The Long Way Round: from chaos to cohesion, Gary Rogers, NSW Health

1. The ITAM Review Australia Conference 2017
The Long Way Round:
from chaos to cohesion
Gary Rogers
Software Asset Manager, NSW Health

2. The ITAM Review Australia Conference 2017
My Experience
15 years on the client side working in Greenfield sites
- Brisbane City Council – ~6,000 seats, ~$3M annual
software spend
- Commonwealth Bank – ~50,000 seats, $260M
annual software spend
- NSW Health - ~115,000 FTE, $92M annual state
wide agreement software spend

3. The ITAM Review Australia Conference 2017
Greenfield Sites
- No organized SAM
- Pre-Baseline
- No clear idea of what SAM should be delivering
- Completely reactive, no real strategies

4. The ITAM Review Australia Conference 2017
Expectations
21
IT
Departments
Hundreds
of
contracts
Thousands
of
purchases
Millions
of
Dollars
Audits
Resourcing
Issues
Funding
Issues
Cloud
“Quick
wins
will
confirm
my
ability”
“SAM
is
quick
to
implement”
“SAM
can
be
done
part
Hme”
“SAM
will
show
immediate
benefits”
“SAM
is
not
hard
–here
is
what
you
need
to
do”
“ImplemenHng
SAM
is
not
hard,
here
is
how
to
do
it”
“SAM
should
show
immediate
benefits”
“If
I
can’t
do
this,
then
I’ve
FAILED”
“If
you
can’t
do
this,
then
you’ve
FAILED”
“If
it
isn’t
like
this,
then
you’ve
FAILED”

5. The ITAM Review Australia Conference 2017
Results
You will end up working 10/12/14 hour days…every day… for
weeks on end
It will become your new normal
Because of this, others will expect it of you – yet another
unrealistic expectation
Because of this, others will believe they have to do it too

6. The ITAM Review Australia Conference 2017
Now the practical stuff
Quick wins are a double edged sword… too good and you’ll be
buried under unrealistic expectations of success… not good
enough and you won’t gain traction.
Sneaky Tip #1
Build your profile: Listen to the people around you for
opportunities. There will be stacks that require some visible effort
(not too much) and that eases an obvious pain point that isn’t
front of mind for your stakeholders, i.e. prove your value without
fanfare.

7. The ITAM Review Australia Conference 2017
Data is kind of…….Important
To fully understand the task in front of you, finding out
the size and scale of the various platforms, domains
etc. is, obviously very important. It is vital that you
scope this before you get pushed into providing
timeframes and estimates.
Sneaky
Tip
#2
The
techos
are
your
friends:
They
will
give
you
a
feel
for
the
quality
of
the
data
you
are
going
to
get
and
any
quirks,
catches
or
black
holes
in
it.

8. The ITAM Review Australia Conference 2017
Stakeholders are Painful Valuable
Jokes aside, key stakeholders are absolutely vital. If you don’t
understand their requirements you will find yourself answering
horrible “you suck” emails on your way out the door.
Sneaky
Tip
#3
Where
possible,
meet
with
the
stakeholders
to
understand
what
their
business
outcomes
are
and
where
their
pressure
points
are
to
see
if
there
is
an
opportunity
to
assist
them
in
a
way
that
they
hadn’t
foreseen.

9. The ITAM Review Australia Conference 2017
Rome wasn’t built ….yada yada yada
The temptation to take the previous slides and
supercharge your approach should be resisted! You
still need a plan for which of these tasks you do and in
what order.
Sneaky
Tip
#4
Be
the
Beaver:
Build
walls
and
dams
using
the
tasks
so
that
you
achieve
greater
benefits.
For
example,
use
your
small
“favours”
as
blocks
to
build
a
dam
that
restricts
and
redirects
the
flow
of
soFware
coming
into
your
organizaHon
and
idenHfies
further,
larger
targets.

10. The ITAM Review Australia Conference 2017
Vendors
Sales people generally cause you more problems than
they solve! They tend to have an incomplete view of
the licensing rules and are just a little bit wary of
introducing you to their licensing team.
Sneaky
Tip
#5
Bore
them
to
death:
Keep
asking
detailed
quesHons
about
licensing
at
every
opportunity
unHl
they
cave
in.
This
will
give
you
access
to
their
licensing
team
and
let
them
know
that
you
aren’t
a
push
over.

11. The ITAM Review Australia Conference 2017
Licensing One Pagers – who knew right?
Believe it or not, it is possible to explain some licensing in a brief
one page document. If you don’t have a central location you can
share it from, make sure you have it ready to attach in response
to emails. Give it to the tech teams. Give it to the Service Desk.
Give it to anyone who asks!
Sneaky
Tip
#6
Some
vendors
have
excellent
one
page
licensing
briefs…not
many
but
some.
If
in
doubt
add
links
to
the
vendors
websites…
that
should
help
your
customers
understand
it
isn’t
simple.
Good
reference
for
licence
interpretaHon:
hNps://tldrlegal.com

12. The ITAM Review Australia Conference 2017
Bulldozers
These are stakeholders and key players that answer any of your
questions/arguments with ‘I don’t care…it’s not as important as this other
thing I’m doing”. Extremely frustrating, more so if they decide to escalate
up the chain to prove how annoying you are and how wonderful they
are…
Sneaky
Tip
#7
Don’t
try
to
beat
them:
Let
them
beat
themselves,
ask,
very
politely
for
them
to
confirm
that
they
are
happy
to
accept
the
risk
(spell
it
out
clearly)
of
not
doing
what
you
want
via
an
email.

13. The ITAM Review Australia Conference 2017
Relevance
It is very easy to forget that what you do isn’t the be all and end all of the
process. What you are trying to do can have far ranging impacts. The
issues you face doing your job may not be the world ending nightmares
you think they are.
Sneaky
Tip
#8
Join
Them:
Organize
an
annual
visit
to
a
customer
facing
team
and
get
them
to
show
you
what
they
do.
Ask
them
what
issues
they
face.
You
may
not
be
able
to
directly
help
them,
but
you
will
at
least
understand
what
the
front
line
staff
are
dealing
with.

14. The ITAM Review Australia Conference 2017
Summary
You can’t do everything at once… so don’t try
SAM is not easy – neither is convincing others
Vendors are rarely your friend in this space
Relationships built on trust are critical to success
You can’t know everything, but you can know where to
look
If in doubt, ask! The SAM/ITAM forums are full of
people who are willing to help

15. The ITAM Review Australia Conference 2017
Questions?
The ITAM Review Australia Conference 2017

16. The ITAM Review Australia Conference 2017
Thank You