What is a Software Inventory?
A software inventory is the process of identifying, recording, monitoring, maintaining, and planning all of the software and applications used in your company.
Who Should Do a Software Inventory?
The short answer: every company. This is why.
Every organization, regardless of size, relies on technology to support not only its day-to-day operations but also its long-term strategic business goals. Putting your technology assets to work doesn't happen without human intention and continuous attention.
For small organizations the software inventory helps build the scalable technology foundation needed to grow. Large organizations are challenged to meet both internal users and customers needs with adaptable, practical technology. An always-current software inventory supports the focused planning and implementation necessary to meet those needs and avoid
costly software sprawl.
How Will a Software Inventory Help Your Company?
If doing a software inventory sounds like counting boxes of bolts in a dusty warehouse, there's good news. It's less about counting and more about
IT asset discovery. The software and applications you have invested in are significant company assets that need to be delivering strategic results for your company and your customers.
An always-current IT asset management discovery software inventory, combined with the hardware inventory, are the foundation for an organization's technology roadmap.
Are these assets working for you the way they should?
Is your company using all the licenses you are paying for?
On the other hand, do you have the correct number of licenses? Unlicensed software can lead to fines and legal headaches.
Has each application and piece of software been vetted and approved? Shadow IT can expose the company to signficant risks.
How often has your company purchased software that promised to deliver everything you needed only to have it gather dust? A complete, up-to-date software inventory combined with a strategic technology acquisition process will deliver substantial time and money savings.
When is the last time monthly recurring and automatic renewals were reviewed? Even small monthly charges nibble away at the bottom line.
What job is each application doing for your company?
What jobs need to be done that could be done more effectively?
How many questions came to mind as you read this short list?
How to Do a Simple Software Inventory
If you haven't done a software inventory recently -- or ever, now is the time to start. The days of manual data collection and error-prone, tedious spreadsheets are over. There are automated
IT asset management (ITAM) tools that do the work for you.
Discover the ease of automated IT asset management in this free introductory
ebook.
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