Microsoft recently named CDW Healthcare one of its 2013 Healthcare Partners of the Year. CDW won recognition for developing a set of best practices for its software asset management (SAM) solution.
Many large organizations acquire a massive portfolio of software. Different departments may purchase software licenses without oversight from a central location. As a result, a large organization, like a hospital, can collect a disparate collection of software products and licenses.
Because the requirements for the different licenses are so variable and because software can proliferate wildly within a healthcare system, hospitals and other healthcare providers need centralized software asset management (SAM) that provides governance, management and enterprise agility.
Regarding governance, healthcare organizations need to make sure that they're only allowing authorized products into their software ecosystem. SAM solutions should scan the software environment to automatically detect inappropriate utilization of software licenses. SAM can also detect any pirated software on the network.
With SAM tools, managers can have visibility on every piece of software in use on every device connected to a hospital network. This visibility becomes critically important in an environment where employees bring their own devices to work and use them to access hospital information.
The management component of SAM solutions should include license management. A SAM solution should look at software usage so that it can transfer licenses or cancel unused licenses, enabling hospitals to save money. Also, the SAM team within the hospital should research appropriate software solutions for healthcare workers and define the licensing process.
The SAM team should also manage the timing of patches, upgrades and other software management activities. Before purchasing new software, the team should check to see whether existing software can be modified to meet employees' needs instead. This evaluation helps SAM teams to avoid purchasing duplicate software.
Enterprise agility results from both governance and management. Continuous SAM keeps the hospital flexible, optimizing its software spending to its business needs.
Microsoft presented the Partner of the Year Award to CDW during its Public Sector Industry Solution University (ISU) event.
Edited by
Alisen Downey
