Software asset management has been there for a long time as a business function but it was not given much importance by corporations all over the world and was relegated to the background. Though it has been valuable, it was not considered to be critical for the business operations or strategic to the overall financial savings and profits. Suddenly the management is able to understand the potential true value of proper management of software assets and is giving priority to SAM. It can help companies eliminate unnecessary costs and liabilities.
Today SAM is a high priority constituent on the board’s agenda. Some of the reasons for this are:
Financial benefits
If the investment in skilled manpower, software and its ongoing maintenance are not managed efficiently it can have severe repercussions on the company’s financial health resulting in huge losses.
Software audit activity
There has been a significant increase in the software audit activity among the vendor community in order to reduce costs and improve their financial health.
Savings
Companies have been recording huge savings through SAM. These savings are significant and can be as high as 40% or a little more. This translates into huge capital savings. SAM also helps avoid unnecessary expenditure on the purchase, renewal of software that are not needed. Big companies have saved millions of dollars through software asset management.
Cloud implications
Some skeptics are still not realizing the true value of SAM and are hopeful that cloud will eliminate the need for SAM. This is more of a conjecture than anything else as there are far-reaching implications if the software is made accessible without any restriction in the cloud environment.
At the same time fully restricting the ability to use that software in the cloud environment is also not feasible as companies have already invested millions in this software. In the coming days, a clearer understanding will be available on this.
The latest hybrid cloud platform holds promises in this direction as publishers are able to let companies’ implement hardware appliances behind their firewall enabling them to use the software with subscription-based pricing which will need SAM without any doubt.
Cyber Security
Cybersecurity has become a thorn in the flesh for corporations. With increasing cyber-attack all over the world, the possibility of a hack happening and the fear of the business coming to an end loom large in the minds of the board members. SAM plays a vital role through its inherent nature of auditing the software. Identifying the vulnerabilities that are discovered from time to time and coordinating with the publisher to obtain the latest patches and updates for the software keeps the security robust and reduces the risk of attack.
Through rationalization and consolidation, SAM finds and removes redundant, unused and obsolete application thus reducing the software footprint. This, in turn, reduces the attack surface for the hackers and improves the security.
Conclusion
Software asset management is an invaluable tool that management had relegated to the background for many years. With the realization of its potential true value, it has become a priority for most of the companies as it avoids and eliminates unnecessary expenditure incurred on software and its maintenance. It also helps in improving the cyber security which is a critical factor.