The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK recently decided to end its Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft. The NHS employs over one million staff and is said to be the largest user of Microsoft technology and third largest organisation on the planet (The only other larger organisations are the Chinese Army and Indian State railway). The terminated agreement allowed NHS staff full access to the Microsoft... 

This article has been contributed by Sandi Conrad of Conrad & Associates. Sandi is the author of the “SAM Starter Kit” published by The ITAM Review. One of several causes of compliance issues is poorly managed IT integration during mergers and acquisitions.  A merger may be considered successful in all other aspects, transfer of employees, intellectual property, buildings, furniture... 

Belated congratulations to Concorde Solutions who picked up the Microsoft Software Asset Management Partner of the Year 2010 back in June. According to Microsoft: “The Software Asset Management Partner of the Year Award recognizes the partner that consistently seeks to innovate with its software asset management (SAM) solutions and services, and deliver superior experiences and value for their... 

This article has been contributed by Brent Pietrzak from Flexera Software. Nearly every company I know is faced with budget constraints, but very few recognize just how much money they have tied up in software licenses and how much of that they could save with strategic software license management. The challenges of managing software include constant negotiations with vendors, different acquisition... 

Many statements are bandied about the industry on how much you can save with Software Asset Management, for example: “Organizations can realize cost savings between 5% and 35% by implementing focussed software asset management practices” Gartner Less common, are examples of organisations explaining how they actually went about it. It is a strange phenomenon in the ITAM industry, organizations are... 

This article has been contributed by Sandi Conrad of Conrad & Associates. Sandi is the author of the “SAM Starter Kit” published by The ITAM Review. When first setting up an asset management practice, determining which licenses can be proven as legal can be quite a challenge.  Many publishers now offer licenses on line, which eliminates a great deal of confusion when it comes to... 

I recently conducted a quick straw poll regarding the concept of ‘Guaranteed Software Compliance’.  Thank you to all those that responded (n=74). In a nutshell, the premise was: “Would a software compliance insurance policy, which paid out in the event of a shortfall in an audit, be of interest to you?”  (See the original article here). General Consensus: Nice idea, I’d... 

Gartner mentioned an interesting concept in their April 2010 Marketscope for ITAM tools. In the section on Software License Compliance they state that some organisations view their ITAM program as an insurance policy against the threat of software audits (Invest fixed costs in one to prevent larger unplanned costs in the other). “Savvy IT organisations recognise that, when an audit occurs, the... 

2 Minutes Walk From Covent Garden A networking event is being held at the end of this month for UK SAM practitioners. This is a great opportunity to get up to speed on the latest developments in the world of SAM and network with your industry peers. PLEASE NOTE: This is not a commercial or sponsored event (The room has kindly been lent to us by BCS) and is free of charge to attend. Please RSVP –... 

As a result of the work I did with the Infrastructure Executive Board last year I am able to share  a great SAM case study. It details how Bristol-Myers Squibb, a global BioPharmaceutical company with over 30,000 employees implemented their software asset management process. It is a vendor neutral study which details their approach to software requisition, metafields used in their software management... 

This article has been contributed by Rory Canavan of FAST Limited. My current role involves going about organisations in the North of the UK and advising them on best practice in regards to software asset management.  “Do we go down the FAST route? Or do we follow ITIL? Or perhaps we should consider ISO certification?” SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Commitment Trumps Best Practice Frameworks",...