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Four Ways to Reduce Shelfware

By Mae Kowalke, TMCnet Contributor

At almost every job I’ve ever had, there’s been a graveyard of software no longer used. This graveyard might be in a server room, hidden away in a closet, or more likely it is scattered throughout the desks of officemates, sandwiched between reference books they also do not use.

There’s a term for such software: shelfware.

The problem of shelfware is a substantial one. More than half of businesses polled by Flexera Software and IDC (News - Alert) said that at least 11 percent of the software purchased in the past year went unused. This is clearly a lot of wasted software.

Some shelfware is software that once was necessary but now no longer is needed, like that copy of Microsoft (News - Alert) OneNote 2007 – but not all.

Shelfware also comes from ad hoc purchases that lead to over-buying. It comes from not fully leveraging global enterprise agreements, and not tracking installation and use. It comes from a lack of communication between departments and not applying software use rights properly.

With software licenses and maintenance typically representing one third of overall IT budgets, according to ComputerWorld UK, corporations can save up to 25 percent of their software spend by eliminating shelfware.

There are at least four tactics that the Flexera survey recommends to reduce shelfware.

First, define software license optimization policies.

“This means that there must be specific policies on every aspect of license management, with an aim to reduce costs and limit the business and legal risk related to the ownership of software,” noted ComputerWorld UK.

Second, focus on the major software publishers. Eye up the highest value and highest cost applications and make sure they are effectively leveraged and licensed appropriately.

Third, carefully monitor virtual environments.

“Software licensing is often under-managed in virtualized environments,” noted ComputerWorld. “The risk of license non-compliance is greatly increased in virtual server environments because it’s easy to create and move new virtual machines running copies of operating systems and software applications.”

Finally, understand software publisher license rules and product use rights. Product use rights define where, how and by whom a piece of software can be installed and/or used, and businesses should take full advantage of use rights that allow them to upgrade, install on additional machines and use in virtual environments.

All organizations have shelfware. Reducing the volume of shelfware, however, can greatly reduce IT spending.