Software License Compliance – a risk not worth taking? In a recent press release on the Business Software Alliance’s Web site, the BSA’s UK-based Michala Wardell reminds anyone listening that not paying attention to compliance can results in penal costs that far outstrip the nominal cost of the software in question. The offending Scotland based organization … Continue reading License Compliance not going away as significant risk issue
Who’s training who? After the fun and excitement of last week’s three-day HelpDesk and Issue Tracker training course in Las Vegas, it’s time to review the project and begin already to plan for the next. There is always scope to improve in the way the knowledge is delivered, practised and tested. Logistics of accommodation and … Continue reading Who learns the most in customer training sessions?
IT Asset Management – multiple areas of RoI The commonly cited and generalized reasons for making the effort with ITAM are reducing risk and reducing cost. Less often quoted, but equally valid, is an increase in user productivity. In a short white paper that you’re welcome to download (no registration required), we set out in … Continue reading The breadth of opportunity for RoI in IT Asset Management
Feature creep in IT Asset and Software Asset Management It’s typical of a maturing market that competiting products offer many of the same capabilities. After all, how many ways are there of reporting your Adobe installations? To provide differentiation, products will also sprout unique capabilities, some of which may have been requested by particular customers and are … Continue reading Evolution in the ITAM/SAM industry
There’s a stage in the evolution of many software markets when some players, usually larger or better funded, start buying up others. This might be to take out a competitor, or to short-cut the development of a much needed area of functionality. The result can be an apparently comprehensive catalog of functionality, and the prospective … Continue reading The dangers of amalgamation without integration
I just received an invitation to an Enterprise Management Associates Webinar on “Developing, Deploying, and Managing Custom Applications 2010”. In the pre-amble, it says that their research revealed custom applications outnumbering packaged applications in the enterprise by 10%. I’m not sure how they generated the figures – is MS Office one application or four? – … Continue reading Deploying custom applications in the enterprise
IT Asset Management – foundation for action Vector’s quarterly strategy review was held in our Montreal office over the second half of last week and Saturday, and at a lodge hotel out in the country on Sunday until we had to head for the airport. As usual, we considered short term needs, medium term objectives, … Continue reading ITAM – basis for effective and pro-active control
Software Inventory Analysis with Black and White Lists One of the most basic – and most immediately useful – uses for rich software inventory information, is white list and black list reporting. A white list of applications which every PC should have installed, and a black list of applications that should not be found on … Continue reading White List – Black List – SAM
As an IT professional, how bad do you think the non-compliance situation is in your organization? In very many organizations today, the top brass still hasn’t got the message on the potential cost savings from a strong SAM program, or on the risk reduction, or simply on the organization’s legal obligations to its suppliers as well … Continue reading Non-compliance in licensing – it’s so easy!
iPad as an IT asset: does the iPad make the grade in your organization? Your organization may be one of those in which a section of employees, and users of the IT resource you provide or manage, have decided they could work more productively if they had iPads. Have they been able to present a … Continue reading Should the ITAM office worry about ipads?