This article is part of the Cost Savings series (part 1 out of 4).
The first step towards cost optimization is to ask yourself what you really need? Do you control what you are using? Don't underestimate this question, as without having straight answer all further steps will be useless or at least inefficient. It may seem simple, but opposite is true.
If you have ITAM function established, you perhaps know what you own in terms of hardware and software. But do you also know what are you using? In the world of software, you definitely need to understand licensing models as well as contractual terms to “translate” software installations into license usage. SAM tool might help, but it’s just a tool and expertise is still required for correct interpretation.
Once you understand the usage, you can start re-harvesting software or hardware assets that are not being used actively or efficiently. It is not uncommon that some licenses are assigned to inactive users. Probably each of us has some software installed on laptop that we haven’t ever used, right?
Now you are good, but what about future?
Before purchase or software renewal, make sure to align with your CTO or CIO on plans and strategy to understand your future needs. Should you maintain some reserve or rather find out how to exit your contract? However, if you don’t know what you need before signing a deal, at least make sure your software contract is flexible enough to both scale-up and/or scale-down in future.
Finally, keep in mind that not every request must be fulfilled. Define user profiles, build catalog of standard hardware and software and design rules to ensure that users will get exactly the service they need, not less but also not more. Does your infrastructure team really need SQL Enterprise or would SQL Standard do? Your ITAM function should challenge expensive requests and make sure it is reasonable and assets will be used efficiently.
Does it sound way too complicated?
Controlling your software and hardware usage is the key to manage and optimize your IT costs. For large organizations it is required to gather lot of data from your discovery tools, SaaS portals, software usage metering and other sources. But it does not need to be perfect from the very beginning. Focus on your A-class software and server infrastructure hardware before digging into smaller vendors.
Just hold on for a minute and think about your usage during your next software renewal, before asking your vendor to send invoice for the same scope as last year.
If you want to learn more about cost savings or cost optimization, do not hesitate to get in touch with us using contacts below.
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