Why SAM required for an organization?

The rapid increase of Software as a Service and increasingly complex software licensing
environments have highlighted the crucial need for software asset management (SAM)
software, especially in companies that are heavily reliant on IT.

Companies need robust SAM software to actively track software assets, license entitlements,
software utilization to avoid overspending.

What is SAM or Definition of SAM?

Software asset management (SAM) is a business practice that involves managing and
optimizing the purchase, deployment, maintenance, utilization, and disposal of software
applications within an organization. According to ITIL, SAM is defined as all the infrastructure
and processes necessary for the effective management, control, and protection of the
software assets…throughout all stages of their lifecycle.

SAM challenges
Managing software assets can be challenging for any organisation. Multiple stakeholders are
involved in the purchase, installation, deployment, maintenance, utilisation, and disposal of
software. The technologies involved are complex and constantly changing and license
agreements are increasingly complicated and multi-layered. A tailored and sustainable SAM
program addresses the three main challenges:

• Ensuring compliance
• Reducing software and licensing costs
• Reducing complexity
In many cases an organisation’s lack of skilled personnel, resources, and budget to implement
a complex SAM program, may lead to companies relying solely on a SAM tool. But technology
solutions alone are incomplete, falling short of sustainable management and leaving the
organisation open to operational, financial and security risks.

A Platform-Thinking Approach to solve challenges in Software

Asset Management
ServiceNow release has the brand-new Software Asset Management product which
systematically tracks, evaluates, and manage software licenses and calculate compliance
position. SAM in Jakarta will also help customers to implement software optimization,
where they can reclaim unused software rights, purchase new software rights, and manage
allocations for entitlements in an automated fashion.
key benefits of using ServiceNow Software Asset Management
Increases software asset visibility:
ServiceNow (SAM) helps to increase visibility of software assets and improves software spend
management. It tracks, evaluates, and manages all the software licenses, compliance
requirements, optimizes and reclaims unused software rights, purchases new licenses and
allocates them effectively.

ServiceNow SAM architecture:

It brings together all processes and automates the entire IT asset lifecycle into a single system
of record. With SAM, enterprises will get a single authoritative source of information that will
help them make smarter decisions. It uses workflows to manage asset requests for approvals,
validate entitlements, chargebacks, and provisioning services. ServiceNow software asset
management is capable of managing, controlling, and protecting software assets regardless
of their location; whether on-premises or cloud, it can seamlessly track them through their
entire lifecycle.

Software spends detection:

The software spends detection module helps track, evaluate, analyse and regulate software
to eliminate any risk. Only when you know what you own, you will be able to protect it. Get a
holistic view on software spends by importing your enterprise’s financial data. The
application will then automatically identify transactions, which are software purchases and
help the organization track software spends over time and view all transactions of a
particular product or a publisher. It streamlines the process and reduces expenditure by
organizing software products based on functionality.

Dedicated Dashboards:
Software asset management dashboards can quickly and accurately create reports on the
software usage of any organization. By leveraging publisher packs, enterprises can view and
track complex publisher specific licensing and consumption with dedicated dashboards.

License Optimization:
ServiceNow (SAM) gives clear, real-time insights to mitigate potential compliance issues. With
License optimization techniques, enterprises can easily view their compliance status of
licenses. If any licenses are found to be non-compliant, License Workbench offers
remediation suggestions, which can be followed to maintain compliance status. With efficient
software reconciliation, enterprises can improve the accuracy of software entitlements.
Automated license reconciliation keeps license positions up to date without manual
calculations. With SAM you will always be audit ready.
ServiceNow’s software asset management is a robust tool that can help enterprises reduce
software complexities, improve compliance, cut costs, and simplify process for operational
efficiency. Overall, it will help to optimize software assets to realize a higher ROI.