Office 365 promises to transform how organisations provision workplace collaboration and productivity applications. Find out if Microsoft’s cloud-based service is right for your organisation and if you are ready to make the leap

Analysts are predicting that several million users will have migrated to Microsoft’s cloud-based Office 365 suite by this time next year as they abandon legacy mail platforms in favour of a state-of-art platform that requires little or no capital investment and a lengthy implementation.

Access to a cloud-based Exchange email service will be the main driver for adoption, followed by SharePoint and Lync. The capacious 25 gigabyte mailbox on offer to enterprise users of Office 365 will help fuel this phased adoption.

Launched at the end of June 2011, Office 365 provides organisations with cloud-hosted versions of Exchange 2010, SharePoint, Office Web Apps and Lync – which combines instant messaging with presence, audioconferencing and videoconferencing features. Customers can also procure Office 2010 Professional via an Office 365 subscription.

Unlike other cloud-based offerings, Office 365 components can be bought separately or as part of six preconfigured offers, providing organisations with both predictable costs and flexibility.

As a result, organisations can limit their expenditure according to the current scale and needs of their business. Prices for the pre-configured offers range from £2.60 per month for a kiosk user with Exchange and SharePoint to £15.75 per month for an enterprise user including a desktop Office licence and Lync Plus for voice communications.

Andy Goddard, Practice Leader for Workplace and Software at Computacenter, comments: “Office 365 provides organisations with the most cost-effective alternative to hosting email and other workplace applications internally. IT departments will not only be released from the cyclical pain and expenditure of upgrades but also the day-to-day burden of backup, security patching and capacity planning and so on.”

Ensuring confidence in the cloud

As with any cloud-based offering, the risk of service outages and security breaches have been widely debated by the press, analysts and user community alike since the launch of Office 365.

In a recent outage, however, although Microsoft’s older platform Business Productivity Online Standard (BPOS) went down Office 365 stayed online, which will help to improve customer confidence that the service has indeed evolved and become of age for enterprises.

Microsoft has invested heavily in disaster recovery capabilities, globally-redundant backups, and extensive privacy features to prevent Office 365 from falling victim to such outages. As Andy comments: “Office 365 is designed to provide a highly available and highly secure service to corporates. With the added benefit of federation services to facilitate single sign-on, Office 365 will prevent customer identity information from being exposed via the internet.”

Office 365 also supports additional security measures to protect sensitive information, such as Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) for public key encryption and digital signatures as well as critical information rights management for restricting access to and external distribution of documents, email, and even voicemail messages.”

Under the service level agreement (SLA), customers will receive 25 per cent off their monthly payment if uptime falls below 99.9 per cent to 99 per cent, half of the sum back if it falls below 99 per cent and a complete refund for anything under 95 per cent.

Cutting costs and increasing productivity

For many organisations, it won’t be a case of ‘if’ but ‘when’ will they migrate to Office 365. An exceptionally large number of enterprise customers are still running their email services on Exchange 2003 platforms, which is rapidly becoming untenable as a robust and effective service.

These legacy platforms not only lead to outage and scalability problems but users also have to cope with severely constrained mailbox sizes. To address these challenges, organisations must make significant capital investment – a process they will have to go through again in another five years when the email platform once again becomes outdated. Office 365 provides not only enables customers to migrate to a new platform at a fraction of the cost but also eliminates the need for any future upgrades.

“One of our customers using Exchange 2003 is restricted to mailboxes of 200 megabytes, which rapidly disappears in today’s world of multi-media attachments,” comments Andy. “It’s hardly surprising then that have already chosen to adopt Office 365, which will provide 25 gigabytes per mailbox. To deliver this kind of capacity via an internal email platform would have required investment in additional storage resources, which the customer has now avoided.”

As well as saving on implementation costs, organisations can also save valuable time by signing up to Office 365. As Andy explains: “The average Exchange 2010 implementation costs a mid-sized enterprise around £500,000 and can take up to nine months to complete. With Office 365, an organisation can plan, prepare and migrate 2,500 mailboxes end-to-end in around three months.”

Although the modular nature of Office 365 will enable organisations to sign up for specific applications, such as email, rather than the full suite, it can make the licensing model rather complicated. Even more so if Enterprise Agreements need to be considered or if a customer has to upgrade their Outlook client – Office 365 enterprise users must use Outlook 2007 or 2010.

Minimising migration risks

To help identify the right licensing model and determine if Office 365 is viable and suitable, Computacenter is offering customers a five-day assessment: ‘Are you Office 365 ready?’

Through a series of workshops, Computacenter will help to:

• Establish whether your organisation is right for Office 365
• Identify if there are users who are not suited to Office 365 and therefore might require a co-existence or hybrid scenario
• Evaluate the most cost-effective and flexible licensing options for your organisation and the impact on existing Microsoft agreements
• Identify support requirements above and beyond the basic Microsoft offering
• Ascertain the actual number of mailboxes that are required to minimise email subscription costs
• Identify any business or application constraints that would prevent adoption 
• Qualify what it will cost to migrate and transform to Office 365

“Despite 100,000 organisations taking part in the open beta programme, Office 365 will not be right for every company or user community,” comments Andy. “For example tightly regulated sectors, such as financial services, are less likely to be suited to this type of cloud model than for example retail companies or service providers.”

Office 365 is based on a multi-tenant model, which means data from multiple customers might be housed on the same hardware resources. This model is fundamental to providing economies of scale and delivering cost advantages over the older model BPOS, which allowed for dedicated environments for larger customers – an option that is no longer available. 

UK customers can expect their data to be hosted primarily in Microsoft’s Dublin datacenter, with failover for resilience to Amsterdam. With Microsoft fully compliant with EU data legislation, data sovereignty barriers of old are removed except for the most critical of organisations, such as central government organisations.

Cost-effective alternatives

Public cloud offerings, such as Office 365, however, are not the only route to more cost-effective and scalable email services. For example, Computacenter’s C³Mail and Collaboration also provides access to Exchange, SharePoint and Lync, via a predictable ‘utility’ billing model.

Part of Computacenter’s pragmatic approach to cloud-based IT services, C³Mail and Collaboration offers the flexibility of a dedicated or shared infrastructure implemented and managed on your behalf either on-premises or in one of Computacenter’s high availability environments.

As with its public cloud counterparts, this approach limits the need for investment in internal infrastructure assets, support staff, and management methodologies and provides organisations with a predictable operational cost per month per mailbox.

Whether an organisation is ready for full cloud adoption or wants to retain an on-premises platform, Computacenter has the services and skills to help.

“We will help you find the right way to escape the constant cycle of expenditure on email and other workplace applications without compromising security or service levels. We have extensive experience of helping customers licence, design, migrate, upgrade and manage their enterprise email infrastructures, and typically transform around 150,000 mailboxes a year,” comments Andy.

Office 365: fact facts

• Microsoft intends to provide service updates to Office 365 every 90 days. Any new releases of applications, such as Exchange, will be made available to Office 365 subscribers in advance of traditional on-premise versions, which could result in competitive advantage
• Office 365 is a service offering, which means licences grant temporary use rights and do not have a buy back-to-perpetual provision
• Most elements of Office 365 were designed with the cloud in mind, while Business Productivity Online Standard was effectively retrofitted for cloud deployment
• Pre-configured plans E1 and K1 are expected to be the most applicable to enterprise customers
• Office 365 enables organisations to establish a hybrid environment with some users working via the cloud and others from on-premises deployments, thereby minimising the risk of business disruption if connectivity is lost

Find about how Office 365 could help your organisation

Microsoft Office 365 buyer’s Guide for the Enterprise

Read more about Computacenter’s C3Mail and Collaboration offering

From instant messaging and wikis to video conferencing and microblogging, the opportunities for collaboration in the workplace have never been greater.

Collaboration software will be one of the top application software growth segments this year. According to Gartner¹, “unified communications and collaboration will see increased adoption in 2012, and context-aware and presence-based computing will gain more traction in 2013″.

Adoption will be further accelerated by ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) strategies, which will inevitably drive greater levels of real-time collaboration regardless of the access device.

Although employing a wide array of collaboration channels can help businesses stimulate productivity and competitive advantage, it also represents a major operational and data security headache, which must be addressed by IT departments.

Pierre Hall, Workplace Solutions Director for Computacenter, comments: “As well as getting to grips with emerging collaboration technologies, IT departments need to ensure the continued availability and performance of more mature solutions, such as email.”

Safeguarding the user experience means ensuring that there is sufficient storage capacity, security controls and network bandwidth to support both current and future collaboration platforms.

The desire to shift towards using ‘social’ networking solutions as part of the corporate collaboration landscape means organisations must also adopt new policies and tools to ensure identity governance and data protection.

As a result, organisations will need to invest in a lot more than just new software if they are to meet the collaboration expectations of today’s connected workforce.

“The impetus for greater collaboration and a ‘borderless’ workplace often stems from employees rather than boardroom, with individuals increasingly regarding work as ‘something they do’ rather than ‘something they travel to’,” comments Pierre. “As well as demanding more collaboration choices, users also want a more integrated approach that spans multiple platforms, for example email, instant messaging and voice/video.”

Collaborating via the cloud

These growing demands both at a board and user level come at a time when CIOs are under relentless pressure to achieve more for less. Budget issues remain the most pressing challenge for 60 per cent of organisations, according to a survey by Loudhouse².

Against this backdrop of cost reduction, it’s not surprising that cloud computing is being heralded as a key enabler for collaboration. With its promise of scalability and utility pricing, cloud computing can offer a compelling and cost-effective alternative to internal datacenters.

Although organisations are increasingly evaluating alternative delivery models, such as software-as-a-service (SaaS) and the cloud, this is not yet leading to widespread adoption. According to Gartner³ “the big rush to cloud email and collaboration services will not be visible in earnest until 2012 to 2014.”

Matt Lovell, Computacenter’s Chief Technology Officer, comments: “Organisations’ reluctance to migrate can be attributed to ongoing concerns about security, user support and service levels in today’s nebulous and evolving public cloud market.”

Fifty per cent of organisations cite service level degradation and concerns over cost benefits not being realised as significant factors that could slow or prevent migration to the cloud2. Sunk investment in existing email and collaboration platforms can also impede adoption.

While CIOs wait for these issues to be addressed, the cost and complexity of delivering collaboration services to users will only intensify. “Organisations need a viable alternative to internal service delivery – and they need it now,” says Matt.

A pragmatic alternative

Many CIOs already recognise that the future of email and other collaboration applications lies outside the doors of the corporate datacenter. According to the Loudhouse survey, only nine per cent of organisations will host their email infrastructure internally by 2014 compared with today’s 58 per cent.

Instead organisations will leverage a blend of public and private clouds along with third party datacenters and shared infrastructures for a variety of desktop and end user collaboration applications.

“Organisations want to maximise their flexibility while also minimising operational and capital expenditure, which means reducing the number of applications hosted on internal infrastructures,” comments Matt. “Although public clouds are currently viewed as a step too far for many businesses, there are other alternatives that come with the same benefits and no added risk.”

For example, Computacenter’s C³Mail and Collaboration service delivers the same benefits of a public cloud – lower costs, utility consumption, greater agility – coupled with the security, performance, service integration and user support needed in today’s connected workplace.

Part of Computacenter’s pragmatic approach to cloud-based IT services, C³Mail and Collaboration offers the flexibility of a dedicated or shared infrastructure implemented and managed on your behalf either on-premise or in one of Computacenter’s high availability environments. This limits the need for investment in internal infrastructure assets, support staff, and management methodologies.

“By taking advantage of shared resources and industrialised processes, CIOs can not only cut costs but also provide users with rapid and reliable access to collaboration tools that will help boost productivity and flexibility,” comments Pierre.

Encompassing key collaboration tools, such as Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint and Lync, which includes instant messaging, video calling and web conferencing, C³Mail and Collaboration can be adapted to meet the needs of different user communities; implemented as part of a wider workplace transformation programme and integrated with public cloud offerings.

Simplifying the transition

As an independent advisor, Computacenter can also help the organisations that are considering adopting a public cloud approach to email and collaboration applications during the next 12 to 18 months.

For example, Computacenter can not only assist with advice on licensing Microsoft’s new cloud-based offering, Office 365, but also provide migration and service desk support.

Microsoft Office 365 combines the familiar Microsoft Office desktop suite with online versions of Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Lync.

“Microsoft Office 365 follows the trend towards more integrated collaboration and communication services,” explains Pierre. “As this and other new workplace technologies become available, organisations will need to evaluate how they deliver functionality and services to the business to ensure they are achieving maximum efficiency and continuing to control costs.”

With more vendors choosing to provision new workplace technologies via the cloud, organisations will soon find themselves operating a hybrid IT infrastructure that includes internal and external resources.

According to Gartner¹, “using cloud computing services to create environments in which multiple vendors participate in assembling, deploying, selling and consuming IT services will broaden in appeal.”

This blended approach will enable organisations to adopt cloud computing on a phased and pragmatic basis. As Matt explains, “Although collaboration services are being increasingly linked to cloud delivery models, many organisations will continue to host some applications on dedicated infrastructures either on or off site. Despite all the hype, cloud computing will not sound the death knell for the datacenter.”

Ensuring a return on investment

Organisations need to take an equally methodical approach to adopting the new collaboration technologies that are clamouring for attention – and precious IT budget.

Gartner⁴ cites that “even when there are reasonable expectations of business value, these are hard to quantify in a way that would justify such deployments in opposition to those who fear time wasting, loss of quality control and system abuse.”

“Although collaboration technologies have the potential to empower users to work faster and smarter, organisations need to ensure they are not seduced by this promise into implementing superfluous tools, especially when it comes to ‘social networking’,” comments Pierre. “Many organisations are already struggling to take full advantage of their existing collaboration tools, so new investments must come with a solid business case and measurable benefits.”

Gartner⁴ issues a similar warning: “Time and time again, we hear of organisations that have rolled out ‘social’ capabilities as an infrastructure play, rather than working with the business to supercharge the performance of selected special ad hoc teams. Projects focused on specific activities and defined business outcomes are the ones that will deliver the highest return on investment.”

As well as recognising the needs of diverse user groups, organisations need to understand how new applications will impact infrastructure operations and the pros and cons of different IT delivery options for their workplace collaboration strategy to be a success.

Simplicity is a major factor – with the workplace collaboration toolset constantly growing, users need straightforward and fast access, which can be achieved through a single interface and single sign-on.

“To meet the demand for greater workplace collaboration, IT departments will need to address a range of much wider issues, which will require an equally wide skills set,” comments Pierre. “Get the foundations right, and collaboration will be an enabler; get them wrong, and it could prove to be an expensive encumbrance.”

Find out how Computacenter can help you with your cloud strategy

The practical reality of Cloud
Read the full independent survey by Loudhouse Research

¹ Market Trends: Enterprise Software Markets Are Shifting From Bricks and Mortar to ‘BRIC and Mortals’, Gartner, January 2011
² Computacenter 2011 Cloud Computing survey, Loudhouse, January 2011,
³ E-Mail and Collaboration in the Cloud, Gartner, July 2010
⁴ Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace, Gartner, October 2010

Core to adoption considerations are a range of complications and a series of drivers which conflict with those complications to create the degree of interest and hype that has prevailed in IT Services thinking for the past two years.

Why the attraction?
Those who have adopted to date site their primary reason for the approach as flexibility – enabling growth, agility, efficiency and new services in their organisation.

Cost is undoubtedly a factor however the degree to which cost of purchase, cost of adoption and cost of ownership are considered and weighted may ultimately vary and may be difficult to establish.

The fabric of strategies for adoption could be segregated within the three core structural offerings availed to an organisation as broken out below where the degree of effect on the organisation’s operations increases moving right across the scale.

Apps on pay per use basis are in the minority, to date only some 10% of applications provided in the cloud utilise a pay per use commercial model. The extent of applications yet to migrate commercial models which deliver on cost to output matching demands may be limiting adoption and progress.

Hype vs reality
In late 2009 Gartner produced the hype cycle diagram below which shows SAAS expectations being fulfilled at the tail of disillusionment and into a phase of enlightenment. Considering the reality of adoption, DR infrastructure and backup are at the vanguard with Storage operations also significant, whilst end user solutions adopted are lead by email and collaboration. Broadly speaking enterprise and productivity applications are yet to demonstrate a significant cloud presence.

Considerations for the CIO
A Cloud Industry Forum survey recently cited security as a principal cause of concern. Security coupled with privacy (primarily reliable data management and access controls) is logically a point of focus where report driven applications are utilised.

Internet dependence and reliability of networks to enable timely access on demand, efficiency and productivity in mission critical high turnover services was also cited as a barrier to expanding use of cloud services. Availability of solutions and dependence thereon being a critical point but also speed, not just of download but upload across global networks and reliance on bandwidth in areas less well served are potentially key limiters to widespread adoption of end user SAAS solutions.

Location effects such as globalised vs localised data storage, regulation, stability and reliability are considered critical by some, arguably more so in public sector. Challenges associated with foreign laws, capacity to reclaim damages, timezones, wars and terrorism may all create risks which are both difficult to overcome and mitigate against.

Cloud control
Market solutions condensed on fewer instances will reduce a number of principally hardware related overheads against which the cost of transition, acquisition and migration should be modelled to identify relative return.

SLA management and re-orientation of skills will be associated costs of transition and may be considered operating costs and budgeted on a reducing basis as efficiencies increase and cultural effects reduce over time.

Increased flexibility and adoption timescales will both be difficult to identify and measure as intangible items which will affect efficiency of operations rather than procurement or 3rd party costs. Acquisition costs will however be clearer and may be considered as a contributor to increased flexibility through ease of procurement and adoption.

Commercial considerations should include licence mobility and transition costs including the potentially significant cost of data migration. Many existing contracts may be restrictive in nature and require either competitive replacement or repurchase. Identifying or negotiating capacity to migrate existing software licences to the cloud should be an early strategic consideration for all options analysis.

Visibility of billing as part of the governance processes in Software Asset Management will play a role in confirming savings and managing supplier relationships. Measuring access to applications will require URL monitoring and vendor driven reporting however tools which enable effective monitoring of application usage through the cloud as a 3rd party management function are yet to emerge.

Wherever the relative return equation provides justification for transition, the approach should be subject to a risk analysis before identifying acceptable contract terms to mitigate perceived risks.

Resources:

• C3: Computacenter can reduce the risk of cloud service adoption
• Computacenter launches cloud offering: read press release

Since ratification of dash two, the working group has continued to lobby vendors of applications and management tools to adopt the standard thus passing on benefits to Software Asset Managers as new versions of products are adopted.

Alongside that lobbying, progress has been made to address the zero pass status of ISO19770-1 originally ratified in 2006.

The realities of certification against the original process standard 19770-1 were investment required, a lack of tangible business benefit to justify that investment and weight of evidencing outcomes through heavy prescription of documentation. A number of organisations chose to take a programmatic view of the content and aligned their approach to core principals which could be practically implemented and drive software asset management benefits.

As we progress into 2011 an opportunity for those organisations that have developed their own internal programmes to be certified in a more manageable fashion is approaching. Accordingly any organisation could prepare to achieve certification against best practice in stages which correspond to natural levels of development and management priority.

The working group responsible for managing ongoing Software Asset Management (SAM) standard ratification has developed a set of tiers which will enable progressive certification against component elements of the original standard, thus scaling down the extent of commitment required to receive recognition.

Introducing a Tiered Approach to SAM Certification

Figure 1 – The proposed tiers for certification against best practice

In order to prove conformance with licensing usage rights and establish an accurate view of the net licence position having good data will almost always comes first.  Regardless of whether an organisation calls for an independent party to complete a proactive engagement or vendor-initiated licensing audit, there is often a major gap between what is found and what was believed to be the case.  At this stage management will typically realise both the significance of exposures and of opportunities for improvement, including in security and in cost savings.

Formal research into SAM adoption clarified that license compliance was consistently the top priority for all categories of respondents.  The first tier, ‘Trustworthy Data’, provides a sound basis for repeatable license compliance and expenditure risk management.

Question: What GOALS is your organisation trying to achieve with your SAM programme?

Figure 2 – Software Industry Research Board 2010 survey showing minimising costs of compliance shortfalls as the most prevalent Software Asset management goal of UK organisations.

Division into tiers will not imply that processes and deliverables from previous tiers remain fixed.  The accomplishment of senior tiers may result in changes to underlying processes and to the deliverables of lower tiers in order to facilitate greater efficiency and effectiveness.  Nevertheless the objectives and outcomes for the underlying process areas must continue to be met.

Although each tier can be certified separately, the progressive structure relies on the continued performance of the previous tiers.  In practical terms, this would typically mean that an organisation going through a certification exercise for one tier would complete a concurrent review for any previous tier or tiers.

Realising Business Benefit – One Step at a Time

When management does take ownership of SAM issues as a result of having good data, there tend to be two different drives to actions taken.  Most typically, mitigation projects are initiated to correct problems identified, and obtain ‘quick wins’. Secondly, improvements in management controls are developed, such as clarification of roles and responsibilities, and revised release or procurement processes.

Improvements in efficiency and effectiveness are cited as expected benefits from SAM, however potentially not obtained to the level possible, as they typically require significant implementation effort involving process integration, re-design and collaboration.  However, an organisation is more likely to proceed down this path after already realising benefits of ‘quick wins’ and justifying investment.

To successfully develop and manage inventories of trustworthy data for all software titles in the estate will represent a significant challenge for many organisations.  Similarly integrating management processes across departments and teams with varying objectives will require investment of time and resource to achieve and sustain. The critical nature of management information to institute change establishes sound inventory data as the priority requirement.

Software savings are associated not with standard conformance or compliance but the management of licences within a best practice structure. Enhanced procurement process, strategy and execution to achieve a balance where optimisation and compliance meet thus using what is owned for business benefit and owning no more than is required delivers that return. The logic of tier one, appropriately executed, creates the mechanism to deliver cost saving and risk management benefits.

Tiered Structure Explained

The table below outlines the approach taken to establishing the proposed four tiers to enable progressive certification of conformance with ISO 19770-1. Ratification of this approach as a formalised standard is yet to progress and the approach open for comment currently. Regardless of the organisation’s desire for certification the structure identified establishes a logical progression for any organisation looking to adopt a mature approach to Software Asset Management.

For more information on driving benefits from your SAM programme contact your account manager or the author directly at Stephen.White@computacenter.com.

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The Software Industry Research Board’s (SIRB) 2010 research identified that organisations which embrace an effective SAM programme will include within the outcomes thereof a reduction in their software expenditures of 20%.

The research also concluded that nearly 90% of organisations fall short of developing a mature SAM operation and thereby are not realising full benefits which may be available.

Computacenter, as a founding member of SIRB has commissioned a podcast* in which business and technology journalist, Stephen Pritchard, interviews Matt Fisher, Chairman of the SIRB on what is an effective Software Asset Management programme and how implementing one can help organisations to manage their software estate to match their cost and risk management requirements in today’s environment.

Listen to the podcast here.

*Podcast duration 8 minutes.

The self assessment takes about 10 mins and is hosted from an IBM site, so is trustworthy.

But the benefits and insights you could gain from taking the test could be valuable to understanding what your security strategy should be going forward.  Plus the test is free… so what is the harm.

You can find the assessment here.

Read more about IBM security solutions here.

Computacenter are happy to discuss security solutions which are appropriate for your business, so contact your Computacenter account manager or email software@computacenter.com.

www.computacenter.com/IBM

New research reveals organisations need to optimise their software lifecycle management processes to gain maximum financial benefit.

Nine out of ten organisations are failing to realise the full savings associated with software asset management (SAM), according to research by analysts IDC.

Although the survey revealed that an effective SAM programme will result in a good return on investment, it also highlighted that many cost-saving opportunities are being overlooked.

By adopting an effective SAM strategy, organisations unlock cost savings by:

• Reducing the risk of non-compliance
• Lowering licensing costs
• Harvesting existing software assets and investments
• Minimising the resources required to manage software licensing.

“We now have peace of mind that we are fully compliant with our licensing agreements.”

Barry Patton
Desktop Services Manager
Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust

Read the full case study

Sponsored by the Software Industry Research Board, the survey shows that 42 per cent of organisations with even basic SAM programmes are achieving savings, while those with formalised SAM processes have been able to cut their costs by 20 per cent or more.

The research, which involved 600 organisations in the UK, divides SAM programmes into four maturity levels according to certain criteria and the recommendations are clear: to gain greater cost benefits and enhance performance, organisations should work towards increasing their SAM maturity.

Computacenter’s SAM services are designed to drive organisations to meet this objective by improving their understanding of their software estates. From one-off software asset appraisal services that help align licensing with actual usage to ongoing end to end software licence management, Computacenter’s services enable organisations at every level of SAM maturity to reap greater savings throughout the software lifecycle.

Breaking down the barriers to effective SAM

Many organisations, are slow to prioritise SAM programmes. According to IDC’s research, three of the main barriers for organisations in establishing effective SAM strategies are:

1. A lack of budget
2. Insufficient staff
3. Poor technical knowledge.

Computacenter’s software services can  remove these barriers. Our experts have extensive knowledge of the intricacies of software licensing and our services deliver measurable financial outcomes.

Computacenter deploy managed services through to the highest degree of SAM maturity enabling organisations to unlock financial savings  Managing a process for re-harvesting software licences when disposing of hardware assets as a key outcome. IDC’s research showed that 34 per cent of organisations with fewer than 500 desktops were not gathering software licences for reuse – this rose to 46 per cent for organisations with more than 1,500 desktops.

To mitigate the time and cost associated with re-allocating licences, IDC recommends investing in licence management software to make the process repeatable and automated. With its extensive industry knowledge, Computacenter can enable organisations to identify and implement the tools and processes that are best suited to their budget, size and requirements. We can also provide these capabilities on a permanent or temporary service basis, reducing the workload for internal teams and safeguarding good governance.

According to the IDC research, organisations that fail to implement such measures as part of an effective SAM programme will be locked in a cycle of over-purchasing, audit violations and non-compliance. All of which means increased overhead and complexity for organisations at a time when they need to streamline their budgets and processes.

SAM cost reduction areas pinpointed by 581 survey respondents:

Computacenter and SIRB

Computacenter are founding members and key advisors within SIRB as the only independent practitioners and solution providers founding and supporting the body responsible for driving software asset management best practice.

As members Computacenter:

• Assist in the development and formalisation of best practices encouraging organisations to adopt Software Licence Management initiatives
• Participate in the design and focus of the SIRB annual research programme conducted by IDC.
• Analyse research results agreeing key educational activities to be undertaken by the SIRB
• Deliver White Papers presenting and analysing research outcomes
• Participate in two-way structured feedback between industry and End Users
• Champion best practice awareness and adoption

For more information please contact your Computacenter account manager.

Oracle has just introduced a new solution for social services agencies that’s designed to help case workers address the challenges of rising workloads and growing demands by citizens for additional services.

The new Oracle Social Services Solution enables agency wide management of benefits, case tracking, and disbursements.  It’s built using the latest releases of Oracle Siebel 8.2 and Oracle Policy Automation 10, along with prebuilt software interfaces that allow the programs to easily share data with each other.

In the past, IT departments developed custom software in an effort to meet program outcomes.  Because this capability is out of the box with the Oracle solution, there’s less complexity for organisations and an overall lower total cost of ownership.

Oracle Siebel 8.2, which was created specifically for social services organisations, will enable client-centric and integrated service delivery.  This helps eliminate duplicate systems and ineffective programs that don’t meet program objectives.

Contact your Computacenter Account Manager for more information and to gain access to our skilled Oracle Solutions experts, or email software@computacenter.com.

In just 15 minutes, a new self-assessment tool from Oracle benchmarks participants’ IT performance relative to both industry average and top performers—and offers broad insight into current performance and future strategies.

Participants immediately receive a detailed, personalised report that includes a comparison of IT spending levels, process maturity, and best practices.

The report also offers an in-depth analysis of IT spend by category—from IT management to help desk support—versus industry average and top performers, with figures based on Datamonitor’s 2008 IT budget survey.

In addition, the report provides:-

• Benchmarks for flexibility and ability to innovate
• An estimate of potential benefits of transforming application management
• Concrete ways that Oracle can help achieve such transformation

Go here to try the Assessment tool for yourself : http://www.oracle.com/ondemand/it-value-assessment.html

And the Software Services & Solutions team at Computacenter have all the knowledge and expertise to offer you a more bespoke service; contact your Computacenter Account Manager for more info.

The portal simplifies the online technical support experience, reduces the time it takes to find information needed to solve problems, and alerts users to information that can help them avoid problems.

Visit the portal today and discover a tool that could prove invaluable in supporting business productivity.