Do I Need Software License Management?
Effective software license management is essential to preventing sloppy tracking of licenses and usage issues that can drain a company’s budget. Is your company doing enough to identify and manage its software usage? Read on to learn how modern software license management can help.
What Is Software License Management?
In a broad sense, software license management (SLM) is an industry term referring to the tools and processes a business uses to document, monitor and control the software it uses. SLM is an essential function that helps a business comply with every relevant enterprise license and all corresponding end-user license agreements.
Software licenses spell out all the contractual specifics and particulars that govern how a software product may be used and how exactly its provider should be compensated. A standard agreement will specify the total amount of licenses purchased, how the purchases translate into allowed installations, and what occurs if the licenses consumed outnumber those legally purchased. Effective software license management tracks all of this, while also providing features that can help your company avoid non-compliance with licenses and the harsh penalties that follow any known compliance breach.
SLM is a key part of software asset management (SAM), which as a whole, is a critical part of a company’s IT asset management (ITAM). SAM refers to all the processes and tools required to control, manage and safeguard software assets throughout their lifecycles. In today’s business environment, most companies cannot achieve the goals of SAM without effective compliance with, and management of, their software licenses.
Innovation and SLM
When managing their software licenses, businesses must be aware of how technology developments will impact software policies usage. In recent years, software licensing has been forced to adapt to innovations, such as augmented reality (AR), machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT),
These days, ML and AI have made it possible to automate many of the functions of software license management. This includes identifying what software is being used (and by whom), how it’s being used, and establishing governance protocols to allow and restrict usage for authorized employees and roles. These convenient tools can also be used during audits to detect violations of EULA.
Benefits of Software License Management
One of the most obvious advantages of modern SLM is cost savings. But software license management is more than a financial win; SLM comes with a few other benefits, including.
It provides transparency.
SLM gives companies a much clearer view of every license being used across in-house teams, while also giving insight into how each particular software was set up for use. During software audits, you have all the information to help you remain compliant and assess risk.
It keeps businesses compliant.
As many unfortunate business owners learn the hard way, legal fines are issued when devices use unlicensed software or operate without following the guidelines that the end-user license agreement provides. Having clear visibility of all your software makes it easy to ensure that everything is compliant with the appropriate license.
It helps identify needless spending.
Buying software is only the first part of an investment; after it’s bought, you need to know just how much that software is being used. Information from your software license management can help you determine how many workers are actually taking advantage of the available software solution, so you can encourage them to streamline their work more efficiently. This sort of insight can also help you make wiser purchasing decisions in the future, so your business only pays for necessary licenses.
Why Utilize Software License Management?
By leveraging SLM, companies are able to streamline software licensing compliance and management. That said, while it is very important, software license management is just one critical component of comprehensive workflow solutions that help businesses gain a competitive advantage in their marketplaces. If you want to prevent opportunity costs, streamline your workflow and reduce needless waste, you must invest in optimizing every key part of your business’s daily operations.
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