Published on the 18/08/2016 | Written by Beverley Head
Those responsible for technology are being taken out of the SAM loop…
A recent Gartner report suggested that enterprises which implement effective software asset management can shave as much as 30 percent off their software bills if they get it right. It’s a juicy saving, but according to Flexera, which sells such platforms, it’s not a saving destined for the CIO.
Steve Beards, APAC VP, said that instead the company tends to sell direct to the CFO or even CEO. “The problem with IT is it’s seen as a cost centre rather than efficiency saving,” he told iStart. He said that Flexera preferred to work with CFOs and CEOs and explain the cost savings that were possible through more effective software management, but also the compliance costs that could arise if an organisation was fined over its use of inappropriately licensed software both in terms of fines and reputational impact.
“We do have the CIO’s support but in nine out of ten cases they are not the owner of the software asset management systems – that is generally the CFO,” he said.
He said that enterprise adoption of cloud based software also heightened the need for more precise software management to ensure that companies did not end up paying more than they should for the services that they were using.
According to Gartner analyst Hank Marquis; “Automated software license optimisation is a relatively new discipline and most organisations are at lower levels of maturity. The variety of license entitlements also makes it tough for IT leaders to spot savings, especially in environments with many software publishers and titles. But it’s worth pursuing, as spending reductions contribute directly to the bottom line as gross profit.”
He said that organisations which optimised their software configurations, recycled licenses so that unused software licenses were deployed elsewhere, and effectively leveraged software asset management systems could reap significant savings.
Flexera’s enterprise focused solution is one of its fastest growing lines of business according to Beards – it’s also a homegrown solution, having originally been developed by Australian company ManageSoft before the company was bought by Flexera in 2010. Beards said that the company maintained a 60-strong engineering team for that product line in Victoria though some of the software library management is handled offshore in India.
