Dévoiler la valeur cachée grâce à la gestion des actifs logiciels

[0:00] Nix: Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening. Welcome to today’s session, Unlocking Hidden Value with Software Asset Management. I’m Nix, your host for this webinar. In the next 20 minutes, we’ll explore how shifting the view of software from a cost center to a business asset can help your organization unlock new value. You’ll hear how usage analytics and smarter license strategies can align software spend with real business outcomes, leading to greater efficiency, clarity, and ROI. Feel free to send in your questions using the Q&A panel at the top of your screen. We’ll cover as many as we can live and follow up after the session if needed. Now, let’s meet our speakers for today.

[0:44] From Open iT, Inc., David brings 25 years of leadership experience from ConocoPhillips and BP with deep expertise in digital product strategy, asset optimization, and aligning technology with business outcomes. From Optimal, Finlay has a background in IT systems and marketing with a strong focus on software asset management. He brings a solution focused approach to helping clients turn digital challenges into measurable business results. Let’s welcome David and Finlay.

[1:14] David: Lovely. Thank you very much, Nix. Great to be here. Also great to be here with Finlay. I’ve done a few of these webinars and I’m usually on my own, and actually Finlay here, this is Finlay’s second webinar of the day. To do them together is kind of fun and we’re actually speaking to you from Scotland where we both live and it’s a beautiful sunny day outside. It’s a bit of a shame we can’t do it from outside but here we are. We’re doing it inside. What are we going to talk about? We’re going to go through a little bit of what our respective companies provide. Finlay will talk a little bit about Optimal and I will talk a little bit about Open iT and how that fits into their overall offering, and then really what it is that is the advantage of having those two things together, why it makes sense to have software asset management as part of an overall wider asset management strategy or program, and then a little bit about some of the resistance to some of the proactive parts of software asset management. We’ll go through some of that as well and then a bit of a conclusion and some questions. So let’s get going. First of all, I’ll hand over to Finlay.

[2:43] Finlay: Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you everyone for joining us today. Hopefully my accent isn’t too strong. If you need subtitles, just pop them in the chat and we’ll get to it later on. Some of you might be familiar with Optimal already, but I’ll briefly go through who we are and what we do. We are Optimal. We simplify the complexities of asset management allowing our clients to focus on achieving their mission. Our expertise spans many aspects and industries such as oil and gas, engineering, power generation, manufacturing, utilities, nuclear as well. Whether it’s asset reliability, maintenance planning, or intelligent asset management, we’re here to support you on your journey. We have an office in Aberdeen, Scotland where we are currently, and also offices in Johannesburg and projects in other parts of the world as well.

[4:03] I’ll go through the four main areas of our projects and how we help support people. Operational readiness, having the staff, processes and systems in place to safely and efficiently begin or sustain operations without disruption. Operations and maintenance, having the tools to efficiently execute maintenance and operational activities from day one, helping to avoid unplanned downtime and making maintenance more efficient. Digital engineering, optimization, design delivery and life cycle management of complex systems from the outset, including computerized maintenance management systems, asset performance management, and intelligent asset management. Lastly, advisory and optimization, aligning strategy, processes, performance insights to ensure you’re making informed decisions and continuously improving your operational outcomes.

[5:48] A little bit more about us. Our philosophy is striving to make projects easier, taking control of software and hardware and using the experience that we have to have a proactive approach to maintenance rather than a reactive one. A reactive approach is more traditional, you wait for something to break and then you fix it, whereas this is using experience and failure causes to get ahead of maintenance so you have your spares and everything in place. We support you through every aspect of a project from planning to decommissioning, cradle to grave. Asset management has been focused on physical assets but we’ve come to see software as an asset too, which is why we’re here.

[6:56] What is software as an asset? Software has generally been seen as a sunk cost, a necessary tool, but at Optimal and Open iT we treat that as a valuable business asset. This includes applications, licenses, usage data and documentation, and just like hardware, software can be strategically managed across its life cycle from acquisition to retirement. Treating software as an asset allows organizations to reduce costs, improve IT efficiency and security, strengthen compliance and unlock long-term value. We say up to about 20 or 30% savings, but it depends on the business.

[8:02] The key benefits are cost reduction, eliminating unused licenses and investing savings elsewhere, risk mitigation by staying compliant with vendor terms, operational efficiency by right-sizing software to actual needs, and strategic planning by forecasting future needs accurately and aligning usage with strategy.

[9:02] David: I’ll hand it over to myself to talk a little bit about Open iT. I like that last point, right-size software to actual needs. That’s a key one. You mentioned the why, and Open iT provides the how. Who in an organization cares about this? Often you have the business setting the strategy, finance constraints, and IT managing the assets. The groups responsible for software asset management sit between those corners. Open iT empowers them because it gives good data that allows them to make decisions.

[11:10] On a practical level, what is Open iT? It looks at runtime, license servers, check-in and checkout, who is using licenses and for how long, usage patterns, denials, and summarizes this information. It can enable an agent on desktops or cloud platforms to see true active use, looking at mouse, keyboard, CPU usage. If the software merits it, especially high-value engineering software, reclaiming licenses becomes appropriate. If licenses are not being used, you can bring them back into the pool and redistribute them.

[13:05] Open iT answers who is using an application, who used it in the past, how long, where they sit, and details of usage. You can view data through a web-based interface with reports and heat maps, or export data to tools like Excel, Tableau, Spotfire, or Power BI. It integrates with other data, making it easier for anyone to use.

[14:03] This is what it looks like. A web-based interface showing real-time use, historical usage, opportunities, whether you’re hitting your high watermark or have a gap between usage and entitlement. Heat maps show peak usage times. Financial analysis is important to tie software assets to costs. For example, a Power BI dashboard for Autodesk helps track usage and budget.

[16:13] There was an example of an organization paying for software that had become obsolete with a move to cloud computing. It had been paid for years with nobody using it. With good analytics, that became clear quickly and resulted in significant savings.

[17:43] What you’re trying to achieve is aligning what you’re paying for with what you’re actually using. The aim of Open iT data is to bring those into line. Open iT in a nutshell gives you that insight. It makes sense to combine it with a wider asset management strategy because they are symbiotically linked. Understanding infrastructure, dependencies, support, and security helps drive efficiency and cost savings.

[20:16] Finlay: I’ll pose some questions about resistance to proactive software asset management. The first is, I already spend so much on software, I don’t want to spend extra on new software to manage my other software.

[21:06] David: Using a tool like Open iT reduces your software costs and complexity. It doesn’t take much for it to pay for itself. You go after the easiest opportunities first, your most expensive software and contracts coming up for renewal.

[23:06] Finlay: The second is inertia, it’s easier to keep things the way they are.

[23:18] David: The example of unused software being paid for shows why staying still is going backwards. Being empowered by good data makes change less scary and helps break down barriers.

[24:39] Finlay: The third is we have all these users, we need a certain number of licenses.

[24:53] David: It’s understandable, but if business leaders understand what is actually being used, it becomes easier to make decisions. You may find supporting users using expensive licenses unnecessarily, and adjust accordingly.

[27:18] Finlay: Lastly, we don’t want to upset our users.

[27:26] David: With license harvesting, unused licenses are returned to the pool. Initially people may be defensive, but in reality users feel empowered because they can still do their job. The best feedback is when users say it doesn’t bother them.

[29:33] In summary, combining software asset management with wider asset management is foundational. Good data leads to good decisions, overcomes inertia, and drives efficiency. There’s a reason successful companies use these strategies, it works.

[30:39] Nix: Thank you David and Finlay. We’ll move on to questions. We only have time for one question. What is a typical ROI we see in a process like this?

[31:23] David: That’s the right question. If you focus on biggest costs and upcoming contract negotiations, a 20 to 30% ROI is realistic, especially where software hasn’t been proactively managed.

[32:18] Nix: That concludes our Q&A. This webinar was recorded and you’ll receive a link to the replay. You’ll also find it on our webinars on demand page at openit.com. Please send us your feedback via the survey. Contact us with the details on your screen and follow Open iT, Inc. on social media. If you’d like to connect with Finlay or learn more about Optimal, the details are here as well. Once again, I’m Nix. Thank you for spending time with us today. We’ll see you at the next webinar.