Software License Management

In the 21st century, software covers virtually every aspect of business operation. From accounting and payroll to marketing and customer relationship management, an average startup begins with around five apps. As the company grows, the number increases exponentially.

Each application you use comes with a license. Monitoring and maintaining licenses is essential to taking full advantage of your software, avoiding downtime, and preventing breaches.

At Treysta, we offer a full set of software license management services to ensure efficient use of your business software.  Please contact us for more details.

What Is Software License Management?

Software license management is a set of tools and processes you use to document and manage software licenses to ensure compliance and efficiency.

By implementing software license management, you gain insight into your software assets and usage. It doesn’t just help you stay compliant with the license terms but also provides visibility of how much each program is being used. This, in turn, can help cut costs and optimize software usage across the organization.

Software license management (SLM) is part of software asset management (SAM). SAM is a business strategy that focuses on optimizing the use of software within a company.

Why You Need Software License Management

If your company has software assets, it requires license management. The benefits of comprehensive SLM include:

• Lower risks of downtime – once a license expires, the software may stop functioning. When this happens unexpectedly, it can lead to significant downtime. This, in turn, could damage your reputation and cost you customer loyalty. With proper management, you can always stay on top of expiration dates and renew licenses timely.
• Improved transparency – SLM gives you a clear picture of which licenses are being used by your departments. This transparency can help during software audits, especially when you have to ensure specific industry compliance.
• Proper compliance – in some industries like education, healthcare, and government contracting, software must be fully compliant with specific regulations. Using unlicensed software could lead to serious fines, legal issues, and lost contracts. With SLM in place, you can ensure timely updates and compliance.
• Cost efficiency – when you start monitoring software licenses, you may find that you are paying for more licenses than your company needs. You could discover that a different pricing package works better for your employees, thus cutting costs substantially.
• Vendor compliance – using software without a license is software piracy. Legal penalties for software piracy can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars. When a license expires, and you continue using the program, you could be breaking the law. Proper SLM practices prevent you from facing steep fines.
• Cost projections – when you know exactly which software licenses your company needs, it can make budget planning much easier.

Many companies have an inflated tech stack. When businesses start growing, they purchase new software without evaluating their existing assets. As a result, they may either have unused software or programs with similar functions.

Evaluating your software assets and managing their licenses can help you cut costs, avoid compliance issues, and streamline operational efficiency.

TREYSTA Software License Management Services

By outsourcing software license management to our team, you can get the following set of services:

• Discovery – we identify all software assets in your organization and check licenses that go with them. Then we create a detailed list of these licenses and keep it updated.
• License assessment – we study each software vendor’s requirements and licensing criteria to ensure compliance.
• Problem management – if there is an issue with software licensing, we offer the most optimized solution to prevent confusion and downtime.
• Change management – if you plan to adjust your software stack, our team helps with all license-related issues to prevent extra costs and compliance problems.
• Reporting – we create comprehensive and easy-to-understand reports that help you gain insight into software usage.
• Proactive advice – since we have formidable experience with software license management, we can offer professional advice about software use optimization.

Each software vendor takes a different approach to licensing. As the number of programs you use grows, it’s easy to make management mistakes. Our experts take the time to learn each vendor’s licensee requirements to ensure full compliance.

Exploring the Legal Importance of Software License Management

Many companies don’t realize that their staff may be using unlicensed software. Some employees could be downloading programs from unauthorized websites in order to improve the company’s operations. They may not even know that they are doing anything wrong.

Without proper software license management, you may never learn that this is occurring in your organization until you face a significant fine. SLM doesn’t just help you stay on top of your software assets. It prevents you from facing unpleasant legal issues with software vendors.

Benefits of Outsourcing Software License Management

Software license management can be complex and time-consuming. Without a diligent approach, it’s easy to make simple errors that lead to costly consequences. By outsourcing SLM, you can enjoy the following benefits:

• Cost efficiency – comprehensive SLM can take up a significant amount of time. While your IT experts are busy with other tasks, software licensing doesn’t get due attention. Hiring new team members to handle software assets is costly. Outsourcing the task can help you achieve the same goals at a fraction of the cost of sourcing new talent.
• Time-saving – your team members can use the time it takes to handle SLM to focus on core tasks that contribute to the company’s bottom line.
• Expertise – SLM tasks require expertise and close attention to detail. Teaching your existing staff to take care of license management can be time-consuming and costly. Third-party license management experts already have all the necessary experience and knowledge to provide top-notch SLM services.
• Employee satisfaction – when your team is overwhelmed with a huge variety of IT tasks, asking them to handle SLM may lead to frustration. By outsourcing this aspect of software asset management, you take the burden off your IT department and increase employee satisfaction rates.

Outsourcing software license management can be an optimal choice for businesses of all sizes. Besides cutting costs and saving time, professional SLM with a proactive approach can help you gain a competitive edge.