Company Profile
This cooperative employs a workforce of 70,000. As a cooperative, they have a high number of members to whom they are accountable and a responsibility to ensure that the businesses in the cooperative are managed effectively to avoid unnecessary risk and spend. During the pandemic, this organization, like many others, was faced with the possibility of losing key team members. This would have left them with an urgent need to backfill the roles with the skills and expertise that are required for an organization of this size. They turned to Anglepoint as their trusted partner with a proven track record in SAM managed services, with whom they had an established and successful working history, to replace the SAM team they lost and provide ongoing support to continue to mature their ITAM program. Today, Anglepoint functions as their software asset management team, providing not only a replacement for the lost team members but an extra layer of expertise that delivers an outstanding operational ITAM Program.
Optimizing Software Asset Management: Cooperative’s Challenge Amidst Pandemic Disruptions
This Anglepoint client is a complex cooperative made up of numerous businesses across many sectors, all with stakeholder investments that they must protect. During the Pandemic, almost three years ago, both members of their SAM team gave notice and the client realized they had only three months in which they would have to either replace them or outsource. The constant changes in the client’s member businesses and estate assets meant the client was susceptible to compliance risk if the IT estate was not managed correctly. They needed to ensure continuous BAU and no downtime due to the gap in skills and expertise that this would cause. Given the timeframe, they realized that replacing the team would not be an option. With a serious shortage of software asset management skills in the available workforce they wouldn’t have time to fill the roles and have enough of a handover period – valuable information and knowledge would be lost when the team members left the business.
They knew they would need to outsource the entire software asset management service, and this would mean substantial operational changes. This included a need to ensure all the business leaders were aligned, defining clear responsibilities, and establishing good communication methods, which would be of paramount importance. The outsourced team would need to form relationships with wider stakeholders and all parties needed to understand each other’s way of working and ensure that the combination was effective.
The nature of the cooperative business model means the organization’s structure and dynamics are constantly changing. This was compounded by a shortage of skills in the software asset management industry to provide resources to businesses looking to scale. The provision of solutions and the management of the SAM function would need to address this.
The client had an effective SAM tool in place with IT management organization and Anglepoint’s partner, Flexera. While the tool was working well, some elements weren’t being used optimally. This would need to be managed to ensure access to all the data.
Anglepoint knew that a close working relationship with the client and a true understanding of their business drivers would be crucial in making this work.
The decision was made to outsource the entire SAM function to Anglepoint based on the existing relationship and level of familiarity with the structure of the business and the strategies in place for ITAM. Despite the head start this relationship provided, there was much work to be done to extend the relationships to the wider teams.
Anglepoint had previously provided ELPs and software audit support and was already acting as an advisor for ITAM maturity, giving them a solid understanding of the business drivers and goals. The established relationship with the SAM team meant the handover period with Anglepoint’s team would allow ample shadowing time to ensure there was no loss of information. Anglepoint set up strategy sessions to look at the client’s ITAM Program Maturity and outline exactly how the function would work and the processes that would need to be put in place. They began shadowing the two software asset management team members and gradually took over their responsibilities.
Once embedded, the SAM function took over all of the daily responsibilities that had been provided by the two team members, with an extra layer offering external updates that will impact the client, ELPs, audit, and renewal support for the top publishers and additional expertise for the wider teams at Anglepoint. Clear roles and responsibilities were defined using RACIs and the processes put in place to bring ITAM, IT, Procurement, Operations and management teams together in a collaborative way of working.
Anglepoint successfully addressed the issues with the implementation of Flexera’s software asset management tool to ensure the client was reaping the full benefit from the available capabilities through our SAM managed services. We made the necessary recommendations for the process improvements to the service delivery team to optimize and realize better ROI with Flexera. The deeper involvement in the business allows Anglepoint to make recommendations that are unique to the client’s requirements and benchmarked against the industry.
Documentation was instrumental in ensuring all the actions, processes, policies, and procedures were stored in one place and easy to locate. This minimized the impact of staff attrition, ensuring that no information was lost, and historical information was easy to find to prevent a lag in the delivery of BAU ITAM tasks.
Anglepoint is now providing substantial ITAM resources through our SAM managed services, and the results for the client have gone above and beyond to improve many areas of the business. The cooperative now has an outstanding operational SAM program with robust integration providing additional services that are quicker and slicker. There was no loss of information in the handover, and they have access to more skills and expertise than before.
The improvements to their SAM tool overlaid with Anglepoint’s expertise have improved optimization and given them a real-time compliance position with enhanced reporting. The careful documentation of information provides a platform of intelligence that supports software audits, contract renewals, and other business decisions.
The Principal Service Manager, who oversees the new function, has the confidence to be hands-off because he can see exactly what the team is doing, and that work is being delivered effectively. He knows that there will be little or no surprises and that he will be kept up to date.
One of the initial requirements of the contract was that the outsourced services provided by Anglepoint should not cost more than employing the previous two members of the SAM team. The cost has stayed the same, but the service has substantially improved.
Through working with the cooperative, Anglepoint has gained unique insight into software asset management. As a consulting firm working from the inside and providing SAM managed services, the partnership has offered a new perspective and allows a first-hand understanding of what Anglepoint clients’ internal SAM teams are faced with every day. This solidifies the importance of one of Anglepoint’s most important values – truly understanding each client in order to tailor services to their needs.
They needed to ensure continuous BAU and no downtime due to the gap in skills and expertise that the loss of their SAM team would cause. They wouldn’t have time to fill the roles and have enough of a handover period. They knew they would need to outsource the entire SAM function.
Stand Up And Run An Effective ITAM Program
Our ITAM Program Operations service helps you execute a program that focuses on results and aligns with ISO/IEC 19770-1 best practices. A successful program will require stakeholder engagement at the core. This will involve their ownership to define and drive outcomes, and then be continuously informed, and able to manage risks and blockers proactively. Having the right resources armed with a repeatable framework to drive the implementation will ensure success.