With License Dashboard, North Lincolnshire Council is now realising the true business benefits of effective Software Asset Management

The Council has successfully implemented a Software Asset Management program which has enabled them to realize savings on their yearly software spend. Software Asset Management is no longer a headache for the Council and License Dashboard allows the visibility required to effectively manage software assets.

North Lincolnshire Council was created on 1 April 1996, taking over an 85,000-hectare area of the former South Humberside. The area has a population of around 153,000 in a mix of urban and rural areas. Scunthorpe is the largest town in North Lincolnshire with a population of 76,000.
With 43 elected councillors and approximately 7,200 employees, this Unitary Council provides the full range of council services ranging from schools and libraries to housing and refuse collection. Around £165m is spent on providing these services each year.

The Challenges

The first challenge Phoenix Software needed to address was the council's procurement process - one which had been in place since the council was formed. As with many local authorities, software procurement was decentralized and North Lincolnshire Council wanted to maintain the concept of budget holder responsibility.

Recent ICT management surveys have shown that the decentralized approach to purchasing software can result in a global risk. The main problem is caused by the structure of software volume licensing agreements' terms and conditions. These contracts are agreed at a global level and the vendors encourage organizations to maintain centralized records. In addition, the vendor's consumption data or the reseller's procurement records don't always report by cost center, thus causing frustration when trying to reconcile license ownership.
Logistically, North Lincolnshire Council was keen to maintain the decentralized procurement approach but recognized the benefits of providing a global interface for managing their software ownership. With this in mind, the council located all license evidence by directorate and then requested Phoenix to record the license entitlement by cost center. During this phase the organization's global installation rights were calculated. This highlighted evidence of over and under licensing. Phoenix immediately recommended a transfer of licenses between directorates.

This 'load balancing' of the entitlements ensured global compliance and reduced true-up costs by 25%.

The Discovery

To begin the audit process, Phoenix Software implemented FrontRange Discovery - the council's IT department found the product satisfied all its key requirements. There are over 150 audit tools available today, with the majority delivering the same output. It is important, therefore, to select a product which meets your requirements, rather than trying to find a product with the most 'bells and whistles'. The best audit tool is the one that does everything you need.

The FrontRange Discovery repository was subsequently copied and forwarded to License Dashboard Ltd ready for data cleansing. FrontRange Discovery has an excellent application recognition process but like most software audit tools, is not able to recognize license requirements. License Dashboard Ltd has addressed this need by developing its Data Cleanse Service to extend the software recognition process of almost all software inventory tools currently available.

License Dashboard Data Cleanse Service scans the installed software products and highlights those which require a license. North Lincolnshire Council's software repository was quickly cleansed enabling them to report a comprehensive software inventory that detailed 700 licensable products and 4,300 non-licensable products. The data cleanse task is vital if you are trying to reconcile your compliance status - without it, it is almost impossible.

The Reconciliation

Phoenix Software provided North Lincolnshire Council with a skilled software licensing specialist to record all software licenses and create a License Register that would enable the council to take full advantage of its installation rights.

With the documents and media located, the Phoenix auditors visited the site and recorded all the information. An audit was completed per purchasing directorate and, in order to ensure accuracy of each individual license inventory, the auditor cross-referenced these records with consumption reports issued by the vendors and purchasing records provided by the council's reseller. This comparison not only checked the quality of the audit but also enabled our auditors to highlight any absent licenses and prompt further investigation.

Completion of each directorate's license inventory made it possible to calculate the council's global installation rights. This involved our auditors verifying software upgrade paths, technology guarantee entitlements and maintenance agreements - thus allowing the organization to have a clear understanding of how many times it can install a product. This was the first point at which Phoenix was able to provide a clear representation of the licenses owned and the council's software entitlements.

From this information, the council could then prevent over-deployment of software, improve its negotiating position and purchase what it actually needs - rather than what it thinks it needs. The council's management team is now in control of its software assets and can considerably reduce excessive spending.

The Verification

A detailed management report was provided which illustrated the council's current compliance status. It was accompanied by a detailed electronic database enabling the council to drill down complex audit trails and license aggregations. Using the reports, our senior auditors held a number of in-depth compliance meetings, supplying the council with a full overview of how to remedy any license short falls, load balance any directorate over-licensing and provide a roadmap to improve future software procurements.

Maintaining Compliance

With the compliance issues addressed, North Lincolnshire Council wanted to ensure that this software audit was the start of a continuing process which would maximize the council's return on investment and ensure that the significant cost savings they had already achieved could continue. They quickly realized, however, that to make this work they needed to implement a corporate policy/procedure and introduce a single user interface to help consolidate and drive forward the management of their software assets. As corporate members, the council was able to utilize template policies and procedures available from FAST.

They then needed a business tool that would fully integrate with FrontRange Discovery and extend its reporting capabilities. In addition to this, they wanted to ensure the relational integrity between what is installed on the network and what they are allowed to install was maintained. License Dashboard was the SAM tool selected to achieve this goal.

With an easy to use Web-based interface, License Dashboard now enables the council's authorized users to take full control of their software and license inventories, combining all License Register and Centennial software audit information into a single reporting tool.
Using License Dashboard, North Lincolnshire Council's IT team has built a comprehensive business process which ensures the delivery of an effective software asset management program. As a result, the team are now able to make more informed purchasing decisions and provide improved support to the council as a whole.

2008 and Beyond

Elayne Smith, Client Services Manager, and Richard Cook, Senior Client Officer, are still the driving force behind the continuing success of North Lincolnshire Council's software asset management process.

As valued customers of Phoenix Software, North Lincolnshire Council has seen how, over the past few years, the importance of carrying out a successful SAM process has grown. With the assistance of their dedicated Phoenix SAM Consultant, Lynsey Wardell, the council still strives to maintain this position.

With ISO standards increasingly becoming a requirement for many organizations, North Lincolnshire Council is ready for these changes. The procedures the council now has in place far surpass many in other similar organizations and this is down to Richard Cook's interest and understanding of what is required, and what motivation it takes, to keep a SAM project running smoothly. Richard Cook concluded:

"Gaining control of software licensing is not a straightforward task. It is complex, sometimes frustrating and demands considerable time and resources to carry it through. With Lynsey's software licensing knowledge and monthly visits to help support us, she has become an extended part of North Lincolnshire Council's team and enables us to keep one step ahead with our software asset management.

"In approaching Phoenix for software audit and asset management services, the council's main objective was not only to demonstrate software copyright compliance but, more importantly, to implement a business process that would promote effective management, reduce operational costs and increase return on investment."

The Solution

Together, License Dashboard coupled with the Software Asset Management Services offered by Phoenix, enable organizations not only to implement a process that helps them identify their current software/license status but also, more importantly, to introduce a program that drives the future control and management of software assets.