Life Cycle for Software license Acquisition

Software license Acquisition Life Cycle

In this post following portion of the information will be the considered as result of my research and its outcome which would be treated as proposed Frame work of software licensing and its acquisition process for Small and Medium Enterprises.

Software License Acquisition Process

It is the process which enables the SMB industry to acquire appropriate cost effective/ compliant software licensing solution, help in designing and providing software licensing solutions, and its procurement process with asset management. I would like to discuss here the process of acquisition of licensed software and Asset Management using following lifecycle.
·         Analysis
·         Solution Design
·         Proposal
·         Procurement
·         Asset Management

Analysis Phase

Conduct comprehensive study of the SMB industry vertical by gathering following requirement.

Corporate Information

·         Existing hardware and software infrastructure
·         Existing licensing solution
·         Business Requirements
·         Problem Statement
·         Planned Changes in infrastructure
·         Business Goals
·         Stakeholders, IT Department, Procurement Department
Following parameters play major role to identify actual requirement.

Proposed Questionnaire Format for Industry

·         Corporate Information?
·         Company info?
·         Subsidiary info? if any
·         Number of employees?
·         Work environment? (Fixed/Flexible)
·         Employees allowed work at home?
·         Existing hardware and software infrastructure?
·         Centralized purchasing?
·         De-centralized purchasing?
·         Existing licensing Solution?
·         OEM /Volume license
·         Standardized platform
·         Non standardized platform
·         Business requirements?
·         Problem statement?
·         Planned changes if any?
·         Business plan?
·         Business goals?

Solution Design

After getting the report extracted during analysis phase Process of solution design starts with

·         Product identification

·         Study of different features of software version and product portfolio
·         Apply available licensing techniques
·         Solution designing
·         Comparison of proposed compliant solution

In Order to propose licensing solution, following actions are required by licensing specialist.

·         Conduct the complete analysis of the infrastructure
·         Ask them about procurement system adapted? Spread payment/Upfront
·         How they manage their software inventory?
·         What software and version is currently using?  Which will help to identify variations
·         Ask them about platform standardization in using software on all machines?
·         Ask Questions about databases, internet usage, security, reliability, scalability?
·         What are additional requirements and needs of the company?

Proposal Phase

After conducting above survey a comprehensive study of their system is required to identify their requirements.

Once we get their analysis report and during this Phase prepare complete proposal.

·         Product
·         Quantities required
·         Pricing info
·         Spread payment Plan if require.
·         Include software assurance benefits as per requirement.

Procurement Process

Following are the stake holders:

·         End User

·         Reseller

·         Distributor

·         Principal

Here is the procedure adapted in almost every business environment for procurement of IT assets including acquisition of licenses for software usage rights.

·         End user issue purchase order to reseller.

·         Reseller then issue their purchase order to distributor
·         Distributor issues purchase order or log the order electronically to software vendor/principal
·         Software vendor /principal issue licenses to end user by copying all above stakeholders

Note: For acquisition of software licenses, and to avoid delay in process, every stake holder involved in this phase make sure to have correct end user details, reseller’s details.

In order to go ahead with the process number 1, End user PO must include following End user Details that are considered as mandatory required by every software vendor or principal to process licenses, along with correct details and identification of the products and quantities proposed to end user.

·         End User Company Name
·         Complete Address
·         Contact Person
·         E-mail address
·         Telephone Number
·         Fax Number

Reseller issues the purchase order to distributor, using proposed solution, end user purchase order and appending reseller’s Information.

·         Reseller Name

·         Complete Address
·         Contact Person
·         E-mail address
·         Telephone Number
·         Fax Number

After receiving the purchase order from reseller with required Information, distributor will place software licensing order to Principal.

As soon as Principal receive the order for licensing for end user it starts their process their licenses, normally, principal directly send licenses info to end user by copying every stakeholder i.e. reseller and distributor to access their licenses.

As Principals do not sell their software licenses directly to end user, so their payments modalities will be in between:

·         End user to reseller
·         Reseller to distributor
·         Distributor with principal

Asset Management

After acquisition of the licenses Management of the these intangible assets are very important
An asset management system is an important, foundational piece of the overall systems necessary to manage IT infrastructure. Without a good asset management system the organization will waste time and resources managing inventory, buying unnecessary equipment and software, and maintaining license compliance for software. With a functioning asset management system the organization can expect to reduce the total cost of ownership for IT infrastructure and provide a solid foundation for the operational system necessary to keep the infrastructure operating efficiently.

In next post I will shed some light in benefits of SAM, Software Asset Management shortly.

Hope this post will be informative for you if you need further assistance i will be here to help you out in ractification of your business problems.

So please keep me in your prayers and take care.