Organisations have a hard time deciding what information is relevant to manage a software Publisher. And even when this is clear, a new struggle pops up: ...
TIP #50 - July 2020: How to decide what information is needed for onboarding your software publishers in your ITAM tool? This helps you get started.
... How to decide what level of detail is required within the ITAM tool and get the information you need? What will it take to make sure information is correct, up-to-date, and maintained on a regular basis?
ITAM Review research from Q1 2020 shows that organisations are unable to specify the amount of time required to maintain entitlements and contracts or what the efforts are to retrieve solid and reliable reports out of a ITAM tool. Is it sufficient to just upload the MLS when onboarding Microsoft, or should you opt for a full-swing configuration of all the license entitlements and contract data?
To determine what kind of onboarding best caters to your goals for a specific software Publisher, try to approach the onboarding as if you were responsible for boarding passengers on an actual plane.
Pre-flight check
- WHAT PASSENGERS (software Publishers) should go to this destination? (would be a candidate for onboarding?)
- HOW MUCH LUGGAGE (information) do they need to take on their trip (is required to manage a specific publisher)?
- DID THEY PACK their own bags? (How accurate is the available data on entitlements and usage)?
- WHO WILL SERVE THE DRINKS? Serving a couple flying business class to a different continent takes different skills than managing the crowd heading for the Spanish coast on a budget liner. Managing a variety of Publishers once onboarded will differ at least as much.
- HOW MANY passengers (Publishers) can the crew (ITAM team) actively manage?
Based on the answers on these questions, you will be able to determine what publishers should receive a boarding pass, what class (level of detail) fits and what the required effort (from resources within your organisation as well as from possible service providers) needs to be in order to achieve your goals.
Getting in the right priority lane
Softline Solutions can help streamline your onboarding process, by assisting with a pre-check prior to an actual onboarding. A Publisher onboarding workshop will help to define an overview of what Publishers could be in scope, understand compelling arguments for onboarding, manage expectations and identify possible changes and general risks.
After this workshop our consultants can zoom in on the individual software Publishers an organisation would like to onboard and perform a quickscan per Publisher. This quickscan defines Publisher dossier contents, analyses the current situation regarding a Publisher (compliance, risk, information, context), helps customer see what input will be required and finally provides all the necessary data for the actual ‘flight class’.
Fasten your seatbelts and return your tray table to its full upright and locked position!
By following these steps, an organisation is prepared to face the task of onboarding the software Publisher. The organisation now knows the answers to the questions it will face: why are we onboarding, why is this information relevant, why does it take so much time and effort, what will we get out of it and why do we need to maintain a level of information in the tool?
Enjoy the flight!