The technological revolution that has come through ever since the introduction of the Internet has been nothing short of a remarkable change to how the world does business. Nowadays, there is a software program to support virtually every kind of business operation.
An unintended side effect of this is that many a company finds themselves lost in a disorganized software license management system where they have little visibility into what software tools they’re paying for and how much it is costing them. If your company is finding itself in that same boat, we’re here to help.
In this article, we’ll teach you how to get a good software management system in place in five steps.
1. Centralize Software Purcashing in One Department
The first step to organizing your software license management is to get it all in one place. There should be one central department that is in charge of software purchasing and management. This prevents there from being too many cooks working on the pot — having all of the information in one place, administrated by one team just makes everything that much easier.
2. Create a Software Purchasing Process
Once software purchasing is centralized in one department, that department ought to create a software purchasing process. This should be a process that every department, from sales to research & development, follows.
A few steps in the software purchasing process could include vetting that there is no tool duplication, evaluating multiple vendors, and the like.
3. Know Software Costs Per User
Now that you have all the information in one place, you can start doing some rudimentary cost analysis. The first thing to think about is how much you’re spending per employee for software. This gives you insight into where you could potentially cut back, as well as some insight into the true cost of retaining an employee beyond just their salary.
4. Constantly Negotiate for Better Contracts
Another part of any software management system, including SAP license management, should be constant negotiation for better contracts. Whenever a contract is coming up for renewal, the team should be actively working with the vendor to try and negotiate a lower price.
Some levers to pull to get that lower price could include an increase in users, lengthier contract terms, and the like.
5. Analyze Usage
Last but not least, one important piece of the software license management puzzle is to analyze usage. If your studies reveal that you’re paying for a software program that no one is using, then it’s time to offboard that program and reduce your technology spend.
Software License Management, Made Simple
There you have it. Equipped with this guide to software license management, you should now be able to build a structure where you have more visibility into software expenditures and how you can optimize them.
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