Earlier this year we participated in the ITAM Review Online Conference where our director, Sean Robinson, spoke around the SAM Agile method and how each organization can benefit at every stage of their SAM program. Following on from our speaking session, we have run a blog series that focuses on some of the questions asked during the live event. Today we ask:
How do you prioritize the activities within your SAM program?
This is an interesting question as the answer will vary depending on each organization’s business aims and the planned future state of their IT infrastructure. Priorities will also change depending on economic circumstances, application trends, and internal changes. All of these can cause disruption within the organization, which can, unfortunately, lead to significant money loss and non-compliance risk.
Having a flexible SAM program in place ensures that priorities shift as your IT surroundings change while mitigating compliance and money risks. Looking at the examples above, as they can be relatable to all organizations, we will highlight how your SAM program can adapt to changes and help you make informed decisions when prioritizing what you work on with your SAM vendor.
Planned IT infrastructure change
Working alongside License Dashboard SAM Consultants, customer organizations can align major software and hardware upgrades to align with contract renewal dates, ensuring that each software change is fully optimized and genuinely required. The planned deployment can also take place at a convenient time for the organization without taking away from business as usual.
Economic Circumstances
The global pandemic has proven that organizations must be prepared for unscheduled and uncontrollable changes to the economic environment. While the impact may be unpredictable, there are some givens in these situations, and protecting the budget, and cutting down on expenditure are essential. When looking to save money, ensuring that all IT assets are fully optimized prevents the organization from overspending on unused assets. This small win can make a big difference and dramatically reduce software spend.
Working with licensing experts, organizations can be sure each IT asset is being utilized by employees, removing the risk of wasting IT budget on unused licenses.
Application Trends
2020 has seen many organizations move to a working from home culture. This has meant a growth in SaaS applications including video software such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams. OAs a result, organizations may have had to adapt their downloading policies to ensure employees are able to complete their jobs.
With the increase in the use of these applications, IT teams need to work with SAM consultants to ensure they are compliant and haven’t overspent during these unprecedented times. Now is a great opportunity to encourage employees to connect to the VPN and understand exactly what is installed on their laptop. License Dashboard highly recommends this as a priority to ensure an organization is security risk free and compliant as we head back to some normality.
Internal Changes
Internal changes could range from employees leaving the organization to acquisitions and mergers, all of which can cause disruptions to the current licensing position, which means they have cost implications attached to them.
Licensing experts will reassign and reuse licenses where it is allowed, as well as take advantage of additional licenses during a merger.
In an ideal world, all of the above would be planned in advance but IT doesn’t always work that way and so working with SAM Consultants who can quickly shift focus is invaluable. Leaning on the License Dashboard SAM team to deliver on unexpected projects means IT can continue to feed value back into the organization.