High quality remote working
A managed SAM service from global IT service provider SoftwareONE is helping companies to manage their scattered, remote workforces more effectively. Here’s one example from Finland.
Finnish glass technology company Glaston Corporation is using a cloud solution to manage a widely-distributed IT estate scattered across three continents and 600 staff. Through the Software Asset Management (SAM) managed service delivered by SoftwareONE, Glaston has been able to regain control of its licences, thus re-deploying unused seats, controlling the cost of business-wide licences and taking back the initiative for managing software costs across its multiple offices and remote locations worldwide.
With just a small team of IT support staff, Glaston relies on key partners like SoftwareONE but also has a remarkably relaxed client computing environment. Many employees travel constantly as part of their job, installing new machines for customers and supporting existing manufacturing plants, often a long distance from IT support.
“We have to let them do their own thing and have autonomy,” says Kari Vääränen, ICT director at Glaston. “It’s not something I like – I’d rather see that users were not able to install software at their own discretion – but we have to weigh security and licensing control against the need for our employees to perform their jobs effectively.”
SoftwareONE worked with Glaston to provide a hosted solution and managed SAM service it had developed exclusively for delivering solutions built on Snow Software. Vääränen’s team ensured that users had the Snow agent installed on their workstations – and that all new workstations issued to staff come with the Snow agent pre-installed.
“We perhaps have a higher than average number of older PCs than many organisations,” says Vääränen, “so we couldn’t aim for 100 per cent coverage from day one. But, as we replace the older workstations, we’re shipping out new PCs with the agent pre-installed. Putting the Snow and SoftwareONE solution in place went really well.” Following a quick implementation at the beginning, Glaston was close to seeing profit from the deployment just a few months later. Aside from the compliance benefits for Glaston, Vääränen has been able to cross-check the number of licences in use against annual licence costing reports easily and quickly.
“What I most like with Snow is that we get the transparency that we really need,” says Vääränen. “Glaston has acquired several companies over the years, ending up with licences everywhere. There was a distinct lack of control – not from want of trying. With SoftwareONE, we have been able to address this effectively and quickly. We still have things to do and benefits to gain. We’re looking forward to making the most of them.
“I talk a lot about control and that’s something we need to have with such a lean ICT organisation. Now we don’t have to spend days and days figuring out correct licences. SoftwareONE is the one partner that we trust to help us identify which licences are most beneficial, and they have provided a tool in the form of Snow Software that helps us understand our current position easily and instantly.”
As a solution provider with software licensing at its core, SoftwareONE offers added insight into the challenges and opportunities that your software lifecycle presents, enabling us to provide the highest level of expertise and most complete services throughout the lifecycle of your IT investments. In 2013, SoftwareONE became the global leader for SAM, delivering over 1,000 SAM engagements worldwide – more SAM projects than any other SAM service provider – helping organisations to achieve compliance and reduce their overall software spend.
For more information, contact SoftwareONE as follows:
Tel: + 353 (0) 21 2409279
Email: info.ie@softwareone.com
Web: www.softwareone.com
