Currently, operation of companies is entirely dependent on information and communication technologies (ICT) which are used across all indfustries. There are bigger demands that are placed on the management of individual assets, while software is the most problematic from this perspective. It is necessary for companies to pay sufficient attention to this issue, because there is a high risk of financial penalties in case of its failure. The first objective of this thesis is to provide basic characteristics of Software Asset Management (SAM) belonging to Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), which is one of the few adressing this area in an entirely way. This objective is default condition for achieving the second objective, where will be analyzed specific case of software asset management in the banking sector. On the basis of the analysis will be accepted proposals for implemention of best practises of SAM. The third objective is enrichment of previous proposals by parts of request for proposal, which are focused on detailed specification of the required functionality of software tools according to SAM. The all tasks will be achieved through the study of relevant sources and through techniques that help with analysis and definition of the future state. The benefits of thesis are in to identification of gaps within software asset management, which obtained through employee survey. The second contribution is to propose changes in the form of specific steps that should help to bring more efficiency to the current state. The last contribution is to summarise new pieces of knowledge, which are extending this issue by information focused on large organisations.

During a six-month period, the author has studied, observed and analyzed the situation within Skanska ITN, headquartered in Haga Norra, Sweden. Licenses and supplier relationships and management of these are areas Skanska ITN, which delivers and manages IT services and products to Skanska AB, would like to have investigated and analyzed. The problem reveals itself in the current situation because there is no process for managing software asset management (SAM), i.e. management of licenses and software. There are significant savings to be made when it comes to managing licenses and dealing with suppliers. The purpose of this paper is to identify the processes in dealing with the sourcing of licenses, products and services related to IT and to propose a suitable recommendation that can be adopted by Skanska ITN and the SAM processes. During the study the author found several factors such as lack of responsibility and a defined purpose of the SAM process, which had been defined by the global IT department (GSU IT). These were affecting the parties involved and their work tasks regarding sourcing and purchasing licenses.   Three suggestions for improvements and implementations have been presented and these are: Connect the SAM and purchase relationship with IT roadmaps and Enterprise Architecthure (EA) Initiate a common platform as a forum for sharing documents and agreements which can be stored and managed by the SM3 model Examine and analyze the licenses and agreements within the current situation. To be able to perform this a common policy and purpose must be defined for a SAM tool. / Under en sexmånadersperiod har författaren studerat, observerat samt analyserat situationen på Skanska ITNs huvudkontor i Haga Norra, Stockholm. Licenser och inköpsrelationer och hantering av dessa är områden som Skanska ITN, vilka leverarar och förvaltar IT tjänster och produkter för Skanska AB, vill ha undersökta och analyserade. Problemet grundar sig i att det i dagsläget ej finns en process för att hantera software asset management (SAM), i.e. hantering av mjukvara och licenser. Det finns betydande besparingar att göra när det kommer till att hantera licenser och relationer med leverantörer. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att identifiera potentiella processer för att hantera inköp av licenser, produkter och tjänster relaterade till IT, samt rekommendera en kvalificerad lösning som kan anammas av Skanska ITN och SAM processerna, vilken kan identifiera svagheter och brister och optimera dessa. Under studiens gång fann författaren faktorer såsom brist på ansvarsområden och syfte med den SAM process som hade definierats av den globala IT avdelningen (GSU IT), vilken påverkar inblandade parter och dess arbetsområden. Tre förslag till förbättringar och implementationer har presenterats och dessa är: Koppla SAM och inköpsrelationen mot IT roadmaps och Enterprise Erchitecture (EA) Initiera en gemensam plattform i form av ett forum där delning av dokument och avtal kan lagras vilken kan förvaltas av SM3 modellen Inventera samt analysera de licenser och avtal som existerar i dagsläget och de som bör omförhandlas. För att det ska kunna ske måste ett syfte och direktiv vara aktuellt för vilket SAM verktyg som ska användas.

This thesis is a study about the difficulties managing software assets within larger organizations.Software Asset Management (SAM) is a fairly new practice which has started to be used byorganizations in order to track and manage software assets throughout their life cycle. Existingliterature states that organizations have challenges with the increasing complexity, which comesalong when buying software products from manufacturers. However, the lack of academicresearch, due to the rapid development of technology has been limited. The purpose of this paperis to explore the challenges that large organizations are confronted with when managing softwareassets. A mixed study approach was conducted with main focus on a qualitative approach,where five persons with mainly long experience in Software Asset Management, whereinterviewed. In addition, a survey was sent out to employees who work with IT, to capture ageneral aspect on the topic. The findings of the study include the identified challenges of SAM,which are divided in four main areas. Further, the paper highlights the importance and success ofSoftware Asset Management.

Diploma thesis Design of software asset management tasks is focused on area of software asset management in business sector. In a time of still accelerating development of information and communication technologies is Software asset management (SAM) important component of ICT business management. Financial risks of failure to comply licensing terms or rules of licensing often exceed the value of owned software. However, the essence of SAM is not only in eliminating the financial risks, but also in enhancing ICT security or gaining competitive advantage while respecting the SAM principles. Main goal of this thesis is to analyze software asset management and design tasks to reference model of ICT management MBI. This theses is divided into two parts. First part characterizes SAM, licensing and related topics. First part is based on specialized sources and information from literary research. The output is a comprehensive summary of this issue, which serves as theoretical base for next part of this thesis. Second part is devoted to designing the task of Software asset management, the task of Software audit and defining its links to other objects in the MBI model. Furthermore, this thesis creates new objects like roles, methods or documents. Second part is based on theoretical base which was created in the first part and from consultations with IT field experts. The outputs are tasks which are implemented in the MBI model. Goal is fulfilled after creating these outputs. The benefits of this thesis are mostly the tasks extending MBI model and offering best practice for software asset management and software audit. Outcomes of this thesis should help users of reference model and IT community in general.

Dans le Cloud, peu de travaux traitent de l’analyse de l’usage réel et dynamique des logiciels consommés afin de déterminer les coûts réels engendrés et le respect des droits acquis auprès des fournisseurs de ces ressources. L’émergence de la pratique du Software Asset Management (SAM) traduit pourtant la préoccupation grandissante des industriels et des ‘Telcos’ (Entreprises de télécommunications) face à la complexité des modèles de licences dans des environnements virtualisés qui bouleversent nos usages de logiciel.La réponse des éditeurs de logiciel est souvent une incitation à ne plus suivre la consommation de licences, par le biais de contrats onéreux de consommation illimitée, rendant impossible une politique de maîtrise des coûts. Pour les utilisateurs finaux comme pour les fournisseurs de services cloud, il devient impératif de maîtriser et d’optimiser le déploiement des licences dans le Cloud.L’objectif devient celui de maitriser les besoins logiciels, au plus proche du temps réel, puis de générer des scénarii d’optimisation basés sur l’évolution de la consommation en modélisant les coûts réels afférents. Cela représente un levier de gains considérables pour tous les acteurs du cycle de vie du logiciel.Le contexte d’étude couvre l’ensemble du scope du Cloud (applications, plateformes, infrastructures et réseaux). Les travaux présentés ici s’attache à reconstituer tout le cycle de vie du logiciel, de l’achat jusqu’à la désinstallation, en intégrant les contraintes liées à sa nature ou à son usage. Nous proposons de résoudre le verrou majeur de l’identification du logiciel et de ses droits d’usage par la création et le suivi d’un tag.Nous proposons également une modélisation innovante s’appuyant sur une base de données graphe qui permet d’intégrer l’instantanéité des changements de configuration, de prendre en compte les différentes responsabilités impliquées par les niveaux de services offerts, tout en offrant la souplesse nécessaire pour supporter à la fois des modèles de licence classiques, ou à l’usage.Deux cas d’usages seront envisagés pour juger de la pertinence des modèles proposés : la gestion des licences dans un contexte de Plateforme as a Service (PaaS) et dans un cas de virtualisation de réseau (NFV). / Bout Cloud, only few works deals with dynamic and real usage analyse of deployed software in order to determine the true related costs, and licensing compliance with acquired rights from the software editors.However, the emergence of Software Asset Management (SAM) shows the growing concerns of the industry and carriers facing the licensing model complexity especially in virtualized environments where the software usage is disrupted.Editor’s answer consists in proposing to stop following this consumption via very expensive illimited-usage contracts. It makes impossible implementation of true cost management policies. For final users like for cloud service providers, it is crucial to manage and optimize license deployment in cloud environments.The aim is first to control Software need, as close as possible to real time, then to generate optimization scenario based on consumption evolution by cost modelization.It represents a valuable saving leverage and may let spring up new licensing model, more profitable for each software lifecycle’s stakeholders.Usage context covers all scope of Cloud (application, infrastructure and network). Our works propose to rebuild the Software life-cycle, from procurement to deinstallation, encompassing the constraints of it nature and usages. We propose to solve software identification issue by creation and monitoring of tags.Additionally, we propose an innovative modeling based on a graph database which allows instant integration of configuration changes, to take into account the different level of responsibility induced by the different level of granted services. It offers enough flexibility to handle classical licensing models as use-based model which are often more attractive for cloud-users.Two use-cases will be developed to evaluate our models ‘efficiency : the software licensing management in PaaS (Plateform as a Service) context and in NFV environments (Network Function Virtualization).

This work deals with software asset management, types of managed software licenses and also the standards that are related to processes of software asset management. There are specified requirements for a system for SAM (Software Asset Management) and also the design of the system. It deals with the description of the system implementation with the chosen implementation environment, followed with testing of this system and evaluation of results.