Software Asset Management - integrating ISO 19770-1 and ITIL V3
Ian Preskett MIET C.Eng. MBCS CITP (ian.preskett@ipassociatesltd.co.uk) IP Associates Limited (www.ipassociatesltd.co.uk)
Since the introduction of the ITIL V3 Service Lifecycle an IT department introducing a service would only do so after addressing the Strategy, Design and Implementation stages. Software Asset Management (SAM) is closely aligned to ITIL V3 and requires a similar approach; however it is very evident that companies are largely ignoring Strategy, Design and Implementation stages when addressing SAM.
The compliance process (see Fig 1) is often a manual task based on data acquired from numerous functions, which provides a license position accurate only at the time of creation. It is an operation process being performed by specialist SAM.
The the recorded data is accurate stage 1 certification to the enhanced ISO19770-1 standard is possible. Acquisition is often performed by SAM specialists who are the only people who can make approval decisions on software requests. They are making strategic decisions on all applications over and over as part of an operational process and not having the time to improve the real issues. ITIL V3 defines the Operational functions as; ‘people and automated measures that execute a defined process, activity or combination of processes or activities’ so Operations should not make decisions but take actions based on decision criteria established earlier in the service lifecycle. A new SAM solution is required.
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