Software Asset Management (SAM) is a business practice that enables effective management and control of software throughout its lifecycle. In the past, SAM was thought of as a nice-to-have or non-strategic priority - just a project you quickly cobbled together in reaction to an event such as a publisher audit. Today, organizations realize that having a proactive SAM program with defined metrics and a team with the right combination of skills, processes and technology provides actionable information. This ultimately allows companies to drive change, save money and keep their software estate protected.
The added complexities of managing on-premises and cloud assets, in addition to a lack of visibility into ownership and actual consumption data, bloats budgets and leaves companies vulnerable to audits and data insecurities. Effective SAM, or more broadly, Software Lifecycle Management (SLM) – as we call it here at SoftwareONE – can stop all that by being an enabler for digital transformation, cloud transformation and strategic procurement. It has emerged as an absolute must in the industry.
At SoftwareONE, we’ve become dedicated to delivering the skilled resources, process, and tools needed to help organizations design their most valuable SLM strategies yet. With SLM, companies can optimize costs, strengthen security, and measure consumption to right-size contracts. Let’s delve into what exactly SLM is, and how we define it here at SoftwareONE.