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Hussmann Reaps the Rewards of SAM
'We were massively overlicensed on certain products that we no longer use. Now, if someone wants to open a file using software they don't have, we can give them an older version of that package. Previously they would have just downloaded the software without us knowing or would have got us to purchase the latest product'
William Pollock, Technical Analyst, Hussmann.
Hussmann is a leading manufacturer of merchandising equipment and refrigeration systems. It manufactures, sells, installs, and services its products in more than 80 countries and has built up a solid reputation through innovation.
Due to the disparate nature of the business, the company
was finding it difficult to keep track of software licences
within its United Kingdom organisation. It wanted to
create a single point of responsibility and gain better
control of its information technology (IT) assets to
stamp out ad-hoc software downloading and unnecessary
software purchases. The company wanted to implement
a software asset management (SAM) policy based on Software
Organiser. ,br>
Software Organiser, based on Microsoft.NET
technology, has together with the surrounding SAM policies,
given Hussmann back control of its software assets through
automatic software licence management and reconciliation.
Since its foundation in 1906, Hussmann, an
Ingersoll-Rand company, has grown to become a world
leader in the manufacturing, selling, installation,
and servicing of merchandising equipment and refrigeration
systems to customers in more than 80 countries. The
company continues to grow and expand into new and emerging
products and market areas. Much of its success can be
attributed to its innovation. To ensure its products
offer value and excellence, it invests a great deal
in research and development to deliver better quality
and reliability. It also tailors its offerings so that
they are easy to manage and consume less energy. A good
example of this innovation is Hussmann's flagship Impact
product line.
William Pollock, Technical Analyst, Hussmann,
says: 'Information technology is critical to the work
we do. It's a core tool that helps us to be innovative
and remain competitive. We continually make sure we're
using IT to our advantage. For example, we're currently
implementing Microsoft Business Solutions-Navision for
every single user throughout Europe.'
As a growing company,
Hussmann's IT infrastructure is becoming complex. Like
any other company, it needs to ensure it enforces good
IT asset management policies to reduce that complexity
and simplify management. However, historically, this
has proved quite difficult.
Hussmann's core infrastructure
comprises of 130 PCs spread across disparate sites in
the UK. This complexity had a knock-on effect on licensing.
Licences were purchased for products, but tracking where
they came from and what they were for was less than
efficient. Proof of licensing was kept in many forms,
which made it very difficult to maintain control.
'Our
technical architecture is difficult to manage because
of this. We suspected that we had licences for software
that people had deleted, but we were still paying for
annual agreements. We knew what we had hardware-wise
but didn't know what software we had in place. People
were buying their own software from different sources,
but as a head office we didn't know that they had actually
purchased it,' says Pollock.
In 2001, Hussmann's head
office transferred from Milton Keynes to Glasgow. The
company saw this as a prime opportunity to put in place
better processes to keep track of licences.
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