Software Asset Management Crucial to Help Organizations Lower Costs

IT Captains and Industry Bodies Back Call for Good Software Asset Management Practice

Petaling Jaya, 18 October 2011 – Sound Software Asset Management (SAM) is crucial to help organizations combat the rising cost of operating businesses amidst the current challenging economy, said corporate IT practitioners and industry bodies.

“SAM not only lowers the cost of ownership for businesses but it is also a key component in most of the regulatory compliance requirements facing businesses today,” said Roland Chan, Senior Marketing Director of Business Software Alliance (BSA), Asia Pacific, who was speaking at a private roundtable discussion on the subject of “Should Software Audits Be Made Mandatory?”.
From L-R: Mr Nick Goh, World Vision; Mr Andy Yuen, ISA Technologies; Mr Lee Hwee Hsiung, SMI Association; Mr Andy Tan, PIKOM CIO Chapter; Mr Lee Teck Chong, RHB Bank

Software audits are part of SAM, a business practice designed to reduce IT overhead costs, limit risks related to the ownership and use of software, and increase corporate-wide and IT efficiencies for a company. Earlier in May this year, BSA and Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism (MTDCC) have called for software audits to be made mandatory for companies. BSA and MTDCC are also studying the feasibility of making software audits part of an organisation's financial audit process.

“Companies should view management of their software assets to be as vital as management of their financial ones. As organizations assume control by proactively managing their software assets, not only will they lower IT cost in the long run, they will gain from the higher levels of productivity and security,” added Chan.

Also sharing their views at the roundtable discussion were Andy Tan, Chairman of PIKOM CIO Chapter; Lee Teck Chong, Head of Infrastructure of RHB Bank and Nick Goh, Director of Shared Services Centre, World Vision International.

The IT captains expressed support towards practicing good SAM as it has proven to deliver significant value to companies, including improving alignment of applications and systems to core business goals and objectives, and increasing efficiency of IT support operations. The most notable benefit of SAM for a company is the reduction in technology-related costs.

“Despite the benefits of SAM, the onus of this practice should not rest solely with the companies and their IT departments. Software vendors should also look into working hand in hand with clients to provide assistance such as software license tracking and software metering if software audits are to be made mandatory,” said Andy Tan, Chairman of PIKOM CIO Chapter.

Dato’ Hafsah Hashim, CEO of SME Corp. Malaysia said that the agency support BSA’s call for mandatory software audit and that it should be part of the yearly financial audit as it will help to promote better corporate governance. However, she said audit costs could be a concern when it comes to SME companies. She also called for software vendors to consider lowering the price of their software and more awareness to be raised on SAM should the mandatory software audit take effect.

“While SAM is vital for SME organizations as well, there should not be unnecessary burden placed on SMEs to comply with the proposed mandatory software audit by MTDCC, especially those with only a handful of employees. Affordable and easy-to-use tools should also be made available for SMEs to do self-audit,” commented Chua Tiam Wee, National President of SMI Association.

According to Alvin Yuen, Group CEO of ISA Technologies, a software company that provides justSAMit a cloud-based, cost efficient IT asset management solution through its subsidiary ISA Innovation Sdn Bhd, “Previously, SAM is perceived to be a complicated and expensive practice that is applicable only to the larger corporations. With close to 99% of the companies in Malaysia being SMEs, it is important that they are also benefiting with SAM to reduce their IT overhead cost and enhance their IT budget management.”

Earlier this year, ISA Innovation announced a free promotion of justSAMit licenses worth RM1million for customers who sign up for the service during 2011. With justSAMit, SMEs will also get access to bulk discounts for IT Asset purchasing which traditionally was only available to larger companies.

"We understand the challenges for organizations when it comes to practicing SAM. With justSAMit, we want to provide a very affordable and automated SAM solution to both large corporations and SMEs to help them with the software audit process," ended Yuen.

More information on justSAMit can accessed at http://www.justsamit.com/.