One of the analysts who I have an alert set for has today issued a research note looking at the increasing acceptance of IT Asset Management in the corporate market.  This is great news for ITAM vendors like us, but it does leave me very puzzled as to why it has taken so long.  At the same time, I’m looking at a paper from Microsoft pushing the benefits of Software Asset Management in particular; they stress the importance of understanding what software your users really are using, and draw a parallel with having a fleet of vehcles on lease – saying you wouldn’t leave a bunch of them sitting unused in the garage. These are hardly nuanced, sophisticated, hard-to-grasp arguments. The trouble is, it’s hard to deliver the message to your colleagues that IT has been wasting money for the last N years. Do you get rewarded for making the savings from now on, or punished for lack of optimization in the past?  There has to be a  way of creating a win-win for both IT and the organization.