SAManage IT Management Blog

In order for IT asset management to be effective, the identification and tracking of key components must be performed frequently and regularly. This post will highlight some IT asset management best practices with SAManage, based on the experience and knowledge learned from our customers.  These best practices IT asset management will help ensure the long term success of your IT Asset Management program, and help you boost return on your technology investment.

Weekly Tasks

1. Review new assets. Any new assets that have been logged into inventory must be assessed. This includes both new computers added to your inventory and new software installed across your network. Related: new computers in the last week and new software installed in the last week
2. Review of asset utilization. Investigate any assets that are not operational, or are not being actively used.  Indicate their status (i.e. in repair, in service for periodic maintenance, etc.), and estimate how long it will take to put them to use once again. Related: computers in repair
3. Identification of missing assets. Locate any assets that are not reporting frequently, or have not reported within the last week.  Determine whether or not they are lost, or if they are still in use.  If they are not being utilized, indicated whether they can be reallocated, or if they should be rendered obsolete. Related: computers not reporting in the last week
4. Review risks & license compliance. Review new risks detected in the last week as well as risks that existed before and were not yet resolved. Remind users to take action to remove these risks. Review license compliance standing and impact of this week’s inventory changes on your license standing. Related: risks and license compliance

Monthly Tasks

1. Review asset locations. Locate assets that were moved between your physical locations and are now located in a new site. Update the asset’s new location as well as current user to make sure you can track the asset when needed. Related: assets by sites and by departments and by domains
2. Review duplicate assets. Locate computers that were reinstalled and appear as duplicate in the system. Mark the old entry as the duplicate will take it out of your inventory. Related: duplicate computers
3. Disposed assets. Check old assets to determine which ones have reached the end of their life-cycle, and need to be disposed of and replaced. Mark all disposed assets in your inventory to have them removed. Related: disposed computers
4. Update contracts and licenses. Thoroughly review any new contracts or software license agreements – or any extensions or amendments to existing ones – that have been executed in the last month.  Be sure they have all been captured in SAManage.  Include the license count (for software purchases) and attach any important documents such as packing slips and invoices.  This will guarantee that your records are in good order and you are fully prepared in the event of an IT audit. Related: contracts and software licenses

IT asset management is not a one-time activity – it is an ongoing process. With the right tool in place and with implementing the right IT asset management best practices to fully utilize the tool, you can optimize the value you derive from your IT systems and enhance your overall IT system administration best practices.  Visit SAManage for more valuable tips and best practices, or to learn more about on-demand IT asset management.

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You know why you need an IT asset management (ITAM) solution, but convincing the senior executives at your company may not be so easy.  In today’s tough economy, management teams are tightening their belts, and as a result, technology budgets are a mere fraction of what they used to be.  In order to get the needed support and funding for your initiative, you’ll need to effectively make the business case for ITAM.

IT Asset Management Will Improve Your Business

Your organization has devoted a significant amount of resources to building its technology infrastructure.  But, unless all components of that architecture are properly tracked and administered, the value realized from those efforts will be hindered.  Therefore, the first step in selling IT asset management to senior management is to clearly convey the potential return on investment (ROI) it can deliver.

Because minimizing overhead expenses is a key priority for many organizations in the current financial climate, it is critical to demonstrate the specific, hard-dollar savings that ITAM can offer.  Hardware and software asset management tools can deliver dramatic, measurable cost reductions in many forms, including:

• Reduced system support requirements
• Increased efficiency of IT audits
• Improved employee productivity
• Minimized risk of viruses, spy-ware, and other threats

Several variables, such as the number of employees or PCs, will determine just how much your company can save in each of the above mentioned areas.  Using industry benchmarks, its clear that some smaller and mid-sized companies can realize annual cost savings of more than $277,000 with IT asset management.

SaaS Makes It Easy to Get Started

Next, you’ll want to consider the SaaS approach – also known as on-demand or Web-hosted - to IT asset management deployment.  Why on-demand? Because SaaS-based ITAM requires a much smaller upfront financial investment compared to the on-premise alternative. In addition, the deployment of a SaaS solution is much faster than that of an on-site system. So you realize value faster and reduce the risks typically associated with deployment efforts. These reasons will help increase executive confidence, since they won’t need to incur a major expenditure, and can gain almost immediate benefit.

You’ll also want to call special attention to software license compliance, and the potential losses that can be incurred if your company isn’t adhering to contract terms.  Non-compliance with software licensing agreements can result in stiff fines from vendors and regulatory bodies – penalties that can be so high, they’d strike fear into even the most seasoned executives.  IT asset management significantly improves the accuracy and efficiency of software license management, so you can closely monitor software usage and ensure full compliance at all times.

Present Your ROI and Business Case

And, perhaps most importantly, you’ll want to present your case, and the estimated savings and ROI you expect to realize, in a clear, concise, easy-to-understand manner.  To help you get started, we’ve created an ROI calculator and presentation template which you can use as a guide to effectively calculating and presenting your potential savings.

The Business Case for IT Asset Management

This paper outlines the steps needed to create a compelling business case for an IT Asset Management solution.

Download our building the business case for IT Asset Management white paper.

Wondering why on-demand is the deployment model of choice for so many companies who are implementing new software solutions?  While the benefits of on-demand software – also commonly referred to as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or hosted software – are substantial, one of the biggest advantages is its ability to eliminate the risk of “shelfware”.

Companies of all types and sizes waste countless dollars every year on shelf-ware – software applications that are purchased, but never put to use.  But shelfware doesn’t just drain IT budgets, which are shrinking rapidly in today’s tough economic times.  It also makes IT audits and depreciation calculations more complex, and can hinder productivity, leaving end users lacking the business solutions they need to effectively perform their jobs.

There are many reasons why software – bought with the best intentions – becomes shelf-ware.  For example, more critical technology initiatives may come up, taking priority and putting deployment on the back burner, challenges with deploying a software solution or customizing it to meet the business needs and more.

Flaws in the traditional software sales model are one of the key reasons behind shelf-ware.  Companies pay upfront to acquire a software solution, before they can see firsthand how the end users will benefit, and what type of value it will provide.  It’s a major risk, but one that, in the past, organizations have been forced to take. This leads to shelf-ware in two ways.  First, there is exposure when it comes to implementation.  Huge deployment issues may arise, causing IT teams to abandon the project before the solution is ever even rolled out to end users.  Or, the solution itself, once rolled out, may not meet end user needs, resulting in low adoption rates and demand for another package to replace the one originally purchased.

One of the primary advantages of a SaaS solution is that it eliminates the risk of shelf-ware.  There is no large initial investment required with SaaS, so companies don’t have to pay until they are actually realizing value from it.  If they don’t achieve the desired benefits, they can simply choose not to renew at the end of their contract period (monthly, quarterly, annually), and have paid only for what they have used.

Why on-demand? becuase SaaS minimizes implementation risk, since there is no need to provision and deploy local servers, install software or configure databases. There is no need to setup operational procedures such as antivirus, backups, periodical maintanence so customers can get up and running quickly and realize value sooner.  On-demand software can be deployed rapidly, and seamlessly integrated into any existing technology environment.

Learn more about the many benefits of on-demand software, and why a SaaS IT management service is the most effective and economical way to track and control your technology inventory.

SAManage Partners with Etelos for Syndication of its IT Management Solution

The SAManage Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) will be distributed via multiple marketplaces based on the Etelos Platform Suite

SEATTLE, WA, July 7, 2009 — SAManage, a leading provider of on-demand IT management solutions, today announced a Syndication Partnership agreement with Etelos, Inc. (OTCBB: ETLO), a developer and operator of private labeled Marketplaces for Web-based business applications.

As part of the Etelos Syndication Partner program, the SAManage solution will be made available to a variety of businesses and Etelos Marketplace Partners that access any of the multiple private-labeled SaaS marketplaces powered by Etelos.

The SAManage on-demand IT Management solution makes it easy for companies of all sizes to track computer inventory and software inventory, detect risks and compliance gaps, and improve service levels.

Using the service, companies are able to reduce IT costs by accurately tracking existing inventory to ensure budgets and assets are correctly utilized, improve productivity and IT security by detecting unauthorized software and unprotected assets, and minimize the legal risk of noncompliance with software licensing agreements. The SAManage service also empowers customers to enhance service levels to users with integrated help desk capabilities.

“SAManage is committed to provide easy-to-use IT Management solutions for our customers,” said SAManage CEO Doron Gordon. “Syndicating the SAManage solution through the Etelos platform makes it even more accessible to companies that are turning to SaaS as an affordable way to implement the most advanced software solutions for their business needs.”

“We are pleased to have SAManage as part of the Etelos Syndication program,” said Danny Kolke, Etelos Founder & CEO. “SaaS IT asset management is a boon for small businesses, especially those with distributed workforces. This makes SAManage a valuable addition to the solution mix offered by our private-label marketplace partners.”

SAManage is now available on the marketplaces that have been built on the Etelos Platform Suite. For more information or to browse these marketplaces, please visit Etelos.com. The solution is also available at SAManage.com.

About Etelos, Inc.

Etelos is the developer of a Web app distribution platform for delivering Web apps for businesses. Unlike other cloud computing and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions, Etelos enables software manufacturers to migrate existing applications or to create new applications, then to package, distribute, host, bill, market and support their Software as-a-Service (SaaS) enabled applications through a number of third-party branded application marketplaces, all based on the Etelos Platform Suite. Etelos™, the Etelos Platform Suite™, EASE™, Etelos App Server™, Etelos VE™, Etelos Cloud™ and Etelos Marketplace™ are trademarks of Etelos, Inc.; other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. For more information about Etelos, please visit Etelos.com.

About SAManage

SAManage is a leading global provider of on-demand IT management solutions that helps organizations better control their IT inventory, organize licenses and contracts, detect risks and license compliance gaps and provide IT help desk service. SAManage empowers companies of all sizes with IT management capabilities that were previously available only to large companies, making it easy to automate and simplify the daily tasks associated with establishing IT governance, control, compliance and user satisfaction. For more information or to sign-up for a free trial, visit www.samanage.com or call 1-888-250-8971.

Online IT Management Software

Discover how on-demand IT Management software from SAManage can help you gain instant visibility into your assets and improve your service levels. Sign up for a free trial today.

Managing your IT risks is a tough job. To make it a little easier on you, we added a new way for you to alert your users on new risks detected on their computers, and request an immediate action to resolve the risk.

To use the new feature, navigate to the Risks section and browse the list of active risks across your network. You’ll notice a new action for “Send Email” next to each active risk:

IT Risks detected by SAManage

When clicking on the “Send Email” action, a new window shows with a default message. There are a number of canned messages to fit each risk category and request a different action to resolve different risks:

Send email requesting attention on a new risk

When the asset already has a user associated with it, the user’s email address will appear in the To: field. Make any necessary changes to the email’s subject or body and click send to have the email alert sent to the user.

When an email is sent to the user, a new ticket is created in your Help Desk to remind you to verify the user took the requested action and the risk was resolved. Not resolved yet? you can send the user a reminder to take the necessary action. As the risk is resolved, SAManage marks the risk as resolved and removes it from your active risks list.

Make it a habit to periodically review your active risks and alert your users to resolve them!

Competition among Web browsers continues to intensify. Last week, Microsoft upped the ante, launching version 8 of its popular Internet Explorer (IE8). With new security features, “web clipping” functions, and the ability to instantly retrieve information from eBay, Facebook, and popular mapping services, Microsoft hopes that IE8 will help reverse the trend of losing market share to rivals like Mozilla’s Firefox and Google’s Chrome browsers.

In spite of the company’s low-key launch and the slow uptake for IE8 in early days, the new version has resulted in a boost in market share, according to surveys conducted by Web measurement company Net Applications. Global usage rose over 12 percent, to 1.56 percent, the day after the launch.

Some analysts attribute this to Microsoft’s renewed focus on interoperability. “They made an announcement recently about their commitment to interoperability, and the improved standards support in IE8 is proof of that,” said Forrester Research’s Colin Teubner.

SAManage brings a unique perspective to this debate. With access to real-time PC and software inventory data from corporate networks managed with our IT Management service, we can clearly measure the adoption rate of IE8 and other new software among corporate users.

Internal SAManage research shows that even prior to last week’s official release, 4.55 percent of corporate users have already installed IE8 Beta and Release Candidate versions. Once the official release was out, the number of users who installed IE8* on one or more of their computers quickly gained momentum.

Just one short week after its launch, IE8 already has more than double the users of the new Google Chrome browser:

What does this mean? A lot will depend on the early adopters’ reviews of the new browser, but if this trend continues, IE 8 may just be the answer Microsoft needed to stave off the competition. We’ll share more information about the adoption of IE8 and other important emerging technologies in future reports.

· Includes Beta 1, Beta 2, Release Candidate 1, and the “official” version.

IT is the backbone of any organization, helping companies stay agile and efficient. That’s why businesses are always looking to improve the way they manage their enterprise assets, technology resources, and processes. Here are five new – and often overlooked – ways to improve your IT operations and related systems.

1. Focus on Team Retention
During their employment, your IT team members will acquire tremendous knowledge about your assets, your end users, and your processes and policies – all of which must be captured, documented, and transferred to new workers when turnover occurs. By increasing retention in your IT department, you can keep that knowledge intact, which in turn will maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of IT management in your organization.

2. Get a better hold on your purchases
Some experts believe that the reason many IT management strategies fail is because companies only consider assets once they have been implemented. But, those companies with the most successful technology management plans have formal policies and procedures for building a business case before new assets are acquired, then evaluating and purchasing a solution once budget has been approved.

3. Proactive Replacement and Renewal
This aspect of IT management is often an afterthought. As applications become outdated, users ask for something new or better, and the search for a replacement begins. But, this process usually starts long after productivity has been negatively impacted, and the selection of a new solution is often rushed to minimize losses. By taking a more proactive approach – for example, evaluating the effectiveness of solutions on a frequent basis, and using formal assessment procedures to determine if replacement is necessary – you can ensure that obsolete assets are renewed before they create problems.

4. Ignore the Industry Benchmarks
IT leaders must demonstrate value to senior executives. While industry benchmarks are commonly used, they typically raise un-answerable questions, according to Forrester, because they don’t account for varying computer environments, staff competencies, management strategies, etc. In other words, an IT strategy that works for one company may be irrelevant for another. They key to proving return on IT investment is to focus on internal goals. For example, if your IT budget was recently increased 10 percent, what kind of productivity gains or revenue improvements did the additional spending yield? Or, if an outdated application was recently replaced, what were the benefits (i.e. increased availability or faster response times)?

5. Continuous Communication with Users
There is often a disconnect between IT and the end users they support. While one group will only consider how a new system or process will impact the technology infrastructure, the other will only think about how it affects their jobs on a day to day basis. But, in order to deliver optimum returns, IT operations and related assets must be looked at from both perspectives. Only open frequent dialogue between the two groups will help ensure that technology systems and related processes are properly aligned with key business objectives.

Online IT Management Software

Discover how on-demand IT Management software from SAManage can help you gain instant visibility into your assets and improve your service levels. Sign up for a free trial today.

Undoubtedly, IT Management is changing. Not so long ago, an IT manager’s success was tied to the number of workstations or servers he was managing in his company’s datacenter. They would brag about the size of their network to their peers, on job interviews, and they would use the large and growing number of computers as an excuse for more human resources and an increasing budget. Network management power was equivalent to professional respect. I swear that I’ve heard this line countless times: “You want me to manage what? I am already managing 87 servers 458 pc’s, storage backup and firewalls, in our network! I’ll need three more technicians and another twelve PCs to fulfill your request professionally. Oh – and I can’t guarantee you’ll be satisfied with the results.”

But those were the old days, when the idea of ROI (return on investment) seemed to skip over the IT department budget requirements. Looking back, less than a decade later, such an attitude looks distant and ridiculous. Today, good IT management is judged on its ability to achieve results with as little as possible. With economic and competitive pressures mounting, IT management needs to run efficiently. Even terms such as collocation and web hosting from the ASP era seems to be absolute. Today, the weight has shifted and IT managers boast about the number of applications and services being served to their firm and how they have minimized expenditures.

This IT Management evolution was all made possible due the maturity of SAAS, (Software as a Service), going main stream. Over the last years we have experienced an escalation of applications migrating from the desktop to the Internet. Apparently, the physical conditions of both the Internet and network infrastructure have matured enough and made the economic option of SAAS the obvious solution.

First of all, it’s always about the numbers. Now, organizations can question whether it is sensible to purchase, configure, host, maintain, air condition, and backup. Suddenly, worrying about application software and hardware is optional. Alternatively, for a fraction of the cost, a company can “rent” applications remotely using a PC browser or a cellular browser and they can do this anywhere and any time, 24×7.

An additional key factor elevating SAAS solutions beyond the ASP approach is the advancements in available infrastructure. Grid-like cloud computing is virtually infinite. Now, solution providers can readily follow pioneers such as SalesForce or even Google and “SaaS” their offering. More computing power is available to your company at a moments notice when business prospers and grows. This makes expenses linear and profits more predictable. SaaS has redefined scalability. Therefore, in most SaaS scenarios, pricing to the end consumers makes more sense because it is tied directly to consumption meters such as usage volume and allocated resources per client. In parallel, bandwidth has become cheaper and wider for companies and their roaming employees.

Thirdly, economic mood swings and a competitive business environment have made ROI the new king of the block. The macro-economic implications of this trend can be even far greater than what appears on the surface. As the growth of SaaS is taking off, is it possible that we will see the thin client vision making a comeback? Even desktops can get skinnier if processing is done in the SaaS’s clouds. This could result in a slowdown in the race for processing power and might even challenge Moor’s laws economically.

One of the most interesting up and coming companies positioned to successfully leverage the SaaS computing trends is SAManage, a startup company in the IT Asset Management space. SAManage uses the cloud computing environment to deliver on-demand, SaaS-based, IT Asset Management and inventory tracking to companies around the world. In a recent conversation with the SAManage CEO, Doron Gordon, I asked him about his strategy, given the changing landscape of the traditional IT environment and the new challenges facing IT managers. “It seems, on one hand that IT managers lives are getting easier, but unfortunately that’s a false assumption. Yes, it’s true there will be less hardware to manage, but managing SaaS contracts, licenses and SLA’s smartly and efficiently, while controlling the financial and legal aspects and enforcing usage policy, are the new challenges that the IT manager will be facing.” Doron continues, “With ROI being the holy grail of IT management today, SAManage’s focus is on providing the manager the tools to achieve that.”

Clearly, the new IT Manager needs to make ROI calculations continuously. And guess what — they don’t teach you that in engineering schools! Looking through the clouds, it seems that companies hiring CTOs will be looking for applicants with CFO experience.

Credits to Dror Gliksman, online technology and marketing specialist at Internet Marketing Company webwhile.

Online IT Management Software

Discover how on-demand IT Management software from SAManage can help you gain instant visibility into your assets and improve your service levels. Sign up for a free trial today.

Today we are launching an updated IT Management Dashboard. The dashboard serves as the hub of your information and provides a quick glance on your asset status, any areas requiring your attention, and an easy way to navigate into certain areas of your asset’s inventory.

Computers - how many computers you have across your network? what operating system do they run? how many where added in the last week and who is getting on your network? Easily drill down to view each computer configuration and better control your computer inventory.

Software - what software is used across your company? view the top 10 software titles installed and used in your company.

Risks - a quick snapshot of your open risks – take action today to remove these risks and better protect your assets.

Licenses - easily organize your software license, know when they expire and better prepare for your renewal negotiations.

Online IT Management Software

Discover how on-demand IT Management software from SAManage can help you gain instant visibility into your assets and improve your service levels. Sign up for a free trial today.