UK Government budget highlights need for SAM

by Matt Fisher 20. March 2013 06:28
Today in the UK is ‘Budget Day’, the day when the Chancellor of the Exchequer announces the Governments’ spending, borrowing and taxation plans for the next financial period. It’s a day many managers within the UK public sector will be dreading – with leaks already suggesting that the Chancellor is going to announce the need to make £2.5 billion (US $3.8bn) in departmental spending savings in order to protect and boost spending in other areas.   The £2.5bn figure equates to... [More]

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Eating the SAM Elephant

by Matt Fisher 19. March 2013 06:32
Software Asset Management. It sounds simple, doesn’t it? The reality is far from simple, however. To begin to understand the full spectrum of SAM requirements, you just need to turn to the now infamous definition of SAM from the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL): “…all of the infrastructure and processes necessary for the effective management, control and protection of the software assets…throughout all stages of their lifecycle.” Not much to do then! With this in... [More]

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Dealing with Microsoft CAL pricing changes

by Sean Robinson 29. November 2012 09:03
With Microsoft increasing its client access licence (CAL) pricing by 15% from the 1st December, there has never been a better time to get clarity over your current software licensing position. Why? Because while it may be inevitable that you are going to have to bear the cost of increased licenses, by taking a proactive stance on managing license entitlements, you can at least minimize the scale of this increase while also avoiding falling into non-compliance. The simple fact is that organizati... [More]

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General | SAM | Software Licence Management

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SAM is Dead, long live License Management

by Sean Robinson 18. April 2012 04:44
In 2006, I worked with a group of software industry specialists to help define an international standard for Software Asset Management (ISO/IEC 19770-1:2006). Based on ITIL best practice, this standard was developed to enable organizations to prove that they were performing Software Asset Management (SAM) to a standard sufficient to satisfy corporate governance requirements and ensure effective support for IT service management overall.  Since the launch of this standard, License Dashboard ... [More]

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SAM | Software Licence Management

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UK organizations need to act now to avoid the risks associated with Microsoft's price increase announcement

by Sean Robinson 27. February 2012 04:43
Microsoft recently announced that it will be increasing its UK software prices in June 2012. This increase will have a major negative impact on an organization's IT budget, leading to many having to unexpectedly increase their software expenditure within an already tough financial year. With careful management of your license entitlements and effective control of your procurement process, however, we believe that if you act now, you can negate this risk and even go on to save significant amount... [More]

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SAM | Software Licence Management

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"At last, a service that really does make a significant difference!"

by Sean Robinson 15. February 2012 03:11
Over the last 10 years, I have project managed some of the largest Software Asset Management (SAM) projects in the UK. During this time, I have found the biggest challenge to most organizations is locating their historical license records.  Attempting to gather physical license evidence and find individuals who have worked within the purchasing department with a good recollection of all known license transactions is near impossible. Even those organizations that have kept reasonable records... [More]

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SAM | Software Licence Management

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Software audits continue to rise, says Gartner

by Sean Robinson 9. February 2012 06:35
Leading IT research firm, Gartner, has released figures showing a continued increase in the number of end user license audits conducted by leading software vendors, up from 61 percent a year ago to 65 percent today.  Put another way, this suggests you only have a 35 percent chance of going a whole 12 months without receiving at least one audit request from a software vendor.  Hardly good odds! According to attendees at recent Gartner events on IT Asset Management, Big Blue was the mos... [More]

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SAM | Software Licence Management

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Software piracy whistle blowers reap rich rewards

by Sean Robinson 12. January 2012 05:55
The US-based Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), which represents vendors in the software and digital content industries, has issued a press release stating that it paid out more 'rewards' to those reporting software and content piracy in the last quarter of 2011 than in the previous two years. While the US $35,500 paid out to five individuals is far less than the body's stated maximum incentive of $1 million per case, the fact that this is a record payout by the SIIA should... [More]

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SAM | Software Licence Management

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Dubai-based Spectrami signs up to distribute License Dashboard products across Middle East

by Sean Robinson 5. December 2011 06:43
Spectrami, a leading value added distributor in Dubai has recently signed a distribution agreement with License Dashboard to sell License Dashboard License Manager, License Dashboard Discovery and SAM Portal solutions across the Middle East region. Anand Choudha, Managing Director of Spectrami, said, "License Dashboard gives a very revolutionary approach to license and entitlement management through self-service and mapping with existing SAM tools and license entitlement. It allows organization... [More]

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SAM | Software Licence Management

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The third data set – the role of software metering in license management

by Sean Robinson 25. November 2011 03:47
When looking at improving the management of software licenses across the organization, we typically talk about the reconciliation of two distinct data sets:  the software audit/inventory data from PCs and servers on the network and the entitlements held in the license repository.  After all, when you know what is installed on the network and how that relates to your current license entitlements, you can start to identify areas where you have a potential licensing shortfall as well as a... [More]

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SAM | Software Licence Management

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Profile

License Dashboard’s team of licensing experts have, together with our partners, delivered over 800 audits and SAM projects to customers around the world.  This blog is populated by three of the key personalities at License Dashboard:

Sean Robinson is the man behind not only the License Dashboard products but also the ISO 19770-1 international SAM standard.  As a License Dashboard director, he works closely with large customers to ensure their SAM projects deliver significant ROI benefits.

Matt Fisher has over eight years’ experience bringing SAM solutions and services to market and is a well-known commentator on the SAM and licensing market.  Matt heads up business development at License Dashboard.

David Chamberlain is one of License Dashboard’s leading licensing experts, helping customers understand how to maximize their use of License Dashboard technologies to optimize their software usage and license availability.

Together, our three contributors will help you keep up-to-speed with what’s happening in and around the world of Software Asset Management (SAM) and software licensing. 

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