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We sent out a press release yesterday naming June as Software Asset Management month.  The idea is to draw attention to managing software and to encourage companies to step up their programs to manage it.  The timing couldn’t be more relevant.  Companies are trimming budgets and rather than cut something vital, how about reusing software instead of buying new?  How about negotiating better contracts to match what you really need?  How about “disposing” of software so that auditors don’t find extra copies in the environment at audit time? 

Software asset management is about process more than expensive products.  Although I mean that statement, I also don’t think SAM happens without discovery.  In my experience, I have seen more organizations with 3 products with discovery capability rather than none.  They may not work ideally, but they are there - either on the shelf or being used for part of the organization or part of its actual functionality.  For Animus consultants, we like to give our customers a quick hit list of success factors to help fuel enthusiasm in the project.  No matter the organization, SAM usually dominates that list.  SO, June is Software Asset Management.  Pay attention and it will pay back…

A number of IT asset managers have mentioned that they  received self-audit letters from Winzip.  These ITAM Pros were able to prove compliance and were waiting for confirmation from WinZip.  Lesson from this experience is that letters are likely this year, helping vendors generate low effort revenue.  Ironically, it may be the vendor who is surprised with the number of companies that provide documentation of compliance, plus request a statement from the company that they are in compliance.  The vendor may not be ready to handle the paperwork load!

Computerworld published the results of a Forrester survey where the respondents expressed how confusing and difficult software licensing is. The article states that companies are looking for clearer language especially in regards to pricing. The remark isn’t new, but how do we motivate publishers to do that? Don’t we try to negotiate deals ourselves that cause them to offer more complexity to the models? I’m not sure we should expect things to change unless we work for an organization that has sufficient clout to make it happen. If the SaaS model takes off, will the confusion get worse? To read the article, go to http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9061321&source=NLT_ES&nlid=42

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