Johannesburg, 24 Mar 2006
More companies are starting to implement proper software asset management as awareness of the benefits becomes more widespread.
David Bicket, senior manager at Deloitte in the UK and director of Investors in Software, says adoption of software asset management practices as outlined by the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), is still in its early days.
ITIL is a framework comprising best practices for IT service management. Bicket, who co-authored the ITIL Guide to Software Asset Management, says software asset management is likely to go through the same cycle that inventory management went through.
"The old inventory management started out as a very unsexy area," he comments, adding that after some resistance in the beginning, it took off sharply.
"We are at the start of the software asset management cycle, and it`s going to go through the same process." This is particularly as more people begin to see the benefits involved.
Research firm Gartner has said that software costs make up about 20% of an organisation`s IT budget, and proper software asset management can result in savings of 5% to 35%.
"But when you talk to people they don`t believe it," Bicket says. "We have good case studies, but no metrics. Yet, software asset managers do see it as being in everyone`s interest to help customers get control of their assets."
He says Gartner is seeing significant adoption of ITIL even in the US. This is despite the fact that ITIL began in the UK.
Bicket adds that lessons can be learned from the inventory management and manufacturing resource planning (MRP) arena.
"First, it requires people bringing method to it. People in the MRP area wrote books on the logic and we are starting to see that in software asset management.
"Second, you need to have a holistic view of what you`re doing. This is not an island - it`s part of service management."
Bicket says a new international software asset management standard is on track to be implemented formally in May.
National standards bodies were to vote on the final draft international standard, ISO/IEC 19770-1, by yesterday, and he is expecting that a positive vote will be announced.
"Overall awareness, as with inventory control and MRP, takes time, but we`re moving there," he adds.
"A year ago we surveyed companies that implemented ITIL and asked what their return on investment (ROI) was. Very few of them could point to ROI, but almost all were adamant that it was worthwhile.
"People know it`s the right way to go, but haven`t got metrics on things like support costs, downtime costs and so on, but in time, these will develop."
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