protect your assets. control your spending

Transcription

1 protect your assets. control your spending A European poll on IT asset management practices, commissioned by CA Technologies and conducted at the European Gartner Procurement, Financial and Asset Management Summit in London, UK on 10th and 11th October agility made possible 1

2 table of contents Research methodology 3 SECTION 1: Survey highlights 4 SECTION 2: Preface 4 SECTION 3: Survey findings in details 5 IT audits are in the increase European organisations struggle to manage audit reporting and responses European organisations expect to face severe penalties for IT asset non-compliance Organisations struggling to manage software licenses Reliance on manual processes exposes companies to non-compliance risk SECTION 4: Conclusion 9 2

3 Research methodology The survey was conducted at the European Gartner Procurement, Financial and Asset Management Summit in London, UK on 10th and 11th October Ninety-two senior decision makers participated in the survey, from 19 countries, and included IT Financial Managers, Procurement Managers, Financial Managers, Information Managers and Architects, Asset Managers, and Data Model Architects. Survey forms were distributed to Summit delegates as they browsed the event. 3

4 Section 1: Survey highlights Eighty-eight percent of European organisations expect their IT assets to be audited at least once in the next 12 months. Moreover, 85 percent of companies were audited within the past year. Seventy-seven percent of respondents indicate that it is difficult to manage audit reporting and responses. If the company were to face a financial penalty for IT asset non-compliance, 78 percent expect that penalty to be high. Companies are not well prepared to manage their software licenses. Seventy-six percent of respondents say it is difficult to identify unused software and redistribute it within their organisation. Forty-three percent of companies track software using manual processes or via departmental tools which expose them to cost overages and license compliance risk. Organisations need to take control of their IT assets throughout their lifecycle, using automated solutions to account for IT assets, and ensure compliance with contractual considerations. Section 2: Preface How does your organisation track, manage and distribute licences across the enterprise? If you were audited, how likely is it that you would face a penalty for license non-compliance? In all likelihood, the answer to these two questions is not well enough and very. Software licensing is only slightly more complicated than mapping the human genome, so even the best-run IT departments are likely to have slipped up with some licensing paperwork somewhere and fallen into non-compliance. Indeed, as IT infrastructures become increasingly complex, it becomes harder than ever to track and manage software and hardware infrastructure investments. Not only do you need to determine what assets are being leveraged, but in order to be effective, you must also reduce asset sprawl and remain in compliance with existing leasing and license agreements. Unfortunately, most companies today are unable to understand and proactively manage asset lifecycle, vendor history, contractual elements, software license allocations, and cost elements of their assets. Why is this the case? First, there is a lack of visibility into asset utilisation. Due to the inability to track assets throughout their lifecycle, companies cannot efficiently allocate existing resources, and rely on costly manual fulfilment methods and asset inventories. They have disparate pools of unleveraged assets in one area and overwhelming demand in others. This results in the over-purchasing of assets by the organisation. The second reason is an overspending on software licenses. With a lack of understanding of who is using what, an organisation is often exposed to legal and financial risks associated with software license compliance and unexpected software audits. This results in purchasing more software than necessary, or expenditures due to financial penalties of software audits. This should be a major cause for concern. The number of IT audits faced by organisations is rising, and as it does so, CIOs should invest the funds needed to ensure that robust asset management is in place and effective, and that asset management staff are empowered to ensure compliance. Correlating license entitlement with installed software is not an easy task. To tackle this threat of IT asset non-compliance and potential financial penalties, organisations require a comprehensive asset lifecycle management solution with financial, vendor, contract, and license management that provides visibility and control of their IT asset base. Solutions such as CA IT Asset Manager enable firms to accurately and efficiently determine what assets are available and in use, improve organisational distribution of those assets, and increase productivity around license reporting and audit responses. This ensures they reduce the risk of license non-compliance and 4

5 optimise the cost, management and distribution of existing assets avoiding over-purchasing by matching supply to demand. This survey was conducted to learn more about how European organisations currently manage their IT assets, and to discover the processes they currently use to determine which assets they have and how they use them. The goal was also to explore how exposed organisations are to non-compliance, how often and likely their organisation is to be audited, and the likelihood of penalties being imposed for non-compliance. Section 3: Survey findings in detail IT audits are in the increase According to the survey conducted at the European Gartner European Gartner Procurement, Financial and Asset Management Summit in London, UK on 10th and 11th October 2012, organisations are more exposed than ever to being audited. It reveals that 88 percent of European organisations expect their IT assets to be audited at least once in the next 12 months (see Figure 1). Moreover, 85 percent of companies were audited within the past year (see Figure 2). Although it is difficult to be ascertain directly, several factors may be contributing to this surge in the number of software and hardware audit requests. They include worldwide economic conditions affecting software publishers revenues. Technological changes such as virtualisation have also driven the increase in audits, as the complexity of those technologies makes it harder for companies to be sure they are using them properly. Figure 1: How many times do you expect that one of your software vendors will conduct a license compliance audit on your company in the next twelve months? 5

6 Figure 2: How many times has your company been audited by a software vendor in the past year? European organisations struggle to manage audit reporting and responses The poll also reveals that companies are not well prepared to manage their software licenses. Some 76 percent of respondents feel it is difficult to identify unused software and redistribute licenses within their organisation, while 77 percent of respondents indicate that it is difficult to manage audit reporting and responses (see Figure 3). Most organisations do not have robust processes to manage software audits initiated by vendors, which leaves them vulnerable to unexpected high costs. However, organisations can often reduce these unexpected audit fees by understanding the specific areas of risk for each vendor and taking steps to mitigate the risk. Figure 3: How difficult is it for your company to conduct audit reports and responses? 6

7 European organisations expect to face severe penalties for IT asset non-compliance According to the poll, if the company was to face a financial penalty for IT asset non-compliance, 78 percent expect that penalty to be high (see Figure 5). Fines vary dramatically, depending on the extent on the noncompliance, the value of the technology, and the extent of the inadvertent or the deliberate technology misuse. Figure 4: Were your company to pay a fine, how costly would it be to your organisation? Organisations struggling to manage software licenses Companies are also not well prepared to manage their software licenses. Seventy-six percent of respondents say it is difficult to identify unused software and redistribute it within their organisation (see Figure 6). Most organisations don t have a defined software asset management program supported by the appropriate tools to manage an increasingly growing software estate. Surprisingly, many CIOs don t see the value (and risk) associated with not having such programs in place. Despite the fact that software spend has continued to grow and software increasingly is a strategic asset running the business, there are no programs in place to manage application usage. And, if tools are in place, they only offer traditional software asset management capabilities that count what you have (software installations) rather than what you are using, or what you are entitled to use (license entitlements such as Product Use Rights). 7

8 Figure 5: How difficult is it for your company to identify unused software and redistribute it? Reliance on manual processes exposes companies to non-compliance risk The survey conducted at the European Gartner European Gartner Procurement, Financial and Asset Management Summit in London, UK on 10th and 11th October 2012, indicates that 43 percent of companies track software using manual processes or via departmental tools which expose them to cost overages and license compliance risk (see Figure 7). This fragmented, labour-intensive approach undermines firms ability to understand and proactively manage asset lifecycle, vendor history, contractual elements, software license allocations, and cost elements of their assets. Figure 6: Which of the following best describes how your company manages license compliance audits? 8

9 Section 4: Conclusion IT asset management practices as they exist today are clearly inadequate and they leave companies exposed to highly undesirable consequences, namely severe financial penalties for non-compliance. This survey highlights the need for customers to embrace technologies that can help them improve and automate those practices so that they can handle asset audits with ease and get more business value out of their existing technology investments. A comprehensive asset lifecycle management solution with financial, vendor, contract, and license management would provide visibility and control of the IT asset base. Solutions like CA IT Asset Manager enable firms to accurately and efficiently determine what assets are available and in use, improve organisational distribution of those assets, and increase productivity around license reporting and audit responses. This ensures they reduce the risk of license non-compliance and optimise the cost, management and distribution of existing assets avoiding over-purchasing by matching supply to demand. 9

10 CA Technologies (NASDAQ: CA) provides IT management solutions that help customers manage and secure complex IT environments to support agile business services. Organizations leverage CA Technologies software and SaaS solutions to accelerate innovation, transform infrastructure and secure data and identities, from the data center to the cloud. CA Technologies is committed to ensuring our customers achieve their desired outcomes and expected business value through the use of our technology. To learn more about our customer success programs, visit ca.com/customer-success. For more information about CA Technologies go to ca.com. Copyright 2013 CA. All rights reserved. All trademarks, trade names, service marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. This document is for your informational purposes only. CA assumes no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the information. To the extent permitted by applicable law, CA provides this document as is without warranty of any kind, including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or noninfringement. In no event will CA be liable for any loss or damage, direct or indirect, from the use of this document, including, without limitation, lost profits, business interruption, goodwill or lost data, even if CA is expressly advised in advance of the possibility of such damages. CS3303_0113