In a recent press release, Robert J. Scott of Scott & Scott, LLP highlighted what his organization feels to be some common mistakes that companies make when presented with an audit request from BSA, SIIA or a software vendor. He lists – Failure to compile and produce accurate installation information. Relying on internal IT staff to … Continue reading Avoiding audit hassles with license optimization
Well known Microsoft watcher Mary-Jo Foley alerts us to a new report from Microsoft Directions with some very useful observations for any organization interested in reducing its annual spend on Microsoft renewals. The negotation process to minimize that spend is going to be illuminated and strengthened for the end-user organization if they have clear information … Continue reading Microsoft Agreement Renewal Coming Up? Get Smart!
A colleague pointed me the blog of Ray Wang of Forrester Research, at http://blog.softwareinsider.org/ where his post for March 24th provides some guidance for organizations looking to squeeze costs out of their operations wherever possible. The notes make absolute sense, but they point to the need to understand application usage, not just where it is installed. Software … Continue reading Five Simple Steps to Reducing Software Maintenance Costs
I’ve heard this expression used several times recently. In many cases the context was a need to drive down the costs of IT, and in particular the cost of operating and maintaining networked PCs. Another context heard recently was that of information security; in this instance the ‘back to basics’ referred to a need to … Continue reading Back to Basics?
Well this has been something of a labor of love for everyone involved in it. The site was switched over on Sunday, and all credit to Philip John, our Web consultant, for the execution. I was monitoring progress from a friend’s birthday party (they’re used to it!) and saw only the briefest of maintenance messages … Continue reading Welcome to the new Web site
It’s apparent that many organizations are responding to the current climate by freezing capital spending, irrespective of the returns that might be available from specific projects. IT’s history of delivering uncertain, or hard-to-quantify, returns makes it difficult for those championing IT spending projects to win over their colleagues to making an exception to the freeze … Continue reading Crunch attitudes ignore RoI
If we’d asked our customers to send us a list of what they would like delivered this Christmas, a Community Portal would have been high on the list. Well, we’ve got the next best thing – we’re looking for volunteers during the second half of January for usability testing on the new Vector Customer Community Portal. The Community Portal … Continue reading Vector Customer Community Portal: Testers Wanted
I’ve just read an interesting post on this topic on ZDnet, making the case that the advent of cloud computing is going to raise users’ expectations of performance, which will in turn drive the need for a much higher level of analytical information on the performance of all the key elements of the cloud infrastructure. … Continue reading System Analytics and Cloud Computing / SaaS
While the need to manage servers and workstations has always been there, many organizations are now facing new challenges and increased complexity following the introduction of virtual machines. Virtual machines usually increase the efficiency of use of existing computing resources, and that can drive rapid growth in numbers. As a result, some IT departments are … Continue reading Asset Management with Mixed Virtual and Real Machines
It’s too much of a coincidence that we are seeing more interest now in the combined virtues of Software Inventory and Application Software Usage Measurement. Software Inventory in support of compliance audit has always been seen as something of a gamble as far as RoI is concerned. Each organization is unsure as to whether it … Continue reading Tough economic climate drives a shift in SAM focus?
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