TechnologyCritical Ingredient for Success @ (NAPSA)—Merging companies or acquiring a new business is almost always an incredible chal- lenge, regardless of the circumstances. Decisions such as how to procure financing, provide due diligence and foster positive reac- tions to the change usually get made quickly and under a tremendous amount of pressure. Often the last thing on anyone’s mindis getting a handle on the information technology (IT) in place at both companies. Knowing in advance thesoft- ware each company ownscan help companies ensure that the busi- ness they are buying or merging with has a cleartitle to the tech- develop a combined set of policies and procedures for the new organization. The Business Software Alliance has madeavailable a useful template for software asset managementpolicy available for download at http://www.bsa.org/ resources/upload/Sample-Organi zation-Software-Policy.doc. 2. Use an appropriate softwareinventory tool to discover what software is installed on PCs, workstations and servers; who is using each asset; and where the softwareresides. 3. To help avoid legal difficulties after the merger or acquisition, make certain both businesses companies can assess that the are using legally licensed software by matching the installed software with software licenses that the long run. Answering basic questions ware inventories as a baseline to design a plan for ongoing software nologies being used. In addition, technologies are scalable and will provide growth opportunities in about the software each company owns can play a vital role in the success of any merger or acquisition. Key questions to answer include these: Are both companies using the sameoperating systems? Can mission-critical data- have been purchased. 4. Use both organizations’ soft- management once the merger or acquisition is finalized. Instituting the right policies from the time of considering soft- ware acquisition all the way through to its deployment, use and retirement can not only provide Which applications can be peace of mind and greater assurance, but it can also help distinguish a company’s technology from asset management strategy help companies ensure the success of a duction costs and ultimately improve its products andservices. bases be merged? used by employees at both companies? Not only does a sound software merger or acquisition, but it can also help save money by optimiz- that of its competitors, get more value from its technology investments, reduce manpowerand pro- Insight on best practices is available from Gartner Inc. at ing investments across the companies while providing needed busi- http://www.gartner.com/it/prod ucts/research/asset_129498_2395,j merger or acquisition to assess IT assets: asset management is available from several noteworthy industry resources. Microsoft Corp. offers ness clarity. The following guidelines outline the steps companies can take in advance of a 1. Review the policies and procedures around software pur- chase, deployment, usage and recovery for both companies. Then sp and from the IT Infrastructure Library at http://www.itil.co.uk. More information about software tips, free tools and a list of resources at http://www.micro soft.com/sam.
