Blogs

The benefits a Software Asset Management (SAM) program deliver vary, depending on the maturity level of SAM within your organization. In part I of this two-part series, Patrik Burvall talks about how you can achieve initial compliance for the majority of your software estate within 120 days

The acronym “GDPR” seems innocuous enough, however, what it stands for, i.e. the new General Data Protection Regulation certainly is not. This legal obligation, affecting any organization around the world that does business in Europe (regardless of HQ location), results in stringent demands on the protection and management of personal data.

On October 18, Snow Software ran a webinar in collaboration with ITAM Review to help answer the most common questions asked when professionals first hear about Software Asset Management – what is it? And do I need it? 

No longer is the CIO primarily responsible for the delivery of world-class IT solutions.  Well, perhaps that’s not entirely true.  Many still are responsible for that, but it’s no longer what defines a successful CIO.   

Over the last two weeks, Gartner has held its annual ITFPAM (IT, Finance, Procurement & Asset Management) conferences in the United States and United Kingdom. If there was a key message, it was that the Business has quite definitely issued divorce proceedings against the IT function and is already enjoying life as a singleton again. 

At the start of 2017, I tasked our Snow Software sellers with introducing a simple question into their conversations with senior business and IT leaders at organizations around the world. 
The question is short and simple:

“Is the cloud making your job simpler or more complicated?” 

More devices, greater mobility, BYOD, and more flexible licensing terms are complicating the job of protecting information. With true visibility of the corporate network, SAM managers are well-positioned to help their organizations achieve the right balance between security and efficiency.

The Indirect Access conundrum has posed a new challenge to many SAP customers recently. It’s clear though that SAP is not going to dramatically change its stance anytime soon. As an SAP customer, there are many angles to approach SAP Indirect Access. But no matter what your view or opinion on the fairness of the situation, there’s a practical approach derived from best practice licensee optimization methods which will serve you well.

I have it on good authority from inside Gartner that the Magic Quadrant for SAM has finally been given the green light and that the research process will start in September. Creating a Magic Quadrant is, not surprisingly, a major undertaking and it will likely take a team of analysts at Gartner a minimum of six months to complete.

Make no mistake, although BusinessObjects has been part of the SAP portfolio for ten years, the way that it is licensed remains very different from the traditional licensing you find with ABAP-based SAP solutions. To better understand why, we should look back at the history of data analytics, business intelligence and BusinessObjects (commonly abbreviated as BOBJ).