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Most organizations know that having a robust Software Asset Management practice provides a significant return on investment. At the same time, they also realize that the resources, tools, and processes required is an enormous undertaking. Software publishers are becoming aggressive about doing audits. You need expert advice and software asset managed services.
Our managed SAM Services ensure the proper implementation of a SAM practice specifically tailored to your company’s individual requirements. SAM Compass is tool agnostic, meaning it will work with any SAM tools your company has already invested in. This ensures we can get the absolute best data for your ELP.
MetrixData 360 has worked with data output from all the tools in market. We can wrap our services around any tool to create an estimated license position quickly and then take that raw license position and optimize it. This versatility is key to our ability to provide top tier service to our clients.
After using every tool available, we settled on Certero as the tool that powers our services, based on its overall functionality and road mapping for future features. It can be deployed on site or in the cloud and will provide our analysts with all the data required to support the optimization of software assets from any publisher. The best part about it is setup is quick and painless, and there are no expensive customizations required.
Below is a list of the core features that make up MetrixData’s software asset management services. This is by no means a final list. As mentioned previously, MetrixData 360 customizes each SAM Compass Managed service offering to the specific needs of each client.
An estimated license position is the foundation many of MetrixData 360’s services are based on. We will help you to configure a SAM tool to collect relevant deployment data for each software publisher. This includes deployments on both physical and virtual machines such as cloud-based instances. Additional reports will be created on a regular basis to coincide with your business needs.
MetrixData 360 uses the data we collect to create regular License Optimization Reports.
These look at all of your organization’s use rights and contractual obligations for each software title. We’ll recommend ways to consolidate licenses and how to better deploy software titles. This is all done with a focus on lowering your company’s software costs while ensuring that compliance is maintained. We will also monitor the usage of software to ensure that any bundled software that is or has been purchased is being fully utilized. Reporting can expose the true cost of bundled software, and can generally reveal huge cost savings. MetrixData 360 has built custom, in house tools that are used to optimize costly titles such as Microsoft SQL Server. These tools ensure Active Directory is up to date and reflects a true state.
Knowing what your organization owns, and what upgrades have been paid for, is essential in your Software Asset Management practice. Our review of your entitlements will include recommendations on re-harvesting orphaned licenses or licenses that are no longer in use. These will be added back into the pool of owned licenses that can be redeployed. This cuts down on your company making purchases of software licenses that are already owned and just not being used. Many procurement organizations count on the team at MetricData 360 to make sure that they are not double buying licenses.
As workload moves to the cloud, and applications move to a subscription model, the new challenge is understanding these new usage patterns. It is not uncommon to see companies pay for Office 365 accounts for employees that are no longer with the organization. Employees that move departments often have extra accounts or subscriptions to bundles that they aren’t using at all. MetrixData 360 will provide guidance on where to remove or reassign subscriptions, as well as ways to reduce spending on bundled software that isn’t being used. We’ll review infrastructure and workloads in the cloud, look at usage patterns, and make sure you’re taking advantage of any cost savings.
MetrixData 360 has worked on hundreds of software license negotiations from a wide range of publishers. We understand how the vendor’s sales-teams function and are compensated. Combined with the internal benchmarking data that we have compiled, we can ensure you get the best possible deal when negotiating a contract renewal. Our understanding of how you are using software, and where you want to go in your next contract term, allows us to present options to assist in the negotiations. This service is included as part of our SAM Compass service.
MetrixData 360 has defended many different sized organizations in software vendor audits. Our clients range from as small as 250 seats, to large multi-national companies with hundreds of thousands of employees. Many of our team members started their careers conducting software audits for vendors. Others worked for large consulting firms that are contracted to perform these audits. MetrixData has been successful in reducing initial audit findings as much as 70-80%. In some cases, we are proud to say, we have been able to erase exposure all together. Working with MetrixData 360 will minimize the time it takes to conduct and settle audits. Once the publisher knows that you have control of your licensing and compliance position, they may decide to simply move along to the next unsuspecting victim.
As part of our SAM Compass service, your company will be assigned a licensing specialist and a set number of hours each quarter. They can answer questions, attend meetings, or run training sessions to help your staff better understand licensing. We’ll assign hours based on company size, needs, and the number of publishers monitored.
Your organization isn’t currently under an active audit by a software publisher, but you are concerned that one is coming or that you may be non-compliant, and you just want to get ahead of it. We can help you out here as well.
Many leading companies proactively conduct internal software audits either to ensure they are compliant or to use that data to assist in Software Negotiations and contract renewals. By having an up to date picture of their software environment, companies can avoid costly true ups and renegotiate better contracts.
MetrixData 360 Offers a Self-Assessment service that mirrors the processes that are run by the vendors or the auditors themselves. We create Estimated License Positions (ELPs) that show you what the auditors will find and then teach you the legal licensing methods to decrease any license deltas that are found.
Don’t forget that auditors’ jobs are to be conservative, so if you are lacking data to create a position or cannot defend (with data) your position, they will apply the rules, so they are in the favor of the software vendor and not you.
It is our job to teach you how to use your data to your advantage to decrease the number of licenses you require, while staying compliant with the terms and conditions of your contract. MetrixData 360 shines at taking complex software inventory data and making it into useful information for you.
MetrixData 360’s experts are available to supplement your Software Asset Management Team, helping you realize the promised savings from your investment in SAM Tools, your people and your SAM Program. We assist you in understanding your license compliance position and driving costs out by effectively managing your software assets.
We know that selecting the right expert to assist you is challenging. Many of the SAM providers out there all look and sound the same. Take a few moments and watch the video to the right to learn what to look for when building a SAM program and hiring SAM Experts.
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