• IT Asset Management
• PC Configuration Management
• IT Help Desk & Service Management
• Business Issue Management

Driving Down Costs with Software Asset Optimization

By Colin Bartram, Director of Technology, Vector Networks (Page 2 of 6)

Extending audit's horizons

When your organization is proposing to conduct a software audit for compliance, you have an opportunity to consider a much wider and longer lasting set of objectives and benefits.

Organizations using software should:

• Understand what software the enterprise needs, by evolving Application Policies (see below) to define who should have what;
• Monitor software usage to locate unused copies that can be redeployed, and to target training;
• Maintain an accurate inventory of installed applications to ensure legality and that software is up to date.
• Maintain a centralized register of license purchases and maintenance to ensure license compliance.

All these management activities service an objective that Vector identify as software asset optimization.

Application Policies

Part of our philosophy is that all application software requirements should be defined and quantified using a standard method. Vector recommends that the need for each application is defined in an ‘Application Policy’, which states which PCs need the application. A policy would refer to groups of PCs defined in an organization's Active Directory or in its chosen IT Asset Management tools – or both, if the two are integrated as they should be. Within a policy, an application could be defined as ‘mandatory’ for some groups of PCs, ‘optional’ for some other groups, and prohibited from others.

Next page: Software Asset Optimization Defined »

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