DoMoreWithSnowServices

Business reporting agility and custom reporting within Snow

Today’s final post in the #DoMoreWithSnowServices​ series comes from Sophie Newman, who is Snow Software’s Technical Consulting Manager for UKIMEA, on reporting within Snow’s Technology Intelligence Platform and how the system provides agility for bespoke business reporting. Snow Software's Technology Intelligence Platform, a market leader in Software Asset Management (SAM), has over 50 prebuilt reports combining 25 years of expertise in hardware, software, and licensing that are viewable from the web portal. Thus, allowing reporting on a variety of different data points such as software usage, software compliance and application rationalization.

Once users become familiar with these reports, it may find that one or two of these no longer fit the dataset needed for reporting purposes, more contextual information is required to be integrated, or downloading two reports and joining them in a 3rd party tool is cumbersome. Perhaps a manager, CTO, or the CIO has a view of data from Snow, but this needs amalgamating with additional external data sources. This is where custom reporting can work for you. Here at Snow Software, our technical consultants have extensive experience in working with various datasets, sources and requirements. The first thing we explore is the “why?” behind any request for bespoke reporting. Once validated, we work in close collaboration with our customers to design and fulfil any requirements through our established methodology. This methodology addresses considerations such as the following.

1. What data source(s) are required to complement the comprehensive data already collected via Snow Agents or Inventory feeds.

2. The update frequency for any additional data sources and the associated bespoke reports.

3. Data visibility, and whether any user access restrictions need to be placed on the report. With Snow Software’s platform being based on Role Based Access Control (RBAC) you can control who have access to what data.

4. Where the custom report is accessible from, either via the Snow platform web GUI or directly downloaded to a set location ready for a 3rd party process to pick the file up for further transformation.

Interested in engaging with one of our Professional Services Consultants to discuss your reporting requirements? Please contact Snow Professional Services: https://lnkd.in/eJdvjaYF

Building a SAM Center of Excellence

For the penultimate post in the #DoMoreWithSnowServices series we explore why customers may wish to setup a Software Assessment Management (SAM) Center of Excellence (CoE) and considerations in doing so. Today’s guidance is from Michael Swan, a Project Manager within Snow Software. For a business that’s chosen to structure itself as a ‘group’, either through natural expansion into other markets, or via M&A, one key benefit typically sought is the reduction of costs. This is largely delivered by identifying functions or processes that can be centralized and managed at group-scale, delivering economies relative to that scale. The employment of a group-wide SAM/ITAM strategy can also deliver additional efficiencies, as a global approach to Software Procurement empowers the group to bring the full weight of their buying power to bear when entering negotiations with a Software Vendor. Centralizing expertise in both the License and Technical administration that underpins a successful SAM strategy into one CoE also allows firms to expand their SAM function quickly into new markets following a standardized, iterative process, and then achieve progressively more ambitious goals, typically following a maturity curve of the four steps below.

1.   Achieving Full Visibility

2.   Ensuring Compliance

3.   Optimizing Cost

4.   Automating Process

The alternative approach, maintain siloes within a group with independent practices, processes, strategies and tools, will often mean that different operating companies sit at vastly different points along this curve. As the less mature parts of the group look to progress, it is rare that they’re able to avoid reinventing the wheel as bureaucracy, misaligned incentives, and sheer scale work to prevent proper cooperation between SAM teams. A CoE is at its core, simply a large SAM team, supported by a technical staff specifically equipped to provide exhaustive discovery and inventory of assets. To deliver on this model, the key high level areas to be fulfilled are:

1. Product/Service Ownership – A clear ownership to define strategy, ensure stakeholder support and resource the CoE.

2. Licensing/SAM Expertise - Experienced people that understand the T&Cs of vendor agreements and the benefits and drawbacks of various Licensing models. They’ll also need to be trained in best practice use of a market-leading SAM tool like Snow Software’s Technology Intelligence Platform.

3. Process and Documentation - A key benefit of working with a shared service structure is to optimize process and ensure consistency across the group. Process is a crucial part of the SAM trifactor and essential for long-term ROI.

4. Technical Experts - An application operations team needs to be in place to deal with day-to-day monitoring and challenges.

Why it’s important to rationalize your application portfolio

Application optimization and rationalization is defined as the effort to strategically identify business applications across an organization to determine which should be kept, replaced, retired, or consolidated. We explore the importance of this in the #DoMoreWithSnowServices series.

Jelle Wijndelts, Director of Business Consulting for Snow Software, shares why application optimization is a must for organizations planning their 2023 Software Asset Management (SAM) objectives.

Technology is continuing to become more complex with emerging cloud-based services. As we are challenged with hybrid work and a consumption economy, the expectation of technology has also increased. One thing hasn’t changed, the need for visibility to remove complexity, identify security risks and drive meaningful business decisions. 

Software as a Service (SaaS) is great for an organization that has to stay agile and responsive to their business and employee needs. However, it has also exponentially increased the number of applications that need to be managed. “Why would I need to manage them, they’re in the cloud?” I hear you ask. For starters you need to know about them, what is the application? How are you being billed? What does the application do? What are the terms and conditions that have been signed to? What are the security risks?

The current economic pressures are another reason to take hold of your software portfolio. Over the years we have seen lots of organizations with multiple different applications that do the same thing. Identifying applications that do the same function will enable you to potentially get greater volume discounts, negotiate with the different vendors, and get the best price. furthermore, reduce your internal IT support costs due to quicker time to resolution with teams only needing to support 1 or 2 products instead of 5 to 10 in some instances. 

Application optimization will lead to an reduced IT security risk and improved governance. Having various different versions of the same application installed let alone used will bring a security risk, especially if the application in questions is end of life or is going to be end of life. Optimizing your estate will allow you to reduce the, and more tightly govern, GDPR requirements. Being able to reduce your applications portfolio by 10% to 25% will greatly benefit you. Snow Software's expert consulting teams have years of experience in advising our clients on application optimization and the implementation of policy and process to maintain a lean application stack. 

Give us a call or reach out to any member of the Snow Software Tribe for more information. We would welcome an opportunity to talk with any Snow customers or prospects on how we can support your SAM ambitions or objectives. Snow Professional Services: https://lnkd.in/eJdvjaYF

Establishing Proactive System Monitoring

When implementing any business application, organizations need to plan for proactive system monitoring from a technology and resourcing perspective. Commonly this is overlooked, unbudgeted, and an immediate project challenge that needs resolution.

Aaron Fryer, a Senior Technical Consultant from Snow Software, describes below why system monitoring for business applications is critical, and how this should be approached for Snow Software’s Technology Intelligence Platform as part of the #DoMoreWithSnowServices series.

Like any business application, it’s important to configure proactive, and ideally automatic, monitoring for services on any appropriate application server(s). A common scenario for many Windows based applications is that an error occurs and stops Windows services from running, or when restarted these services have not automatically started as intended.

Most organizations will have a preferred monitoring tool of their choice implemented. At Snow Software we are agnostic as to what monitoring tools we work with. Whichever system monitoring tool selected should send an alert by text, email or even raise an incident ticket if an error is found. This would then align to monitoring, ITIL and IT Service Management (ITSM) best practice. Regarding Snow Software's Technology Intelligence Platform, our expert Professional Services team diligently plan and execute a monitoring strategy in close collaboration with our customers. Below is a sample of the items that should be monitored for the best user experience with our technology and many other business applications.

1. Windows Services

2. Event Viewer

3. Application & Database Log Files

4. Website Uptime

5. SSL Certificates

6. Database Stored Procedures

7. Network Traffic

8. Anti-Virus Rules

9. Security Policies & Procedures

10. User Access

Without monitoring configured, organizations run the risk to system performance, application uptime, business process, or user experience. Snow Software's Professional Services can assist with identifying what you need to monitor, and when you need to act. At Snow Software we have years of experience in both implementing and troubleshooting business applications that support Software Asset Management (SAM), IT Asset Management (ITAM) and IT Service Management (ITSM).

We’d welcome an opportunity to talk with any Snow customers or prospects on how we technically support in establishing technical processes, operations, and reporting. Snow Professional Services: https://lnkd.in/eJdvjaYF

Application Upgrade Planning Considerations

Does your organisation have ambitions to upgrade your Snow Software Technology Intelligence platform, or another business application? Many organizations assume that software upgrades can be executed with minimal disruption, but to ensure a successful outcome, diligence and careful planning are highly recommended. Each situation will differ, but regardless, I always advocate a risk-averse approach be taken. Personally, I have been involved in hundreds of software upgrades, both with Snow Software and other vendors, and based on that experience, I want to share a few considerations for any organisation planning an upgrade as part of the #DoMoreWithSnowServices series.

1. Firstly, prior to any upgrade, especially with enterprise-class solutions, it’s important to run an impact assessment of the upgrade.

2. Once a full end-to-end assessment has been completed, a rollback and Disaster Recovery (DR) plan must be established before proceeding further. This is critical to mitigate the risk of unplanned business impact.

3. Now that you know what will be upgraded, how it will be upgraded, and what the rollback plan is, the next critical decision is who will run the upgrade. For Snow Software’s specific applications, we endorse certified, appropriately skilled, individuals complete the upgrade. Our solutions are packed full of complex features to provide complete visibility and manageability across customer’s technology. This decision should retain a view on quality and the required outcome, not be made purely based on cost.

4. Organizations should not consider an upgrade “done” upon completion of the upgrade on the day. It is imperative that adequate testing is then completed to fully verify the end-to-end solution is operating as expected.

It’s also important to point out that no “one size fits all” when it comes to a software upgrade. For each organization, their installation and complexity will drive the approach required. The timeline for completing an upgrade may vary significantly case by case. At Snow Software, our industry-leading research and development team are continually providing new features and benefits to our product portfolio. These features are specifically targeted based on feedback from customers and partners to ensure we are addressing current business challenges. Customers are the core of our business. To ensure you have access to all these benefits, regularly verify your current product versions against the latest available. The following link can be used to validate the current version of any Snow Software platform or application. https://lnkd.in/eUgfsm5E

Please contact your Snow Software Account Manager, or any member of the Snow tribe, to further discuss how the Snow team can help address your specific needs.

SQL Server Licensing Summary & Guidance

Microsoft SQL Server is considered one of the most complex and expensive business applications to license. In today’s #DoMoreWithSnowServices article we look into why the product is challenging, and how Snow’s Professional Services team can help. Mike Rossouw, a Principal Licensing Consultant at Snow Software, shares the “need to know” information to get you started.

Aside from the operational risks, insufficient planning of your business licensing needs will undoubtedly expose you to legal, financial, and reputational risks. At the time of writing, there are four main editions of SQL Server available and utilized.

1.   Enterprise Edition – Commercially Available.

2.   Standard and Web Edition – Commercially Available.

3.   Express Edition – Freely Available.

4.   Developer/Compact Editions – Freely Available.

At a basic level, SQL Server is licensed on a per core basis for physical Servers (standalone), or the physical VMware ESX host (part of a cluster), then you need to license each physical processor in the server with a minimum of 4 SQL server core licenses per processor, or the total number of cores on the server, whichever is the higher of the two.

If you are licensing the virtual server, the rules are slightly different. The minimum number of cores is based around the virtual server rather than the processors. You have to license a minimum of 4 cores per Virtual Machine (VM), or the total number of cores allocated to the VM, whichever is the higher of the two. If your VM's are part of a load balanced cluster, in other words they are free to move from one physical host to another within the same cluster, then you will have to make sure that the licenses you are assigning to the VM's have active Software Assurance (SA).

SQL Server licensing starts to get even more complex when applying licenses at the cluster level with features such as DRS (VMware’s load balancing feature 'VMotion'), High availability (HA), and Disaster Recovery (DR) features such as passive failover.

We often find that companies don’t have the required in-house knowledge or resources available to effectively plan out these SQL Server requirements. This is where Snow Software’s expert Professional Services team can assist and support you to optimize your Microsoft licenses.

For more information, please contact the Snow team or visit our website from the link below.

Snow Professional Services: https://lnkd.in/eJdvjaYF

SAM/ITAM Tool Implementation Risks

A frequent question I am asked when working with Snow customers or prospects to scope or shape a project is “what are the risks and how can be mitigate these?”. As part of the #DoMoreWithSnowServices series we unpack this topic in more detail and explore common tool implementation risks.

Tom Newberry, a Senior Project Manager from Snow Software, describes a number of common risks, the importance of a strong risk mitigation strategy, and how project management can help drive customer’s business outcomes.

The reality is that you can’t manage what you don’t measure! This is a pertinent aphorism when related to project risks. All projects have risks associated with them, project risk analysis is important because it helps project stakeholders identify the weaknesses, strengths, and possible opportunities during or after completing a project. Common risks when implementing a Software Asset Management (SAM) tool, process, or service include but are not limited to the following:

1. Timelines: Unconsidered dependencies not met leading to a delay in project completion.

2. Resource Planning: Misunderstood resource requirements can lead to incorrect or insufficient resource alignment to the project. Usually, these risks relate back to either a resource capacity or a resource capability. Both factors require a detailed assessment.

3. Communication: Unclear communication or escalation paths can lead to delays in decision making and delivery of business outcomes. A clear and agreeable communication plan should be established as part of project inception to mitigate this risk.

4. Scope: You need to know what is being delivered, usually driven by a business case, and detailed requirements, or the project won’t be successful. Ensure these requirements are documented and stored centrally for ongoing project alignment and reporting of process success.

5. Cost: Will the project be of value and provide the desired Return on Investment (RoI)? How will this be tracked, measured and reported?

At Snow Software, project managers agree that to mitigate these risks, prevention is better than cure. Working with our tried and tested methodology, we create bespoke governance around each customer’s requirements to ensure synergy between all stakeholders, and a smooth progression of all agreed deliverables. Taking into consideration all potential risks from our extensive experience delivering SAM implementation and consultancy projects.

Want to know more about Snow Software’s approach to manage or deliver project success to our customers? Please contact your aligned Snow Account Manager, my expert Professional Services team, or myself for a deeper discussion.

Snow Professional Services: https://lnkd.in/eJdvjaYF

Snow’s Business Healthcheck

Did you know that Snow Software can provide a Business Health Check to help drive tool adoption, data confidence, and accelerate Return on Investment (RoI)?

Continuing the #DoMoreWithSnowServices series, Laura Kenny, Snow’s Senior Business Consultant for EMEA, articulates the purpose of a Snow Business Health Check and how it can provide insight into your Software Asset Management (SAM) practice.

The purpose of the exercise is to establish the quality of the data currently in your Snow Technology Intelligence platform. The comprehensive health check report details all the findings, identifies improvement areas where Snow Software can provide additional value to your business, prioritized recommendations, and best practice advice from Snow technology experts in all areas of your software asset management practice. Our Business Consultants each have over 10+ years industry experience, Business and IT strategy acumen, and in-depth knowledge of Snow Software Solutions. How we work with our customers?

1. Listen, collaborate and recommend.

2. Set strategic objectives and execute with measurable outcomes.

3. Ask constructive questions and provide actionable answers.

4. Imagine new possibilities and deliver unrivalled insight.

5. Embrace challenges and tackle complexity with rigor.

6. Transfer knowledge, skills and confidence, enabling efficient running and operation within your Snow environments’.

Consider the Business Health Check if you meet any of the following criteria:

1. You want to understand if your Snow solution is being used effectively.

2. The data reliability within your Snow solution is a concern.

3. You need to assess and realize business value from your software asset management investment.

Give us a call or reach out to your Snow Software Account Manager for more information. We’d welcome an opportunity to talk with any Snow customers or prospects on how we can support your ambitions or objectives.

More information on Snow's Business Health Check and our Business Consulting team can be found from the website links below.

Snow Business Health Check: https://lnkd.in/egxTVAF9

Snow Business Consulting: https://lnkd.in/erGbHjHY