Twelve Steps to Effective Software License Management

A. Appoint and empower a Software License Manager
Hiring or handling power to a single point person can drive the necessary changes that establish a successful SLM initiative.

B. Make SLM every employee's responsibility
Clearly communicate SLM initiatives and requirements and provide immunity to all staff for any existing license compliance issues.

C. Centralized software agreements, media and authorization keys
Software licenses are legal contracts: treat them as such by organization proof of purchase, electronic authorization keys and paperwork in a single, secure location.

D. Standardize Software Agreements
Maintaining similar language across software vendor contracts leads to more efficient management and understanding of those licenses.

E. Define standards, policies and processes that map clearly to business benefits
Once established, communicate and enforce these across the enterprise.

F. Tackle the top three to five vendors in a pilot SLM project
Simplifying SLM rollout, can demonstrate the most rapid ROI and grab management attention.

G. Enable self service requests and automate approval routing
Establish a single purchasing solution within SLM to automate software acquisition and approval, allowing employees to purchase the applications they need.

H. Leverage an enterprise IT Asset Management (ITAM) solution
Use ITAM to discover what hardware, enterprises can't account for the software on those machinges.

I. Integrate SLM with the ITAM solution
Without accounting for hardware, enterprises can't account for the software on those machines.

J. Integrate SLM with Microsoft SMS and other auto-dicovery tools
Existing tools enable rapid software and hardware discovery.

K. Integrate SLM with IT procurement
Trying these systems together gives enterprises instant and ongoing insight into new software and hardware purchases.

L. Integrate SLM with the Enterprise Service Desk
Giving the IT support desk hardware and software informaiton allows for efficient upgrades, problem fixes and distribution of new applications and tools.

Contact me for a free consultation.

Errett CordAuthor Info: Errett Cord is a former excutive of a web hosting firm who has worked with many small- to medium-sized companies developing effective internet strategies. As part of his commitment to helping others improve their businesses, Errett has become deeply involved with Magento, WordPress, SharePoint and how to effectively set up and manage the platform. Contact Errett Cord (ecord@ecord.us)