I'm sure it already happened in your organization. Do you have enough or too many licenses for the different softwares in use? Are these pieces of software really used?
Is your software becoming "shelfware"? According to this article, there are five ways to make sure that you use what you buy -- and that you don'tbuy what you can't use.
Of course, I have to choose one of this five ways turning your software into shelfware. And it is ignorance.
Go down to your IS department some morning and ask this question: "Who's got copies of Microsoft Access?" (That's the database software that comes with the Microsoft Office suite.) If your company installs what's known as a standard software "footprint" on every PC, the IS department can probably give you the answer. In theory, if every PC gets Microsoft Office installed on it, then every employee should have a copy of Microsoft Access. If IS doesn't install a standard footprint, expect to hear some mumbling and stammering.
Now ask a trick question: Which employees actually use their copies of Access? Chances are good that the IS department doesn't have a clue. And chances are even better that at least some of those Access licenses -- or those for some other piece of software -- are going to waste.
Source: Sari Kalin, Darwin Magazine, June 2002
6:08:51 PM Permalink
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