About software asset management and software license management

Organizations can acquire software in different manners. Software can be built for a specific purpose within the company. Software can be purchased from a software vendor or outsourcer. Software can be acquired through an acquisition or merger between companies, or between departments within a single company.

Software asset management is a core component of an overall asset management policy. IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) in the Software Asset Management Book defines software asset management as "all of the infrastructure and processes necessary for the effective management, control and protection of the software assets within an organization, throughout all stages of their lifecycle."

ITIL indicates that the following processes make up the holistic approach to software asset management:

• Overall management processes — The management processes surrounding the other software assets management processes. The overall management processes are related to change management.
• Core asset management processes — Identification of software assets, including maintaining this information in the configuration management database (CMDB)
• Logistic processes — Control of the software asset lifecycle. These processes include procurement, deployment, and end of life.
• Verification and compliance processes — Verification and compliance of software asset management policies and procedures, including license compliance
• Relationship management processes — Software contract management

BMC provides solutions in each of these processes. This section focuses on the key processes for verification and compliance (license compliance), relationship processes (contract management), and logistic processes (deployment) in the context of the solution that BMC provides for software license management.