Software Asset Management: More than License Compliance and Management

Examples of conflicting information or explanations of Software Asset Management include:

• Statements in public forums such as LinkedIn:
  • “Software license optimization is SAM, stop over-complicating things.”
  • “SAM is about and for license compliance.”
• Job postings for ITAM or SAM positions (e.g., SAM analyst) which clearly indicate that the position is specific to software license compliance, often for specific publishers. In reality, while SAM professionals need a basic understanding of licensing, their focus is on implementation and governance of the SAM program framework.
• Publishers’ positioning license compliance audits as ‘SAM’ reviews or services.
• Some technology providers’ positioning of their products as comprehensive ‘SAM’ solutions.
• Agreements for managed or outsourced ‘SAM’ services that include vague, general terms and a narrow scope, not reflective of comprehensive lifecycle SAM.
  • “Outsourcer will be responsible for IT Asset Management, specifically, maintaining an inventory of installed hardware and software.”
  • “MSP will be responsible for fulfilment of approved software license requests, and for license tracking.”

The inability (unwillingness?) to differentiate SAM and its subsets is one of the reasons ‘SAM’ initiatives too often fail to meet expectations: there are important differences in scope and objectives, as well as supporting practices. Clearly identifying this differentiation may be helpful in successfully planning and implementing your SAM program, including selecting appropriate industry solutions.

Software asset management and its subsets

Software Asset Management (SAM) is a subset of IT Asset Management (ITAM), and is focused on software assets, licenses and related services, as well as media (physical or digital) by which software is delivered.

A comparison of SAM and its subsets, follows, as illustrated in Figure 1:

• Software License Compliance is focused on avoiding ‘under-licensing’, by ensuring compliance with license entitlements – often with (inadequate) focus on the number of licenses as compared to software deployments. However, compliance must take into account other license parameters such as device configuration, geographic location, employee/non-employee, and many others.
• Software License Management, including software license optimization, goes beyond software license compliance to additionally focus on ‘right-licensing’ – avoiding unnecessary licenses in type, quantity and function. Most organizations are over-licensed for some products in quantity (e.g., Microsoft Project) or in product function (e.g., enterprise versus standard edition). In some cases, the software can be deployed more optimally to reduce licensing requirements and costs – e.g., relocating the software to a smaller server.
• Software Asset Management goes beyond a focus on licenses to additionally focus on the software product (asset) – function, currency, standardization, full lifecycle cost, and more.