to tackle software asset management, neither is trying to do everything at once. There are varying levels to SAM maturity, each with their own goals and objectives.

Chaos: You have no control and no visibility into your software environment. Your only goal is to merely gain visibility.

Reactive: You know what is in your software environment. A software audit at this stage means mainly performing damage control. Your goal here is to reach compliance.

Compliance Plus: Now that you’ve reached compliance you now have the information you need to defend yourself in an audit and perform the risk management needed to prevent one from reoccurring.

Optimization: Now that you have your software environment officially under control, you can start working towards finding cost-saving opportunities.

Amplified Value: Your software environment is under control. You know what your software environment contains; your compliance issues, if they occur, are handled before they appear in an audit, and you have started to find ways to cut costs. Now your goal is to make sure your hard work is maintained, and this level of organization becomes standard practice.

 

It may not be necessary for you to achieve the highest level of SAM based on what your company is hoping to get out of it, and it’s important to remember that 100% visibility and 100% accuracy will be next to impossible with enterprise-level software environments. 70%-80% would be a more realistic and attainable goal.

Communicate with Staff

Companies are made up of a lot of different people and very few of them will probably take deep enjoyment out of hearing about software asset management, but it’s important that staff are all on the same page with software, especially when it comes to the following pain points.

Comers, Movers, and Leavers

Companies are full of many moving parts; new hires coming in, employees moving from one department to another, and retiring employees all pose the question of what happens to their software licenses? Not having a strong process in place could mean accidentally having to pay for duplicated licenses or active ‘shelfware’ that your company is still paying for even though no one has used it in ages. Where do new hires go to get their new desktops? Where do retirees take their desktops when they’re done? Do people take their licenses with them to new departments? If not, what do you do with them afterward? Making sure that people understand these processes is critical to the success of your software asset management.

Shadow IT

Not knowing what people are downloading can become a serious issue for companies. Especially when seemingly free versions of things become less free when introduced to a corporate setting. An example of this can be seen in our article, The Invisible Risk of Oracle VirtualBox, where Oracle has ended up auditing clients based on their use of the seemingly free application VirtualBox. While it may be impossible and impractical to monitor everyone’s access to every website, especially given that forcing employees to seek permission every time they download free software might bog down productivity, it is nevertheless important to make staff aware of the risk of downloading certain products off of the Internet.

A Single Tool Won’t Save You

The last thing you want to do is put too much faith in your inventory tool. While inventory tools are essential to modern software asset management (unless you’d care to be driven to insanity counting your licenses manually), your job with software asset management is not finished when the tool is done installing. A single tool has the potential to increase your visibility by only 20%. It’s only after the installation of additional SAM tools, and their proper management and upkeep, that companies reach that 70%-80% visibility range.

Be Careful When Buying Bundled Packages

Buying a bunch of software in bundles may seem like it would be more convenient but when trying to organize these bundles, you’ll find that things can become quite a challenge. For one thing, SAM tools are often confused by bundled packages and it could fail to accurately document the bundled software, leaving you with a blind spot in your software asset management that you’ll eventually have to fix, either now or later when you’re in the middle of an audit. It also creates issues because bundles do not always come with sufficient proof of purchase receipts, which are imperative for success in any copyright infringement claims.

Moving to the Cloud also can pose challenges if done incorrectly. We have seen that there is often a spike in software cost when businesses transition to the Cloud due to staff given free rein to spin up Cloud instances, leave projects running, or simply buying more than they need.

It is important to be aware of these issues and the expensive headaches they can cause if your company heads to the Cloud thoughtlessly.

Moving to the Cloud Comes With its Own Challenges

Have a Software Audit Process in Place

The sad reality is that software audits do happen and so it is important to have a standard procedure in place in case one occurs. Instead of panicking, have a series of response emails ready to pick from, have a strategy prepared and in place, and know exactly what to expect out from a software audit. This will keep you from scrambling to get your data and responses together. At MetrixData 360, we’ve designed a Software Audit Defense Process, which can provide you and your company with the insights they need to create a strong, effective software audit procedure.

SAM Makes Everything IT Related Easier

From IT Staff and Security to Procurement, having a strong software asset management process implemented throughout your company will make the lives of your staff easier. IT Security will have a cleaned up, streamlined, and complete picture of the software environment that they monitor. Procurement will have full confidence in knowing what they need to purchase and whether there are licenses that already exist in their software licensing environment that can be recycled. With SAM, the CFO will not have to crunch the numbers to come up with the cash for a massive audit penalty, instead they can harvest saving opportunities for the betterment of the IT department. The IT department will have the data they need to effectively advocate for needed software. While this isn’t necessarily a point in how to make your Software Asset Management challenge a little easier, it does demonstrate how much easier everything else can become when SAM is properly implemented.

Want Easy Software Asset Management? Call MetrixData 360

Software Asset Management is far from an easy task, and it can quickly become complicated and overwhelm you if you try to jump headfirst without looking. However, there are ways to limit this confusion and make your life (and the lives of your IT Staff) that much easier.

At MetrixData 360, we pride ourselves in making your software asset management easier by taking care of the heavy lifting for you. We have had clients with year-long audits who barely put in a few hours of work, and we’ve provided clients with reports on their software environment that would have taken weeks to collect, with barely an hour’s work on their part. The rest of the work was left to us, the SAM experts. If you would like help on your software asset management, you can contact us today and get connected with our Director of Client Success for more information.

5 Key Traits to Winning Contract Negotiations

Contract negotiation is not an exact science, it is an art form and to be successful at contract negotiation it takes the right frame of mind. Personality plays a large role in how your contract negotiation will play out and it is more important than ever that companies walk away from their software contracts with a good deal designed to nurture the long-term growth of their company. At MetrixData360, we have sat through countless negotiations and we know what kind of an attitude it takes to see success from one.

1. Positivity

Even though sometimes contract negotiations feel like you’re bashing your head against a wall, a successful negotiator radiates optimism. No matter how good it will feel to let them know just a fraction of your frustrations, it will not get you anything but stony and uncompromising faces. Instead state how happy you are to see your sales rep when they walk in — bring excitement and enthusiasm into the meeting and hopefully it will be contagious.

Now, that being said, don’t be fake with your smile. It’s important that you come across as sincere and genuine. The last thing you want is for your sales rep to feel as though you are untrustworthy. Build your integrity with the sales rep by keeping your appointments, following the rules (to the best of your ability), and remaining honest.

When confronted with challenges, approach the situation without aggression and instead try to phrase your concerns in the form of questions. Make sure that you ask enough questions to fully understand your contract.

2. Bravery

You will also need to be brave in your software contract negotiation. It may seem intimidating but there’s only one way to become braver: do something that you are afraid of and do it often, then it will steadily become less scary over time. In order to build your confidence, it is important to be prepared. You need to make certain you have a strong stance on what you and your company are aiming to achieve. If you are frustrated by a long drawn out process, make sure that you make this frustration known to the software publisher. You will also not be able to win if you are full of fear and uncertainty. That certainty comes from a firm knowledge of what is in your software licensing environment and that your data is accurate Visibility into your data is gained through the successful implementation of software asset management. If you’d like to learn about how you can get started with software asset management, you can check out our article, Getting Started: Implementing Software Asset Management.

3. Ingenuity

Who says there is no room for creativity in the business world, especially in the seemingly unforgiving realm of software contracts? Software publishers are often willing to hear out creative ideas and will reward you for your outside-of-the-box thinking. Creativity is often required if you are going to get what you want out of your contract negotiations. Benchmark your progress with your contracts against past deals you have made with that vendor and use that to build a creative solution.

4. Generosity

As social animals, we tend to gravitate towards people who offer us both kindness and generosity, same goes with your software vendor. We’re not saying you should throw copious amounts of money at the software vendor for no good reason – quite the opposite. Offer up information and be willing to share details and specifics, something that won’t jeopardize the competitive edge of your company, but your software vendor will still find valuable, such as an introduction to a potential client. Such information will generate trust and create a sense of partnership between the two of you.

Generosity is an active form of both empathy and sympathy. Spending some time to understand the needs, wants, and pressures driving your opposition will give you valuable insight into how to tactfully approach the negotiating table.

5. Humility

If you have ever worked in retail, you know the agony of challenging customers. They made your job so much harder, and you counted the seconds until they would leaveleft the room and doing favors for those people was probably the farthest thing from your mind. The life of a sales rep, regardless of whether they sell coffee or software licenses, is hard enough. Making their day that much more challenging won’t get you the software contract terms you want. In fact, it’s a good way to raise the floor-price that your sales rep is willing to go down to.

Be an ideal customer and treat your sales rep kindly. Take the time to understand the sales rep’s motivation, it will help you through your contract negotiations and it will allow you to phrase your position in just such a way to appeal to their interests. Now, being kind is not the same thing as being a pushover — don’t agree to any deals just because you are afraid of hurting the sales rep’s feelings. Be kind but be clear and assertive about your position. A healthy relationship is one where both parties feel respected and heard and is fertile ground for positive negotiations.

For More Information

Contract Negotiations can be frustrating but it’s important that you enter the meeting with the right frame of mind. It can make all the difference if you want to leave the contract negotiation having fostered a mutually beneficial relationship. Now that you have the right attitude, it’s time to set it to work. At MetrixData 360, we have helped hundreds of clients achieve the contracts they want without damaging the relationship with the vendor. You can learn more about how to get ready for your contract renewal by reading our article, 5 Simple Tips for Software Contract Negotiation.

Microsoft SPLA Contracts Explained

Microsoft SPLA Contracts

Oh, the joys of software licensing, empowering you with the technology your company needs to grow. Of the software licenses out there, at MetrixData360, we have seen many people come to us asking for help regarding their Microsoft SPLA licensing, a delightful jewel in Microsoft’s licensing crown. Is investing in an SPLA license a smart move for your company? What will happen if you are audited on your SPLA? In this article we’ll tackle some of your most pressing questions regarding SPLAs, so that you can make an informed decision that drives your company’s future development instead of hindering it.

 

What is an SPLA

Microsoft’s Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA) gives you the ability to play Microsoft’s middleman if your business involves some element of hosting applications, data, or websites. It is the most common license that they offer to their customers who are service providers. When you’re given an SPLA license, you can provide the software you’ve purchased to your end-users and charge them monthly for your software as a service (SaaS).

In turn, Microsoft charges you monthly as well based on your license consumption rate, as opposed to simply paying an upfront fee like perpetual licenses. Unlike other forms of licensing, such as MSPA, where the license merely is transferred through you (Microsoft gives it to you, you give it to your customer and the customer becomes the licensee), with a Microsoft SPLA your name remains on the licenses for the products that your clients use and you report the usage of your licenses back to Microsoft. Being a reseller of Microsoft can be a wonderful business opportunity, creating for you a fruitful income and the option of having a uniquely packaged solution for your customers.

Do I need an SPLA?

Here are the three most common scenarios where an SPLA is required:

  • You host a third-party application with Microsoft’s Infrastructure?
  • You are Hosting as a Service (HaaS), which includes website hosting, data hosting, and file-sharing?
  • You have a Multi-Tenant Cloud platform or have a multi-tenant Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?

Benefits of an SPLA

There are many benefits to purchasing a Services Provider License Agreement:

  • The services you provide to your customers are tailored to their needs.
  • You pay-as-you-go, no start up fees, no long-term commitments, it can prove ideal if many of your customers have seasonal work that needs to be adjusted throughout the year.
  • Microsoft will give you and your clients the latest software products.
  • Your services can be offered to anyone in any country that you are legally allowed to sell Microsoft to.
  • You can sample the products yourself before they are offered to your customers and, in return, you can offer sample products to up to 50 of your clients to test the software for a free 60 day trial period.
  • You can sell to academic institutions at specific pricing.
  • You can leverage data center providers for IaaS or outsourcing capabilities.
  • Your Microsoft Business and Service Agreement (MSBA) needs only to be signed once. After that, all smaller and simpler SPLA licensed can be filed under it, which you need to sign every three years.

The VSA and the SPLA Audit

An SPLA audit reveals the treacherous complexity of the software contract that you’ve signed up for. The reason why Microsoft conducts these audits are to both ensure compliance and to confirm that the MBSA (Microsoft Business and Services Agreement) provides them with the right to audit their customers. You may incur the wrath of either Microsoft’s verified self-assessment (VSA) or an SPLA audit.

It can often be tricky to initially tell if you’ve been notified for either a VSA or a SPLA. VSA notifications are done usually through email (make sure to verify its authenticity before handing over sensitive data or clicking any links, there are scammers out there sending emails disguised as legitimate SAM reviews). A full SPLA audit will usually be sent through a formal letter and will usually disclose whether it is an audit or a VSA. You can expect a SPLA audit or VSA to arrive sooner rather than later if you and your company have experienced any of the following recently:

  • You have gone through a merger or acquisition
  • You have missed an SPLA report
  • Your SPLA reporting has increased or decreased
  • Providing a Microsoft Solution to your customers without the SPLA to back it up
  • Your reports only display minimum usage while your business shows signs of growth

A Microsoft SPLA Full Audit

Once you have determined the ifs, whys, and hows, the process is pretty similar for VSAs and SPLAs. You will be asked to retrieve data either at the auditors’ beck and call (in a full audit) or using your own internal resources (VSA). A Microsoft SPLA audit runs a similar course to a regular audit and a more in-depth look of the audit procedure can be found in our articles, Software Audits: The Fundamentals, and Software Audit Preparation. There are a few differences between an SPLA audit and regular audit, including:

  • An SPLA audit will involve looking at data that goes back much farther compared to the data examined in a regular audit, sometimes looking as far back as three years. For this reason, it’s important to maintain a pristine long-term record of your monthly reports, since a lack of this data will mean that the auditors will assume the worst-case (and most expensive case for you) is the reality.
  • Auditors will be interested in data that involves user access to products as opposed to actual usage, since an SPLA has different product use rights compared to perpetual licenses.
  • BYOLs and License Mobility will prove a focal point of the audit, since many hosts will allow end users to bring in licenses from their own EAs, and as such, it is important that you verify compliance in regard to these scenarios.

The Self-Certification Audit or Verified Self-Assessment(VSA)

The latest version of Microsoft’s audit, the self-certification audit or verified self-assessment (VSA), runs a little differently from regular audits since you’ll be able to prove your compliance without having to supply your deployment data, as has been the tradition of to this point. Instead, Microsoft will give you the choice of doing your own internal review. From there, you will affirm that you either have no missing licenses, or that you are missing licenses and will purchase the licenses that are required to make up for any unlicensed usage. You will also likely be required to present a corrective strategy that will decrease the likelihood of this happening again in the future. The process can be concluded quickly since there is no need to present evidence or negotiate over a settlement.

Getting Ready for an SPLA Audit

Sadly, audits are inevitable. While you can lower your risk of an SPLA audit by paying attention to the factors that might incur an audit, it’s difficult to avoid them entirely. So, the best thing you can do is to be prepared (an SPLA audit should be expected once every three years). Here are some tips for how you can prepare for your software audit:

  • Have all the hosted offers that either directly or indirectly deal with Microsoft products organized and ensure they are appropriately licensed, most often through your SPLA.
  • Have a tool that effectively captures the status of your software profile.
  • Keep historical records in order, going back many years. Include information such as the machines and users which contributed to each monthly report.
  • Be prepared to defend any BYOL scenarios since, as the host, you will be responsible.
  • Perform internal audits frequently to assess the health of your software profile and to address any issues before they are brought up in an audit.
  • Have an effective software asset management strategy in place to ensure that your software environment is not only compliant but maximizing value from your software licenses.

For More Information

SPLA’s can prove a fantastic asset for your company if used correctly. Software licensing may be a maze (Microsoft in particular is known for their confusing licensing and merciless auditing), but you can learn to navigate these treacherous waters with the right tool kit at your disposal. At MetrixData360, we have dealt with Microsoft for many, many years now. We know how to maximize the value of your SPLA ,so if you would like more information on how you can partner with MetrixData360 for the benefit of your business, click the link below to learn more about how MetrixData360 can help you negotiate your next SPLA agreement.

How To Increase Value and Lower Cost with Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft 365 and Office 365 are wonderful, although potentially expensive, tools that can boost production and connectivity in your business. Especially with the current situation in which we are living, where businesses are forced to either work from home or temporarily shut down entirely, Office 365 may be critical to your business. But for roughly 44% of businesses with Office 365, their subscriptions are underutilized, or they are buying a more expensive product than they need. At MetrixData 360, we are experts when it comes to the proper management of licenses and subscriptions, so here is a list of tips on how to get the most out of your Office 365 Licenses.

Optimization Through Education

Companies are built through the efforts of a wide variety of people, all with different educations, experience, and expertise. While your company may hold some tech-savvy people who fully harness all their Office 365 license may offer, there may still be employees who only open Office to check an email simply because they don’t know about Office’s amazing features. Accessing the video training that Microsoft offers is a great way to catch everyone up on the value of their own licenses; you can also set mandatory lesson plans and training sessions to encourage participation. What’s the point of having great licenses if no one knows how to use them?

Create a Value Gap

While there may be employees who only open Office to check an email because they don’t know about the value Office offers, other employees might rarely use Office simply because of the type of job they have. Doctors who are on their feet all day and who all share a desktop, or manual laborers who only interact with technology to clock their working hours, are just two examples of workers who don’t need a top-of-the-line Office 365 subscription to get their jobs done. Yet, when companies buy their Office subscriptions, they purchase only thinking about the members of their company who need five screens to get their work done. Those users will rely heavily on the subscription and so will require the most expensive one. It would make no sense to buy an expensive, top-of-the-line license for every employee if not every employee will use it to the same extent, therefore it’s important to make unique profiles with consideration to each employee’s workload and their needs. Perhaps employees who are extreme tech users will need an E5 license, but those who only use their Office 365 to check their emails will only require an E1.

Consider if You Honestly Need an E5 license

The E5 licenses is the most expensive but also offers the most expansive package, including all of Office’s services and products. However, among companies who have purchased the E5 license, 38% have the possibility of downsizing all the way down to the E1, which while it is more basic, it is also far cheaper. They have this possibility simply because they are barely using all the features that come with the E5 license. If you aren’t using it, why have it? Especially when it comes to subscription licenses. Before this current age of subscription licenses in the Cloud, it was considered a smart business move to purchase a software license that was a little bigger than necessary to leave room for any expected growth in the immediate future. As companies are making the transition to the Cloud, that knee-jerk reaction of buying more than you need remains. It’s important that you only buy what you are intending to use, since it is easy to upgrade with Microsoft at any time but far more difficult to downsize.

Track Your Spend and Usage

Knowledge will be your most important tool at your disposal when trying to cut back on your Office 365 spend. You’ll need data and visibility into how much of their subscription your staff actually use on a daily basis or if your employees are allowed to use everything they are using. Many companies have difficulty keeping track or making sense of the data collection that Microsoft offers. This is why at MetrixData 360, we have SLIM 360 our proprietary Office 365 Licensing Tool. Our tool’s prized features include (although not limited to):

Track Your Spend and Usage

Knowledge will be your most important tool at your disposal when trying to cut back on your Office 365 spend. You’ll need data and visibility into how much of their subscription your staff actually use on a daily basis or if your employees are allowed to use everything they are using. Many companies have difficulty keeping track or making sense of the data collection that Microsoft offers. This is why at MetrixData 360, we have SLIM 360 our proprietary Office 365 Licensing Tool. Our tool’s prized features include (although not limited to):

  • Detecting Multiple Subscriptions: Multiple subscriptions for Office 365 can be accidentally repurchased over time and can prove to be a quiet drain on the IT budget.
  • Tracking Consumption of Subscriptions Over Time: You can track how much you owe and what sort of value your company is getting out of these subscriptions.
  • Detecting Blocked Users: Sometimes having a blocked user is intentional, but other times the customer is unaware of these subscribed users, and the user themselves will be unaware since they can’t access the account. By removing their subscriptions, you can save a lot of money.
  • Detecting Last Usage: If an account has not been active in 90 days or longer, it usually means one of two things: either the account has been retired (or at least attempted to be), or it simply belongs to a user who doesn’t need the subscription. Either case justifies the removal of the license.

Download our free PDF on the usage and licensing capabilities of SLIM 360

Download our free PDF on the usage and licensing capabilities of SLIM 360

Start Saving Now!

For More Information

Saving money doesn’t always mean lessening the quality of the product. At MetrixData 360, our goal is cutting away waste, so you get the most out of what you pay for. Given the current global situation, now is not the time to be wasting money on things that your business doesn’t need. If you’d like to learn how you can save on your Office 365 license, or elsewhere in your software environment, feel free to contact us, and our director of client success will get back to you within 24 hours.

Software Asset Management in a Post COVID World

SAM After COVID-19

Right now, it may seem like there’s no end to this COVID-19 madness, but with small glimmers of light at the end of this dark tunnel fast approaching, it’s important to consider what the other side of this pandemic will look like for businesses. According to Research and Market’s book, Software Asset Management – Market Analysis, Trends, and Forecasts, Software Asset Management was expected to grow by USD$2.1 billion worldwide, although that was before the world turned upside-down. While these exact numbers may no longer be the case, in a pandemic, software asset management is still expected to become a major asset for companies wishing to drive down their software costs.

At MetrixData 360, we’ve been demonstrating our knowledge as software asset management experts for seven years now, and we thought we’d share how we expect the software world to change once COVID-19 comes to an end.

For the Short Term

Welcome to the Cloud

Businesses were already packing up and moving to the Cloud to take advantage of the flexibility and the freeing up of resources it provides even before the pandemic struck. However, when COVID-19 swept the global stage, companies either had to figure out a way to keep their employees working remotely, file as an essential service, or essentially shut down. This has left companies scrambling to get into the online Cloud business quickly – on both sides of the aisle. Video Conferencing Channels are booming, Zoom for instance has received more downloads of their product in these past few months than they saw during all of 2019.

With employees still meeting targets at home even without checking in at the office, it offers a great argument for remote work, that you don’t necessarily have to clock your employees’ productivity by the number of hours they sit at their desk. Remote work could very easily pick up in popularity, which raises the question – are you ready for the Cloud?

There can be issues with moving to the Cloud, especially when the transition is rushed. Such issues like improperly sized instances and licensing metric changes can cause an unexpected spike in costs.

What this means for SAM is that monitoring Cloud usage and spending will become a bigger priority as COVID-19 continues into the summer.

At the SAM Summit in Chicago, presenters pointed out that most companies see 35% of wastage when it comes to their Cloud profile. Getting such unneeded spending under control should be the priority for many companies in the upcoming months. This wastage comes from the complexity and variety of Cloud pricing models, the lack of control over provisioning, and the constant stream of system updates.

Related: Moving to the Cloud? 5 Problems You’ll Need to Address

The Short-Lived Generosity of Software Vendors

In this turbulent time, the software vendors have offered generous packages to help businesses adjust to the pandemic. Microsoft announced Teams will be available to everyone for six months, an E1 license available to businesses, and an A1 license for those in academia. These licenses are the minimum level you need to access Teams. Likewise, Adobe has also announced that it will allow students and teachers temporary free access to the Creative Cloud until either the schools reopen or until May 31, 2020.

A Rise in Software Audits

We have all faced some difficulty with COVID-19, and the software vendors are no exception. They’ll be eager to make up for the lost revenue that they experienced while businesses were shut down or weathering the pandemic’s storm. So, we can expect to see an increase in software audits as soon as this crisis is over, if not before. We have already had customers come to us with an audit notice from a software vendor, wondering how they will ever get the information that’s required if they can’t even go to the office!

It’s important that your company is ready, despite the circumstances. Make sure that even seemingly free software is not installed without your knowledge, and be sure you understand whether or not your licenses can be placed on personal devices for remote work. Ignoring these issues now can easily lead to huge problems later.

Related: The Complete Software Audit Defense Manual

For the Long-Term

Software Asset Management Tool Dissatisfaction is on the Rise

This is true, regardless of COVID-19, Smarter with Gartner points out that satisfied customers for SAM tools will only sit at 25% this year, with most SAM customers finding that the product fails to meet expectations. The reason for this can be found in the ever-increasing complexity of SAM, especially with the Cloud coming along to muddy the waters further.

SAM tools also have their limitations, as we discuss in our article, Why Do Software Asset Management Tools Stink at Software Asset Management? Some of the limitations of SAM tools include:

  • Bad inventory data
  • Failure to account for duplicates
  • Failure to identify development and test environments
  • Inability to account for license model changes
  • Virtualization and Cloud models are too complicated
  • OEM and retail box purchase also confuse the SAM tools

These shortcomings that appear in SAM tools will force businesses to either compensate by buying another SAM tool or take up the work themselves by creating spreadsheets and manually counting, which will be increasingly difficult as the pandemic carries on and more impractical as IT infrastructure grows more complex.

API Transactions

What we think will take place in the rest of the year and into 2021, according to our professional opinion at MetrixData 360, is that there will be a surge in microtransactions through APIs. “Microtransaction” is currently only a term used to describe any additional purchases that occur inside a video game, such as paying real money for additional weapons or resources. It can be frustrating for players who have already purchased the game, especially when the additional purchases become necessary as a way to advance through the game (pay-to-win scenarios), and it may become a term that frustrates IT departments in the workplace as well in the coming months.

Few people understand what APIs are or the key role they serve within a company’s IT infrastructure. APIs basically act as messengers between different applications. Applications themselves don’t talk to one another and their interaction is dependent either on some poor intern writing the same information repeatedly in each application, or the APIs doing it.

APIs, therefore, are imperative for the functioning of business, and we think that software vendors are going to begin charging businesses for the use of their APIs. For instance, two years ago, Salesforce purchased Mulesoft, which manages APIs, and is now offering businesses the use of Mulesoft’s technology to connect their applications to one another.

We have already begun seeing it as our clients rack up massive bills because their vendors have begun to charge them a seemingly small fee every time that APIs are used. In the same way that gamers can become frustrated when they are forced to whip out their credit cards for every level they advance, so too will such constant minor charges cause a headache for software asset managers.

Currently, there is no sufficient way to monitor API usage, and if there is no way to know how much you are using, you cannot accurately determine if you are being charged in a manner that reflects what you actually owe.

A New Way to Conduct Software Asset Management

Despite the hardship and tragedy of COVID-19, we will get through this, and it’s important that we work together while the economy recovers. Great tech doesn’t solve a people problem; the new age must be powered by people who are on board with IT investments and willing to gain control of their software environment before such disorganization leaves them exposed to software audits and wasted spending. At MetrixData 360, we pride ourselves in being educators so that our clients understand what we are doing and will be able to improve their SAM practices even after our engagement has closed, providing them with long-lasting value.

If you’d like to learn how you can cut your software expenses down during a Crisis, you can check out our article, How Will Your Software Contracts Be Affected By COVID-19?

Creating a Healthier Vendor Relationship with SAM

How Software Asset Management Can Help Your Vendor Relationship

There are many advantages to software asset management; it can provide you with valuable cost-saving opportunities, and it can make sure that your software environment is both legally sound and safe from security threats. However, many companies hesitate to adopt software asset management solutions because they are afraid it will create tension in their software vendor relationship. They would rather nod their way through a software audit than challenge any of the software vendor’s findings, and they’d rather sign any deal that is offered to them as opposed to going toe-to-toe in negotiations.

The last thing you want to do is make your software vendor angry with you, especially when their software critical to your business. However, software asset management can easily provide benefits to the software vendor as well and can improve your relationship with them. At MetrixData 360, we know all about the relationship between vendor and client and how delicate that relationship can be. We have successfully navigated these treacherous waters for many years, and we have seen companies who implement software asset management and achieve a mutually beneficial relationship with their vendor along the way.

Software Audit Prevention

While software audits are performed by software companies, this doesn’t mean that it is necessarily something they want to undertake. Software audits are an investment for the software vendor, they must hire an auditing firm, or they get their own people to manage the project. The whole reason why they tolerate and perform software audits is because they feel cheated, they suspect you are using software you are not paying for and they want to be justly compensated. It may be an honest mistake on your part but to the software vendor, there is always that tiny doubt in the back of their minds that asks what if it’s not?

We have come across businesses who knew that they had software they didn’t have the licenses for and their strategy to address that issue was ‘we’ll pay when we get caught in the next audit’.

Imagine if you had a roommate who would only clean up their mess if you screamed, threatened to throw them out, and otherwise made a beast of yourself. It would obviously be an unpleasant experience for the roommate, but it would also be an unpleasant experience for you as you fight an uphill battle, straining your relationship beyond repair, just to get them to do what you both had originally agreed to. Software audits are an excellent source of revenue for software vendors, but you know what is better? Not having a compliance issue in the first place by simply following the rules and making the correct payments on time. The vendor gets exactly what they are owed, and you gain the reputation of being an ideal customer. You need software asset management to achieve such results with your software vendor.

Related:  Learn how to prevent, prepare, and control the software audit process.

Provide Them with Useful Feedback

The software vendors want to serve you better, they want to be able to provide you with the software that matches your business needs. However, if you have ever been in a position where you are looking for constructive feedback, one of the most frustrating type to get is just a simple nod and ‘everything’s great!’ While it might make you feel good, there’s nowhere you can really go from there. Being able to have an open dialogue with your vendor concerning the software you need and having that conversation backed by strong data, will give the vendors valuable feedback on how to better provide you with quality customer service. Instead of your conversations with the vendor solely focused on whether you’re in compliance, you can move your relationship forward with control and precision.

SAM Allows You to Frame Win-Win Scenarios

If you don’t know the first thing about your software environment, then the only real strategy you can implement during any upcoming software contract negotiations is how to get a discount. These savings may serve your company well for the short-term, but it may cut down on the quality of the product and it is an arrangement the software vendor would obviously be opposed to. Instead of resorting to strong-arm tactics and tense drawn-out stand offs, knowing what you have in your software environment will allow you to understand the whole picture of your company’s needs. You can then structure your partnership with the vendor over the long-term to ensure equal opportunities for growth and profit. Software asset management gives you the visibility into your data that you need to track the value of the software vendor’s products.

Related: Dominate your next software contract negotiation with our Guide to Negotiating Software Contracts

Where to Get Started?

While software asset management primarily has interests in benefiting your own company, there are ways software asset management can improve your relationship with your software vendor. It is better than having the software vendor frustrated that they are not getting what they are owed and fearing that you may have done that on purpose. Instead, your relationship will be able to flourish with software asset management because it is your chance to prove that you take their software licensing seriously. At MetrixData 360, we also take your software licensing seriously and we want to make sure that you are getting the most out of your software without running into any issues with compliance. If you would like to know more about how you can get started with software asset management, you can check out our article, Implementing Software Asset Management for Beginners.