Jochen Hagenlocher: SAM’s impact in 2018
This article has been contributed by Jochen Hagenlocher, Head of SAM at a Fortune 100 Company, ITAM Review Professional of the year 2016, ISO/IEC 19770 WG21 member and SAM enthusiast.
In this article Jochen outlines his focus for increasing SAM’s impact in 2018.
Jochen Hagenlocher, ITAM Professional of the year 2016, ISO WG21 Member and SAM enthusiast
Make 2018 Your SAM Harvesting Season
Many of us implemented a global SAM program (process, technical solution, governance etc.) over the past years. The time is now to make 2018 your “SAM Harvesting Season” and deliver to your organization the SW-Savings they want and need.
My focus for 2018 is all about:
Know and Optimize Your Cloud Spend
Chances are that by now your Cloud Spend has reached 30% of your overall SW spend. Do you know what your Organization consumes? You need to break down these Cloud Data Silos, get your hands on the contracts and get the interfaces in place to “Collect and Use Cloud Consumption Data”.
Turn off those “Zombie Assets, Applications and dormant user accounts” and right size your Cloud Contracts.
Implementing a strict use or lose policy will bring down your SaaS cost by 20-30 percent, millions of savings are waiting to be made.
Know and optimize your global SW Renewal Inventory
In any big enterprise, maintenance renewals are a huge challenge, not to say a nightmare. Double licensing, fines for late renewals, incorrect quotes and billing by the publishers, sudden price increases, you name it, it is all out there.
2018 is your year, SAM and Sourcing need to come to the rescue and implement a “Global SW Renewal Inventory”, so Applications and Contracts can be right sized and renewed on time.
Depending on your organization size, millions of savings are waiting to be made. Using a global SW-Reseller as part of your solution can be helpful to realize savings, cut down the number of business relationships and to automate the renewal processes.
Know the tricks of the Publishers and build your Audit Castle
It is almost certain that your Organization will receive a “Love Letter” from one of your publishers who wants to see you immediately and get to know you in depth.
These “One-Sided Love Affairs” can last up to 3 years and do consume a lot of time and resources. To be known in the market for good SAM practices can help. Other than that, you should have an “Audit Tool Box” in place (3-Way-NDA, Audit Execution Agreement, Unlimited liability clause in case the publisher measurement tool will break your computers or introduce new vulnerabilities, cover GDPR risk etc.). Be prepared and ready to protect your business from exorbitant publisher demands.
“May the SAM Force be with us in 2018!” says Jochen (These aren’t the licenses you are looking for)
Security, GDPR, End-User Happiness, Everything Else
We in SAM have a lot of data around SW-Apps, Versions, sometimes even Patch Levels. It is great to be a “Data Hamster” and to have all this. 2018 it is time to share and collaborate with the other departments to cut down security risks, protect your end-user data (GDPR), turn off the Zombie Assets and deliver millions of savings.
And there is one last thing: “Keep the end-users involved when turning off these unused accounts and re-claiming the licenses”. Doing so will let you cut cost and keep your “End-User Survey Results” up at the same time.
May the SAM Force be with us in 2018!
This article has been contributed by Jochen Hagenlocher, Head of SAM at a Fortune 100 Company, ITAM Review Professional of the year 2016, ISO/IEC 19770 WG21 member and SAM enthusiast.
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- Tags: 2018 · Jochen Hagenlocher · SAM
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Thanks Jochen
Maintenance renewals are easily overlooked and rarely challenged and as such are a potentially rich seam to mine for savings.
A maintenance renewal schedule enables you to focus on the contracts with the potential for the largest savings and have early conversations with internal stakeholders and the supplier. 90 days notice is probably not enough for this and remember you’ll have a fight on your hands with your Account Manager if they’re suddenly faced with a threat to meeting their quarter-end target. Talk to your colleagues in Procurement, Compliance, and Legal as they may already have this information for meeting regulatory requirements – SOX, PCI-DSS, and GDPR require contract registers and frequent compliance reviews (for example, annual in the case of a supplier in scope for PCI-DSS).
My starting point for doing this was simply noting down all the renewals that came through in my first year in role and setting reminders in my calendar for 120 days out. Over time I’ve built it out to include metrics such as cancellation notice term, number of support calls raised, contract owner, value, and perhaps most importantly risk.
Also consider implementing a Software Maintenance Policy which makes application owners accountable for justifying the continuation of the contract. Use it to drive cost savings and a reduction in technical debt – make sure you’re making the most of the those upgrade rights.