Ensure that you have support from executive level management from areas such as HR, Security, IT and Procurement. In order to gain this support, you need to have a story to tell of why SAM is important. The first step is understanding your current state and this can be done through a diagnostic of your current SAM people, processes and solution. In order to implement a successful SAM Program, you need to have policies that can be enforced, and a SAM person cannot do this alone – it needs to come from the top down.
Ensure that you have the right partner, adequate staffing, process and licensing expertise to implement, maintain and constantly improve your SAM Program.
You don’t know what you don’t know, so be prepared for surprises and get ready to put on your investigator hats. You will need to rely on a number of other areas, especially IT, Procurement and Security, to get the data you need. People, policies and process are key to any program and especially true for SAM. Selecting the right solution is also key, and one of the most important factors here is what your company’s overall goals are for a SAM program.