Why is Software License Optimisation Important?

Software licence optimisation is important for cost-saving, compliance, and efficient use of technology. Many organisations over-spend on software by purchasing unnecessary software licences, not managing their licences effectively, and not assessing licence usage. Investing in software licence optimisation helps to identify these challenges by putting processes in place to effectively manage and utilise software licences. This includes identifying unused or underutilised licences, negotiating better terms with vendors, and implementing processes for tracking and managing licences.

Benefits of investing in software licence optimisation

• Better utilise budgets and save money
• Ensure compliance with licence agreements
• Helps to prevent overspending on licences
• Releases budget to implement new technologies

How to save money with software licence optimisation

1. Optimise software configurations: the default configurations for a lot of software is usually the most expensive, but making small changes can result in big savings
2. Recycle software licences: identify unused or misused licences for reuse to reduce the need to buy unnecessary new licences
3. Use a SAM tool: Our software asset management (SAM) tools automate the manual process of identifying and optimising software licences, saving you time and money

Using software licence optimisation to prepare for an audit

The chance that an organisation will be audited for software compliance varies depending on the industry and the size of the business. For some industries, such as healthcare and finance, audits may be more frequent due to regulations, and large businesses are more likely to be audited than small businesses. However, it’s important for all organisations to implement software licence management practices to minimise the risk of non-compliance and the financial and legal consequences that can result from an audit.

In preparation for an audit, software license optimisation acts as a self-audit to identify potential issues with your current licence usage. This is done by reviewing your software inventory, usage data, and purchase records, allowing you to determine where additional licences are needed or where software can be removed.

Working with a SAM specialist to assist with the audit preparation process gives you access to best practice guidance and industry standards and helps to ensure that you are complying with licence agreements. Contact us today for support from our specialists ahead of your next software audit.

Software licence optimisation with License Dashboard

We approach software licence optimisation in three stages:

1. Our product, License Manager, provides a centralised ‘single source of truth’ for all software entitlements owned by your organisation
2. License Manager then reconciles this information against software inventory data to establish your organisation’s current Effective Licencing Position (ELP)
3. Detailed management reports enable you to make more focused decisions about future requirements, driving out wastage and increasing availability

Regardless of your organisation’s SAM maturity or approach to software licence optimisation, our specialists are on hand to help you optimise your software estate and reduce your software licencing costs. Chat to them today.