Germany: Case Studies

2 "The huge benefit is that we know where we stand with our growth structures….We are able to say where we have been underlicensed or overlicensed in order to then be able to rectify the situation." Michael Thamm, CEO, Bochumer Verein "The customer now uses the insights and know-how gained to manage IT more efficiently." Alfred Mevenkamp, Senior SAM Consultant, Insight Enterprises Shortly before Bochumer Verein resumed management of its IT department, Microsoft performed a license review for its parent company, Georgsmarienhütte Group. "At that point, we thought we ought to get our license situation more transparent as well," says Thamm. Bochumer Verein began to search for a company that could help it to assess its license contracts and assure their legality. "Important for us was the subject of legal security— knowing what licenses were being used. Especially after changing our IT service provider, many questions were asked about those issues—what licenses were installed, where were they, were any employees installing things themselves," Thamm says. "We needed to rectify, let's say, the 'uncontrolled growth' that had mounted over a period of time, to be able to determine the actual status quo. We needed to obtain legal security that we use only the products that we have purchased." Solution The parent group of Bochumer Verein, Georgsmarienhütte Group, had sought Software Asset Management (SAM) expertise from Software Spectrum—a company that has since been acquired by Insight Enterprises. "The company was recommended to us, and we approached them," says Thamm. Insight is a leading provider of a broad range of IT computing products, software, and advanced IT services. It helps companies in over 100 countries around the globe enable, manage, and secure their IT environments. Insight has offices across Europe, including Ismaning/Munich, Germany. The Bochumer Verein SAM project began in June 2006 with Insight conducting a two-day workshop. The workshop gave Insight a chance to understand how the customer had historically bought and managed its licenses and to assess its general environment. "Every customer is different in that respect," says Alfred Mevenkamp, Senior SAM Consultant at Insight Enterprises. Then, says Mevenkamp, "We told the customer how the project would work, how many internal resources it would require from Bochumer Verein and Insight, and how much cost and time it would incur." The first step was to divide the software asset management team into subteams," says Mevenkamp. The History team was responsible for finding all invoices of purchases. The Inventory team was responsible for using the software inventory analysis tool to find out what software was installed and in use on clients and servers. "For customers who need it, we provide an inventory tool. In this case, the customer already had one," says Mevenkamp. Bochumer Verein used a tool called LANDesk Inventory Manager, which runs on the Windows ® operating system, to perform a comprehensive software inventory. Next, Insight provided Bochumer Verein with a report showing how many licenses were installed, and how many were being used. Mevenkamp says, "The customer was shown a status for every product the customer had. We also made suggestions for how to reduce a positive or negative gap." Next, during the license reconcilement phase, Thamm says, "We had time to make decisions and adjustments, to find any additional invoices we might have missed." When Bochumer Verein concluded that phase, Insight created the final report following a final reconciliation. "In the report you will find, for example, what licenses are lacking. The customer is then able to buy exactly these licenses," says Mevenkamp. In December 2006, the companies concluded the project with a final report revealing the licensing figures. "We were not too far from our goal," says Thamm. "Based on the 250 workstations, maybe 10 percent were overlicensed—so 20–25 workstations." Part of the reason for this low figure is that employees were no longer using programs that were once heavily used. For example, the company used Microsoft Office Access ™ a lot in the past. "We bought a huge amount of suites. Then eventually we stopped using them as much. So effectively, many people in the company were given Access licenses, although they never used them." INSIGHT CASE STUDY

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