To create these custom, modular infrastructure solutions, the NYC data management company targets five key components they say are essential to building a Next Generation data center for their clients. Together with their industry partners like IBM, NetApp, VMware and others, Siwel Consulting creates “best-of-breed” data centers for business of all sizes. The cornerstone of Siwel’s data centers is that they can be deployed simply, with minimal risk and predictable, positive results.

The five key components of Siwel Consulting’s Next Generation data infrastructure include storage and data management, server infrastructure, virtualization, IT asset management, and professional staffing.

NYC Data Management Company Offers Next Generation Storage Solutions

The NYC data management company offers Next Generation storage solutions that are easy to implement and accessible to all users. Server infrastructures are reliable and flexible and all Next Generation data centers created by Siwel include a comprehensive IT Asset Management program that combines timely, accurate business intelligence with excellent business analytics, to support better business decisions.

Siwel Consulting offers more information about their Next Generation data centers online at http://www.siwel.com/our-vision/data-center-infrastructure/.  More information can also be obtained by calling the NYC data management company directly at 212.691.9326.

The event drew 420 registered attendees representing companies from across the country.  Due to the convenient location in Houston, many oil and energy companies from this region participated.  There were 30 vendors that exhibited, promoting their IT Asset Management (ITAM) solutions and services.

The conference began each day with breakfast and a keynote speaker presentation.  The keynotes were not very compelling.  They were followed by four session tracks offering a variety of important themes in IT Asset Management.  Both vendors promoting their products and services, and end-user organizations sharing case studies delivered the sessions.  Here is a sample of some of the session topics:

·      ITAM Best Practices

·      Oracle License Management in VMware Virtual Environments

·      Using ITAM to Reduce Costs in the Virtual Data Center

·      Software Audits: Songs of Microsoft & Oracle

·      The ITAM Dream Team: How to Create and Maintain It

·      Mobile Device Management

·      Using RFID to Manage IT Assets

·      A Unified Approach to SAM as a Service

·      The 7 Biggest Mistakes Companies Make When Disposing of their IT Assets

·      Vendor Management Best Practices in Today’s Changing World

IT Asset Management Experts Host Open Forums At Conference

One of the session formats that was very popular was “Ask the Fellows.”  IAITAM has a team of nominated Fellows who are experts in ITAM and represent both the end-user and vendor communities.  The Fellows ran a series of sessions with a good variety of topics to choose from.  The session format involved an open forum where the audience asked questions of the experts.  These sessions were very interactive and beneficial to end-users who were interested in bouncing ideas off their peers or had specific ITAM problems they were trying to solve.

The smaller size of this conference lended itself to productive networking.  Often times, a larger conference with numerous participants can be overwhelming, making it much more challenging to build strong business relationships.

In speaking with end-users and vendors, both groups  seemed pleased with the IAITAM conference and found it very productive.  Many folks participated for the first time while others had been attending the conference for years.  The IAITAM conference has become the annual gathering place for ITAM experts to exchange ideas and information, raise the awareness and the level of the profession, and move the industry forward.

The IAITAM Fall ACE Conference will take place on October 15-17, 2013 at the Tradewinds Island Grand in St. Petersburg, Florida and should prove to be of equal benefit and quality.

Siwel Consulting brings together top performers with best of breed technology from leading partners to create truly optimized IT solutions that are aligned with an organization’s overall business objectives.  Their IT consultants offer the highest level of expertise that differentiates them from every other IT consulting organization.

NYC IT Consulting Services

The NYC IT consulting company’s Next Generation IT solutions help organizations reduce costs and generate incremental revenue. Siwel Consulting offers three main areas of service:

·      IT Infrastructure Services

·      IT Asset Management

·      IT Staffing Services

These service categories are further broken down into customized IT solutions that include:

IT Infrastructure Services:

• Data Center / Virtualization
• Desktop / End Use
• Data Management / Storage
• Cloud Computing

IT Asset Management (ITAM)

• Contract Advisory Services
• Program Development
• Managed Services

IT Staffing Services

• Short-term
• Temp-to-Hire
• Full-Time

Siwel is an NYC IT consulting firm that works closely with every client to align IT strategy with overall business objectives.  Every Siwel solution is designed to deliver measurable results.  Their ‘consultants first’ philosophy results in greater operational efficiency, new sources of competitive advantage and additional revenue opportunities.

To learn more about Siwel Consulting, please visit them online at http://www.siwel.com

In my last post, we continued the dialogue about the basic steps necessary to recover from a devastating event like Superstorm Sandy, from an IT asset management perspective. We compared and contrasted two companies – one with a mature IT asset management (ITAM) program (Company A) and the other with an incomplete or poorly implemented process (Company B).

In the final post on this topic, we will review the cost to recover and redeploy IT assets and how a natural disaster can impact future audits.

1. What is the cost to recover and re-deploy IT assets?

The cost to replace IT assets and re-establish the affected environments will vary significantly depending on the reliability of the ITAM processes. An unreliable or non-existent ITAM program can often result in an additional significant unbudgeted expense.

Company A replaces hardware assets subject to a proven warranty, with minimal additional expenditure. Accurate deployment records enable harvesting of software licenses, subject to terms and conditions, with minimal additional costs. As described earlier, internal resources are able to verify and process data within a short timeframe.

On the other hand, Company B struggles to verify all warranty information in a reasonable timeframe, which may result in additional expenditures. Due to the inability to verify current license deployments, the firm may be forced to burn down software from the current contracts or issue new purchase orders. The company must dedicate internal resources to this task for weeks, or even months.

It is likely that Company B will overspend due to incomplete or unavailable documentation and data. The inability to locate all software licenses on its own results in a large unbudgeted expense – even before accounting for hardware losses, warranties, the incremental time and effort that must be invested in this task, as well as other expenses. Here’s an example.

Let’s assume that Company A and Company B each have $20 million in software license inventory before the disaster. Company A is able to account for all its pre-disaster licenses by accessing information from its ITAM repository. Conversely, after weeks of digging and piecing together information from disparate sources, Company B is only able to account for 50%, or $10 million in licenses. Company B enlists the assistance of its software vendors, who use their records to identify another $2 million in licenses, and offer another $1 million in discounts. The result is still a $7 million unbudgeted expense compared to Company A, which simply harvested the pre-disaster licenses.

2. How does the disaster impact future supplier audits?

The aftermath of a natural disaster is likely to prompt audits from suppliers who wish to ensure that their end users are in compliance.

Company A is able to readily provide confirmation of compliance to its suppliers because it is able to generate accurate deployment information quickly. The risk of an audit is minimized when the supplier is confident that their customer has solid controls in place for tracking and managing their IT assets.

When Company B produces only partial documentation and IT asset information, this raises a red flag for suppliers and can often trigger an audit.

In reviewing the scenarios of Company A and Company B, which organization most resembles yours? If you are Company B, what can you do to build and improve your ITAM program? Is the effort mostly manual? Do you have a process and tools in place? Is there internal staff available to support the effort? Is there an executive sponsor and funding for the IT asset management program?

In conclusion, if you lack in-house expertise to build your program, seek third-party ITAM experts who can help you with the transformation from Company B to Company A. You can save your organization tens of thousands, or perhaps even millions of dollars in unnecessary costs as well as months of recovery time, and ultimately provide positive financial impact to your firm’s bottom line.

IT decision makers would like to take advantage of the many benefits cloud computing offers but must avoid the pitfalls and mitigate the inherent risks. If it is not planned properly, the transition to the cloud can be disjointed, costly and slow.  To ensure smooth and efficient implementation, many companies call upon the expertise of this NYC IT consulting company, Siwel Consulting, Inc.

NYC IT Consulting Company Offers Journey.VM Cloud Computing

Siwel offers their Journey.VM cloud computing solution, a robust, scalable cloud enablement platform that accelerates a company’s transition to the cloud while mitigating the risk – no matter where they currently may be in the process of migrating to cloud computing.

Journey.VM is a complete bundle of products and services designed to jump start cloud implementation – a versatile, flexible solution that will enable organizations to fully embrace all the rich benefits of service delivery in the cloud. This cost-effective solution can be easily implemented and managed within an existing infrastructure, yet is scalable enough to meet future cloud computing needs.

Journey.VM provides:

·      A Robust, Efficient, Stable Platform

·      Reporting (Knowledge) and Tracking

·      Consistent, Predictable Performance

·      System Flexibility and Scalability

·      User Accountability

·      Management Control

·      Deep Security

Siwel Consulting can help companies achieve cloud computing through a series of safe and controlled stages.  Journey.VM, a proven and practical implementation roadmap, is designed to deliver benefits as companies make their journey to the cloud, at whatever pace they are prepared to proceed.

To learn more about accelerating your journey to the cloud and how Siwel Consulting can help, please visit http://www.siwel.com/solutions/data-center/cloud-computing/

Siwel will analyze a company’s existing IT assets and systems to identify any gaps in their IT capabilities that may prevent them from reaching their critical business objectives in an efficient manner.  After a complete review, the IT consultants can help an organization choose the best technologies and processes for their unique challenge.

IT Consulting and ITAM Services

Siwel Consulting offers three main areas of service:

·      IT Infrastructure

·      IT Asset Management

·      IT Staffing Services

These service categories are further broken down into customized solutions that include:

·         Server Virtualization

·         Data Center Optimization

·         Desktop / End User Computing

·         Data Management / Storage

·         Software Contract Advisory Services

·         ITAM Program Development

·         ITAM Managed Services

·         Short-term staff

·         Temp-to-hire staff

·         Full-time staff

Siwel’s comprehensive offerings result in improved efficiency and reduced operating costs.  They are a leading IT Consulting and IT Asset Management company in NYC.  Recently, Siwel was selected as a 2013 “Top Business” recipient by DiversityBusiness.com.  The list recognizes the strongest and most successful privately held businesses in the United States.

For more information on their end-to-end solutions, please visit them online at http://www.siwel.com/solutions/

In my last post, we began a discussion about the basic steps necessary to recover from a devastating event like Superstorm Sandy from an IT asset perspective. We compared and contrasted two companies – one with a mature IT asset management program (Company A) and the other with an incomplete or poorly implemented process (Company B).

To continue with this theme, let’s review the process for replacing hardware and software as well as the estimated time to completion for these firms.

1. How is the hardware and software replaced?

Now that the suppliers and associated contracts have been pinpointed, it’s time to work with insurance companies and vendors to replace or update the IT assets that were affected by the disaster.

Company A provides insurers and suppliers with all the required information confirming damaged hardware as well as software licenses that need to be harvested. They notify their internal finance department and update contracts and the ITAM repository with information on the new equipment. Company A acquires replacement equipment, making hardware purchases only where necessary with minimal deployments of new software.

Company B works with insurers and suppliers on replacement hardware and software; however, because they lack the information to validate their losses, more new equipment and software downloads are required. Funding must be approved before the requisitions can be issued.

In this situation, Company B is forced to rely on supplier records for accurate inventory status and replacement equipment is not available until manual verification of lost assets takes place. Company B can only harvest software licenses that can be verified as installed, so additional licenses will need to be deployed off the existing contracts. If additional licenses are not available per the terms of the contract, Company B will need to procure new software, probably at a higher cost.
 
2. What is the time to recover and re-deploy the IT assets?

There is a huge difference in time to recover and re-establish IT assets to pre-storm levels for the organization with the mature versus the ad hoc IT asset management program.

For example, Company A identifies ITAM assets in a few hours and locates purchase records and contracts in a few days, and orders replacement equipment within a few weeks. As a result of the centralized repositories for assets, contracts and purchasing records, information is verified as complete and accurate within hours. Reviewing information to determine appropriate terms and conditions takes a few days. Notifying vendors and insurers with final details, then ordering and obtaining replacement equipment take just a few weeks because the data is complete and easily verified.

Once again, Company B struggles along at a snail’s pace due to the manual effort and lack of process. They identify ITAM assets, purchasing and contracts in a few weeks and ultimately order replacement equipment within a few months. With no single centralized source of truth, all IT assets must be verified manually and the list may be inaccurate in the end. Contract and purchasing information is typically scattered and incomplete. Reviewing information to determine appropriate terms and conditions for the assets may take a few weeks as suppliers may need to assist with gathering and consolidating information. Additionally, suppliers and insurers may challenge replacement requests, thus extending the process for months.

In the last of our three-part series on this topic, we will review the costs to recover and re-deploy IT assets and how a natural disaster can impact future audits.

According to DiversityBusiness.com, over 1,300,000 businesses in the United Sates had the opportunity to participate in their 13th annual business survey and Siwel Consulting, Inc. was among the select few chosen based on both annual gross revenue and their business profile. The “Top Business List” receives over 20 million viewers annually.

Being named to the “Top Business List” confirms that Siwel Consulting Inc. has truly differentiated themselves and is one of the most respected and recognized in their market.  The most successful companies in the U.S have coveted this esteemed, elite list.

As an award winner, Siwel Consulting, Inc will be honored at the “13th Annual National Business Awards Ceremony and Conference” in Las Vegas, April 24 – April 26, 2013. The event promotes business opportunities by bringing together America’s “Top Businesses” and America’s “Top Fortune 500.” For more information about this NY IT Asset Management company, call 212-691-9326

Siwel Consulting offers three main areas of service:

• IT Infrastructure
• IT Asset Management
• IT Staffing Services

These service categories are further broken down into customized solutions that include:

• IT Infrastructure
• Data Center
• Desktop / End User
• Data Management / Storage
• IT Asset Management (ITAM)
• Contract Advisory Services
• Program Development
• Managed Services
• IT Staffing Services
• Short-term
• Temp-to-Hire
• Full-Time

NY IT Consulting Firm Aligns IT Strategy With Business Objectives

Siwel is an NY IT consulting firm that works closely with all clients to align IT strategy with overall business objectives.  Every Siwel solution is designed to deliver measurable results.  Their ‘consultants first’ philosophy results in greater operational efficiency, new sources of competitive advantage and additional revenue opportunities.

For more information on Siwel Consulting, Inc, please visit http://www.siwel.com/about-siwel/company/

Organizations looking for IT solutions that are aligned with big picture objectives should engage Siwel Consulting.  To start, the NY IT consulting firm will analyze what assets and systems are already in place, what gaps may exist in an organization’s IT capabilities, and which of the existing IT assets they can build upon to create an optimized solution. In short, Siwel helps organizations create new IT solutions and can also expand upon solutions that are already in place.

Siwel’s ITAM solutions include:

·         ITAM Program Development

·         Contract Advisory Services

·         ITAM Managed Services

IT Asset Management Solutions

Siwel’s ITAM Program Development services include a five-phase program development methodology for organizations.  It begins with a comprehensive assessment of the existing ITAM program, and ends with deployment and activation of a turnkey ITAM program designed, deployed and run using internal resources or as a cloud-enabled managed service.

Their Contract Advisory Services assists companies in navigating the terms and conditions of their software contracts. A better understanding of these contract components puts companies in a position of power with regards to their contract negotiations and audits.

Siwel’s ITAM Managed Services fill in the gaps for companies to provide expertise in contracts, software licensing, various tools, workflow processes, business analytics and more. The NY IT Asset Management firm’s services provide businesses with real time ITAM information that can be used in critical decision making processes.

For more information on ITAM solutions from Siwel Consulting, Inc, please visit http://www.siwel.com/solutions/it-asset-management/

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, countless metro New York area businesses were severely affected.  Some companies lost valuable equipment and deployed software, while others experienced severe data center interruptions.

With headquarters in Lower Manhattan, Siwel Consulting, Inc., a leading NYC IT consulting firm, was one of numerous companies affected by the storm.  For safety and repair reasons, ConEdison shut down the power grid from 34th Street South for one week, and people were unable to commute to New York City due to the suspension of train and bus services.

Recovering from a natural disaster such as Sandy is time-consuming and costly.  In a situation like this, having a solid IT Asset Management (ITAM) process can make a tremendous difference in an organization’s ability to quickly identify its IT assets and maximize the options available to repair or replace them.  The organization that is well-prepared will save itself significant time and money.

This post is the first in a 3-part series on some of the basic steps necessary to recover from a devastating event like hurricane Sandy by comparing and contrasting two companies – one with a mature ITAM program (Company A) and the other with an incomplete or poorly implemented process (Company B).

1.    Which IT assets have been affected?

The first step in disaster recovery is to determine what has been affected in the technology environment.

Let’s compare and contrast the conditions of Company A and Company B.

With mature ITAM processes and tools in place, Company A identifies the specific locations impacted and searches the ITAM repository for a report of all IT assets – both hardware and software – at each location.  Company A is able to generate this information quickly.

With minimal or no ITAM processes and tools in place, Company B identifies the specific locations affected but must then manually check emails, spreadsheets and databases for any information that may indicate what hardware and software was deployed in these environments.  The result is an incomplete and potentially inaccurate report that takes significant time and effort to consolidate.

2.   What are the contract terms, conditions and warranties for the affected IT assets?

The next step in the recovery process is to understand the contract terms, conditions and warranties for all IT assets that were affected by the disaster.

Due to their solid ITAM processes, Company A knows exactly which IT assets were affected and searches the ITAM repository for hardware purchase orders, contracts, warranties and software licenses installed on the compromised hardware.  Company A can quickly pinpoint key terms, conditions and warranties applicable for the devices in question.

In contrast, Company B is able to distinguish a partial list of possible IT assets affected and proceeds to search emails, spreadsheets and databases for any purchase or contract information for deployed hardware and software.  In the end, Company B can identify only a partial list of suppliers they need to work with along with any snippets of contract or warranty information that can be located.

In my next post for our NYC IT consulting firm, we will review the process for replacing hardware and software as well as estimate the time to completion, for the company with a mature IT Asset Management program versus the one with an immature or non-existent program.

The NY IT Asset Management firm offers solutions that seamlessly integrate with a company’s existing infrastructure and workflow, and require no investment in tools or hardware, which greatly simplifies rollout and adoption. Outsourcing an ITAM program to an IT Asset Management firm like Siwel Consulting offloads the ITAM burden while significantly lowering IT Asset Management expenses.

Optimize Assets With IT Asset Management Program

Siwel’s ITAM Managed Services fill in the gaps for companies to provide expertise in contracts, software licensing, various tools, workflow processes, business analytics and more. The NY IT Asset Management firm’s services provide businesses with real time ITAM information that can be used in critical decision making processes.  Siwel analysts oversee the day-to-day functioning of each ITAM program and will run all of the ITAM processes.  Siwel provides true optimization of IT assets by offering business intelligence and business analytics.  The ITAM program runs within a secure, private cloud, eliminating a company’s burden of managing their ITAM program internally.

To learn more about Siwel’s ITAM Managed Services, visit their website at http://www.siwel.com/solutions/it-asset-management/managed-services/

NYC-IT-Consulting

Siwel Consulting, Inc., a leading IT Consulting and IT Asset Management company headquartered in NY, offers contract advisory services for companies negotiating their software contracts.  Siwel’s services assist companies in navigating the terms and conditions of their software contracts.

Contract advisory services from an IT Asset Management firm like Siwel Consulting help companies understand complex vendor licensing metrics and software license entitlements.  A better understanding of these contract components puts companies in a position of power with regards to their contract negotiations and audits.

IT Asset Management Firm Offers Versatile Solutions

With the adoption of virtualization and significant increases in compliance audits, software contracts and licenses have become much more complex. Siwel Consulting’s contract advisory services help companies understand these complexities.   The IT Asset Management firm offers services for new contracts, compliance audits and contract renewals.

For more information about Siwel’s contract advisory services, please visit http://www.siwel.com/solutions/it-asset-management/contract-advisory-services/ or call 212.691.9326.

NYC-IT-Consulting

Siwel Consulting, Inc, a leading New York IT Consulting and IT Asset Management company, has comprehensive data center solutions that are fully responsive to the needs of businesses in all industries today.

Siwel Consulting helps businesses leverage data centers that offer agility and flexibility to adjust to changing market conditions.  This New York IT Consulting firm can identify gaps and opportunities in existing data centers or build a new, cost effective IT infrastructure to help companies meet their strategic objectives.

As many businesses face the common problem of storing and protecting unlimited amounts of data that must also be highly accessible, Siwel’s data center solutions can expand and modernize storage infrastructure, taking full advantage of the efficiencies of virtualization.  To accelerate a company’s journey to the cloud, Siwel brings together “best of breed” technologies from industry-leading vendors and a set of “best practices” developed over more than 20 years to create the most effective, efficient, flexible and scalable data center solutions available today.

New York IT Consulting Firm Partners With Leading Vendors

Siwel’s close partnerships with the most important innovators in IT mean that their clients always have access to the most current, most reliable and most cost-effective IT solutions.  Siwel’s partners include IBM, NetApp, VMWare, Cisco, Microsoft, CommVault, Wyse and others.

Siwel’s solutions for data centers include:

·      Virtualization

·      Storage Infrastructure

·      Cloud Computing

·      Journey.VM Cloud Solutions

To learn more about data center solutions from Siwel, visit them online at http://www.siwel.com/solutions/data-center

Siwel Consulting, Inc, a leading IT Consulting and IT Asset Management company headquartered in NY, offers flexible IT solutions for organizations that need to manage, organize and optimize their IT Asset Management objectives.

Siwel offers IT solutions that are aligned with an organization’s big picture objectives.  The NY IT Consulting company will analyze what assets and systems are already in place, what gaps may exist in an organization’s IT capabilities, and which of the existing IT assets they can build upon to create an optimized solution.

NY IT Consulting Solutions

Siwel’s IT solutions include:

·      Data Center Creation and Management

·      Secure Desktop/End User Systems

·      Data Management

·      IT Asset Management (ITAM)

·      IT Staffing Services

By using the latest technology, effectively managing hardware and software assets and streamlining system management, Siwel helps to increase overall organizational effectiveness and deliver greater efficiencies in each of these areas.

Siwel’s close partnerships with the most important innovators in IT mean that their clients always have access to the most current, most reliable and most cost-effective IT solutions.  The NY IT Consulting company is aligned with VMWare, NetAPP, IBM and Microsoft.

For more information on IT solutions from Siwel Consulting, Inc, please visit http://www.siwel.com/solutions/

Siwel’s IT Asset Management program gathers valuable business intelligence and uses it on a daily basis to support management strategies for contract negotiations and audit management, as well as acquisition, deployment, usage, maintenance and decommission of IT assets.  This helps organizations make important decisions that impact the financial health of their businesses.

Their five-phase program development methodology for organizations begins with a comprehensive assessment of the existing ITAM program, and ends with deployment and activation of a turnkey ITAM program designed, deployed and run using internal resources or as a cloud-enabled managed service.

IT Asset Management Phases

The five phases of ITAM program development by Siwel are:

1.     Current State Assessment

2.     Analysis and Findings

3.     Future State Roadmap or Design

4.     Solution Deployment

5.     Steady State Operations

Siwel can also deliver ITAM programs as a cloud-enabled managed service.  Siwel can advise organizations on a contract or audit issue, identify gaps, risks and opportunities for cost-savings in a current ITAM program, develop a comprehensive new program for an organization to run, or manage an entire ITAM program in the cloud.

For more information about their IT Asset Management solutions and program development services, please visit http://www.siwel.com/solutions/it-asset-management/program-development/

The latest storage technology from Siwel and NetApp provides secure, cost-effective storage that maximizes hardware investments for their clients. These storage solutions are accessible to all users, regardless of location, and make the most of hardware investments.

Storage solutions designed by Siwel can:

•       Reduce a data center’s footprint by 50%

•       Boost storage utilization by 200%

•       Increase storage system performance by up to 400%

•       Achieve ROI of up to 166%

NY IT Consulting Storage Solutions Are Cloud Ready

Storage solutions from this NY IT Consulting firm are cloud ready. Because of the inherent cost savings and performance improvements associated with virtual servers, more organizations are migrating to a cloud-computing environment.

Siwel can show businesses how to seamlessly integrate a NetApp storage solution into their private, hybrid and/or public cloud so that data is always available quickly and securely.

To learn more about storage solutions from Siwel Consulting, Inc., visit them online at http://www.siwel.com/solutions/data-center/storage-infrastructure/

Siwel’s extensive ITAM experience benefits businesses that want to reduce hardware and software expenditures, mitigate non-compliance risk, manage audits and changing vendor metrics, and close gaps in the asset life cycle.

IT Asset Management Solutions

The IT Asset Management firm works with businesses to offer Program Development, Contract Advisory Services and Managed Services.

Siwel also offers IT Staffing Services so that businesses can flexibly and affordably align their information technology staffing with their business objectives.

Learn more about Siwel’s IT Asset Management and IT Staffing solutions on their website.

The beginning of a New Year presents opportunity for change. Some of us form a list of New Year’s resolutions of things we would like to change or improve in our lives. If you could choose the most important aspects of your IT Asset Management program to improve, what would they be? Here are some ideas based on conversations with IT Asset Management professionals and existing industry challenges.

Process
IT Asset Management begins with processes that are well-defined, clearly understood and followed. Processes for managing each stage of the IT asset lifecycle, utilizing tools, gathering output from discovery and license management solutions, reconciling license deployments with entitlements, preparing for and managing audits and contract negotiations are all critical to the success of your ITAM program. If these processes break down along the way, this could impact your organization’s productivity and financial health. Therefore, an important New Year’s resolution is to establish well-defined processes and make sure they are communicated to and followed by all participating parties within your organization.

Information
Having access to accurate information about your IT assets is the output of an effective IT Asset Management program. It is this information that enables organizations to make well-informed business decisions about managing and optimizing their IT assets. Another New Year’s resolution is to ensure that the combination of people, process and tools within your IT Asset Management program are generating accurate information on your IT assets in real-time.

Compliance
Many organizations struggle with knowing their compliance position with their leading software suppliers. This can be a result of the combination of a lack of understanding of software licensing models, metrics and “gotchas” as well as access to accurate IT asset information. The New Year’s resolution here is to ensure that your ITAM license analysts understand the licensing metrics and nuances of your software publishers and that they keep up-to-date on any changes that will impact your organization’s compliance position.

Negotiation
How can companies place themselves in a more advantageous position when it comes to contract negotiations? The first step is to know your compliance position: Have you used all the software that you are entitled to within the contract terms or are there unused licenses, still on the shelf? Once this position is known, then the organization must put experienced contract negotiators in place who can understand both the organization and supplier perspectives to be able to establish favorable terms and conditions moving forward. The New Year’s resolution here is to ensure that preparation begins well in advance of the scheduled date and that contract negotiation experts are there to lead and manage the negotiations.

These are just some of the possible New Year’s resolutions to make your ITAM program productive and save your organization money in 2013!

This fall I attended the two largest IT Asset Management (ITAM) industry conferences – the Gartner IT Financial, Procurement and Asset Management Summit and the IAITAM 2012 Annual Conference and Exhibition. Often times organizations must choose between these conferences because they do not have the available budget or the time to attend both events. If your organization is in this position, here are some comparisons that will help you decide which event will best meet your needs.

Gartner IT Financial, Procurement and Asset Management Summit
This conference is held in early fall and took place this year in Orlando, FL at the Gaylord Palms Resort. Because Gartner combines three related professions at this event, the conference attracts a variety of attendees from VPs and Directors of Finance, to Procurement and IT Asset Managers and practitioners. Both executive leaders and staff attend this conference which presents a good opportunity for networking with peers. Executive leaders in many organizations are responsible for more than IT Asset Management and can benefit from attending and sending staff members to cover several areas of focus in one conference. There is a Solution Showcase for vendors; this year, however, there were a small number of vendors exhibiting, perhaps due to the high fees for sponsorship and booths. Given this scenario, end-users received more personalized attention from a smaller number of vendors, which benefited those companies seeking information on products and services to enhance their ITAM programs.

At Gartner conferences, most of the speaking sessions are delivered by Gartner analysts who are very knowledgeable on their specific industry. Here were some of the IT Asset Management topics at this year’s summit:

• Preparing for Software Audits
• Negotiating with IBM, Oracle and Microsoft
• IT Asset Disposition
• ITAM Tools
• ITAM and BYOD
• ITAM and Virtualization
• Starting an ITAM program

The sessions were well-done and content-rich. There was quite a bit of redundancy on topics like software audits and negotiations. Most attendees seemed pleased with the overall quality of the conference.

To conclude, if you are interested in hearing about current industry trends and future predictions, ITAM strategies and networking with leaders in your field, the Gartner summit is a solid choice.

Gartner holds the same conference in Europe, which is very beneficial to companies with a global footprint.

IAITAM 2012 Annual Conference and Exhibition (ACE)
This year marked the 10th anniversary of IAITAM, the International Association of IT Asset Managers. I have attended this conference six times and this was the best so far from the perspective of variety of session topics, end-user attendance and vendor participation. The conference took place at the Rancho Las Palmas Resort in Palm Springs, CA. It has grown substantially over the years and this event boasted the highest level of energy and turnout that I’ve seen.

What is unique about this conference compared to Gartner is that all the sessions are presented by either end-user organizations, vendors or a combination of the two. For IT Asset Managers wanting to hear from their peers, this is the perfect venue. Many people attend this event primarily for ITAM education, as there are CSAM and CHAMP certification classes for two days leading up to the conference. Additionally, the vendor exhibition hall was busy with more than 60 exhibitors – twice the number as the Gartner event. This was useful for organizations in search of tools and services to enhance their ITAM initiatives.
Here were some of the session topics at the event:

• ITAM Best Practices
• SAM Best Practices
• Managing Software Licenses in the Cloud
• IT Asset Disposition
• IT Asset Corporate Donation Programs
• Gaining Buy-In for ITAM
• Negotiating Software Contracts
• Cutting Software License and Support Costs
• Software Licensing “Gotchas”
• Mobile IT Asset Applications and ROI
• Virtualization Licensing Impact
• ITAM/SAM Tools
• BYOD Considerations
• Customer Case Studies

To conclude, if you are interested in learning from peers and leading vendors in IT Asset Management, the IAITAM Annual Conference and Exhibition is a great choice.

Next year, IAITAM will host two conference events: one in Houston, TX on April 16-18, and the second one in St. Petersburg, FL on October 15-17, 2013.

Each year, in communities all across the United States and Canada, teams of families, friends, co-workers and local and national corporations come together to raise funds to bring help and hope to people battling blood cancers.  At the walk in Verona, as with all these “Light the Night” events, funds raised by teams and individual walkers provide: lifesaving blood cancer research, free educational materials and events for patients and their families, local programs such as Family Support Groups and First Connection, a peer-to-peer counseling program, and comprehensive, personalized assistance through the LLS’s Information Resource Center.  Every Light the Night walker is encouraged to become a Champion For Cures by raising $100 or more to help fight blood cancer.

“Since Siwel began way back in 1992, our founders have had an unwavering commitment to being good, involved corporate citizens,” said Michele Metz, Executive VP at Siwel Consulting. “Over the years, the employees of our NYC IT consulting firm have embraced and grown this culture of service.  IBM was our first IT partner, and as we mark our 20^th anniversary, we could think of no better way to celebrate that partnership than to join together in our support of this very important Leukemia and Lymphoma Society initiative.”

Light The Night Walk events are evenings filled with inspiration.  During this leisurely walk, walkers carry illuminated balloons – white for survivors, red for supporters and gold in memory of loved ones lost to cancer.  Walkers include men, women and children, and form a community of caring, bringing light to the dark world of cancer.

“We are so pleased to have IBM and Siwel Consulting supporting our Walk this year,” said Michelle Vozza, LLS’s Campaign Coordinator for the Verona Walk. “Both companies have really embraced the opportunity to grow this event with us.”

This year’s Verona Walk takes place on Saturday October 20 at Verona Park, at Bloomfield Avenue and Lakeside Avenue.  Check-in begins at 5:00 PM, followed by a Remembrance Ceremony at 5:30 PM and Opening Ceremonies beginning at 6:30 PM.  The Walk begins at 7:00 PM.

The walk is 1-2 miles long, and both pets and strollers are allowed to join.  The Walk will be held, rain or shine.

For more information on participating in the Walk, or to make a donation, please visit http://www.lightthenight.org/nj/.

This post is the last in our IT asset management company’s series on software licensing “gotchas.”  To conclude, let’s examine some of the challenges associated with software licensing in virtualized environments.

Server Virtualization

Due to the nature of virtualization licensing, it is easy to proliferate software licenses.  The ability to partition servers, establish host machines and clusters, and count cores or processors results in confusion around software licensing.  Here are some examples of licensing policies to be aware of for some of the leading software publishers.

IBM Sub-Capacity

IBM’s Sub-capacity licensing schema is designed to help organizations drive down software costs in their virtual environments.  Organizations must obtain entitlements sufficient to cover only those activated processor cores available to the specific virtual machine(s) or hardware partition(s) where that software is installed.  It is important to understand the following:

• Sub-capacity licensing typically requires a separate agreement, quarterly reporting and use of the IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT)
• Not all virtualization technologies or vendor’s products are supported
• Movement within virtual farms can impact licensing
• Without a Sub-capacity agreement, organizations must license the entire server or cluster

One issue with Sub-capacity licensing is that it is easy to spiral out of compliance due to the movement of virtual machines within and between server groups. Virtual environments tend to change frequently; it is therefore critical to track movement to maintain an understanding of the organization’s license position and make licensing adjustments as necessary.

Oracle Database Licensing

Virtualization has a significant impact on Oracle Database license counts.  One of Oracle VM’s main selling points is that Oracle considers Oracle VM a type of hard partitioning and VMware vSphere a type of soft partitioning. When an organization uses hard partitioning, Oracle only requires licensing for the processors (cores) in that partition. For soft partitioning, Oracle requires the end user to license all the processors (cores) in the server, even though there may be many more processors present than are allocated to the virtual machine.

It is important to understand whether hard or soft partitioning applies to your environment, because there is a significant financial difference between the two.

BMC CPU Licensing

There are some important nuances to understand about BMC CPU licensing.  For some products, the full physical machine must be licensed.  If virtual machines reside in a farm, the entire farm must be licensed. When licensing a physical machine or farm, processors must be counted rather than cores.  The software licensing “gotcha” occurs when an end user mistakenly counts cores rather than processors.  This results in purchasing more licenses than needed, or reporting an inflated number to their software publisher, creating an erroneous over-deployment scenario.

We hope this series on software licensing “gotchas” has been eye-opening for you.  If you have any questions about IT asset management, please give us a call at 212-691-9326!

In our last post, we began discussing software licensing “gotchas” – those nuances that can cause an uninformed organization to spiral out of compliance with their software suppliers.

To continue with this theme, our IT asset management company will review software licensing gotchas within the following categories:

-       Product Use Rights
-       Dependencies
-       Disaster Recovery 

Product Use Rights

Product Use Rights, such as Full Use, Limited Use, Second Use and Downgrade Rights, can all have a profound impact on software compliance.  A product may include Full Use Rights while allowing Limited Use of another product.  If an organization is unaware of Limited Use Rights, they may purchase new products unnecessarily.  Second Use enables a customer to deploy the same license on more than one computer so that there is no need to procure additional licenses. Here is a specific example of how Downgrade Rights can affect licensing.

An end user organization over-deployed Microsoft Office 2007 licenses. However they were still entitled to Microsoft Office 2003 licenses.  To rectify the compliance issue, the end user had two options:

Option 1: Purchase additional Microsoft Office 2007 licenses

Option 2: Utilize entitlements for Microsoft Office 2003 to rectify over-deployment, if budgetary constraints make a new purchase of Microsoft Office 2007 licenses unfeasible.

This end user engaged a team of licensing experts who understood the nuances and traps related to product use rights, and made a fully-informed decision.  Due to their internal budgetary constraints, they chose to downgrade some of their Microsoft Office 2007 licenses to Microsoft Office 2003.  If the end user had been unfamiliar with the downgrade rights associated with their contract, they would have purchased Microsoft Office 2007 licenses unnecessarily.

Dependencies

Some license types can be dependent upon having entitlement to a base license or other products.  For example, Oracle Database options or extensions require Oracle Database as the base product.

As discussed earlier, bundled products have specific Limited Use terms.   IBM’s DB2 is bundled as part of certain WebSphere products, with deployment and access restrictions.

Disaster Recovery

Disaster Recovery (DR) software licensing can generate some significant “gotchas.”

First, it is imperative to understand software publisher contract definitions for DR.  IBM’s definition of DR is based on workload, while Oracle’s is based on frequency of use.  IBM defines three levels of DR.  The bottom level may equate to free licensing.  An end user may be required to pay for the mid-level, while top-level DR is treated as licenses in production.  With Oracle, after more than 10 days of use, the licenses are considered production-level.

Secondly, it is critical to understand your own internal DR configurations and utilization, and to not assume that your company definitions match those of your software suppliers.  Making this assumption can lead to software compliance issues.

Stay tuned for our next IT asset management post where we will review the software licensing “gotchas” associated with virtualization.

Today’s rapid and frequent changes in technology impact how hardware is sold and software is licensed. Software publishers have responded to these changes by implementing new license models and metrics that are increasingly complex, creating a significant challenge for organizations to keep up and remain compliant with their license entitlements. Siwel Consulting tracks the effects of these software licensing changes on organizations, and has identified a number of complexities and nuances that we call “gotchas!”

Only the most savvy software license analysts understand the licensing policies that can cause a company to spiral out of compliance.  What are some of these software licensing “gotchas,” and what can organizations do to manage them? Our IT asset management company, Siwel Consulting, will uncover how to do just that.

The bottom line is that despite the frequent changes in licensing models and metrics, organizations need to gain a deeper understanding of them, stay current and clearly understand their contract terms and conditions.  Common “gotchas” fall into these categories:

• Scope
• Licensing Models
• Product Use Rights
• Dependencies
• Disaster Recovery
• Virtualization

In today’s post, our IT asset management company will review the “gotchas” that pertain to Scope and Licensing Models.

Scope

Limitations on the scope of a software license can create compliance issues.  Software publishers may limit usage based on geography, mergers and acquisitions, or increases in company revenue or employee count.  From a geographic perspective, some software contracts may invoke very strict usage limitations by country, region, or even specific site.  Mergers and acquisitions can come into play when software licenses are limited to specific business units, or a business may have to be majority-owned to apply.  Furthermore, revenue or employee increases may trigger a change in licensing. Licenses tied to revenue or number of employees typically include a contract clause that corporate growth must be reported, and subsequent licensing adjusted, each fiscal year.  For example, an Oracle customer could be compliant at beginning of a contract term, but if their licensing is tied to corporate revenue, they could easily become non-compliant if their revenue increased and they did not record and report these changes.

Licensing Models

It is important to understand the various licensing models available and what you are entitled to within the terms and conditions of your software contract.  Some of the most common licensing models are the following:  user-based, server-based, capacity-based, resource-based and bundled.  Bundling can be particularly confusing: if an end user is unaware that a software product they are entitled to allows rights to other supporting products, they could purchase the supporting products unnecessarily.  For example, IBM’s WebSphere Process Server – Version 7.0 comes with several supporting programs.  However, Version 8.0 is bundled with an entirely different set of products.  In this case, the end user needs to understand bundling for both version levels to ensure that they do not purchase additional software products unnecessarily.

In my next blog post, I’ll review software licensing “gotchas” in the categories of Product Use Rights, Dependencies and Disaster Recovery.

Contact our Siwel IT asset management professionals at 212-691-9326 to learn more about software licensing nuances and how your business can prepare for and avoid these “gotchas.”

Siwel develops IT help desk solutions that keep their clients current on the latest technologies, maintain IT help desk processes, enable the development new processes and troubleshoot for difficult or high-frequency incidents.

These solutions enable clients to shift their focus back to the day-to-day operations to leverage their investments in people and technology.

Siwel can provide IT consulting clients:

• Optimization of existing people, processes and technology
• Managed staffing to address needs for planned projects and/or seasonal incident volume
• A methodology and a migration plan for transparent cut over to help desk as a managed service
• Recommendations for cost effective innovations to support IT and business objectives
• Improved quality of service, efficiency and effectiveness
• Increased user satisfaction
• Reduced operating costs

Siwel is a NYC IT consulting firm that serves companies throughout the United States. For more information about Siwel Consulting and their services, please visit http://www.siwel.com/solutions/it-services/

Siwel’s strong relationships and technical expertise enable their NYC IT consulting clients to achieve greater operational efficiency, new sources of competitive advantage and additional revenue opportunities by bringing together the three critical areas that drive IT: Hardware, Software and People.

By constantly investigating new technology, effectively managing hardware and software assets and streamlining systems management, Siwel Consulting can increase overall organizational effectiveness and deliver greater efficiencies in each of these areas.

NYC IT Consulting Company is Aligned With Key Technology Innovators

Siwel has aligned itself with the most important IT innovators, forming key partnerships with the likes of VMware, CommVault and others. Siwel is a VMware Premier Solution Provider and a VMware Authorized Consultant, a NetApp Platinum Partner, an IBM Premier Partner, and a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.  These partnerships enable Siwel Consulting to deliver the most current, most reliable and most cost-effective IT solutions.

Drawing on their extensive experience with the latest developments in virtualization, storage, hardware, software, IT asset management and more, Siwel brings their NYC IT consulting clients results that provide a true competitive and financial advantage.

To learn more about Siwel Consulting and their NYC IT consulting services, please visit http://www.siwel.com

We have talked about preparing for software audits and how to manage the audit process. To summarize the discussion on audits, let’s explore how companies can set themselves up to potentially prevent an audit.

Certain conditions almost always lead to an audit that runs smoothly and results in virtually no negative impact – or can even prevent a software audit. The company that is obviously well-organized, with processes and/or systems in place to manage and control its software assets, ensures the greatest opportunity for a successful, painless audit. An organization that has previously experienced a bad audit and learned from the experience typically does a better job managing a subsequent audit. It often takes a painful experience to force a transformation.

Organizations are becoming increasingly aware of the need to establish a robust Software Asset Management (SAM) program to manage and track their software licenses. While some organizations have adopted practices utilizing people, process and technology to build a solid internal SAM program, others are still floundering, waiting for an issue to develop before implementing significant changes to better manage their assets. Companies that have taken the proactive approach to SAM have placed themselves in a position to prevent future audits because auditors become less interested if your organization appears to have its act together. Here is the recipe for success:

1. Manage and control all software assets. Establish a formal, repeatable process for managing the life cycle of a software asset, from requisition to retirement. Implement processes for real-time collection of transactional data, asset tracking and compliance.

2. Negotiate audit provisions into contract terms and conditions. Include audit terms and conditions that limit exposure by pre-defining audit methodology and limiting both the frequency and the scope of potential audits.

3. Establish an internal process for managing audits. Assign roles, responsibilities and a process for managing audits from the time the audit letter is received to eventual settlement.

4. Incorporate licensing expertise. Knowledge of licensing complexities and nuances is key, particularly for strategic software publishers where the organization is exposed to the most risk. Maintain a constant vigil to keep abreast of changes to licensing metrics mandated by vendors.

5. Appear confident and in control. Giving the appearance of having complete control and confidence in managing software assets can also deter a vendor from pursuing an audit or an auditor from continuing his or her efforts. The auditor is tasked with finding revenue and will not waste time where it appears there is no significant opportunity.

6. Be proactive. Engage a third party expert annually to optimize your software licenses. A software asset management expert can verify compliance by conducting or validating an internal audit and can also ensure that your licenses are optimized.

Following these guidelines will result in the prevention of some audits. If auditors believe your organization is in control of its software assets and is in compliance, they will move on to knock on another door where they hope they’ll find a better revenue opportunity.

Siwel helps their NYC IT consulting clients address the complex issues their Help Desk managers often face. With an intimate knowledge of IT Help Desk workforce management, information technology and business strategy, Siwel’s NYC IT consulting clients are able to align their Help Desk services with their business and IT objectives.

Siwel’s Help Desk solutions include:

·      IT Help Desk Agent Staffing

·      IT Help Desk Agent Management

·      IT Help Desk Management Out-Tasking

Help Desk Solutions Help NYC IT Consulting Clients Increase Agent Productivity

With Siwel’s Help Desk solutions, their NYC IT consulting clients can increase agent productivity, free up management resources to pursue key business objectives, improve processes to optimize resources, increase user satisfaction and reduce operating costs.

Siwel Consulting helps organizations successfully and cost effectively address the complex issues that are facing their Help Desks.  Siwel can help with everything from identifying and acquiring agent staffing or outsourcing the entire Help Desk. Implementing the Help Desk solutions offered by Siwel Consulting can help organizations overcome the challenges of keeping their Help Desk current with the latest technologies, maintain current IT Help Desk processes and create new ones.

For more information about Siwel Consulting and their services, please visit http://www.siwel.com/solutions/it-services/

By partnering with CommVault, the NYC IT consultants at Siwel Consulting are able to bring the most advanced back up and recovery services to their clients.  CommVault’s Simpana® software provides Siwel’s clients with innovative solutions to manage, access, and recover business information.  CommVault’s award-winning solutions meet the high demand for secure information management that can progress and scale for future requirements.

The NYC IT consultants at Siwel Consulting are proud to recommend CommVault’s latest software innovation, Simpana 9, a superior and modern approach to data management.  The supremacy of this software was recognized in the “Leaders” Quadrant in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Disk-Based Backup/Recovery.

For more information about data management, back up and recovery, call the NYC IT consultants of Siwel Consulting at 212.691.9326 or go online to their website: http://www.siwel.com/solutions/data-management/back-up-recovery/

About Siwel Consulting

Siwel Consulting Inc. delivers industry-leading technical expertise and IT implementation services, including innovative virtualization, storage, end-user computing and cloud enablement solutions, comprehensive IT asset management programs, efficient management of the IT supply chain and cost-effective staff augmentation services.  We work closely with each client to optimize IT assets and align IT strategy with overall business objectives.  Our longstanding partnerships with the most important IT innovators guarantee that Siwel clients always have access to the most current, most reliable and most cost-effective IT solutions. The result is greater operational efficiency, new sources of competitive advantage and additional revenue opportunities.

Siwel is a women-owned business founded in 1992, and is headquartered in New York City.

Media Contact:
Frank Iati
212.691.9326  x261

fiati@siwel.com

http://www.siwel.com/

In my recent blog posts, I have been writing about software audit preparation. What happens during the audit itself?

After an organization is notified about the audit by either a third-party auditor or the software publisher itself, an initial meeting will need to be scheduled. This first meeting between the organization and auditor is typically a planning session to lay the foundation for what is to come. Meeting topics may include the audit process, procedures and timeline for each party to provide documentation on license entitlements, deployments and compliance position with the software contract.

In terms of the audit process and gathering deployment data, most software vendors furnish their own audit tools to determine inventory of their customer’s hardware and software assets. Some mandate the use of their tools. However, an external audit tool can be disruptive to a production environment and cause potential security or confidentiality breaches, so it is important for the organization to protect itself. Our NYC IT asset management team recommends that an organization require a confidentiality agreement and demand that the software vendor indemnify them for any potential negative impact, which can in turn lead the vendor to forego use of its own tool. An auditor may spend one to several days onsite collecting inventory data, either running their tool or manually counting physical assets. Throughout the audit process, the auditor will make requests that the project team will need to respond to. This process can continue for weeks or months.

Some software publishers will engage with their customers on the honor system, utilizing the deployment data that is provided by the end-user organization. This approach is non-intrusive to the end-user environment and typically results in a more affable process.

Once the auditor has collected deployment data and the inventory has been validated, the process of reconciling software license deployments to entitlements begins. At the conclusion of this exercise, if the organization is out of compliance, the software publisher will send an invoice. At this point, the organization may enter into negotiations to reduce the invoiced amount, or can launch an effort to refute the findings – an effort that typically ends without success, since companies usually lack insight into all the nuances associated with their software entitlements.

Many organizations have found that engaging a third-party expert is the most effective way to prepare for an audit or to refute a finding of non-compliance. In one positive example, a major national retailer was assessed a true-up bill of $13.5 million by one of its strategic software vendors, and engaged a third-party. After conducting due diligence and weeding out free OEM software, disaster recovery software licenses, bundles and suites, the amount assessed was reduced by $10 million, to $3.5 million.

In next week’s post, I will summarize tips on preparing for and potentially preventing a software audit.

If you have questions or would like any more information about how to prepare for a software audit, please feel free to contact one of our helpful Siwel IT asset management professionals at 212-691-9326.
 

With a passion for excellence, Siwel Consulting is constantly investigating and exploring new trends in IT. Their vision is to provide industry-leading technical proficiency for their NYC IT consulting clients. To do so, Siwel has developed a unique vision of what the Next Generation of IT will look like.

Siwel’s “Next Generation” IT model furthers their commitment to build IT infrastructures and processes that are aligned with their NYC IT consulting clients’ critical business objectives. The Next Generation IT models offer the most efficient and secure data center, end user and cloud infrastructures. This innovative model helps Siwel’s clients increase capabilities, enhance SLAs, improve overall efficiency, reduce costs and/or mitigate risk in data center infrastructure, end user computing, and cloud computing.

NYC IT Consulting Solutions Harness Future of IT Technology

NYC IT consulting clients of Siwel Consulting need an IT solution that overcomes business challenges and provides expanded capabilities. To meet the most demanding needs of their clients, Siwel is always looking to the future of IT technology to ensure precise alignment with business objectives. Siwel’s Next Generation IT models improve efficiency, reduce risk, lower cost and position clients to meet their unique business objectives for years to come.

For more information on Siwel Consulting’s NYC IT consulting services, please visit http://www.siwel.com/our-vision/

“As the market leader in ITAM Program Development, Contract Advisory and Managed Services for a demanding enterprise and mid-market client base, we must continuously improve our product offerings,” said Frank Venezia, who is the vice president of Siwel Consulting. “Our new partnership with BDNA ensures that we will provide the most robust ITAM solutions by combining their industry-leading business intelligence products with our own top-notch ITAM analytical capabilities.”

Thanks to the partnership, the IT asset management company is able to implement their five-phase ITAM Program Development methodology to improve upon BDNA’s ability to show a comprehensive and accurate glimpse at an organization’s IT infrastructure.

This means that the IT asset management company helps streamline the process of driving critical IT processes and initiatives. In addition, discovery and normalization solutions can also be provided as “stand-alone” Contract Advisory Services within a company’s portfolio.

IT Asset Management Company Offers Enhanced Visibility Solutions

One of the products that the IT asset management company is optimizing is BDNA Discover™, which is designed to give you the deepest and broadest visibility possible across an entire enterprise’s software and hardware without the use of software agents.

In addition, BDNA Normalize™ is also improved upon thanks to Siwel Consulting. This amazing product is able to convert the data encompassed in operational tools into actionable information in order to better drive key initiatives.

Technopedia™ powers both of these solutions. Technopedia is designed to be the most comprehensive and continually improving guide to over 150,000 IT software releases and 170,000 hardware models. In fact, this definitive offering is a complete reference that is augmented with over 14 million non-discoverable market data points.

To find out more about how this partnership can help enhance IT visibility, please do not hesitate to give Siwel Consulting a call at (212) 929-6815 or visit http://www.siwel.com right now.

In keeping with the theme of software audits, let’s talk about preparation and some tips for ensuring a smoother process.

The audit process typically begins when the software publisher notifies the customer by letter. Most of the leading publishers put a “buffer” between themselves and their customer to preserve the relationship, often by hiring one of the Big Four accounting/audit firms – PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young or KPMG- and the auditor sends the notification letter. The Big Four have certifications in audit methodology, so employing one of these firms establishes a formal process and adds credibility to the findings.

Once the notification letter is received, the first step a company needs to take is to organize internally prior to responding. Our IT asset management company recommends that organizations immediately identify and assign an Executive Sponsor as well as a Project Manager who will be the single point of contact for all matters related to the audit. The organization should also form a project team that includes all parties who will participate in audit-related activities, such as gathering and analyzing software deployment data, license entitlements, and contract terms and conditions. Another important step is to review the audit clause within your agreement, to understand the parameters prior to the commencement of the audit process.

The company being audited should acknowledge the audit request in a timely manner. As mentioned in an earlier blog, audits can be delayed. When an audit request is received, the proposed date or time frame may conflict with other critical internal initiatives and deadlines. Often times an organization can postpone an audit for months, providing more time to prepare for the event. Organizations should work with the auditor to agree on a plan that works for both parties in terms of process and timing.

Our IT asset management company recommends that the preparation process include a self-audit. This is an important and necessary step to gain an understanding of your compliance position with the software publisher in advance of the meetings with the auditor.

From the beginning, make every effort to build a positive relationship with the auditor. Do not take an adversarial approach; team with the auditor, because this will lead to a more congenial and less stressful process.

To summarize, here are the recommended preparation tips:

1. Organize internally
   • Assign an Executive Sponsor and a Project Manager, and form the project team
   • Understand the audit clause in your software contract
2. Respond to the audit letter in a timely manner
3. Agree on an audit plan with the external auditor
4. Perform a self-audit
5. Build a positive working relationship with the auditor

 
If you follow these tips, you will ensure a smoother audit process.

If you have questions or would like any more information about how to prepare for a software audit, please feel free to contact one of our helpful Siwel IT asset management professionals at 212-691-9326.
 

“As a leader in software asset management services for more than 12 years, we take very seriously our responsibility to continually and proactively develop new offerings and methods that keep our clients ahead of the asset management curve,” said Frank Venezia, vice president and head of ITAM at Siwel Consulting. “Recent experience with a broad range of enterprise and mid-market clients indicates that increased flexibility in the ITAM program development process and doing a better job of managing hardware assets are two clear areas of need.”

The first part of the process is a thorough and highly detailed assessment of the existing ITAM process, so the IT asset management company will be able to see what is currently working and what needs to be improved upon. The consulting experts will speak in depth with business managers in order to get a feel for how they operate.

After this examination is performed, the IT asset management company conducts an analysis and findings phase, develops a future state roadmap or design, deploys the new solution and activating the ITAM program via internal resources or a cloud-enabled managed service, resulting in steady state operations for their new ITAM program.

IT Asset Management Company Gets Real Results

Enterprises will find that the five-phase program development methodology from this IT asset management company will make it simple to track and manage hardware purchases, maintenance, inventory status, financial impact and more all from the convenience of Siwel’s proprietary IT asset management portal.

This process is helpful for nearly all organizations since there is more of a reliance on a virtualized and geographically spread IT world, thus making access to information across a large area necessary.

Companies can either give the knowledgeable and friendly experts at Siwel Consulting a call at (212) 691-9326 or click through to http://www.siwel.com right now to get more information about the firm’s five-phase program development methodology.

It’s the top priority of our IT asset management practice to ensure that the ITAM program employed by businesses are able to give a positive impact on the financial performance of these organizations. Firms can optimize their software contracts by taking advantage of Siwel Consulting’s ITAM expertise.

The dedicated IT asset management experts at Siwel utilize business analytics in order to give you the most accurate overview of historical information, compliancy issues, in-process transactions, contract entitlements and deployment activity against license requests.

In addition to reporting on this essential data, Siwel Consulting will present companies with management updates and baseline observations and recommendations while helping them fully understand the terms and conditions of vendor contracts and real-time and historical amendments and schedules related to these agreements.

IT Asset Management Company Gets Detailed Info Via Business Analytics

Not only does the IT asset management company provide a validation of hardware and software asset data, but will also aid in identifying important dates, contract limitations and relationships such as superseding products and metrics changes. The full terms and conditions of vendor contracts and both historical and real-time related amendments and schedules can also become easier to understand.

All of this information is key for preparing for important events such as contract negotiations, true-ups and audits. Strong business analytics will help keep businesses ahead of the curve in the real world in order to prevent additional or unnecessary costs.

Siwel Consulting is ready to sit down with companies and customize an ITAM program based on their individual needs to ensure that accurate data is produced and a positive financial impact results.

To learn more about how an ITAM program featuring powerful business analytics can help you manage your IT assets, please feel free to call the knowledgeable and friendly team at Siwel Consulting at (212) 691-9326 or visit their comprehensive Web site at http://www.siwel.com right now.

Learn more about cloud computing

Siwel Consulting, a leading NYC IT consulting firm, is raising the bar for cloud computing technology. By investigating new trends and exploring new technologies, Siwel Consulting has developed a “Next Generation” IT model that furthers their position of leadership in cloud computing.

Siwel’s Next Generation IT model offers cloud computing solutions that are aligned with the critical business objectives of their NYC IT consulting clients. This Next Generation cloud computing model offers the most efficient and secure cloud infrastructures for their clients.

Siwel’s cloud computing solutions enable clients to attain rapid growth and respond quickly to inevitable changes. Cloud computing solutions from Siwel Consulting are based on a virtualization foundation from VMWare, the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure. Siwel became one of VMware’s first North American partners in 1999, and is currently a VMware Premier Solution Provider. Businesses that are ready to get a jump-start to cloud computing can take advantage of Journey.VM by Siwel, a complete bundle of products and services designed to jump start cloud implementation for any business.

For nearly 20 years, Siwel Consulting has been a leader in providing cloud computing services in NYC and the surrounding area. Using proven “best practices,” Siwel provides solutions that deliver value and can easily adapt to changes in market forces and technologies.

VMware is a global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure. As a VMware partner, Siwel Consulting can offer their NYC IT consulting clients this exclusive, cutting edge technology.

NYC IT Consulting Company Now Offers Online Virtualization

Siwel Consulting is always on the cusp of the latest virtualization innovations, which is why they partner with VMware. Just this past January, VMware introduced an online virtualization and cloud solutions marketplace where customers, partners and developers can converge to help simplify the process of evaluating and selecting business solutions through a centralized, self-service portal. This is the latest service to be offered by Siwel Consulting to their NYC IT consulting clients from VWware.

This new software will enable Siwel Consulting customers of all sizes to discover new solutions and directly engage with partners and developers with inquiries for licenses, trials, support and sales requests.

Siwel is one of VMware’s longest-standing, most experienced partners. They have worked with this technology for more than a decade, making them recognized leaders in desktop virtualization services. By investigating trends, exploring new applications and harnessing new technologies, Siwel Consulting stays at the forefront of the virtualization industry and secures their standing as a leader in NYC IT consulting services.

For more information about Siwel Consulting and their services, please visit http://www.siwel.com/solutions/

According to Siwel Consulting, business intelligence tools alone cannot ensure businesses make the best decisions about their IT assets.  In order to optimize ITAM programs, businesses must adopt and integrate critical analytics tools as well.  With regards to analytics, Siwel Consulting is referring to the skills, technologies and practices for continuous investigation of past business performance.  This type of analytics provides key insight needed to drive business planning, and is the subset of business intelligence based on statistics, prediction and optimization.

Marrying together these two components brings about a completely new workflow for ITAM products, request processes, software and services.  Plus, Siwel Consulting brings it all together as a managed service in the cloud.

Siwel Consulting Announces New Hardware Asset Management

Recently, Siwel Consulting announced a set of enhancements to its existing Software Asset Management (SAM) practice that will further solidify its leadership position in the IT Asset Management (ITAM) solutions market.  Siwel has refined and formalized a 5-phased Program Development methodology, increasing clarity and flexibility for their ITAM clients. Siwel has incorporated Hardware Asset Management services into this Program Development methodology along with their established, industry-leading SAM solutions, which include Contract Advisory and Managed Services offerings.

For more information about these new Siwel service offerings, or about any of Siwel’s IT Asset Management solutions for enterprise and mid-market organizations, contact Frank Venezia at 212-691-9326, or visit www.siwel.com.

More and more companies want to migrate to cloud computing, as it promises an even more efficient, flexible and cost-effective IT model that enables an organization to respond faster to business opportunities.   The challenge for every IT decision-maker, however, is how to accelerate the benefits of the cloud while avoiding the pitfalls and mitigating the inherent risks. If it is not planned properly, the transition to the cloud can be disjointed, costly and slow.

Leading NYC It Consultants Offer Journey.VM

The leading NYC IT Consultants at Siwel offer Journey.VM, a robust, scalable cloud enablement solution that accelerates a company’s transition to the cloud while mitigating the risk – no matter where they currently may be in the process of migrating to cloud computing.

Journey.VM is a complete bundle of products and services designed to jump start cloud implementation – a versatile, flexible solution that will enable organizations to fully embrace all the rich benefits of service delivery in the cloud. This cost-effective solution can be easily implemented and managed within an existing infrastructure, yet is scalable enough to meet future cloud computing needs.

Journey.VM provides:

·      A Robust, Efficient, Stable Platform

·      Reporting (Knowledge) and Tracking

·      Consistent, Predictable Performance

·      System Flexibility and Scalability

·      User Accountability

·      Management Control

·      Deep Security

Transitioning to cloud computing cannot be achieved overnight, but rather must be achieved through a series of stages.  Journey.VM, a proven and practical implementation roadmap, is designed to deliver benefits as companies make their journey to the cloud.

To learn more about cloud computing and Journey.VM, visit Siwel Consulting, Inc. online at http://www.siwel.com/solutions/data-center/journey-vm-cloud-solutions/ or call Lewis Paffile at 212.691.9326, x 241.

Most of the large software publishers request audits. You may receive an audit request letter for your organization and ask “Why us?” While the selection process may appear to be random, there is a science behind it. How is a company selected for an audit? Our NYC IT consulting firm can shed some light on this subject.

There are several general business drivers for audits, including software piracy, a slow economy and revolutions in technology. These drivers have all contributed to the rise in software audits. However, there are also reasons specific to each company that will often trigger an audit request.

For most mid-market and larger companies, software publishers assign an account team to focus on the business and technology needs of their customer, with the ultimate goal of driving revenue. In addition to selling new software, the team’s responsibilities also include intelligence gathering. The sales representatives engage with their customer to learn about any upcoming major initiatives, strategic business changes, or other triggers that could lead to the purchase of additional products and services. Examples include a virtualization initiative, server consolidation, a storage or disaster recovery project, data center relocation, a merger or acquisition, or any organizational change that would require additional technology.

A software publisher will also look at other factors and variables. Publishers weigh the ratio of software licenses to number of employees, hardware purchases and server upgrades, and long stretches with no net new licenses. A company with an upcoming contract renewal will draw keen interest. Finally, vendors will often audit customers with the fewest controls in place for tracking and managing hardware and software assets. If an organization demonstrates uncertainty as to the number of licenses deployed for a particular product, the vendor will become more curious.

Here are the top triggers that could cause your company to be targeted for a software audit:

• Vendor account team intelligence
• Declining spending with a vendor
• Unbalanced ratio of software licenses to number of employees
• Upcoming contract renewal
• Organizational changes
• New technology initiatives
• A mergers, acquisition or divestiture

 
If any of these triggers characterize your current environment, it’s time to anticipate and prepare for the audit.

In my next post, I will review the audit process.

If you have questions about preparing for a software audit, call Siwel. You can reach me, Steffani Lomax, at our NYC IT consulting firm: 212-691-9326.
 

Siwel Consulting offers NY data center services for companies who want to maximize their current data center with the newest technology and solutions for companies that need a new data center built from the ground up.

Benefits of NY Data Centers

Siwel can help NY data centers become more efficient and cost effective with the latest advancements in virtualization, storage infrastructure, and cloud computing.

Desktop Virtualization is one of the critical steps that forward-thinking companies take when transforming their data infrastructure from an expense to a strategic asset. This game-changing technology greatly reduces costs while increasing control, compliance and security. It also provides higher levels of service to end-users by speeding issue resolution from a company’s help desk.

Storage solutions designed by Siwel provide secure, cost-effective storage that maximizes a company’s investment and deliver measurable results.  Storage solutions can help a company:

• Reduce their data center footprint by 50%
• Boost storage utilization by 200%
• Increase storage system performance by up to 400%
• Achieve ROI of up to 166%

Because of the inherent cost savings and performance improvements associated with virtual servers, more organizations are migrating to a cloud-computing environment.  Siwel can show NY data centers how to seamlessly integrate a NetApp storage solution into their private, hybrid and/or public clouds so that data is always available quickly and securely. Cloud computing provides NY data centers with easier management, faster provisioning, and more – all with a much smaller physical footprint.
For more information on NY data center solutions, visit Siwel online.

Desktop virtualization services in NYC are on the rise and Siwel Consulting is ready to handle the expansion with flexible and highly secure infrastructure from VMware.

Desktop Virtualization in NYC

Desktop Virtualization is one of the critical steps that forward-thinking companies take when transforming their data infrastructure from an expense to a strategic asset. This game-changing technology greatly reduces costs while increasing control, compliance and security. It also provides higher levels of service to end-users by speeding issue resolution from a company’s help desk.

Siwel Consulting highlights three main benefits of desktop virtualization:

• Cost-efficient, centralized management
• Business continuity and uninterrupted access
• Security and compliance that’s easy to control

Siwel is one of VMware’s longest-standing, most experienced partners. They have worked with this technology for more than a decade, making them recognized leaders in desktop virtualization services. By investigating trends, exploring new applications and harnessing new technologies, Siwel Consulting stays at the forefront of the virtualization industry and secures their standing as a leader in IT services.

For more information about desktop virtualization services in NYC, please visit Siwel Consulting online.

Social media users on any of the NYC IT consulting company’s profiles will find helpful company and industry information as well as useful links to their main website.

“Our social media focus is on educating customers about the latest technology, products and developments in our industry,” says a spokesperson for Siwel Consulting.  “Our social media presence is a great resource for anyone who wants to stay up to date with the IT industry.”

Connect with the NYC IT consulting company on Twitter!

Siwel also has a special Facebook page set up which announces job openings at the company.  Employment seekers should also check out their website for more connections to these social media profiles.

For the past several years, software audits have been on the rise – to the point where every organization is at risk of receiving an audit request letter.  A recent Gartner study of 228 participants at the 2011 IT Financial, Procurement and Asset Management Summit indicated that 65% had undergone a software license audit at some point during the previous twelve months.  Given these statistics and the likelihood of an audit, what is the best thing your organization can do in anticipation?

The answer is prepare.  Having tools and processes in place that generate both the Business Intelligence and Business Analytics you need to determine your Net License Position with all your software vendors is the best way to be ready if that letter arrives.  Preparation is the key to a successful software audit outcome.

One large organization I worked with earlier in my career did not have tools or processes in place to help them understand their Net License Position with their vendors. Each time they received a software audit or true-up request, they went through a fire drill, gathering information manually on software licenses deployed and using spreadsheets for tracking.  It literally took man-years to prepare for an audit!  It was totally unproductive for the company to remove resources from other core business initiatives and re-allocate them to audit preparation tasks.

On the subject of preparation, John Wooden, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and a coach, and arguably the most successful coach in college basketball history, had this to say:

“Failing to prepare is like preparing to fail.”

Demonstrate Your Company’s Knowledge of Software Licenses

When your organization receives an audit letter, you will need to respond.  If the response demonstrates that your company is organized and has an in-depth understanding of software licenses deployed vs. entitlements, the auditor may lose interest.  Auditors are paid to uncover non-compliance situations – potential revenue-generating opportunities for the software companies – so they will not want to waste their time with a company that has solid controls in place to manage and optimize their software licenses.

Software license audits can be delayed.  When an audit request is received, the proposed date or time frame  may conflict with critical initiatives and deadlines.  Often times an organization can postpone an audit for months, which can provide more time to prepare for the event.

The bottom line is to make sure your organization is well-prepared in advance of receiving a software license audit request.  Preparation is the recipe for success and will alleviate stress and unnecessary fire drills along the way!

In my next blog post, I’ll review how vendors select companies to audit.

Have a great week!

]]> http://www.siwel.com/20120529-software-license-audits/feed/ 0 http://www.siwel.com/20120524-nyc-it-consulting/ http://www.siwel.com/20120524-nyc-it-consulting/#comments Thu, 24 May 2012 18:24:14 +0000 siwelcom http://www.siwel.com/?p=4637 Siwel Consulting Inc., a leading IT consulting company in NYC, offers comprehensive staffing and management solutions for IT help desks. Siwel’s IT help desk management out-tasking can help businesses cut costs and effectively address the complex issues they face on a daily basis.

Siwel develops IT help desk solutions that keep their clients current on the latest technologies, maintain IT help desk processes, enable the development new processes and troubleshoot for difficult or high-frequency incidents.

These solutions enable clients to shift their focus back to the day-to-day operations to leverage their investments in people and technology.

Siwel can provide IT consulting clients:

• Optimization of existing people, processes and technology
• Managed staffing to address needs for planned projects and/or seasonal incident volume
• A methodology and a migration plan for transparent cut over to help desk as a managed service
• Recommendations for cost effective innovations to support IT and business objectives
• Improved quality of service, efficiency and effectiveness
• Increased user satisfaction
• Reduced operating costs

Siwel is a NYC IT consulting firm that serves companies throughout the United States. For more information about Siwel Consulting and their services, please visit http://www.siwel.com/solutions/it-services/

The information age has seen the transfers of hard files to tape, hard drives and virtual tape libraries (VTLs), and is currently seeing the ascension of data into the cloud. Advances in storage technology have been rapid. Last year’s servers, storage and data management methods have been enhanced and are newer, better, faster and more reliable. Whether you are a small business with a handful of employees or a multi-million dollar corporation, your company can realize greater efficiencies, cost savings and even competitive advantage but optimizing the way you store and access critical data.

If you would like to discuss a new , look no further than Siwel Consulting. Siwel builds state-of-the-art storage solutions using NetApp storage products, and is their “go to” partner in the New York City metropolitan area and beyond. Together Siwel and NetApp can transform your cumbersome, expensive data infrastructure into a more agile, efficient and cost-effective asset for your business. The results are clear and measurable: A Siwel-NetApp solution for your current data storage and infrastructure mismanagement can reduce your data center footprint by 50%, boost storage utilization by 200%, increase storage system performance by up to 400% and achieve ROI of up to 166%.

Data Storage in NY Goes to the Cloud

Right now is a vital time for those making NY Data Storage decisions. Many businesses, from SMBs to enterprise, are moving data to the cloud, whether it be a private cloud, hybrid cloud and/or public cloud. Siwel can help you integrate a NetApp data storage solution into your cloud. Siwel can also show you how to take advantage of all the efficiencies inherent in the cloud by developing strategies that capitalize on all the cloud’s main strengths.

Siwel is a NetApp Platinum Partner, and one of NetApp’s go-to consultants for Data Storage and data management in NY. Siwel has designed and implemented storage solutions built on a NetApp infrastructure in almost every kind of IT environment, in nearly every industry. They have extensive experience integrating NetApp into environments with disparate servers, storage, software and networking characteristics. Siwel is also a leader in virtualization, was one of the first partners of VMware in North America, and has been a partner of VMware for almost 20 years, Siwel is one of the most capable consulting firms currently developing data infrastructure solutions that link seamlessly and take greatest advantage of the benefits of the cloud. Siwel consultants have the unique ability to listen well, quickly identify key problems and issues, then plan and implement a solution that addresses all issues. This approach helps Siwel, NetApp and VMware clients develop the most cost-effective ways to achieve their key business objectives. Data Storage in NY is simply made easier with Siwel and NetApp.

Contact Siwel Consulting today for all of your Data Storage needs in NY. Learn more about unique data storage and management solutions built by Siwel and NetApp online at http://www.siwel.com/, by phone at 212.691.9326 or by e-mail at info@siwel.com.

The world of x86 computing is evolving, and chances are your business is feeling the pain.  You need more from your IT infrastructure now.  More performance.  More functionality.  More always-on access.  And let’s not forget more memory as your virtualization and application needs grow.  What you don’t need, however, are more demands on your existing resources and budget.  IBM and Intel have risen to the challenge and redefined x86 servers with the newest evolution of eX5 systems based on next-generation Intel  Xeon processors, code named Nehalem-EX; technology evolved to balance cost and efficiency with powerful performance.

Date:  Thursday, April 15th, 2010
Time:  12:00pm ET – 3:00pm ET

Location:  Bridgewaters @ South Street Seaport: 11 Fulton Street, New York, NY 10038 (Terrace Room)

Attend this exclusive Lunch & Learn about how the power of eX5 can help your business:

• IBM System x3850 X5 and x3950 X5
  Flagship System x platform for leadership scalable performance and capacity:

Realize premium performance of compute and memory-intensive workloads with a 4-socket, 4U rack-optimized scalable enterprise server.

• IBM System x3690 X5
  Industry’s first high-end scalable 2U, 2-socket server for maximum memory and performance:

Scale up from 2 sockets and 32 DIMMs to 4-sockets and 64 DIMMs.

• MAX5
  Greater productivity and utilization through memory expansion and flexibility in a 1U form factor:

Expand memory capacity without purchasing new systems or processors.

• HX5
  Scalable high end blade for high density compute and memory capacity:

Start with 2 processors and add capacity on demand with eX5 scalability.

Click here to download information on the IBM System x3850 X5 achitecture: eX5 Seminar_X3850_X5

Click to download information on IBM System x3690 X5 architecture:  eX5 Seminar_X3690_X5

Click to download information on IBM BladeCenter HX5 architecture:  eX5 Seminar_HX5

Presentation Slides: To download a copy of the presentation from this event:   Siwel_Intel & IBM eX5 Event_Presentation_041510

CISSPs received 4 CPE credit hours for attending.  One previous Angelbeat attendee from WalMart commented, “Of all the seminars I attend, your format is by far the best.  Brief, informative talks from vendors, followed by one-on-one time at their booth to find out more. I am out of the office for less than a day, yet I have access to all the different solutions.”  Watch Angelbeat on YouTube to see clips from past events and hear testimonials from other past attendees.

Topics at this complimentary seminar included:

• Server & Storage Virtualization
• Thin Client & VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure)
• Cloud Computing & Storage/Backup/Disaster Recovery & Data De-duplication
• Security & Networks
• Cisco Data Center – Server & Cloud Initiative
• 3G/4G High-Speed Wireless Smartphone: Google Android vs. BlackBerry vs. Windows Mobile
• Intel Energy-Efficient Chipset Platforms
• Windows 7 – Maximize Your Potential – Plus Azure Preview
• IBM 2010 Mainframe & Linux Strategies

Speaker:   Thomas Kraus, Director of Engineering – Siwel Consulting

Presentation Slides:  To download a copy of the presentation slides:  Siwel_VMware on NetApp_Angelbeat Seminar_040910

Click here to listen

Storage can no longer be “the tail wagging the dog,” as it has been in so many IT organizations. Virtualization has the potential to provide the same or a similar paradigm shift for storage.   Server virtualization has changed the rules.

Joe Castro, VP of Technology, presented Siwel’s Backup & Recovery Solutions as a NetApp Platinum Partner at this one-day seminar in NYC.

The presentation covers:

• NetApp V-Series Architecture
• Replication-Based Backup
• Making Storage Application Aware
• Siwel Consulting – NetApp Platinum Partner

Speaker Panel:   Joe Castro, VP of Technology – Siwel Consulting

Presentation Slides:  To download a copy of the presentation slides, click here: SiwelIAITAMFeb2010Webinar

Siwel Consulting, VMware and Neverfail have teamed together to bring you simple-to-implement solutions that keeps your applications up and running.  We can show you how to eliminate single points of failure.  You’ll be able to deliver apps to your users faster than ever before.  And, this solution is probably easier to operate than your existing setup.

The presentations cover:

• Virtualizing and Managing Tier 1 Applications with VMware
  • Performance of the Platform
  • Consolidation
  • Value of the Private Cloud
  • ISV Support
• Continuous Availability for Business Applications with Neverfail
  • Neverfail & Virtualization (vXtender)
• Siwel Consulting – Combining Best of Breed Technology with Expert Guidance

Presentation Slides:

Siwel Presentation
VMware Presentation
Neverfail Presentation

The presentation covers:

• Key  Virtualization Strategies
• IBM Sub Capacity Licensing—what is it and how do I qualify for it?
• ILMT Considerations & Challenges
• ILMT Management—Roles and Responsibilities
• Compliance Red Flags & Risk Mitigation Tips

Presentation Slides: To download a copy of the presentation slides, click here: SiwelIAITAMFeb2010Webinar

Replay: To hear a recording of this webinar, Click Here.

Learn more …

• To learn more about IBM’s License Metric Tool, download Siwel’s article from the December 2009 issue of ITAK Magazine: Putting the Puzzle Together: IBM’s Answer to Managing Server Virtualization

• To read the December 2009 issue of ITAK Magazine in its entirety, Click here.

This presentation covers:

• Strategy Development
• Maintenance – How much is too much?
• Terms & Conditions – The Good and the Bad
• Audit Risk Mitigation

Speaker: Barry Friedman – Siwel Consulting
Presentation Slides: To download a copy of the presentation slides, Webinar Presentation

Replay:  To listen to a recording of the webinar, Click Here.

Learn more …

During this webinar, “Best Practices for Software Contract Negotiations,” we received many excellent questions. Below you will find a list of these questions and Siwel’s response. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to send an email toSAM@siwel.com. Thank you!

1. Are there any circumstances where it might be better to NOT include any audit language in the contract? In other words, delete all of the vendor’s standard audit language and rely only on true-up documentation.

We have found that there are sometimes special circumstances that may benefit from radical audit terms and alternatives. However, generally speaking, going into a negotiation with a realistic expectation will help you in the long run. You will likely go farther by submitting your preferred terms to an audit rather than expect the vendor
to concede to forgo an audit altogether. Stipulations such as allowing 3rd party data findings in an audit response and setting response timelines that cater to your company’s workflow will demonstrate that you are realistic and knowledgeable in vendor relations. This approach will garner you more respect and psychological leverage in dealing with the vendor reps than trying to obtain unrealistic terms.

2. How flexible are vendors on accepting T’s&C’s changes?

These vendors tend to be more flexible with contracts of significant value or companies of a significant size. When a vendor knows they stand to gain more from the client in the long run by being amiable in a negotiation (additional licenses or acquisition requirements) they will work harder to “be on your side” to gain your confidence and trust. Conceding to the T’s&C’s you request is one way to achieve this. Typically
with small contracts and companies, these vendors have nothing to lose, and will likely invest less time in a negotiation, using a “Take It or Leave It” approach.

3. The disposition of the Software Vendor at license termination is often overlooked and puts the vendor in the driver’s seat at renewal. What terms have you successfully negotiated to protect the licensee?

The ability to re-deploy, re-use or harvest licenses once the original owner no longer requires the license is the number one contract term that we have successfully negotiated to assist with the efficient management of “retired” licenses. Outside of the contract however, there are processes that can and should be instituted within the SAM model to track license termination in order to have a handle on this data and related contract value.

4. How can you negotiate T’s&C’s if the vendor provides them via a EULA on their website?

Just because a vendor posts contract terms on a website does not mean they are not negotiable. As part of your preparation for entering into the contract, contact the vendor with your proposed T’s&C’s. Depending on the value of the contract or the nature of the terms, the vendor may be willing to tailor the T’s&C’s to your needs.

5. How do you approach the one-person-contact with the vendor when having legal departments review the contracts?

Have your legal department funnel all questions and information through the designated vendor contact. If further discussions or meetings require additional participation have the designated contact chair the meetings and manage the communications.

6. Do you have any recommendations of how to best maintain contracts and track the details of these contracts? We have multiple large agreements and large quantities of individual EULA software.

Developing a database where you can input various details and stipulations for contracts is one approach. Designated personnel can refer to the database when deploying licenses or when a specific question arises. Siwel has developed a sophisticated database that supports an acquisition portal, so those contract terms and conditions are enforced “automatically” upon the license request. We have found this method to be 99.9% efficient and accurate.

7. What is the average maintenance cost as a percentage of software purchase cost we can expect today?

The average maintenance cost percentage for server licenses can range from 20-25%. For desktop software license, this number can jump to 29% of the license cost.

8. What methods can be used to negotiate T’s&C’s with big corporations such as Microsoft?

Typically, a good cop, bad cop approach can gain you leverage over your vendor. A successful approach used by many companies is to have a 3rd party play the bad cop, so at the end of the negotiation, that 3rd party walks away and the integrity of the vendor/customer relationship is left intact. Additionally, holding firm to your stance and insisting to move things up the ladder on the vendor side rather than accepting an unfavorable response should also prove beneficial. Also, have an alternative to the Vendor product would be helpful in a “walk away” tactic. However, being able and willing to actually walk away is key to making this angle work.

9. When discussing negotiating audit terms, specifically the amount of time to respond, you mentioned conducting a self-audit so that you can “cure” noncompliance. What does this mean?

A self audit is going through the process of obtaining your company’s Net Licensing Position (NLP) by matching your software contract license entitlements to the software license types actually deployed in the company. Auditors typically do not differentiate between license types (such as limited use, evaluation and software as part of bundles and suites) and therefore they have a distorted view of license usage data. If done correctly, a self audit will be able to classify these license types as show a true view of license usage and compliance and be an effective method in an audit refute.

Backup is the one topic that continually plagues storage-focused IT professionals. Throughout the day, you can gain insight into:

• Top 10 way people misconfigure their backup systems, and how to avoid
  these mistakes
• Pros & Cons of different disk-based backup targets
• Overview of CDP, data reduction backup and replication-based backup systems
• Deduplication hardware
• Using dedupe to backup remote offices:  software or hardware route
• Encryption
• VMware & Backups ….and so much more!

Also, hear Joe Castro, Siwel’s very own VP of Technology, discuss Siwel
and our NetApp Solutions.  Then, come visit Siwel’s booth in the Exhibitor
area and talk to our engineering experts!

See more details at:
http://storagedecisions.techtarget.com/seminars/backup_school.html

This presentation covers:

• Software discovery functionality for the changing environment
• How new software licensing models  will challenge SAM programs
• Licensing models for SaaS, Cloud Computing, Named User, & Virtualization
• Positive steps to take to adapt the SAM program to manage the new models

Speaker Panel: Barry Friedman – Siwel Consulting Jenny Schuchert – IAITAM

Presentation Slides: To download a copy of the presentation slides, click here: November 2009 Webinar Presentation

Replay: To listen to a recording of the webinar, click here:Siwel Prepare Your SAM

The presentation covers:

Key Virtualization Strategies
IBM Sub Capacity Licensing—what is it and how do I qualify for it?
ILMT Considerations & Challenges
ILMT Management—Roles and Responsibilities
Compliance Red Flags & Risk Mitigation Tips
Speaker Panel: Jason Heckler, Vice President SAM Services – Siwel Consulting
Jenny Schuchert – IAITAM
Presentation Slides: To download a copy of the presentation slides, Click Here: Siwel AITAM Feb2010 Webinar

Replay: To hear a recording of this webinar, Click Here.

Learn more …

To learn more about IBM’s License Metric Tool, download Siwel’s article from the December 2009 issue of ITAK Magazine: ““Putting the Puzzle Together: IBM’s Answer to Managing Server Virtualization”
To read the December 2009 issue of ITAK Magazine in its entirety, Click here.