Software asset management tools can be invaluable for giving organisations more insight into, and control over their software licensing spend. While small organisations may find it easy to keep track of their spend, as a company grows and starts to purchase more software from a wider range of vendors, it becomes harder to keep track of the number of licences required, which software is delivered using which models and when licences may need renewing.

It’s easy to accidentally go over the number of permitted seats on a bulk licence or to use server software in a way that is outside the scope of what you agreed with the vendor. These mistakes can be costly in the long term, especially if they go undiscovered.

Improving Efficiency and Security

Livingstone provides a detailed end-to-end software asset management solution that will allow your IT department to more efficiently monitor licensing. This will reduce the likelihood of mistakes that could lead to expensive legal fees and will also allow the IT department to get a better overview of the company’s software license agreement and spend as it is today. Given that information, they will be in a better position to evaluate other licensing options. It could be that a bulk deal from one of the vendors they are working with would be more cost-effective in the short term or that there are other vendors that have better solutions.

Better Life-Cycle Management

Software asset management tools can help an IT asset management team to keep track of the life cycle of the software they are working with. This can highlight when upgrades and patches are due, issue reminders when licences are up for renewal and highlight when software is due to be retired. Where there are issues with legacy hardware and software, SAM can help your IT department to make accurate and informed decisions about what upgrade path to take.

In today’s economy, budgets are becoming increasingly tight, and it is important that your IT department is able to recognise software and hardware licensing requirements, optimise the delivery of software and other IT assets to our company and control both provisioning and costs. All too often, licence management is done retrospectively, with problems only identified when they are too late.

With support from C-Level leadership, IT teams will be in a much better position to make informed recommendations and to give you the information that you need to make the best decisions. Every department needs to work together to ensure that they get the tools that they need at a cost that is reasonable and appropriate to the business.

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Livingstone provide an end-to-end software asset management solution for organisations looking to gain complete visibility and control over their software licensing spend.

Combining their unique approach, accurate inventory and entitlement data with experienced Software Asset Management (SAM) specialists, they understand their client’s software licensing needs and goals. They arm their specialists with vendor agnostic Livingstone technology to provide real time licensing transparency and control.