As experts in the field of IT Asset Management (if we do say so ourselves…), we have come across numerous ideas, through research and practice, of what the “best practices” should be. We have compiled a concise list of what we believe to be the top 7 best practices for ITAM that every IT pro … Continue reading Seven Best Practices for IT Asset Management
Providing the relevant documentation to support your software license entitlements is an essential requirement of modern audits. However documentation management is frequently overlooked by busy IT Managers and Software Asset Managers until the auditor arrives. Vector suggest that understanding what documentation supports your license entitlement should be your first step. Different software vendors require different … Continue reading Managing Software License Documentation
Today’s slim-line IT management teams need to be aware of the benefits that will accrue from adopting a strategy of pro-active software asset optimization. Further, the concepts outlined here are as valid for cloud services and mobile apps, as for conventional on-premise packages. Step 1: Asset Inventory Executing a full hardware and software inventory collection … Continue reading Software Asset Optimization: Fast Track to Benefits
Software Asset Management Managing the licensing and maintenance of an organization’s software is a thankless and usually lonely task. Who would want to be sandwiched between the user community that wants instant access to any app it thinks it needs, software vendors out to maximize revenues, and the CFO’s focus on year-on-year cost reduction? With … Continue reading Applying BPM methods in Software Asset Governance
IT Asset Management and IT Asset Lifecycle In February I reported on a request from a potential IT Asset Management customer to expand our excellent but conventional ITAM technology to include full Asset Lifecycle capability. In our perception, if it is to be pro-active, and provide more than just a static database for recording asset … Continue reading An IT Asset Ecosystem: update
Some organizations tolerate siloed elements of infrastructure management if they can see that individual silos are performing well. So the additional benefits that could accrue from creating connections are sacrificed to avoid disturbing the smooth running operations in each silo. Breaching or tearing down the silo walls will only happen with leadership, from someone not … Continue reading An IT Asset Ecosystem: customer vision
Software Inventory – still a core requirement Until recently, optimizing software licensing and maintenance costs started with collection of a robust inventory of application installations across the network. Configuration lockdown provided some safeguard against individuals using their company credit card to download their preferred applications but is hard to administer except perhaps as a by-product … Continue reading Cloud services and software asset management
Quantifying IT resource needs Many organizations deal with the challenge of software license provision by over-purchasing relative to need. Many organizations have poor visibility of how many licenses are needed for any given application, and in some cases simply purchase a copy for every user in Active Directory. In considering the amount of money that … Continue reading IT Asset Management – a matter of Governance?
The Software Asset Optimization Challenge Application software licensing and maintenance costs are a significant component of an IT budget, but few organizations take an adequately structured and informed approach to minimizing the expense. In our experience this is because the challenge spans multiple departments, each of which has its own priorities. For a procurement department … Continue reading Who takes ownership of Software Asset Optimization?
Software Distribution Software Distribution is one of those unglamorous but utterly essential items in the SysAdmin’s toolbox. It’s never talked about unless it screws up. We visited one of our larger UK customers recently, where Asset Manager Pro has been teamed up with the Software Distribution module. It was a little after half-way through November, … Continue reading Software distribution keeps the lights on