At the end of 2012, Forrester and the ITAM Review, an IT asset management community site, ran a software asset management (SAM) survey to help understand where SAM is going in 2013. The resulting infographic and commentary is available to Forrester clients here. For non-clients I've extracted some content to create this blog.
The focus and drivers for SAM have changed
Since the early 2000s, risk-focused IT professionals have voiced their concern over software compliance and the potential for vendor audits, large financial fines, damage to corporate reputation, and even the imprisonment of company directors. But these concerns weren't necessarily shared by the rest of the organization, which also viewed the SAM technology available as too difficult and complex to justify. As a result, SAM was a low priority on the IT management to-do list.
But this is starting to change as IT organizations realize that their software estates and procurement and provisioning processes are in a state of under-management, if not mismanagement. As a result, these organizations are wasting a significant amount of their IT funding each year on license procurement when they don't need to, maintenance agreement costs for more licenses than they actually use, and supporting and hosting software that should have been decommissioned.
Three of the 19 infographic elements:
If you are starting out with SAM, or looking to improve existing capabilities, Forrester recommends the following:
Plan for success: ensure you address the 6 key SAM initiative challenges
While the drivers for SAM are clear — better risk and cost management — the issues or challenges associated with commencing SAM initiatives aren't always as apparent. With 39% of organizations having implemented SAM and another 52% currently implementing or planning to within 12 months, now is the time to overcome known challenges. To succeed, Forrester recommends that infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders:
Final words...
Well that's enough Edward Scissorhands from me. Hopefully chopping the report down to 700-ish words has worked. Many more of the SAM Survey infographic charts are available via a webinar with BMC.
Also look out for the Forrester crowd-sourced ITAM Best Practice Report for much more advice on starting or improving an ITAM or SAM program.