Article Building the Business Case for Software Asset Management
By Insight Editor / 2 Jun 2020 / Topics: Software Procurement
By Insight Editor / 2 Jun 2020 / Topics: Software Procurement
Executives aren’t convinced that a solid software asset management plan is a critical endeavour. But in today’s business world, it is. So how do you convince the C-suite to invest in a more robust program?
Having a hard time convincing your C-suite to invest in your company’s Software Asset Management (SAM) practice? We hear that a lot.
It makes sense as a decade ago, SAM was unnecessary. The proliferation of Software as a Service (SaaS) introduced the threat of audits and the need to focus on compliance. But true software asset management, where companies actively track their license entitlements and usage, has been slow to catch on.
In fact, it’s estimated that 45% of companies are in a reactive state when it comes to SAM, merely responding to vendor audits as they happen or focusing on major contract renewals.
But with increasingly complex software licensing environments, including widespread adoption of cloud platforms, comprehensive SAM could help these companies to re-harvest unused licenses and avoid over purchasing while avoiding audits.
And since software is so engrained in modern business, SAM has evolved into a practice that has wide-reaching influence within the business. It now supports strategic business development across multiple departments and IT leaders will have to engage their executives to secure company-wide support for SAM initiatives.
But how do you convince the C-suite of that?
Compliance is almost a consequence of effective SAM implementation. It helps cut costs, free up employee time and, make everyone’s software and tools work better. But many executives still think of SAM as simply a path to compliance (if they think about it at all). You’ll need to shift their way of thinking.
If you need help compiling all of the reasons software asset management is a business imperative, I recommend watching this webinar series.
But first, you’ll need to figure out who to include in a SAM investment discussion and it’s important to extend beyond just the C-suite and IT leaders. SAM initiatives have wide-reaching consequences for many departments, including HR, finance and legal, and you’ll want to understand their software challenges in order to create a strategy that helps everyone.
Once you identify all relevant stakeholders, it’s important to outline not just the current challenges and benefits of comprehensive software asset management, but also the potential risks and multiple options for a solution. In a broad sense, lay out what will happen if they:
Hopefully they’ll go for the last one, but if not, at least you know what they have signed off on.
There’s no one-size-fits all SAM strategy because every organisation has its own set of challenges. Yours could be struggling with getting the best price for contracts, over-purchasing in order to defend against audits — or simply trying to understand its existing software environment.
When you go after C-level support for your new program, clearly define the goal you’re trying to achieve, such as:
This helps give your department more defined goals to hit and metrics that are easier to measure.
Hopefully, all of your persuasive arguments, statistics and cost analyses pay off, and you get the green light from your executive stakeholders. Now it’s time to put your money where your mouth is.
One crucial detail you must consider is whether you’ll implement this new plan with only in-house resources or reach out to third parties. If you’re new to SAM, you’ll soon find that expertise is difficult to come by and even more difficult to keep on staff.
If you do plan to outsource any part of your SAM, be sure to research potential service companies or consultants and include their expected contributions (and fees) in your initial presentation.
There are many types of IT partners out there, with varying levels of SAM expertise and capabilities. Choose one that can not only help with your plans for today’s challenges, but scale with you and solve tomorrow’s as well.
Bring in software licensing experts. The Insight software asset management team has the expertise to help your business get the most out of its software investments.
