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Software Asset Management and licensing advisory

Reducing costs, mitigating risk, gaining control

The role of Information Technology (IT) in many organisations has become increasingly strategic and complex. Software alone is one of IT’s largest and most complicated growing expenses. A significant percentage of this budget is often spent on unused service and support costs, turning software licensing in particular into a risk that needs to be addressed. Vendor audits further increase the stakes, resulting in unexpected budget increases to comply with the audit request and expenditures to buy missing licences.

Software Asset Management 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 licence 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.

Deloitte knows the ins and outs of SAM. We have developed a distinct methodology and SAM approach, perform regular licence baseline reviews and have implemented SAM programs for end-user organisations around the world. As a neutral third party, we provide a truly objective perspective on monitoring and governing software assets, helping companies obtain the accurate information they need to optimally license their IT landscape.

Our SAM services can help you reduce the total cost of software ownership while enabling compliance to licence terms. Additionally, SAM can also enhance service delivery, strengthen security, improve supplier relationships and reduce the overall cost of IT governance.

Deloitte's SAM Managed Service enables you to address end-to-end software life cycle challenges. We offer comprehensive service tiers and a range of modular services, tailored to the size, scale, and maturity of your organisation, as well as the complexity of your software vendors in order to help you:

  • Reduce software licence exposure and costs
  • Leverage trustworthy data for smarter decision making, planning, and reporting
  • Achieve licence compliance with an audit-ready effective licence position while reducing true-up surprises
  • Realise stronger vendor negotiations and right-sized software spend aligned to organisational demand, with visibility into over- and undersubscribed software licences.

Our skilled practitioners can assist you in managing the multi-layered complexity of SAM programs for any specific challenges your organisation wants to address. Our services include:

  • Internal licence compliance audits and baselines
  • Design and implementation of SAM systems/programs
  • SAM process reengineering and process management
  • Software requirement, portfolio and order management
  • SAM Academy trainings tailored to your organisation’s specific needs. Altogether, our trainings cover key elements required for comprehensive and effective Software Asset Management as well as licensing knowledge for most software publishers such as Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, SAP, Adobe and others.

Ultimately, we provide software compliance services to most of the industry’s software publishers, which provides us with the most comprehensive and up-to-date licensing knowledge. Our distinct approach encompasses not just tools, but also people and processes—helping you put the right skill sets, accountability and governance in place to effectively manage your software assets throughout the entire lifecycle. Start a conversation with us today about a solution tailored to your needs.

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