What do you know about Software Asset Management?

Understanding Software Asset Management, or SAM, can be difficult, as we are thrown tons of information around the concept and how it should be used. To help with this, we have gathered together a few of the basic, hard facts around SAM to give you a better understanding of why organizations need it and how it can drastically improve the business. So, let’s get started…

1. What are you working with? Software purchases typically account for 35% of a firm’s annual IT spend. That’s a significant chunk of the budget, so it’s clear that these purchases need to be properly managed in order to be well worth the investment.

2. Do you have what you need? This is one of the great recurring questions in software asset management, one that is revisited over and over again by organizations that are trying to remain compliant. Rather surprisingly, organizations with no SAM program in place actually tend to overspend on licenses by about 20%. That’s a good bit of budget being spent on licenses that are not actually needed. The reason for this is that without a SAM program, it is very difficult to track exactly which licenses you have and who they are assigned to. To overcompensate for this lack of knowledge, many organizations purchase any software they think is necessary, without properly checking whether a license already exists in the organization. In terms of compliance, the effort is there, but it is actually causing quite a bit of wasted money as a result.

3. Speaking of compliance…what about audits? Ahhh yes, the ever-dreaded audit. To some, this concept may exist as a looming, faraway evil that never actually shows its face. In reality, though, the organization’s chance of being audited is rising each year. Gartner reports that today, the chance of being audited is at an all-time high of over 65%. Needless to say, this is a typical “better safe than sorry” situation, where you really have to be prepared for potential audits coming your way. This means having all the proper licenses your organization needs, plus their related documentation and information filed away in a safe and central location. (Hint hint – a software asset management system can make this job incredibly easy…)

4. Finally, the golden question – will a SAM program save you money? The answer to this one is a resounding yes – which is a bit surprising considering how many organizations have not yet figured this out (but are hopefully well on their way to doing so). To give you some facts, 60% of firms have found SAM practices to be financially beneficial. As for the reasons behind SAM investments, 62% of firms invest for the purposes of cost reduction and licensing optimization. Doesn’t this sound like something that might be appealing to you too?

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