By John Lipsey
US Congressman Joseph Walsh continues to take up the mantle of software asset management as being an obvious means of reaping “low hanging fruit" as the US government seeks to cut government waste. Back in October, he announced his successful introduction of an amendment to eliminate wasteful software license spend in the house version of the Department of Homeland Security authorization bill. Last month, he authored an article for AOL Government on the topic.
In Congressman Walsh’s words, he’s enamored with the promise of software license optimization because:
The answer is simple – anywhere from 10% to 30% of the federal government's software spending could be eliminated through better software asset management. This legislation, aimed to rein in software spending at the DHS, is as good a place as any to start eliminating that waste. This amendment answers the question: how can you give more productivity to users through software, while spending less money? This bill brings into clear focus something that private enterprises have struggled with for years. The complexity surrounding enterprise software licenses is mind boggling, making it very difficult for organizations to understand how much software they need, how much software they have, and how much software they're actually using. This results in two wasteful consequences: 1) endemic over-purchasing of certain software packages; and 2) endemic under purchasing of others.
The message is clear that cost containment will be a continuing dominant theme in government IT – but even more important will be cost containment strategies that deliver more capability and productivity to end users. That is, delivering more value for less spend. This is actually one of the primary themes around software asset management and license optimization and why I introduced this amendment, which answers the question: how can you give more productivity to users through software, while spending less money by optimizing software procurement, reducing software audit cost and risk, and improving IT operational efficiency?
Adopting best practices from the private sector around software asset management and license optimization is a painless and efficient way to eliminate this wasteful spending, while increasing the value being delivered to government employees. I'm hopeful that when the amendment I introduced gets voted upon and goes into law – we will have taken some significant strides in eliminating that waste.
On January 4, Congressman Walsh was out there again preaching the software asset management Gospel in an interview for Federal News Radio. Walsh summed up the value proposition for the government succinctly:
This is a … relatively easy, painless way to save federal spending without in essence having to cut anything.
