IMPLEMENTATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF SAM STRUCTURES IN COMPANIES PART ONE

Asked about this topic, some time ago license manager colleagues pointed out to me that “a diminishing perception” would probably describe a luxury problem.

You would be happy if your work would be noticed at all in your company.

The necessary further development of SAM, which stabilizes the initial measures and is sustained, stagnates or often no longer takes place. Not to mention the need to adjust SAM measures in response to changing requirements. The instructions of the license management run empty on almost all levels.

What happened?

At the latest after the successful introduction of a SAM tool or a successful audit, the sponsor disembarked in many places. “It’s all going well”!

What the license managers brought to my attention confirmed my perceptions of the past months.

Digitalization and cloud dominate day-to-day business. Resources, budgets are more than strained. Management Attention has been focusing on these issues for a long time.

Internal marketing, “do good and report on it”

Many license management organizations do their good work in silence. But why is it so seldom reported in the organisations? Please don’t get me wrong. Our topic is still not “sexy”!

This, as we now see, involves a high risk. Every time it comes to taking a step forward, the license manager has to defend his raison d’être once again. On the other hand, the themes of “digitalization” or “cloud” sell themselves “like sliced bread”.

Precisely these projects require a well-established license management that is accepted in the organization. Otherwise, compliance violations and low efficiency are pre-programmed.

It’s a good time to take care of the subject. The license management organizations must report in a targeted and targeted manner.

How do you do that? How do I set up internal marketing for my license management?

It is best to present your management with a concept for your internal marketing. Quality: Manager friendly.

Who can help you?

License managers do not have to be marketing experts. Get support in your own house. The communication department and/or the marketing department can be contacted here. Here you know how to prepare information for target groups and ensure effective internal communication. This also ensures that you comply with the company’s internal communication standards. Involve the works council as well.

Define your target groups:

– Management, IT and Business
– The corresponding ITSM roles from the SAM cycle
– The business, with its product managers, specialist departments, team leaders, key users, . . .

Possible content and media

Here we would like to offer you examples from different customer projects:

-An SLA or KPI report must never be part of such a measure. We have had good experiences with thematic excerpts. Not only should the outstanding results be presented here, but also the areas where work still needs to be done.
-The strategic core theme remains: `Risk` – albeit in a new guise. Just don’t dig up the old “panic foils”. Statement of a license manager: “. . . we are no longer afraid of audits, but of the hard-to-control “all you can eat buffet” in the user administration of cloud solutions! “
-The opportunities of license management can be reported excellently. But here, too, the principle of topicality applies.
-The business often complains about the long period from applying for a new software to its delivery. How about an explanation of the SAM-Lifecyle, for users?
-The ITSM roles require transparency in the interaction of the approval and procurement processes of software. The subject of budgeting also provides time and again a need for clarification.
-The good old info letter. When I work with my clients, I receive about 5-6 information letters per day. Internally or from manufacturers and service providers. I don’t want to say the info letter is dead. But now it is better to get it yourself if necessary, e. g. from a SAM platform on the intranet page of the IT department or, as I increasingly notice, from the IT purchasing department.
-Intranet site. This has the advantage that you can present relevant standard information about license management, tasks and objectives, organization and processes, procedures and regulations as well as contact persons for questions and suggestions outside the service processes as fixed blocks of information (please update from time to time). Particularly important, up-to-date news can be offered with the help of a “News Flash”.
– ‘SAM continuous improvement (ISO 19770-1)’; For me, internal marketing is part of this, improvement through transparency and communication.

Summary

Internal marketing creates transparency and provides a platform for communication with management and relevant SAM roles. It contributes to equality of information.