SOFTWARE LICENSE MANAGEMENT

CDW PARTNER REVIEW GUIDE

UNDERSTANDING THE COMPLICATIONS OF SOFTWARE LICENSE MANAGEMENT

When it comes to an organization’s total budget, the largest piece of the pie goes to payroll. The second largest? IT. Because IT takes such a large share, it’s under constant scrutiny and continuously expected to find cost savings, improve efficiency and prove value. And in the recent economic downturn, it’s no surprise that IT organizations were under immense pressure to make deep cuts.

But IT organizations were saddled with another obstacle during that time. Like every other business, software vendors were searching for ways to salvage profits or just keep the lights on. So they began conducting more software audits to enforce contracts and ensure organizations were in compliance.

Despite the needs to cut costs and to stay within compliance, gaining visibility and control over software licensing is critical. Even the most diligent and honest organizations can struggle with license compliance issues.

•Self-provisioning users are typically unaware of licensing implications. Such users may go to software vendor websites to download trial versions, which automatically convert to billable licenses after a period. Or users may accept invitations to upgrade free or trial versions without understanding the cost. For example, according to a Forrester report, a U.S. retailer and a European manufacturing company both had to pay a file-sharing software company for new product versions that users had downloaded, assuming erroneously that the upgrade was free of charge.3

•Technology changes can make software discovery tools obsolete. By its very purpose, server virtualization can undermine installation-based license tracking. It decouples the link between hardware and software, rendering some discovery technology ineffective.3

•License metrics may be outside the scope of software license management processes. Enterprise applications may have unique rules for counting users and other licensing metrics. Without good monitoring tools from the publisher or a third party, accurate measurement is very difficult, if not impossible.3

•Device proliferation and the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend are complicating license tracking. Legacy software management tools are often ill equipped to manage the diversity inherent in mobility and BYOD.4

“ As spending on software approaches 25 percent of business IT expense, organizations are urgently looking for ways to reduce software expense, without impacting the normal course of business that software enables.” 1

59 percent of organizations were asked by their software vendors to take part in an audit of their software usage.2

TEAMING UP TO TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT

If you worry about the cost and risk of insufficient software license management, but you’re unsure of exactly how get control of your software assets and licenses, there is help available. CDW has the right people, knowledge and expertise to help organizations like yours navigate software license management. By understanding your unique challenges and those of thousands of other organizations, CDW can help you simplify and customize a comprehensive, integrated software license management strategy that meets your needs.

CDW has the technical resources and experience to guide your selection, so you make the right choice the first time. To start, CDW solution architects perform a comprehensive inventory assessment and evaluate your overall organizational goals. The assessment includes examining the internal processes for managing licenses, vendors and procurement. This visibility enables them to develop a plan to address your management and control needs.

CDW has partnerships with leading vendors in software license management, so the architects can recommend a right-fit solution — from one partner or many — that meets the needs of your organization today and that can grow with you over the years.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT TOOLS FOR SOFTWARE LICENSE MANAGEMENT

When evaluating software license management tools, it’s important to choose ones that offer development of software standards, workflows, audit schedules, visibility into the entire software license environment (not just desktops) and licensing contract repositories. CDW’s partners excel in different areas of software license management. We can help you choose from several products and solutions and we recommend starting with the following three leading partners in this technology area.

The LANDesk Management Suite is a comprehensive, cradle-to-grave solution for software licensing. Thoughtfully engineered modules are designed to ensure that users can find what they need quickly and easily. Some of the key features in the suite include:

•Discovery and inventory, which provides a detailed understanding of the organizational assets

•Mobility management, which helps organizations that support the bring-your-own-device trend to understand mobile devices

•Remote control, which allows IT to analyze computers, plan upgrade strategies, implement patch control and support users on demand — from both inside the firewall and in the cloud

•Software distribution, which enables IT staff to quickly and efficiently distribute and install software, security and virus updates and application patch management across mixed network environments

Microsoft Systems Center Configuration Manager is a robust management solution designed to help IT maintain corporate compliance and control, while empowering employees to use the devices and applications they need to be productive. It provides key management capabilities, including application delivery, desktop virtualization and device management. Some of the key features in the suite include:

•Application delivery, which leverages a user-centric approach to application delivery

•Mobile device management, which enables users to be productive on the devices of their choice

•Virtual desktop management, which reduces the complexity and cost of implementing virtual desktops

•Compliance and settings management, which allows IT to create a baseline for the desired configuration state

The Altiris product family from Symantec offers integrated lifecycle and configuration management for IT assets. The products are designed to provide a modular and future-proof approach to managing diverse and widely distributed IT infrastructures. These open solutions enable lifecycle integration of client, handheld, server, network and other IT assets with audit-ready security and automated operation. Some of the key features of the products include:

•Management interface, which combines management for computers, tasks, policies and software

•Unified software management, which enables organizations to more intelligently approach software delivery, software license management and compliance with software management policies

• IT workflow management, which defines, designs and delivers automated IT processes and workflows that drive business

•Advanced analytics and reporting, which allow IT to explore data and answer their own questions

Learn more: Please contact your account manager or visit CDW.com/software-management

1 “Taking Control of Software Licensing: Reducing Cost and Mitigating Risk with Accurate, Relevant IT Insight,” David Appelbaum, BDNA, August 2010. 2 “Tuesday’s Tip: Dealing with Pesky Software Licensing Audits,” R “Ray” Wang, Forbes, April 2011.3 “ Introducing Software License Optimization,” Duncan Jones, Forrester, September 2011.4 “ The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Client Management Suites, Q2 2012,” David K. Johnson, Forrester, May 2012.

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USING MORE THAN JUST TOOLS TO TAKE A TOTAL APPROACH

Selecting the right set of software license management tools is important, but that alone is not enough to ensure successful implementation. There are also barriers to adoption that must be considered and addressed before rolling out a solution:

•Executive-level support — CDW’s assessment can provide you with some preliminary analyses to share with your executives. Once they understand the importance of comprehensive software license management and the direct effect it can have on the bottom line, the sell-in process will be easier.

•Commitment of the community — A team — not just an individual — must own the management and deployment of licenses. Professionals in application, infrastructure, procurement, help desk and other groups must contribute in order to embrace true licensing visibility. CDW can help all players understand their part in software license management.

•New process — In order for a software license management solution to provide deep visibility and reduce software costs, executive and departmental end users must understand and commit to following the new processes that must be in place. CDW can get a holistic view of your software license management environment and processes to help you best establish and roll out processes.

Our team of experts is available to help you through every phase of the process. Once you choose the right software license management tools for you, CDW solution architects can oversee the installation and configuration to optimize deployment and keep costs under control. Following implementation, we can help you understand reporting and analysis, and, if questions should arise, we are available to assist you. Having a robust tool as well as a partnership with the team at CDW is why our customers feel supported throughout the process.