Exam 70-673 – TS - Designing, Assessing, and Optimizing Software Asset Management (SAM)
Skills measured
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Assess software asset management (SAM) programs by using the SAM Optimization Model (18%)
- Define the scope of a SAM program assessment
- Identify infrastructure groups and locations, estimated quantity of hardware and software assets, functional descriptions for each group, and key points of contact
- Assess SAM processes throughout an organization
- Assess infrastructure groups for the existence of documented SAM procedures, roles, and responsibilities
- Assign maturity levels according to the 10 components of the SAM Optimization Model
- Assign one of four maturity levels to each component
- Perform a gap analysis between the current maturity level and the desired maturity level
- Review assigned maturity levels, compare assigned maturity levels with desired maturity levels
Preparation resources
- Software Asset Management Assessment
- Microsoft inventory and assessment tools
- SAM Assessment report workbook
Perform software license reviews (21%)
- Collect and manage complete hardware and software inventories
- Review an organization’s hardware and software inventory collection processes and data to ensure completeness
- Validate inventory accuracy
- Normalize software inventories and reconcile them against other data sources to verify the accuracy of specified license metrics, such as user counts based on HR employee records
- Collect, validate, and manage license entitlement records
- Gather, store, normalize, and validate license entitlement records; provide reports as needed
- Perform a periodic reconciliation of software inventories and license entitlements
- Reconcile software inventory data against software license entitlements data to determine and report license compliance status
Preparation resources
- SAM and licensing
- Taking inventory
- Software and hardware spreadsheet template
Coordinate data collection technologies (21%)
- Manage data collection
- Identify machine type, agent installation requirements, collection schedules, and discrepancies between inventories; define data schemas; identify data storage locations; normalize the collected data
- Coordinate data collection between operations groups
- Facilitate data transfer and synchronization between various IT groups, validate data between these groups, and ensure that overall SAM processes are being followed
- Manage data interfaces between disparate data sources
- Identify the process of matching common fields, cross-referencing, determine whether an individual record in one data source requires the updating of other data sources by using manual or automated techniques; manage the data transfer process
- Manage reporting
- Gather requirements for general user and executive reports, generate and maintain periodic reports, maintain the infrastructure necessary for ad-hoc reporting requests
Preparation resources
- Managing your data-collection packages
Design and manage a SAM program (19%)
- Secure executive sponsorship
- Identify stakeholders, create proposal materials, and obtain explicit executive authorization
- Secure funding
- Estimate operational costs in both consulting hours and employee time, create a project plan and budget, and obtain from each infrastructure group funding for each task that is associated with managing a SAM program
- Design a SAM program
- Identify resources and objectives for a SAM program, align resources with customer requirements and schedules, and coordinate acquisition strategies that may include optimization methods, such as software as a service (SaaS) and application virtualization
- Implement a SAM program
- Create a SAM stakeholder group to oversee the project; assess and benchmark the current state of SAM; implement technologies to support asset discovery; enhance purchasing processes to include storage and retrieval of license entitlement information; perform an initial license reconciliation; create policies, processes, and procedures to support SAM efforts; secure support from all associated departments; educate employees
- Maintain a SAM program
- Monitor adherence to the policies, processes, and procedures of an organization’s SAM life cycle; standardize SAM processes across all domains and organizational units; perform periodic license reconciliation; and provide ongoing SAM awareness training
- Create and manage a SAM program improvement plan
- Incorporate SAM analytical data into strategic IT and business unit planning; create detailed metrics and reports to measure SAM adoption, maturity, and adherence to plan; report return on investment (ROI), cost avoidance, and end-user satisfaction to all stakeholders; evangelize SAM maturity benefits
Preparation resources
- Creating policies and procedures
- Microsoft Licensing suggestions table
- Maintaining SAM
Manage the software asset life cycle (21%)
- Manage the acquisition process
- Identify and manage approved and unapproved purchasing processes within an organization, identify suppliers, and manage software approval and receiving processes
- Manage the deployment process
- Validate the availability of software and licenses, select the correct media, specify the software identification characteristics, and track the deployment of software
- Maintain assets
- Manage software and hardware during the install, move, add, change (IMAC) processes throughout the software asset life cycle
- Manage the retirement process
- Identify hardware for retirement, retire software, harvest software licenses, decommissioning or destruction of storage media
Preparation resources
- SAM Optimization Model
- Software acquisition policy
- Software use policy