5 Best Practices For Software License Management

An inappropriate software license management can cost your organization time and affect the SaaS budget. That will impact overall productivity and efficiency. However, by implementing best practices, you can tackle the poor software license management scenario and improve production and efficiency, which will help you streamline your business processes. 

Despite technological advancements, several organizations still practice manual methods to manage software licenses. It makes it difficult to track which software licenses have been acquired and is still needed, making it difficult to audit the organization's software usage accurately.

As a result, it affects the overall efficiency and productivity of the IT teams. Not to forget, the mismanagement of licenses invites several unwanted security risks along the way. 

Can you afford to waste resources and your crucial time as a growing enterprise? Obviously, no, right? So the optimal way to deal with these challenges is to replace the traditional manual methods with an automated solution to manage software licenses effectively. 

Before exploring an automated solution, let's first understand what software license management is and why it is crucial. 

What is Software License Management?   

In simple terms, software license management is the process of tracking, managing, and controlling the use of software licenses within an organization. That includes monitoring the installation and usage of software, ensuring compliance with licensing agreements, and managing the procurement and renewal of licenses. 

SLM aims to optimize the use of licenses and reduce costs while ensuring compliance with legal and contractual requirements. However, the ultimate question is why it is essential to manage software licenses.

Why is Software License Management Important? 

There are several reasons why SLM is crucial for your organization, a few of them are stated below. 

• Compliance: Organizations are legally and contractually obligated to comply with the software licenses' terms and conditions. Failure to comply results in legal penalties and fines.

• Cost Savings: By effectively managing software licenses, organizations can avoid overspending and use all licenses to their full potential.

• Security: Unauthorized software and outdated versions can introduce vulnerabilities and security risks to an organization. Software license management ensures that only authorized software is used and that they are updated.

• Auditing: Many companies and organizations are audited by third parties, software vendors, or government agencies. Without proper software license management, producing the information required for such audits can be difficult to present, and you might end up paying fines and penalties.

• IT Asset Management: Software license management is essential to IT asset management. It ensures the organization has an accurate inventory of its software assets, which is crucial for budgeting, planning, and decision-making.

After getting a detailed idea about software license management, the ultimate question arises of which tool to opt for. As you will come across various software license management tools, but it's up to you which one to choose. Well, Zluri is one such tool that effectively manages software licenses. Now you must be wondering, what is Zluri? How will it manage your organization's software licenses?

Basically, Zluri is a competent automated platform that provides software license management solutions. With Zluri, you get an overview of all the software licenses used across your organization in a single dashboard. In addition, it helps you track application usage, and accordingly, you can eliminate redundant software licenses. 

Furthermore, Zluri automates IT tasks such as reporting on the use of licenses, identifying and altering when licenses are approaching expiration, and conducting audits to get security updates to secure the crucial data of security breaches. Besides that, it automates the process of renewing licenses. 

With Zluri, you can check whether the software meets compliance standards to avoid paying hefty penalties. Additionally, it helps you right-size the licenses to suitable tiers avoiding unnecessary SaaS expenses. 

Now, let's proceed toward the best practices your organization can implement to smoothen the flow of work.

Here're The 5 Best Practices For SLM 

Below are the 5 best practices for software license management that will streamline your business processes.

1. Create a central license inventory 

Why will you need a central license inventory when you can manually check it? It is just an addition to the complex process of managing software licenses. If you have that perspective, then you have a lot to consider.  

Creating a central license inventory is crucial to software license management as it helps organizations keep track of all their software licenses in one place. In addition, that makes it easier to monitor and manage the use of licenses. 

Not only this, it helps you understand the usage patterns and identify areas where licenses can be reallocated to better align with business needs; in this way, you can fully optimize the licenses. Furthermore, managing software upgrades and renewals is easier when viewing all the licenses in a single place. 

Overall, creating a central license inventory is a practical step in SLM as it gives enterprises the visibility and control they need to optimize their software assets and ensure compliance. 

2. Identify the number of licenses required 

With the organization's growth, there is an increase in the requirement for more software licenses to meet the needs. But the catch here is that you need to identify the number of licenses actually required for your business. So how will you do that? 

To ensure your enterprise is using the right number of licenses and not overspending on them, here are some factors that you must take into consideration: 

• The number of users that will be using the software 

• The type of licenses required, for example, perpetual or subscription

• The organization's growth plans and future needs 

• The organization's budget and financial constraints  

These factors will allow organizations to identify the required license accurately, and accordingly, you can right-size the licenses to suitable tiers. That will help you avoid paying for the software licenses that are not being used and reduce the SaaS expenses. Instead, you can utilize that money to purchase software licenses that are used more or required in other business operations.

3. Ensure compliance with software license agreements 

Compliance is a deal-breaker while purchasing software licenses. Unfortunately, you cannot avoid it. If you still want to continue with non-compliant software, then be ready to pay hefty penalties. 

Ensuring compliance with software license agreements is necessary because it ensures that the software is used in accordance with the software vendor's terms and conditions. These terms and conditions often include limitations on the number of users that can access the software, the duration of usage, and the specific use cases for which the software can be used. 

Furthermore, if you fail to comply with these terms, it will result in legal action taken by the software vendor, and you may end up paying fines. Additionally, non-compliance can lead to unexpected costs, as organizations may have to purchase additional licenses or upgrade to a more expensive software version. 

The feasible option is to comply with software license agreements that will also help you avoid the risk of data breaches and other security risks that can arise from using unlicensed software.

4. Eliminate redundant software licenses

Many times, either by fault or unknowingly, organizations purchase software that provides similar functionalities. It happens quite often in large organizations because, in most scenarios, IT teams need to identify redundant and duplicate applications as they rely on manual methods. That consumes money and time, affecting productivity.

For instance, when an organization has multiple redundant licenses for the same software, it will pay for the same functionality multiple times. Also, managing various licenses for the same software can be time-consuming and sometimes needs clarification for the IT team with duplicate functionality. 

So, the effective way to deal with this scenario is to eliminate redundant software licenses with the help of automation. You can automate the identifying process to help you track individual software features and analyze which software provides the same functionality. Thus, you can eliminate the software and avoid paying for its license. 

Additionally, eliminating redundant licenses is also beneficial for inventory management and reporting, making it easier to track, plan and budget for the software assets, ensuring that the organization is not wasting money on unnecessary software licenses and securing the crucial data from potential security breaches. Also, to ensure organizations use the software most efficiently and cost-effectively  

5. Conduct regular audits

The audit is a gateway to obtaining real-time insights into the software license management process. In addition, regular audits allow organizations to identify and address discrepancies between their software usage and purchased licenses. 

That can help prevent the overuse or misuse of software licenses, which can lead to legal issues and fines from software vendors. Audits also help organizations identify and reclaim underutilized or redundant licenses, which can help to reduce costs.

Additionally, conducting periodic audits helps IT teams keep track of software license statuses, such as their expiration date, renewal dates, and more. 

Moreover, regular audits help organizations maintain an accurate inventory of their software assets, which is vital for budgeting, planning, and reporting. Audits can also identify any potential security risks or vulnerabilities that may be associated with using unlicensed or outdated software.

Opt Zluri For Effective Software License Management 

By implementing the best practices, you can efficiently manage software licenses. Additionally, if you want to attain more effective results, you can automate the software license management process with Zluri. It is a game-changing automation platform that will boost your productivity and efficiency 10x compared to traditional manual methods. So how does Zluri do all these? Here's an overview.

Zluri automates the process of tracking, identifying, and reporting software licenses. As a result, you can easily view all the software licenses in one place, providing complete visibility into your SaaS stack. Accordingly, you keep track of the software usage by the employees and identify redundant and duplicate apps. 

That will help you save on cost and protect you from security breaches arising from non-compliant or unlicensed software usage. Also, you can right-size the software license to suitable tiers by tracking the usage, requirements of the software in the business, and more.

Furthermore, with Zluri, you will automatically get alerts on renewal updates. The best part is that you can manually set the notifications at your convenience to prioritize the crucial renewals. 

Additionally, Zluri conducts regular audits and automatically generates accurate reports on licenses required, how frequently the software is being used, and non-compliant software licenses. That enables you to be updated on all the software licenses' statuses, which will further help you decide whether to continue with the license or shift to other potential alternatives. 

Even after learning all the benefits, it might not be convincing. The best solution over here is to give it a try by yourself. Book a demo now! And check out the exclusive features that Zluri offers.