Nico Blokland Archives - Page 2 of 3

All things with SAM are…. part 3

By Hans Zanden. van derWednesday October 26th, 2016Nico Blokland, SAMdata collections, discovery, hardware information, information, journey, license management, software asset management, sources, usage, utilization, virtualization

journey Following the first two parts in this series about the journey into SAM I want to talk a little more about the fact that you are only “as good as your information”. This means that when you want to have a reliable or effective SAM practice you first need to get the basic information fully reliable. And just gathering basic reliable information is one of the toughest jobs there is in SAM. So let’s see this step as getting your tickets and preparing your luggage.

Imagine that you want to know everything there is to know about the usage of your software and I really mean the nitty-gritty details. You’ll need to know everything about your infrastructure, your users, your connections or connectors and about the access policy for each software title. To be able to refine the details even more you need some more information, but let’s keep it as it is for now as it is a journey and we learn along the ride. (more…)

All beginning in SAM are…PART 2

By Hans Zanden. van derSaturday October 1st, 2016Nico Blokland, SAM

journey In my previous post I wrote on how to start with IT & Software Asset Management. I wrote that the most important thing was STARTING. And where to start is a big question for a lot of companies.

The easiest way to plan your journey in IT&SAM is having your current state of IT&SAM affairs checked. IT&SAM processes however, cannot be examined as ‘standalone’ processes. In fact being meta processes, they are strongly related to or even part of many business and IT processes, processes that most organizations have pretty well in place already.

Assessing your organization on the IT&SAM capabilities includes checking the relates processes. You’ll see that the results vary by IT&SAM component and related process. And that’s why it’s important to know your starting position. If you have the outcome of (more…)

Innovation is dying, improvement is leading

By Hans Zanden. van derThursday September 29th, 2016Nico Blokland, SAM, Uncategorizedcloud, improvement, innovation, licensing, models, publisher, saas, user, vendor

invention_and_improvement The last century was all about innovation. Invention after invention saw the light and brought us to the world we live in today. And as I see it now, there is still a little room for invention, but what we’re mostly doing is improving. We invented the automobile and improvements on that make it that we ‘order’ a car, tell the destination and we’re brought there without actually driving the car, as it will drive us (look at UBER).

We invented printing, and more specific 3d printing. This changes the game for high volume manufacturers as we’re now able to print the stuff we need in our own homes (not ready yet, but within a few years…) and not need to order from a factory that makes them by the millions.

We’ve invented the smartphone and frankly it hasn’t really changed a lot since the last decade. Just improvements and the new way of communication that’s build upon the smartphone is already there, it just needs improvement. (more…)

Don’t start with the tool as single solution for SAM

By Hans Zanden. van derThursday September 15th, 2016Nico Blokland, SAM, Uncategorizedcompliance, data, discovery, governance, information, license, management, organisation, organization, policy, process, SAM, Tool

Just a little warning: In the past and present, and sadly the future, lots of organizations decide to do something on software asset management (SAM) and select and implement a SAM tool, without preparing their organization for the vast mass of information that wil come down on them as an avalanche. If you haven’t prepared your organization for this your investment (the tool) will end up in the archives as quick as you’ve decided to buy it based on the impressive and inviting demo’s and sales pitches. And then you’re missing out double, because at that point you’re adding the SAM tool to the significant savings you could have had!

The tool’s massive information stream can only be used to the maximum if your organization (more…)

How to select a trustworthy SAM solution

By Hans Zanden. van derWednesday September 14th, 2016Nico Blokland, SAMasset management, compliance, data, discovery, governance, information, license, license management, management, policy, process, SAM, selection, Tool, trustworthy

47a I see an increase of SAM experts stumbling over each other with messages to the market where they think a huge SAM battle needs to be fought with expertise. And it must be mind boggling to all those people looking for assistance to select the right expert to help them out. The more I look at it, the more I see three different streams in experts:

The tool driven expert
The process drive expert
The combined expert
As organizations are not aware of the real SAM issues ahead, they tend to follow the stream that’s most heavily marketed, or screams the loudest. (more…)

Awareness: BSA and Facebook

By Hans Zanden. van derFriday September 2nd, 2016Nico Blokland, SAM, Uncategorized

bsa I’m admitting; I do regularly check my Facebook account. And I do know that because it’s a subscription free service I have to live with the occasional advertisements and be aware that all my data is in the hands of an organization that really knows how to make money out of that.

But some time this week, while scrolling through my timeline, I saw that the BSA was advertising on facebook and inviting people to come clean about their employers possible illegal software utilization. So that means that virtually everybody (connected to social media) in the world can peach every organization and hope to make some money of that. I assume (I know I shouldn’t) that people will only do this when they have a very rotten relationship (more…)

Are you ‘software audit’ bullied?

By Hans Zanden. van derMonday August 22nd, 2016Nico Blokland, SAM

During the last years all Software creators have made most or at least a significant part of their revenues through software auditing their clients. And as we don’t dispute that we’ve signed for that in our software contracts it’s still very strange that most of the departments at the software creators that are responsible for the legal use of it’s Intellectual Property have an attitude of a bully. If you don’t give us your lunch money we’ll drop you in the toilet, head first!

And of course there are also milder organizations but what I’m hearing and experiencing in the market is mostly (more…)

ISO19770- 3 and 4 and 1 and……. SAM standardized !

By Hans Zanden. van derMonday August 22nd, 2016Nico Blokland, SAM-1, -2, -3, -4, 19770, asset management, Audit, certification, entitlement, global, IEC, implementation, ISO, ITAM, practice, process, resource utilization metering, RUM, SAM, software, standard, SW ID, Tag

Although the current release of the ISO/IEC 19770-3 standard is a good step forward it is still dependent on the software licensors to adept, adapt and adopt. I do congratulate my fellow WG21 members with this published standard and hope it will become a very lively and worldwide accepted document.

At In2SAM we treasure the fact that we’re part of the Dutch N381007 “software and systems engineering” commission and also the Dutch representative in the ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/WG 21 which develops, publishes and changes the ISO 19770 standard. And for that matter we (more…)

All beginnings (with SAM) are simple! Unless you forget Common Sense

By Hans Zanden. van derWednesday June 22nd, 2016Nico Blokland, SAM, Uncategorizedasset, compliance, confucius, journey, license, management, SAM, software, start, step, travel

journey About ten times a day someone tells me that Software Asset Management is so difficult and expensive. In my humble opinion, that’s totally wrong.

After all it is nothing more than using Common Sense, or horse sense!

When you are a company you’ll use ICT assets (I’d like to see one running its business without any!!), and you’ll have to perform some kind of IT or Software Asset Management. Depending on the size of your company and the importance of your brand this (more…)

An audit? A chance (to smile)!

By Hans Zanden. van derSaturday June 18th, 2016Nico Blokland, SAM, UncategorizedAudit, audit monitor, auditor, compliance, license, software

smile As you must feel completely paranoid by all those SAM and License experts and SAM tooling vendors on how many threats are coming your way, I guess it’s time to give you some good feelings for your companies’ and your own peace of mind.

Embrace….,yes, I say let’s embrace all the software creator’s pressure they bestow upon you by having frequent audits and telling you what kind of mess you apparently made of your software environment. This is the moment to pick up the battle axe and show them that, although you might have made some honest mistakes, you know what your rights and responsibilities are. (more…)

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