Under the umbrella of the Progressive Maharashtra campaign, FICCI
and the Business Software Alliance (BSA) announced the launch of
the ‘Leadership in Software Asset Management’
campaign.
This initiative aims to build competitive sustainable advantage in
the state and is supported by the Maharashtra chamber of commerce
and the state government. FICCI and BSA will educate, engage and
encourage SMEs in the state to improve their IT governance
standards and become IT competitive globally. This will be done
through a multi-pronged approach on the end-to-end management of
software.
Commenting on the launch of the campaign Keshav Dhakad, Chair, BSA
India committee said, “We are partnering with the government
of Maharashtra because the state has led the development growth
rate and 20 percent of software exports come from Maharashtra. As
SMEs grow in Maharashtra and the state economy continues to
strengthen, it is critical that the industry is sensitized on
managing enterprise software as an invaluable asset which will
increase data security, boost employee productivity, and reduce
financial and legal risk for companies.”
Working with FICCI and other ministries in the state government,
BSA will educate and engage organizations on adopting the Software
Asset Management (SAM) standard.
Added Dhakad, “We will take a two-pronged approach to this.
First we will educate organizations about the SAM principle and its
benefits, perhaps through advertisements. Then we will engage with
the industry through seminars, training, and consultancy. Finally,
we will actually implement SAM in these organizations.”
Studies show that software has become an integral part of any
organization and can represent almost 25 percent of its assets.
This makes it imperative to have a standard to manage software
assets. The goal of SAM is to reduce IT costs and to limit business
and legal risks related to ownership and use of software.
BSA is dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world. It
encourages technology innovation through education and policy
initiatives that promote copyright protection, cyber security,
trade and e-commerce.
A non-profit NGO, FICCI is regarded as the voice of India’s
business and industry and has direct membership from India’s
private and public sectors including MNCs, SMEs and indirect
membership of over 83,000 companies from regional chambers of
commerce. The chamber speaks directly and indirectly to around
250,000 SMEs that employ more than 20 million people.