Startups implement software asset management solutions in several steps. Software asset management (SAM) is a business practice necessary for effective management, control, and protection of the software assets within an organization, from kitchen design software to cloud services. This practice provides significant cost and risk reductions to businesses, from both compliance and IT standpoints. In fact, as a startup CEO, you can maximize ROI and negotiate more strategically with SAM implementation throughout their life cycle. Additionally, implementing SAM limits the impacts of software audits, and helps forecast future software needs. In this post, we will discuss how to implement software asset management for your startup.
Optimize Tools & Licenses
First, optimize your existing software tools and licenses. Start by running a standard IT audit, revealing the most and least used solutions. Use the audit's insights to determine how best to track and store your software license data. This way, you get notified of expiring licenses and upcoming renewals promptly. Typically, the best storage method is an inventory system. If your startup does not have one, you will need to create an inventory of all the software licenses at the company. Implementing an inventory system enables you to move license agreements, hardware assets, and other information to a safe location. Of course, the inventory should be user-friendly and optimized for efficient license management. Surely, optimize your tool and license data storage to prepare them for the SAM implementation.
Determine Processes To Implement
Second, determine which SAM processes to implement. Of course, several processes highlight the insights required for effective SAM. Some of these processes include procurement, authorization, deployment, and recycling. Procurement determines how your startup purchases new software. Authorization regards how employees request new software and how their requests are approved, while deployment highlights how new software gets implemented. Moreover, recycling processes denote what happens to an employee's accessible software when they change positions or leave the company. You should also consider how new employees gain software access. Absolutely, thinking about what happens to software during your procurement, authorization, deployment, and recycling processes helps determine the best SAM processes for your needs.
Choose The Right Solution
Third, choose the right SAM solution for your startup's specific needs. With your startup's needs determined, evaluate SAM tools based on several considerations such as flexibility, scalability, asset discovery, and more. Consider a tool's flexibility in customization and integration with your existing startup tech stack. Next, think about the scalability of a prospective tool, how your startup's growth will affect its capabilities, and whether it can operate across multi-cloud environments. Third, asset discovery functions enable potential solutions to detect every possible software instance and determine the complexity of its deployment. Certainly, considering elements such as flexibility, scalability, and asset discovery highlights the benefits of software asset management for your startup's unique needs.
Gap Analysis / Health Checks
Next, conduct SAM gap analysis to evaluate your chosen solution's impact. Of course, effective SAM programs require strong process and policy foundations. By taking your existing processes and policies into account, gap analysis documents maturity levels for industry standard-based key process areas. This way, analyses highlight your implementation's strengths, weaknesses, and areas of significant opportunity or risk. Additionally, they display compliance risks and extraneous licensing opportunities. Surely, these insights provide crucial information regarding SAM Implementation impacts, and helps you make the most strategic business decisions. Definitely, highlight the various impacts of your SAM implementation with gap analysis.
Maintain SAM Compliance
Lastly, you must continuously maintain your SAM processes and compliance with them. You will not benefit from this implementation without continuing to maintain the new SAM processes and compliance. With accurate software inventory and understanding of your software entitlements, you can use your SAM tools more efficiently. Of course, your SAM tools and processes should be comparing inventory/usage against orders/contracts. This way, they maintain increased security, long-term cost optimization, and significant risk reduction for your startup. In fact, continuous monitoring and updating of your SAM processes allows your startup to continue receiving its benefits.
Smart Startup Software Solutions
Startup software asset management implementations can be done in several steps. For example, optimize your tool and license data storage to prepare them for the SAM implementation. Second, thinking about what happens to software during your procurement, authorization, deployment, and recycling processes helps determine the best SAM processes for your needs. Third, considering elements such as flexibility, scalability, and asset discovery highlights the best SAM solutions for your startup's unique needs. Next, highlight the various impacts of your SAM implementation with gap analysis. Finally, continuous monitoring and updating of your SAM processes allows your startup to continue receiving its benefits. When searching for how to implement software asset management for your startup, consider the steps described above for SaaS SAM.
