Customer Solution Case Study
/ Bank Masters Software-Licensing “True-Up” Process, Gains Confidence and Credibility
“The SAM Assist process has brought a discipline to our licensing.”
Bob Martin, Vice President and Director of Infrastructure, Data Security and IT Operations, Town North Bank
Soon after changing its Microsoft Volume Licensing program, Town North Bank turned its attention to license management and preparing for the annual True-Up census. Now, three years later, Town North Bank has participated in three Software Asset Management (SAM) Assist engagements. Each year, the bank’s True-Ups have become more straightforward. In addition, the bank’s IT leadership has developed confidence in the bank’s licensing credibility and compliance.
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.Document published July 2010
Business Needs
Town North Bank employs nearly 300 people and maintains an IT infrastructure considered large for a single-location bank. In 2007, Bob Martin joined the bank as its new Vice President and Director of Infrastructure, Data Security and IT Operations. “When you go to a new IT job, you want to know, early on, the true numbers of everything that you are responsible for managing,” he says. “Credibility is a key component of the job.”
The bank had a Microsoft Open Value agreement in place and was enrolled in Microsoft Software Assurance, a Microsoft Volume Licensing program that provides valuable benefits such as upgrade rights. The bank was considering changing its Volume Licensing agreement, and the IT team wanted to better understand the current licensing situation.
However, assessing the situation was complicated by the bank’s decentralized licensing-procurement processes; the IT team knew that individual employees or departments at times would acquire licenses as full-packaged product. In addition, licensing records were not well maintained. Martin says, “We didn’t have an asset management program like we would have liked. We had some habits that we needed to improve.”
Town North Bank learned that it qualified for an Enterprise Agreement (EA), also part of the Microsoft Volume Licensing program. Because EAs run for a period of three years and require an annual census of software in use, called a True-Up, Town North Bank wanted to develop a plan for how the bank would maintain its licensing data on an ongoing basis. “We kept saying that we didn’t want any surprises at True-Up,” says Martin. “We wanted to have somebody independent come in behind us and make sure that we were in compliance.”
The bank began negotiating its EA in late 2007. In early 2008, the IT team was ready to plan for how they would manage licensing and prepare for the first True-Up.
Solution
Town North Bank contacted its Microsoft account manager, who suggested that the bank might participate in a Software Asset Management (SAM) Assist engagement with IP Services, a Microsoft Partner for Licensing Solutions. Martin’s team held a kickoff call with an IP Services Software Asset Management Specialist, Selina Strait. “When I first signed up, I was concerned,” says Martin. “But Selina made me believe that the process would be independent and that she would be there for us.”
IP Services arranged for the bank to have a free trial use of an inventory tool. In order to minimize possible disruptions to employee productivity, the IT team came in over a weekend and loaded the tool on the network. Afterward, both IP Services and Town North Bank analyzed the results.
The bank discovered some surprises that it was able to easily rectify, such as several instances of software for which it could not locate licensing information. In addition, says Martin, “We discovered that we needed a few more Client Access Licensesor ‘CALs.’ CALs are device-based licenses that give a user the right to access the services of the server. There was a learning curve involved in the EA, and nowwe knew.”
In preparation for its second annual TrueUp in 2009, Town North Bank turned to IP Services for a second SAM Assist engagement. This time, says Martin, “We were smarter and the tool worked better. We got even better results.” The inventory revealed a few programs that had been installed as the Professional edition but licensed as the Standard edition, a mistake that the IT team quickly corrected.
In February 2010, Town North Bank again reached out to IP Services to prepare for its third True-Up in preparation for its upcoming EA renewal. According to Martin, this third SAM Assist was the smoothest yet. The team ran the inventory tool during regular business hours, and the inventory delivered no unexpected results. Martin and his team are now considering the bank’s EA renewal options.
Benefits
After a challenging first engagement, Martin is pleased to note that each subsequent SAM Assist engagement has run more smoothly than the prior one. Town North Bank has reaped a number of benefits from its participation in SAM Assist engagements, including:
· Improved processes. After the first SAM Assist engagement, Town North Bank centralized licensing procurement and improved the rigor of its asset management. Both changes have simplified the True-Up process. “During the first engagement, there was risk—we didn’t know how well licensed we were. In the second and third years, because of procedures we put in place, there were no big True-Up surprises,” Martin says. “The SAM Assist process has brought a discipline to our licensing.”
· Established credibility through an independent analysis of the IT environment. When Martin joined the bank in 2007, he took on an unknown ITenvironment with support from an unfamiliar team. Because IP Services ranthe SAM Assist engagement as anindependent outside party, Martin was confident that there could be no appearance of impropriety on his part orthat of his team. “The only way to achieve credibility with inventory and software compliance is to have a third party be involved,” says Martin.
· Developed confidence in its asset management. As a financial institution, Town North Bank knows the importance of compliance. “We’re a bank; we can’t have someone come in and say that we have 40 licenses that we haven’t paid for,” says Martin. “CAL tracking is vital because the number of user and device CALs that our company requires can change frequently. SAM helps us to recognize what we have and where it isrunning as well as provides useful information for asset control and growthplanning.”
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.Document published July 2010