Case Study
Telkomsel reduces Oracle costs, cuts risk and enhances service continuity
At A Glance
Jakarta-based digital communications provider serving 170 million customers
Industry: Telecommunications
Employees: 5,370
Products: Snow Software Asset Management
Location: Indonesia
Featured Results
- Potential 10% cut in Oracle software license costs
- $74,000 a year potential saving on Microsoft® subscriptions
- 90% reduction in time taken to collect license data
- Identified over $740,000 potential cost avoidance in Oracle license compliance
The Challenge
Manual processes contributed to lengthy audits, inadequate data and limited visibility
PT Telekomunikasi Selular, known as Telkomsel, is one of Indonesia’s leading digital telecommunications providers. Based in Jakarta and employing more than 5,000 people, Telkomsel serves around 170 million customers with a variety of pre-paid and post-paid SIM cards, including the hugely popular Telkomsel PraBayar and Telkomsel Halo brands.
Like many large organizations, Telkomsel constantly seeks to optimize operational efficiency. With significant budget assigned to software, the Telkomsel IT team is always looking for ways to enhance administration and streamline management processes wherever possible.
Torang Hasudungan Sitorus, vice president, IT Quality Assurance and Service Management, explains, “For example, vendor software audits took considerable time to resolve, and Telkomsel lacked the data to prove its usage or reduce its license fees. Similarly, the team was unable to locate outdated software that might expose us to security risks, or eliminate software that was not actually in use.”
He continues, “When we investigated further, we realized that the twin root causes were reliance on manual processes and the lack of a single, trusted view of software in use across the business. We looked for a way to improve our audit compliance, enhance security, monitor utilization and cut costs.”
Snow Software Asset Management helped us to reduce software expenses by identifying and removing unused licenses. For example, optimization of our Microsoft subscriptions has saved us a potential $74,000 a year.
Torang Hasudungan Sitorus, vice president, IT Quality Assurance and Service Management Telkomsel
The Solution
Detailed IT asset information and a single, complete view of the IT landscape
To gain integrated control of its software estate, Telkomsel chose the comprehensive Snow Software Asset Management solution to help them manage their data center and end-user on-premises and Microsoft 365 environments. “We completed a comprehensive technical POC of the SAM solution to ensure that it was able to address all our technical and business requirements,” Sitorus said. The IT Operations team owned the project, supported by the Security, Infrastructure, Development, and Asset Management teams for implementation.
As a first step, Telkomsel implemented Snow Software Asset Management, which collects detailed information on installed software, including licenses, versioning, computer specifications, users and period of use. In parallel, Telkomsel deployed discovery tools to create a database of physical and virtual machines, including storage, switches, servers, blades, and PCs—as well as IP addresses and operating systems.
“This solution automatically created a database encompassing more than 5,000 servers and 5,000 end-user devices. Snow SAM provides our team, our stakeholders and our organization with a central view and complete visibility of all our assets in one place, which immediately removed the root causes of our earlier challenges,” Sitorus reports.
He continues: “For the first time, we had the validated data to reduce the risks of an audit or a compliance violation, manage and streamline software licenses from a single place, and optimize budgeting and spending on software licenses at the enterprise level.” Going forward we look to cover more end-user computers and servers, as well as looking at optimizing over software vendors like SAP®.”
Snow Software Asset Management has improved audit compliance and risk avoidance, enhanced security compliance, and cut software license costs.
Torang Hasudungan Sitorus, vice president, IT Quality Assurance and Service Management Telkomsel
The Result
Optimized licenses, lower costs and a great user experience
With the solution in full operation, Sitorus describes outstanding results. “Telkomsel achieved a 10% reduction in software license spending,” he says, “with a 90% reduction in time to collect data, and highest level of accuracy in calculation of software utilization data.”
“Snow Software Asset Management helped us to reduce software expenses by identifying and reclaiming unused licenses,” Sitorus recounts. “For example, optimization of our Microsoft subscriptions has saved us a potential $74,000 a year.”
As well as achieving impressive business metrics, Telkomsel has gained control of its software estate. For example, the IT team uses the solution to manage service continuity for critical applications by ensuring licenses are renewed, and to track and banish unsecured software. With full visibility of equipment and software, Telkomsel can delete applications with poor security standards, prevent malware, remove network scanning tools and mitigate business risk.
In addition, Snow Software Asset Management enables Telkomsel to monitor consumption of applications, allowing optimization of metered licensing contracts. Telkomsel can then use that data to plan license renewals and contract negotiations.
Sitorus concludes, “Snow Software Asset Management has improved audit compliance and risk avoidance, enhanced security compliance, and cut software license costs. As part of our drive to operational efficiency and excellence, it optimizes software management across the entire organization, and helps Telkomsel deliver a great user experience to employees, stakeholders and customers.”
