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Q. What is the most cost effective SAM tool? |
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A. You asked about the software asset management (SAM) tool that provides the best bang for your IT buck.
Most of the software asset managers that I encounter will recommend the configuration discovery tool. This product is designed to automatically conduct a review of your precise hardware and software configurations. The goal of the more effective tools is to conduct a rapid and highly accurate audit of your systems, scrub the resulting reams of information, and insert those results into pre-planned reports that provide your software asset managers and technology asset managers with an accurate snapshot of your technology environment.
Be careful, however, with the definition of "configuration." Technicians have an entirely different meaning for this concept than software asset managers or technology asset managers. Unfortunately, companies VERY frequently purchase this incredibly useful tool without conducting effective due diligence on its potentials beforehand. Read on for more details.
"Big Caution: A majority of the configuration discovery tools available
tend to have grown into massive acquisition, implementation beasts
coupled with a ravenous hunger for highly trained technician support
teams."
Essentially: You'll pay big time just to acquire the product;
pay again to get it fully deployed; pay even more to support and manage
it; and frequently discover that you have purchased the wrong product.
Of course, by then your entire company has bought into this latest
techno-beast and you will find yourself constantly pouring more money
down the drain in efforts to make it do what it quite simply does not
want to do.
Key Issues:
- The asset management discovery
tool is not--and cannot be--a silver bullet. Do not expect it to solve
all your technology asset management problems--it won't.
- An
asset management discovery tool that is sequestered within the IT
technician "hidden den of techno-complexity" will not deliver the
results that enable you to recover hard cash. Nor will the hidden
product enable you to actively manage your tech environment.
- Your
trained software asset management; compliance assurance and anti
piracy; and IT life cycle management personnel must have full access to
both the discovery tool and its configuration in order to perform their
jobs of reducing costs and minimizing risk.
- Finally,
there is an entire range of issues that you must consider when
sourcing, acquiring, implementing, using, and managing these complex
but powerful tools.
Smart Move: Don't ever purchase one of these
products when you are under pressure to perform an audit. Companies that do so most frequently discover that they bought the wrong tool--after they paid all the fees. When you
purchase a technology asset management discovery tool, invest some time
learning what products are available and which ones work best for your
unique environment.
Want to hear more? Let us know and we'll
follow up. We have a Knowledge Briefing available on the subscriber
side of this site that presents these tools in a much more
comprehensive light. I'm Alan Plastow and if you are interested in
enhancing your potential to deliver solid asset management results, let
us know. Sign in and check out the more extensive materials inside the
site.
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