From the Overijssel town of Hasselt, contractor Schagen Groep works daily on the future. How? By realizing and maintaining infrastructure and real estate to be proud of. Like any company of a certain size, Schagen Groep also cannot function without good hardware and software. Software manufacturers are strictly checking whether their software is being used in compliance with the terms and conditions. If you’re not compliant, a fine follows. Peter Uitslag, head of ICT: “Those terms are quite complex and constantly changing. I reached a point where I could no longer keep up. That’s when I knew it was time to bring in a specialist.”
Compliance is a Must
Compliance—proving that you are using software correctly—is an essential task for any organization. If you choose to sign a business license, the number of licenses is neatly recorded digitally, and the first hurdle towards compliance is crossed. When Schagen Groep grew, they decided to switch to this approach. Peter explains: “But even then, Microsoft checks: do we have enough licenses for the number of employees, for example? I spent 80 hours figuring out the entire licensing situation, with the risk of still getting it wrong. What we needed was someone who could analyze and monitor our software usage. That’s when I called Peter van Uden from Quexcel.”
A Big Relief
One of Quexcel’s services is Managed Software Asset Management (SAM). With this service, Quexcel monitors three things: (1) how well you comply with the fine print of the software, (2) the balance between usage and licenses, and (3) practical matters such as: is the security up to date, which software’s support is expiring soon, and are there inactive user accounts? Peter says, “When I heard that, I was quickly convinced, and now six years later, we’re still going strong. For item 3, we also have internal tools in place, but we make good use of parts 1 and 2. In the beginning, Quexcel did a lot of cleanup, but within a year, we had everything in order. A huge relief. With SAM, our licensing position is monitored 24/7. That’s why we meet with Quexcel every quarter to evaluate and take action. And what’s also nice is that we have separate advice and purchasing. This way, I can trust that Quexcel’s advice is independent.”
Like in almost every organization, Outlook, Word, and Excel are the foundation of our work. That just needs to be right. The downside is: just when you have your environment stable with a licensing model, Microsoft comes up with a new one. Fortunately, Quexcel always provides timely updates and advice. I highly value Peter van Uden and his team as experts in Microsoft licensing. When Microsoft visits, and we show that we use Quexcel’s managed SAM service, you can see them think: this is probably in good shape. That tells me everything I need to know.