Firstly, let’s go back to basics and understand what Software Asset Management entails. SAM is the practice of managing and optimising the purchase, deployment, maintenance, utilisation, and disposal of software applications.

A truly effective SAM programme will ensure that an organisation is protected from the risk of a large and unplanned cost in the event of software licensing noncompliance highlighted by an audit. In the most basic form, noncompliance is where an organisation is found to be using more software than they paid for, however, it’s often more complex than that. In an event of noncompliance it’s not uncommon to see multi-million dollar settlements, a harsh lesson for organisations without a robust SAM programme.

Financing a SAM programme

The cost of SAM can often deter organisations, however, a truly effective SAM programme should be self-financing. This is through preventing unexpected costs as a result of an audit, and identifying potential software cost savings. With more and more organisations investing and relying on complex software and cloud infrastructure, it’s important to ensure this investment is optimised to avoid unexpected costs. Software licence optimisation is a key aspect of SAM.

It’s common for organisations to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to automate their SAM processes. On top of that many will have an in-house SAM team, outsource their SAM requirements, liaise with an expert licensing consultant, or a combination of the above. As a result, there are a number of factors organisations need to consider when investing in SAM.

The first thing all organisations should do when planning their SAM investment is spend time evaluating and understanding the intricacies and complexities of their SAM activity. To truly understand ‘business value’ you must be able to track measurable improvements to various business outcomes, for example, reduced spend on software contracts.

The various elements of a SAM programme

A fully-fledged SAM programme is made up of a number of different elements, ranging from straightforward tasks such as tracking software purchases, to more complex activities including cloud migration licence cost planning. Organisations need to separate out the various activities that are contained within their SAM programme so they can be categorised into the following:

• Volume - How often a task is carried out or the amount of time required to complete the task
• Complexity - The level of domain knowledge required to complete a task
• Business Value - A measurable improvement to various business outcomes

Once each SAM activity is plotted against the above metrics it is often very apparent that there is an unequal spread of outcomes and requirements for each task. As a result, there is little sense in approaching each task in the same way or using the same resource. This is where effective resource and investment planning will help to boost the effectiveness of a SAM programme. Therefore, it’s important to understand how to allocate these resources appropriately.

A complex task that provides high business value will often be best performed by the organisation’s core team or a specialist external consultant, depending on the volume or frequency of the work. While it is important to build and maintain key skills within a SAM team to ensure they deliver true business value, no SAM team will be able to cover all areas of licensing knowledge, which is where a specialist consultant is able to fill in the gaps.

Alternatively, a task that is highly complex but offers a far lower level of business value should be conducted by a more general external service producer or a temporary specialist resource. These tasks are by no means less important but the fact they offer lower value means theft shouldn’t take up the time of key in-house teams or expensive external consultants.

Finally, a task that is both low in complexity and business value will see a more effective return on investment when carried out by an automated tool if it is a high volume task, or by allocating a temporary/junior resource if the volume is low. Again, these tasks can still be important, however, the time and resources of more expensive and experienced teams will be better served elsewhere.

Ultimately, each organisation is unique and the complexity and volume of a task are relative to each specific business. It’s common that a low complexity task for one organisation might be seen as far more complex by another due to the domain knowledge available. By following the above methodology, organisations can understand how to effectively allocate their SAM investment. This model provides a high level of flexibility, allowing it to be relevant for businesses of all shapes and sizes.