Xensam’s cost center makes unprecedented software cost savings

Addressing Spiralling Software Costs

A new report from W8 Data reveals that only 25% of existing customer data meets the requirements specified under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). At the same time, the GDPR enforcement date is at the time of writing only 129 days away. In the legal departments of European organizations, one question is yet to be answered: Is it time to panic? In this article we’ll look at common GDPR myths, and a timeline to compliance. 

Excel Tracking: The SAM Manager’s Nightmare

Today, the method of centrally recording data related to license agreements, and associated costs, could be facilitated in Excel worksheets, CMDB or maybe another tools. These are static numbers that present an approximate overview of what is being spent, and on which cross-section of software. It is not uncommon for SAM manager’s to gather information from several sources and compile it in to one Excel spreadsheet that only they, and a handful of others can understand. Whilst this feels basic, Excel file utilization in many business scenarios is still widespread. Usually companies have several tools to manage data, but it needs to be represented in one single source of truth where they can analyze it and verify its reliability. Then, it can be effectively used to make business decisions on optimization, cost, compliance, and more.  Like the depreciating value of a car once it’s purchased, in many cases the data tracked in an Excel spreadsheet becomes outdated and inaccurate as soon as it’s logged, leaving SAM professionals in a losing battle as they try to fight spiralling software spend. 

Managing Software Costs with Usage Data

Useful analysis of software spend can only be achieved when spend is compared to actual usage – especially when the software is expensive. You can learn more about the difference between the total usage data that most legacy tools provide, and Xensam’s industry-leading Active Usage Tracking here. For example, if you purchase a car with a loan that costs $500 a month and you don’t use the car, that’s a lot of wasted money! If the vehicle is a taxi and you only use it for 10 hours a day whilst earning a living, it’s a sound investment. Therefore, usage is an important metric for determining the ROI of your software investments, and where optimization efforts can be made.  

There are several legacy SAM tools on the market that offer total usage data. However, the data provided isn’t a true depiction of usage. Rather it’s an indication of software that has been accessed or opened, and run in the background on a device. 

Xensam’s Cost Center

Xensam’s advanced platform comes with a Cost Center. A hub where you can access granular insights and broad overviews of all the costs associated with your IT environment. With built-in RRP pricing, and the power to display real-time usage metrics down to the minute for on each vendor and every application, it utilizes Active Usage Tracking. To get a sense of the real cost of deployed software within your environment, our platform allows you to dig deeper into the data, collected automatically by our intelligent Xearch Agent, and displayed in an easy-to-use interface.

Inside the Cost Center, you can access critical data on Cost Per Active Minute, Cost Per Run, cost over a specified timeframe or Total Cost. This allows you to fully evaluate whether:

• Licenses can be downgraded to cheaper or free versions.
• The license can be re-assigned. 
• The user needs further training to use the software more effectively.
• The software is becoming too expensive to retain within your environment, and should be cancelled.

This level of detail is available to all Xensam customers at no extra cost, enabling unprecedented control of your software environment, and optimal cost savings. 

Organizational Structuring & Internal Invoicing Inside the Cost Center

Xensam’s Cost Center allows you to categorize your organization into different sectors. The classifications include by Compliance, by Geographical Area and by Cost Center. Through these three different independent structures, you will have full control over your assets and costs, and you can begin easily automating internal cost allocations and cross-charges. Xensam’s Dynamic Grouping ensures that ensuing classifications can be set up to take account of Domains, IP-addresses, Computer Names or AD-groups.

With Xensam, you can ascertain with a high degree of accuracy the value of deployed software across your business. Identifying which vendor to focus on for cost savings or further investment on is easily decipherable in our real-time interface. What’s more, with Xensam, the time-consuming task of internal cost allocation becomes simple and intuitive.