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Irwin Mitchell Solicitors

Top law firm, Irwin Mitchell, uses Licence Dashboard™ as part of its successful Software Asset Management strategy

Irwin Mitchell was established over 90 years ago and is the fourth largest law firm in the UK. The practice has grown significantly in the last 15 years and today employs more than 2,300 staff - including over 1000 legally trained professionals and more than 100 Partners. Its office network covers Birmingham, Leeds, London, Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle and Sheffield with international offices in the Spanish cities of Marbella and Madrid.

Irwin Mitchell has always been conscientious about tracking its software assets; as they worked towards planning their future maintenance policy back in 2002, it became even more of a priority to establish a well thought out Software Asset Management (SAM) strategy that would endure in future years.

Working in partnership with Phoenix Software, an experienced SAM partner, Irwin Mitchell was able to ratify its strategy and achieve all the stepping stones involved in pulling the necessary processes and procedures together, and provide a management interface to allow it to maintain control of all its software assets.

THE PROJECT

Building an Irwin Mitchell Software Register

Phoenix Software provided Irwin Mitchell with a number of experienced auditors to record all licences submitted for inspection. After all licences were recorded in the Licence Inventory, a Senior Auditor calculated the organisation's global installation rights. During this stage, Phoenix Software also calculated the upgrade paths, technology guarantees and maintenance agreements.

In addition, Phoenix cross-referenced the licence records against manufacturer consumption data and purchase history to ensure that the best possible licence representation had been achieved. At the end of this stage, Irwin Mitchell was able to confirm its understanding of what is allowed to be installed on PCs and laptops, based on the records submitted.

Physically Auditing the Irwin Mitchell Network

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) is Irwin Mitchell's software inventory capture tool. Like many other tools in the market, however, Irwin Mitchell realised they needed to distil the data down to a level that would allow them to make accurate comparisons with their Software Register information.

Built on open technology, Licence Dashboard plugs into most leading software auditing tools.

Organisations that already have these audit tools installed, but are failing to utilise the software metering features due to the product's limited reporting capabilities, can implement Licence Dashboard and take advantage of the user friendly interface to extend their current application's return on investment.

Verification Audit

Phoenix Software then conducted a comprehensive Verification Audit. During this process our Senior Auditors cross-referenced the new Licence Register (installation rights) against the products installed on the network. This information was clearly presented in the management interface - Licence Dashboard.

Licence Dashboard

Phoenix Software installed and configured Licence Dashboard onto a single server. With an easy-to-use Web-based interface, Licence Dashboard enables authorised users to take control of their new software and licence inventories, combining all licence register and software audit information into a single reporting tool. Using this management interface, Licence Administrators, IT Managers and all other authorised members of staff can gain access to software inventory, licence register and purchasing information at anytime, anyplace or on any device - simply by using an Internet browser.

Additionally, Licence Dashboard has an integrated audit tracking system that monitors and records Dashboard activity. When licences are added, updated, deleted, transferred or when a licence discrepancy occurs, Licence Dashboard records the event (which includes the user's details) and displays them in Dashboard. The event can also be programmed to raise alerts by email.

A full software audit should only have to happen once. Without a comprehensive interface to help you to continue managing your software assets, however, it soon becomes impossible to remain in control. Irwin Mitchell recognised that Licence Dashboard was a unique solution that offered the final piece of the jigsaw in achieving its Software Asset Management strategy. Providing real-time information, Licence Dashboard now equips business users with the facility to make better informed purchasing decisions.

Handover & Training

Training was then provided to Irwin Mitchell to enable it to keep populating Licence Dashboard with ongoing purchases and contract details.

Managed Service

Phoenix Software now provides a Managed Service for Irwin Mitchell which includes continued application recognition and audit cleansing services, along with quarterly audit management spot checks. The partnership that Irwin Mitchell and Phoenix now have enables true savings to be achieved within the business, so that there is no over spend on software licences and all available licences are known and recorded in the Licence Pool for allocation if not already utilised.

Gary Thomas of Irwin Mitchell concluded:

"Our decision to have a Managed Service for Licence Dashboard was based on a number of reasons; compliance, management overhead and the associated cost savings being the main ones. We now have a clear view of our compliance status at the touch of a button or at the end of the phone without the management headache that usually accompanies this.

"This in turn has saved us both time and money because Phoenix deals with all of the administration of Dashboard allowing our employees to concentrate on other initiatives.

"We find Phoenix great to work with and would highly recommend Licence Dashboard and the Phoenix Software Managed Service to anyone interested in getting and, more importantly, staying compliant."