92 Reap Big Benefits By Managing Your Software (NAPSA)—To get the most from technology, it’s important for any company to carefully manage software assets. According to Gartner Inc., a leading technology research firm, businesses that systematically manage their software can reduce technology costs by nearly one-third the first year and by 5 percent to 10 percent annually thereafter. Knowledge of what software you own and have deployed is important in optimizing yoursoftware investment. In fact, effective software asset management can help organizations identify specific technology needs, help avoid outdated programsor legal issues, benefit from better support and generally ensure that the company’s technology can help it stay ahead of the competition. Additional benefits include: * Optimizing technology assets. Having different versions of software applications or operating systems can lead to frustrating troubles when it comes to reconciling business information. If you have to do things manually, why do you have the technology in the first place? Having software that functions properly will improve business efficiency by helping employees do their jobs more effectively, with fewer difficulties. It will also cut down on training and troubleshootingcosts. * Enhancing the security of the company’s information resources. Software asset management will allow you to worry less about issues that come with unsupported programs and viruses and security problems that stem from a lack of patches or updates. When using genuine, licensed software, technical support and product upgrades are often free or at the very least much less expensive. Also, the business can worry less about possible financial Knowing What Technology You Have Can Save Your Business Time and Money @ penalties or legal costs associated with the misuse of software licenses. * Building for the future. Which applications and programs are actually providing value to the business? Knowing the answer to this question can help you make better technology investments and removesoftware that your organization doesn’t need. In the end, taking a good look at software can help just about any business wring even more value from its technology investments, both now and over the long term. More information about software asset management and how to get started is available from several noteworthy industry resources. Microsoft Corp. offers tips, free tools and a list of resources at http://www. microsoft.com/sam. Information is also available from Gartner at http:/Awww.gartner.com/ it/products/research/asset_129498_ 2895.jsp and from the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, a quarterly journal published by the Library and Information Technology Association, at http://www.itil.com.
