It’s a well-worn movie cliché: the out-of-control robot providing comic relief. Whether it’s accelerating a production line conveyor belt to warp speed, talking nonsense or chasing its tail in circles, we all enjoy a laugh at our short-circuited automated friends. But assuming the root cause of the problem is programming could be a mistake. What if the programming is working perfectly, but it’s the inputs that are erroneous?

Cut software spend with major software vendors -  If you have recently completed your first ELP, (Effective License Position) then congratulations are in order.  This is no small feat and you should feel a justifiable sense of pride in your work. 

There is a tectonic shift happening in IT. Or to be more specific, there is an irreversible change occurring in who drives and controls IT spend. CIO's need to adapt to survive.

On March 15, Snow Software ran a webinar in collaboration with KPMG to explain SAP Indirect Usage and provide a five-step plan to reduce risk. We were asked several related questions and as promised, we have collated these questions. 

When it comes to extracting information from machines connected to a corporate network, are agents good or bad?  The real answer is neither. 

If you are new to Software Asset Management, and want to avoid rookie errors, here is my brief guide on how to sidestep the more common (and not so common) SAM pitfalls. At every stage, the question you need to ask yourself is: Do I trust the results I am putting before senior management and the rest of the business?

As enterprises make the transition to Software as a Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), IT professionals face increasing difficulty to manage IT spend. The complexity of licensing models and the shift in purchasing from IT to business units, clouds visibility over IT costs and overspend is inevitable.

The thing with Software Asset Management is that no organization invests in it for fun. And most are on a strict timeline. Usually there is either a compelling event such as a renewal or audit, or there has been a lightbulb moment that the organization simply can’t continue spending blindly on software and licenses.

Almost as soon as Snow’s SAP blog on the challenges of SAP licensing was published, this week SAP has announced it they will cease “sales activities” related to NetWeaver Foundation for 3rd-Party Products. For the time-being this is good news for SAP customers as they will no longer be liable for charge against a particular category of Indirect Usage, namely when using SAP-integrated add-ons via the NetWeaver platform.

SAP licensing is complicated. License entitlements can be open to interpretation and contract amendments can mean that financial liability for one customer may be very different in comparison to another, even if their usage and requirements are identical. It often depends on what deal was struck at the time of purchase.